Real estate sellers have always known that location counts for a great deal. Locating your sale in the right part of the eBay auction world can make the difference between makind your sale a hot item or a dud. Wherther you’re a full time or a sometime trader, one of the first steps to mastering eBay is simply understanding the different kinds of auctions that are available to you. The following sections give you an overview of the various auction categories on eBay.
Regular Online Auction
The classing type of eBay auction, the one you see most of the time, enables sellers to sell to the highest bidder after a fixed length of time. Auctuons can list 3, 5, 7 or 10 days (real estate auctions can run for 30 days). eBay simply calls this a “regular” auction. (Please keep in mind, though-Ten-day auctions will cost you an extra ten-cent listing fee). This fee does not apply to three-, five-, or seven-day auctions.)
Reserve Price Auction
A reserve price auction is the same as a regular auction in that it lasts for a fixed amount of time, and the sale goes to the high bidder-but the difference is that the highbidder only win if his or her bid meets or exceeds an amount the seller has designated as a reserve prive. A reserve price protects a seller against selling something for less than what it’s worth. If a seller simply won’t part with something for less than $50 because that’s what it cost in the first place, the seller puts a reserve of $50 on the item. Bidders only know that there is a reserve price; the auction listing makes it clear whether or not the reserve price has been meet or not. The actual reserve prise is kept secret. See “When to Use Reserve Auctions” later in this chapter for more information. Another impirtant note:while Australians oncehad the option or a reserve price in most instances-this is no longer the case, and the reserve prise is only available on automobule auctions.
Online Auction With’Buy It Now’ Price
You can also sell an item for a fixed price called a ‘Buy It Now’ price. However, if you choose the Online Auction format, the Buy It Now price is disappears when the reserve price is met. For instance, if you have an item you paid $10 for and you think (and hope) it’s worth $20, you can put a reserve price on it of $10, and an initial bid of $1. Additionally, you can put a Buy It Now price on the item of $20 in the hope that someone will purchase it immediately at the price you consider ideal.
The beauty of the Buy It Now price option is that it allows you to use eBay as your personal store, without the rigmarole of hoping that people will pay you what you’re expecting for your items. Of course, this can also backfire with no-one actually buying the item, but that’s the risk that you take (this is the closest you can come close to the old “reserve price” scheme of yesteryear).
Dutch Aution
A Dutch aution is one in which the seller puts two or more identical items up for sale. The seller then specifies the minimum successful price for each of those items, as well as the number of items available. Potential buyers can buy at or above the minimum for the number of items in which they are interested. At the close of the auction, the highest bidders purchase the items at the lowest successful price (that is, the lowest bid that is still above the minimum price). An example should make this easier to grasp. Suppose you uncover a box full of ten Chuckles the Cat Bean Bag for sale at the same time in a single Dutch auction. You specify a minimum bid of $20 for each cat. Eighteen separate bidders place bids: One bids $30, two bids $25, three bids $24, two bids $22, two bids $21, and the rest bid $20. The ten highest bidders win: these are the individuals who bid $30, $25, $22, and $21 respectively. However-this is the confusing part-in Dutch auction, they all purchase at the lowest successful price, which is $21. Those who bid $20 lose out because there are no more than ten cats available.
Next we’ll examine the main tools you need to run your eBay auctions: a computer and a digital camera.
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