Nine Reasons Why Your eBay Auction Won't Work

If you're not having the success you hoped in eBay selling, this list might be helpful to you.

Take a look at these "sales prevention" issues, and see if you are preventing your auctions from working as best as they can.

High Start Price Many eBayers will simply avoid auctions with a high start price. Most people bidding on eBay are turned on by the thought of getting a bargain, and a high starting price rules this out. If you can bear the risk, you are far better having a low start price so as to encourage a bidding activity.

High Buy it Now Price As we've seen, eBayers are looking for bargains. If your fixed price is to high, your item probably won't sell. One strategy you can try after the item fails to sell, is to reduce the price by a small amount and try again. Repeat this until you find the optimum Buy it Now price for your item.

Lack of Pictures If you think about it, you're asking a buyer to pay you money for something they can't see or touch. The best way around this is to place quality images of your item on the auction page. Conversely, if you have no pictures on your auction, prepare for a failed auction.

You Use a Reserve Price A Reserve Price will cause many eBay members to avoid your auction. Reserves are a real deterrent for many people. I would advise you never to us a Reserve Price. Interestingly, on eBay Australia, the Reserve Price option has been removed and is not available for use by sellers. Maybe other eBay countries should follow suit.

Thoughtless Use of Words Bad spelling or poor grammar in your auction will cause a proportion of eBayers not to bid on your item. Indeed, if your auction title contains incorrect spelling, then your item may not even be returned in searches. It is highly recommended that you have your auction text checked for spelling and for grammar. And make sure your auction title does not contain incorrect spellings.

Greedy Shipping The spirit of eBay is that you charge your buyers the cost price for shipping. It is perfectly acceptable to charge a reasonable amount which covers your time, packaging materials costs and the actual cost of shipment, but don't be tempted to overdo it. Some eBayers will move on very quickly if they feel you're being unfair on shipping costs. You could try giving your buyers shipment options. They may be prepared to wait for their delivery via a cheaper service.

Negative Feedback If you have negative feedback which pulls your percentage rating down to below 90%, you can expect some eBayers to avoid your auctions. There are two actions you can take. First, you can try buying and selling low cost items with a view to improving your percentage rating. Also, you could create a new eBay account, and build up a good feedback rating on this account using the low cost buy and sell technique.

Unreasonable Terms Its' amazing how often sellers seem to go out of their way to insult prospective buyers. The classic such term is "Serious bidders only, no time wasters!" If I see this or similarly unreasonable words on an auction, I will move on. These kind of statements are entirely unnecessary, and indeed they make the seller appear to be the one who could be difficult to deal with. Don't use them in your auctions.

PayPal Free Zone Not everyone likes PayPal. I understand this. However, if you want to succeed on eBay, it is essential that you accept PayPal on your auctions. You only have to look at the figures relating to the proportion of eBay business which is paid for via PayPal. It is now running at over 70%. It is a fact that some eBay buyers will ignore auctions which don't offer PayPal as a method to pay. So, even if you're not a fan of PayPal, you need to offer it on your eBay auctions.

Check your auctions and see if you're guilty of any of the above.

Correct some of these and you may find your auctions start to produce the results you're looking for.