SolveYourProblem
Article Series:
Small Business Guide To Buying Items:
eBay Auctions
Understanding
the Different eBay Auction Types
by Jeff Cohen
Over the years, eBay has introduced all sorts
of different auction types, in an effort to give people more
options when they buy and sell their things on eBay. There
are many people who don’t like the idea that their item might
sell for a far lower price than they intend. Equally, there
are people who have hundreds of the same item and don’t want
to sell them individually. This email gives you an overview
of the different kinds of auctions and how to spot them.
Normal
Auctions
These are the bread-and-butter of eBay, the auctions everyone
knows: you bid, others outbid you, you outbid them, and the
winner gets the item. Simple.
Reserve
Auctions Reserve auctions are for sellers who don’t want their items
to sell for less than a certain price – a concept you’ll know
about if you’re familiar with real auctions. They work just
like normal auctions on eBay, except that you will be told
if your bid has not met the reserve price set by the seller.
If no-one is willing to meet this price, then the auction is
cancelled, and the seller keeps the item.
You can spot these auctions by looking out for ‘Reserve not
met’ or ‘Reserve met’ written next to the current bid on an
item’s description page.
Fixed
Price (‘Buy it Now’) Auctions Buy it Now auctions can work in one of two ways. A seller
might add a Buy it Now button to a normal auction, meaning
that you can choose either to bid normally or to simply pay
the asking price and avoid the whole bidding process. Some
sellers, though, now cut out the auction process altogether
and simply list all their items at fixed price. Recently, eBay
added a twist to fixed price auctions: the ‘best offer’. This
means that you can negotiate a price to someone who offers
their items using Buy it Now, which could be a great way to
get a bargain on things that don’t seem to be selling.
Fixed price auctions are easy to spot, as they have a little
‘Buy it Now’ logo either next to or instead of the current
number of bids on the search listings page.
Multiple
Item (‘Dutch’) Auctions
These are auctions where a seller is selling more than one
of a certain item. Dutch auctions can be done by bidding. Buyers
bid a price and say how many items they want, and then everyone
pays the lowest price that was bid by one of the winning bidders.
If you have trouble getting your head around that, then don’t
worry – everyone else does too! These auctions are very rare.
What is more common is when a seller has a lot of one item,
and lists it using a combination of two auction types: a multiple-item
fixed price auction. This just means that they say how many
they have, and offer them at a fixed price. You can enter how
many you want and then just click Buy it Now to get them.
After
all this, you might find yourself facing a dilemma: when
you have the option, should you bid, or should you just
use Buy it Now and save yourself the hassle? # # # # # SolveYourProblem.com : 2007
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