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eBay
Seller’s Guide to the
Different 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.
For every seller who doesn’t like the idea that their item
might sell for a far lower price than they intend, there’s
another who wants to shift hundreds of the same item quickly.
eBay tries to cater to all tastes. This email gives you an
overview of the different kinds of auctions and their advantages
for you.
Normal
Auctions
These are the bread-and-butter of eBay, the auctions everyone
knows: buyers bid, others outbid them, they bid again, 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 the buyer will be
told if their bid does not meet the reserve price you set,
and they’ll need to bid again if they want the item. If no-one
is willing to meet your price, then the auction is cancelled,
and you keep the item.
Fixed
Price (‘Buy it Now’) Auctions
Buy it Now auctions can work in one of two ways. You can add
a Buy it Now button to a normal auction, meaning that buyers
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. This lets you avoid all the
complications of the auction format and simply list your items
for how much you want them to sell for.
Recently, eBay added a twist to fixed price auctions: the
‘best offer’. This means that buyers can contact you to negotiate
a price, which could be a good way to get sell some extra stock
at a small discount. The only downside to reserve and fixed
price auctions is that you pay a small extra fee to use these
formats. In general, it is more worth using reserve auctions
for higher-priced items and fixed price auctions for lower-priced
ones – but remember that you can combine the two formats.
Multiple
Item (‘Dutch’) Auctions
These are auctions where you can sell 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 you can just say
how many of the item you they have, and offer them at a fixed
price per unit. Buyers can enter how many they want and then
just click Buy it Now to get them.
Now
that you know about the different types of auctions, you
should make sure that the items you plan to sell don’t violate
eBay’s listing policies.
# # # # # SolveYourProblem.com : 2007
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