A Beginner’s Guide to the Different eBay Auction
Types.
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. The next email
will let you know what’s allowed and what is a big no-no.
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