How to Avoid Failure on Your eBay Auctions

Many first time sellers have one thing in common – 
they fail. Many of them fail time and time again, 
never understanding what is going wrong. They do 
hours of research looking for the perfect item to sell, 
get the auction set up, and wait for the bidding to 
begin. Hours go by and no bids are placed. Days go 
by, and there are still no bids – or there are very low 
bids. Finally the auction ends, and it turns out to be 
a total failure. Considering the huge number of sellers 
who run eBay auctions, there are specific things you 
must do, and specific things you must not do if you 
are to be successful. 

There are many reasons why auctions fail. The most 
common reason is that the item is not in high 
demand. This problem can be avoided by doing the 
necessary research to determine which items sell 
well, and which items should be avoided. This 
research takes a great deal of time – but in the end, 
you will find that it is time well spent.

Another reason for eBay failure is pricing. No matter 
what your reserve price is, your opening bid price 
should never be more than $50 or so. This is how you
 will attract potential bidders to your auction. If you 
set that opening bid too high, most people won’t 
even click the link to read the description for your 
item. Another pricing problem is lack of research. 
Before you set your reserve price, you must 
determine what the item is really worth, and the price 
similar items have sold for in past eBay auctions.

Poorly written descriptions are another cause of 
failed auctions. Poor grammar and misspelled words 
drive people away. Failing to post a picture of the 
item will also keep people from visiting your auction 
page. Make sure that your description is well written. 
This is essentially your ‘sales copy.’

Shipping prices scare people away from auctions if 
they are too high. Find the lowest shipping prices 
that you can find, and consider paying for the 
shipping yourself if it won’t cut into your profits too 
much. Do not charge handling fees.

Offer great ‘customer service’ for all of your auctions, 
and ask your buyers to give you feedback. If the 
items that you sell are everything that you said they 
would be, and you offer great customer service, you 
can expect wonderful feedback – and this 
feedback will help a great deal in your future auctions.

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