eBay auctions – how do they work?
eBay auctions – how do they work?
Before we begin, let’s first understand what an auction is. In a nutshell, an auction is a public sale in which goods are being sold to the highest bidder. Customers have a limited time to bid, and at the end of that time-frame, whoever had the highest bid gets to buy the product. eBay auctions are the online version of those.
Online auctions have picked up greatly in the past decade, with eBay being one of the largest players in this regard. It’s a huge e-commerce platform and probably the best platform to hold an online auction on. Whenever people say online auctions, they automatically think about eBay auctions.
eBay auctions are great for products that you don’t need anymore, and you would be happy with any amount of cash for them. For example, you have a chair that you know is never going to be used again, you could throw it away, or sell it as an eBay auction for £5. We can all agree that getting £5 for it is better than getting nothing for it.
A few tips regarding eBay auctions
However, if you want to get a larger sum of money, or if you’re auctioning a more valuable product, you can simply set a higher starting price. Here are a few tips to help you sell your auctioned products more easily:
-A low starting price can help attract bidders!
-You can also add a Buy It Now price to an auction listing, and it will be shown until the first bid is placed.
Why are eBay auctions so popular and successful?
eBay auctions involve an element of surprise— not only for the bidder (who may end up with a great deal), but also for the seller (who may end up making a good sum of money very easily).
Sniping bids on eBay auctions
When bidding on eBay, you have to keep in mind that the most important part of the bid is the last minute. Maybe an item has been on sale for a week, and for the first 6 days the highest bid was £10. There are a few more minutes until the bid ends, and you suddenly see the price sky-rocketing to over £100. What is happening?
This is called bid sniping. This tactic is used to try and prevent other bidders from having a chance to react and place a higher bid before the auction ends. While this sounds nasty, it is actually allowed by eBay.
Experienced bidders on online auctions with fixed ending-times often prefer entering bids late in the auction. This is done in order to avoid bidding wars (multiple rounds of bidders each increasing their maximum bid to temporarily regain “current highest bid” status). They also tend to avoid bid chasing (where the presence of an existing bid encourages others to bid on the same item).
Should I place bids on items that I want, is it safe?
Yes, definitely! If you see an item that you really want for a bargain starting price, place a bid, you have nothing to lose. Keep in mind that once you place a bid, you agree to purchase the item if you end up having the highest bid. You can’t back-off and not buy the product if you end up winning the auction. For some, placing bids can be a great way to hunt bargains and get amazing deals. For others, it could be considered a form of entertainment and why not, a hobby.
I have some items that I want to auction on eBay, should I do it?
Absolutely! It’s always better to get something rather than nothing for your item. Even if it’s a small amount of money, it’s still something in exchange for a product that you might end up never using again. As such, go ahead, find some products that you don’t need any more and list them on eBay as auctions.
The easiest way to list these products as auctions on eBay would be by using a listing tool. Our award-winning multi-platform listing tool, Ad-Lister, can help you create and list auctions within seconds! It’s never been easier to have your products listed on eBay. Create, list and manage your products directly from our friendly and easy-to-use interface.
Ad-Lister – The preferred eBay listing tool
Just pick a product, set a starting price and a time-frame for your auction and you’re done – it really is that simple. What if you have an auction that you only want to start in a week, as you’re currently on holiday? Ad-Lister can help you with that as well! Simply schedule an auction via Ad-Lister, and the auction will start exactly when you want to – easy!
From creating listings, to managing them and having them list automatically through a supplier feed – Ad-Lister can do it all! It really is the go-to listing tool for all e-commerce platforms.
