Selling Your Wares With An Online Auction

Whether you want to clean out the attic and get rid of some excess stuff or you’re hoping to start a little business selling goods online there are plenty of opportunities. If having your own web site seems a little bit overwhelming why not sell your wares with an online auction.

There are plenty of online auction houses. Of course eBay is probably the most popular as almost everyone is somewhat familiar with it either as a buyer or seller. But there are plenty of other auction sites such as Yahoo, Overstock, Bid A lot, and Bid4Assets to name just a few of the other sites.

If you want to sell some merchandise online the first thing you’ll need to do is get an account set up for a seller. We’ll use eBay as our example but most site account setups are fairly similar as are the rules.

If you already have an eBay account for buying you’ll just need to set up the seller side which requires providing a valid credit card. If you haven’t signed up at all you can do both at once. The valid credit card is required so that the auction house is able to bill you for the listing fee and for the commissions on your item if it sells.

Once you’ve set up a seller’s account you’ll need to decide what you are going to sell. For each item you want to sell you will need to write a detailed description of the item. Your description should include as much information as possible including measurements, colors, and any damage on the item. Color is important because not all monitors will show correctly so by putting it into words you eliminate any misunderstandings.

Damage is also important. Using phrases such overall good condition does not tell your potential buyer much. Remember the terms mint, excellent, very good, and good may have different meanings for different persons so it’s best to be precise. No chips or cracks, light wear to the motif, small scuff on the right side of the handle, hairline crack on the body running ½” in length. The more information you provide the less chance for problems.

You’ll also need to decide your price. Then you’ll need to decide if you will list the items with no reserve and hope it makes it to the price you want or if you’ll put a reserve on the item. There are pros and cons to both.

When you use no reserve you must decide the minimum you are willing to sell the item for and hope that bidding drives the price up. You can never predict the outcome. If you put a reserve on your item you can start your price very low like a penny and it will not sell until the reserve has been met. Some people feel this causes more bidding action while others believe that buyers “hate” reserves because they don’t know how much they actually have to bid to have a chance to win.

You will also need to decide whether your auction will run for 1, 3, 5, 7, or 10 days. If at all possible include your shipping charges in your auction or at least include the shipping calculator so potential buyers can determine their freight in advance. Freight is a very touch area for many buyers who are tired of being gouged so they won’t bid unless they know the shipping in advance.

You’ll also have to outline the payments you will accept such as money orders, checks, or Paypal. If you are going to accept checks you will need to decide how long you will hold them to clear before shipping and you should include this in your auction.

Of course you’ll need to provide pictures of your item. The more the better and try to take pictures from different angles.

Most of the online auction sites have excellent help screens to assist you in setting up your auction. If you’ve got lots of items you want to sell start slow until you get the hang of the entire process. List one or two items then complete those transactions before listing more. Once you feel more comfortable go crazy.

An online auction offer another alternative to sell new or used goods. Why not give it a try?

Aura Mirchandani is the Editor and Publisher of Article Click. For more FREE articles for your ezine and websites visit ArticleClick.com. Article Click is a free content article directory.