Auctions versus fixed price. In the early days of eBay, everybody ran auctions to sell their items. Nowadays things are very different. In fact, most of the items for sale on eBay are listed as fixed price buy it now. And many of those items also come with make offer best offer feature. The buyer can offer price they would like to pay for something and the seller has the option to accept, counter or decline the offer.

How do you know what is the best way to list your items on eBay? Here are some ideas and strategies for you to consider for either an auction or a buy it now fixed price listing an auction item can sell for whatever the minimum bid is. That is if the auction starts at 99 cents, and there's just one bid at 99 cents, that is the final sales price. If there are more interested bidders then the price will go up in small increments depending on how high the other bidders go. So when listing an auction, your starting price will be the lowest that you will accept for that item. For a fixed price listing, also known as buy it now.

You will set the price at the highest you will accept for that item. It can't sell for any higher than what you have listed. But if you have the best offer feature in place, you may accept a lower price if you agree to a buyers offer in the case of low offers. A seller does not have to accept their offer. I do advise and always trying to counter offer to see what happens. They may just walk away and decline, or they may accept your counteroffer.

But at least there is engagement between the buyer and seller. All right, all right. You really want to know which way of listing makes more money, auction or fixed price? Well, the answer is, it depends. In the old days, I used to start all my listings as an auction with a minimum bid of $9 and 99 cents, and then let the chips fall where they may. If only one person made a bid, then that item would sell for just 999.

I sold too many valuable items way under priced with this method of selling over the past many years on E eBay auctions have become less popular to some buyers. The auction novelty wore off, and many people wanted their stuff right away. And they didn't like waiting for an auction to end to see if they want. So I use auctions sparingly these days. If it didn't sell at that 999 price, I would relist the item for a fixed price at a high almost three price with the best offer attached. Some interested buyers would just buy it now for that high price and others would use the best offer feature.

I almost always accept all reasonable offers. Those sales are sure things and I can get some cash flow going. Today, I will list options. Only on items that my research tells me has a hot value or interest. I can easily compare my Item to others that are similar and see how many bidders have bid and what the starting auction prices were. For example, I sold some vintage airline stewardess pins from Pan American Airlines.

For friend. As I did my research, I saw that the final selling price was often in the hundreds of dollars. So I felt certain that I could start my auction at a low price 999 and that at least more than one bidder would be interested in the pin. That's exactly what happened. I listed it and in a few hours, there were many bidders. Then the law of many days with no bidders.

And bam, right at the ending time. Lots of activities showed up again, raising the final sale price, quite high success. How does one win an auction at the last minute you might ask? A lot of serious bidders use a third party Sniper tool easily found in a Google search. Once they register, they put the item number of the item they want to win into the program, fill in their maximum bid and forget about it. In the auctions final seconds, the sniper tool does the bidding, and most often will win for that buyer.

I've used one successfully in the past. And also I've lost that a couple times. The fun part as a seller is hearing the Ching sound on your mobile app when the auction bids come roaring in at the end of the auction. The way that auctions work is that if an item is listed at 10am on Sunday for seven days, it will end at 10am. The following Sunday. In order to win you would have to be online and available to outfit others at that exact time.

That's why the sniper tools are valuable to some. You do not have to be present to win as they say. There are paid tools like terapeak that you can use for researching the best selling times and sold prices for various products. You can also use eBay to find out some of that info to for free. But frankly, since mobile apps have caught fire, and everyone has internet at home, and at work all the time, people shop all the time. Online buyers used to do the majority of their shopping on eBay during weekends and after work, but that's not the case anymore.

Bidders and buyers are always online, you have the potential of selling anytime, as long as your items are listed. One time that still sort of works for selling your items is that night, after folks have had an evening cocktail or two or three. Those people may end up using less common sense and bidding hi than if they were sober. So some auction items may have advantages at nighttime. One word of caution on setting prices for an auction item. If you set it too high to begin with, there was a chance of less competitive initial bidding.

If you set it low, you may get more bitters, but also risk selling it for a low price. So be careful and understand your own risk level. You will do well with some auctions and probably not on other auctions, when some loosen with a fixed price listing or buy it now. People can buy your items anytime day or night and not be controlled by an ending auction time. buyers in different time zones, different states or even different countries can buy from you. When you are awake or asleep.

It doesn't matter as much long as they complete the sale, and make their payment, I love waking up to sales that happened overnight while I was asleep. I list most books, clothing, and household items at fixed price these days. I will set the price a little higher than most other sellers and include the make an offer best offer along with using the tool of markdown manager, which comes with my eBay store. That allows me to put all or some of my eBay store items on sale for certain percentages off. for however many days I choose. I have to say that I sell more items when they're on sale than when they're just price to sell.

I use that feature a lot to make sure to move my inventory. To recap, there is no hard and fast rule to picking which way to best list your items, auctions or fixed price. You should try both methods on items that are not too valuable as a way to practice and see what happens. Testing is always an important learning part of eBay. Eventually you'll find a mix of auctions and fixed price may work for you. Or even think of the auctions as a way to get many eyes on your items.

After all, there is a link see other items from this seller that they may click. You never know what leads the buyer to a sale of your goods. Give both a try. You have nothing to lose. A sale is a sale. Good luck.