How to Choose the Right EBay Auction Format Making money online with EBay can be a fun and profitable hobby. In order to make the best use of your time on EBay and perhaps become known over time as a Powerseller, you should become familiar with the bidding formats that are the key to how each auction is handled. There are two main auction formats to choose from when you are listing your auction. EBay calls these formats Auction or Fixed price. It is important to understand how these two choices work, in order to take advantage of their selling power. Auction format is similar to those fast paced auctions you have probably seen on television or in old movies. A product is presented and described to a group of interested buyers by the auctioneer, and the highest bidder goes home with the prize. On EBay, your photos are your presentation, and your description is a written one, but the end result is quite similar. The person who places the highest bid is the winner of the merchandise you are auctioning. Bidding can become fast and furious, especially near the end of the auction, or your item may not get a single bid. You can start the bidding at a very low amount, hoping to attract bidders who will bid against each other and raise the selling price, or you can set an amount that will be the very lowest price you would accept for an item. This is called a Reserve Bid, and unless the bidding reaches or goes over the amount, your merchandise will not be sold. This is useful when you have a valuable item that you want to make sure you get a decent price for. Fixed price format is a little different. You choose the price that you want to ask for your items, and the price is set. You cannot change it without ending the auction and relisting the item. Your merchandise is sold instantly whenever an interested customer comes along. It is a little like having your own store. No bidding goes on in a fixed price format auction. You don’t have to wait for an auction to end to find out what price you are going to get, or whether or not your item is even going to sell. A nice plus to the fixed price format is that it allows you to sell multiples of the same item in one auction. You will also find that there are a number of people who shop on EBay that would rather not wait around and see if they are going to be the high bidder for an item they want. They’d rather find an item they are interested in, pay for it then and there, and know for sure that they are going to be the new owner once you ship it out to them. How do you know which one of these formats will be the best for your auction? If you are only selling one item, and you have not firmly set a price for it in your mind, plus you don’t mind if you get slightly less than what the item may be worth, the bid format may work better for you. Remember – bidders may pay much more than you ever dreamed for one of your items! If you are auctioning an item that you know the value of, and you don’t want to sell it for less than this amount, or if you should happen to have more than one item to sell, the fixed price format may work better for you. This way, you will get your asking price, or in the case of a Reserve, you’ll at least get your lowest acceptable amount.
Choosing which EBay auction format works better does not have to be difficult. Once you understand the auction process and the types of bidding allowed, your EBay experience should be a profitable one.