Auctioning

Let's say that we want to auction off a box of X-Men comic cards on eBay.

1. First we should get an ideal of how much to sell it by looking at what similar items had sold for. I click the Advance Search link and type in "x men comic cards" in the keyword field. I am only interested in auctions that have ended, so I checkmark "Completed listings only".

The search results shows a list of auction items that have completed. The price next to the item will be in green if it was a successful auction and the item had sold for that price. If the price is red, it means that item did not sell. This could be either ...

a) There was no bidder. In this case, the price shows the initial starting price of the seller.

b) Or because the bid price did not meet the buyer's reserve price. In the case, the price shown is the current bid price. You will learn about reserve price later on in the below lesson.

2. I start selling by going to the Sell tab, clicking on the List link, and clicking the Start Selling Now button. In order to sell, eBay requires you to provide credit card information to get upgraded to a seller account. eBay will charge an Insertion Fee for each listing. I click the Create Seller's Account button and followed its instructions.

3. If I want to pay for the seller fees using my PayPal account, I click Site Map and then click the Choose Automatic Payment Method link under My Selling Account. I follow its instructions and it will take me to my PayPal account so that I can authorize PayPal to pay for my eBay fees.

4. I am ready to list my item. Back in eBay's Sell tab, I go to list item and click Start Selling Now.

5. I select Sell Item at Online Auction.

6. I need to pick a category in which to sell my item. I usually do keyword search. It says "Enter keywords to find a category." So I type "x men trading cards" into the field.

One of the possible categories that it gave me was ...

Collectible --> Trading Cards --> Comic --> X-Men

And this is the category that I choose.

I can also list in a secondary category so that I get more viewers. But then I would have to pay a second insertion fee.

I click Continue at the bottom of the page

7. In the next page, I enter the title and description.

If you already have webhosting and know some HTML, you can enhance the layout of your listing and host additional images without paying extra eBay fees.

8. I add the starting bid price of $5. If you like, you can also add a reserve price for an additional fee. The reserve price protects your investment by not letting the item be sold for less than the reserve price. So if the winning bid did not exceed the reserve price, you do not need to sell the item to the winning bidder. I decided that I did not want to sell this for less than $25. So I put in a reserve price of $25.

For the "duration" field, I select the 7-day listing. This is the longest listing period that one can select without having to pay eBay an additional fee.

9. Next we have to add a photo of our item. I clicked the Browse button and selected that image file that is on my computer.

10. Under the section titled Increase your item's visibility, I checkmark Gallery. This will cause eBay to show a small thumbnail of your item in the search and browse listings. I usually like to add a gallery image for an extra fee in order to increase number of bidders.

11. For the Payment Methods, I specified PayPal. Note that your payment address will be shown to the winning bidder.

12. For the Ship-to locations, I specified within the United States.

13. For the Shipping & sales tax, you can offer up to 3 services.

Here for simplicity, I have just put a flat rate of $5 for shipping.

13. Next, I specify my return policy and any other instructions. I indicated that I returns are accepted within 7 day with money back. I click Continue

14. It takes me to Review and Submit page. I click Submit and my item is listed.

In the next lesson, we will review and revise our listing.