eBay 4 U: Do your Research ...Tips for selling on eBay

I have learnt many things over these last couple of months about selling on eBay but there is one useful tip that stands head and shoulders above all of the others and that is ............

DO YOUR RESEARCH ....

Below are a couple of areas that I have found to have been helped by doing a little research:

1. It will help you write the copy for your listings ( looking at what other successful sellers have said about their similar items is like gold dust to your own listings )

2. It will give you a realistic expectation when it comes to the actual market value of your listing . An item that you may think has a value of £100 may only have a market value of £10 . So you set your starting price accordingly..

So how do you do your research ...I'll let Linda ( one of the Dolphins mentioned in the last posting explain ....)

"Try to know as much about your piece as is possible before listing it. Google is a good tool, and checking eBay's completed listings is a good source too. "

"I pay for eBay's Marketplace Research...but, that's not really necessary. Although this is an exceptionally good tool. I think a lot of people forget that the eBay market is not your ordinary auction house, or retail store. Simply put - even though an item may be listed in a book at a certain appraised value, the market at eBay doesn't follow that model for value. eBayers are looking for bargains. Of course, if you have something that is so unique and so precious, then the eBay market can explode in a bidding war that drives the price up unbelievably high. The trick is finding those kinds of pieces."

One other research tool is the one I mentioned in this posting last week "Mpire".. It's free and has been an enormous help to me in my listings .

So knuckle down and do your research if you want to increase your chances of selling on eBay ....If anyone has any other tips for market research then please share them in the comments below ....