Why 99 Cent Auctions Don't Work on eBay Anymore

Years ago, when eBay first started, the only listing type was auctions. Now we have fixed price, store inventory, best offer, and second chance offers. Buyers are not forced into participating in an auction if they want to buy an item.

The old philosophy used to be, “Start the listing at 99 cents, get the bidders involved, and watch your price sky rocket.” This does not happen much anymore. And I am doing damage control with many clients who follow this outdated advice.

Here is why 99 cent auctions don’t work effectively anymore:

1. There are many other ways to buy items on eBay. Auctions aren’t the only choice.

2. Buyers don’t want to wait for an auction to end so they will buy from your competitors who offer the item at a fixed price and they “but it now.” If you aren’t offering fixed price to appeal to these “in a hurry” buyers, your competition does, and buyers will gravitate to your competitors. Furthermore, Amazon continues to grow and all items on Amazon are "buy it now." If a buyer can't find it on eBay at a fixed price, they will go to Amazon.

3. As a result of #1 and #2, there are fewer bidders in the bidding pool to drive up the price of auctions.

4. Consequently, your item does not get very many bids, and sells at a lower price than you would like.

5. More sellers are using research software to determine the listing type that brings the highest average price. Many times, fixed price listings bring a higher price so sellers use the fixed price listing instead of an auction.

The solutions:

1.Use Terapeak to determine the listing type that brings the highest average price.

2. If Terapeak says to use an auction, start the bidding at your rock-bottom price. Even if you only get one bid, you will get the price you wanted.

3. 99 cent auctions can work in some situations if a seller is very familiar with how a product performs over a period of time, or if you have a hot item such as the hot holiday toy or concert tickets limited in number. This is not a strategy for beginners. Wait until you have more experience with a product before using the 99 cent strategy.

For more discontinued item you can sell on eBay for profit, check out my latest Hot List.

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Free Version of Terapeak

There has been a lot of discussion on my Facebook group about Terapeak, if it is worth the $25 a month, how to use it, and how to get a free trial. There is actually a free version of Terapeak you can use by following these steps.

Click here to go to Terapeak.

Scroll to the bottom and look on the left. You will see this:



Click SAMPLE REPORT. Then you will see this screen:



Click the SIGN UP button. The free version only gives you access to 14 days of history and you don't get access to the hot categories or hot searches. But it is enough of a trial so that you can determine if you want to try the paid version. Terapeak is what I use to create my Hot Lists of discontinued items, research drop ship products, and determine pricing on every single item that I list.

Click here to try Terapeak and start making more money on eBay. the $25 a month will come back to you many times over.

For information on personal coaching to learn this process, click here for a free consultation.

Happy Selling!

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How to Price an Item to Sell on eBay

One of the most frequent questions I receive as an eBay consultant is, "How much can I sell this for on eBay?" Here is a video that demonstrates the process for determining how to set your starting bid or buy it now price. In this example, I am listing an item that sells for $92 and has a 100% sell through rate.



Summary:

1. Choose your keywords carefully. Choose keywords that correspond with the highest average price. Don't be so concerned with the NUMBER of listings with a keyword, focus on the keywords that bring the highest average price. (Of course, you can only use the words that apply to your item.)

2. Remember that the average price is an average. There may be listings in the data that bombed because the seller started his price too low, made mistakes in his listings, had a bad photo, or made other mistakes that caused him to receive a lower price. Strive to do better than the average!

3. Pay attention to listing type. This will tell you which listing format to use in order to get the highest price.

Happy Selling!

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FREE Keyword Title Builder Tool on eBay

Your 55 character title is the most important part of your eBay listing. If buyers can't find your item on searches, you are limited to them haphazardly finding your listings through browsing. There is a great little FREE tool hiding on eBay that can help you improve your titles which will result in more views, more bids, and more sales. Here is how it works:


Summary:

1. Click on the applications tab
2. Find the Terapeak Keywords application
3. Click "Get It"
4. Go back to your applications tab to access
5. Start writing better titles!

The title builder is just one small aspect of what Terapeak can do. Click here to see some demo videos about what the full version can do. Terapeak subscriptions start at $24.95 a month - you can recover that investment in one sale. Give it a try and take the guesswork out of which keywords you should use and gain insight to what products sell the best.

Happy Selling!

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