I don’t know how many books there are by now that propose to tell you how to succeed on eBay, how to make lots of money on eBay, or how to become a millionaire through eBay. Here are a few of my tips on how not to make money with an eBay auction:

1. Use irrelevant titles. I have actually seen eBay auctions with titles such as “This is nice”. I am sure that many people are going to look for such a title! It is inconceivable that something like “Vintage garden sundial, copper, 1930s” might lead more potential buyers to your auction.

2. Use ALL CAPS, ALL THE TIME. Everyone likes the equivalent of being shouted at, and long texts in ALL CAPS are so easy to read, aren’t they?

3. Show your educashion. Nothing attracts buyers like spelling errors and grammatical goofs. If you really want to impress customers, misspell the name of the item (”Dell latpop for sale”).

4. Skimp on descriptions. Why should you tell the buyer the size, age or condition of the item? All those details would just confuse people…

5. Forget Feedback. I am certain that eBay buyers will just flock to your auction for a $3,000 diamond ring, even though you have zero feedback. Some people may slowly build up their feedback by buying and selling before offering expensive items, but who can be bothered?

6. Harsh words sell. Of course every buyer loves terms of sale that contain such phrases as “Absolutely no returns” or “Don’t bother me with complaints”!

7. Oh, say can you see? Naturally, people love out-of-focus pictures of your items, particularly when photographed against the background of a dark shag carpet. Who cares about the details of that diamond ring - they are going to trust you, arent’t they?

Pamela Bruce lives in Austin, TX. She is the owner of Love Beads Unlimited and sells the bead jewelry she creates at http://www.lovebeadsunlimited.com

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Ever since I sold my first item on ebay I have been addicted to the site and I have steadily developed it as a supplementary source of income over the last two years. As I gained experience from listing items, I rapidly became aware that the inclusion of pictures in the listings was a major selling point as buyers could literally see what they were buying and as such create a greater interest and desire within them which in turn led to greater selling prices.

To sum it up in one sentence:

Pictures attract attention, help explain details and more importantly stimulates desire which leads to Auction Euphoria.

Auction Euphoria is that process whereby the desire to own an item is that great that all logic goes out the window and the buyer rebids to ensure that they win it, thus increasing the selling price.

This simple bit of knowledge has allowed me to push my final selling prices up on average between 10-30% and as such it amazes me that so many listings do not include one picture and just type out the details in one long line of text (usually all in capitals!). I am not complaining however because this fact alone has allowed my auctions to stand out and make the money.

I started off using eBays add additional photo service to include extra images in my listings which people could use as a reference point and I found out the following :

1. Always make sure that the image is clear and of the actual item for sale, otherwise what is the point of including it? You will find that poorly presented pictures suggest that the seller doesn’t care and hence will devalue the potential selling price of the item which is of no use to anyone.

2. Never use a stock photograph of the item for sale, with the increase in fraudulant transactions (especially on the higher value items) this will serve to put the buyer off, again serving to devalue your final selling price. Taking a little extra time to get an actual photograpah shows yours buyers that you care and will endear them to you.

3. Where possible use a digital camera, these are very easily accessable nowadays and relatively cheap and they produce excellent images. A webcam can also be used but does give a grainier picture. Remember the cost of the digital camera can be offset by the gain in final selling prices.

4. Have good lighting on your images, a poorly lit image may as well not be there. Where possible I take mine outside into the garden, put it onto a chair with white paper behind it and take advantage of the natural light. Its a few minutes work that pays dividends in the end in cold hard cash!

5. Never just use one image, always use at least two. I tend to use one image for every one of the details (or faults) that I mention in the listing. This illustrates what you are actually trying to describe and helps to prevent the dreaded negative feedback of ‘the item wasn’t as described’.

Using the above meant my auctions stood out and I was considered to be true to my word by my buyers so much so that I have multiple return buyers and the Auction Euphoria effect is evident on my auctions as there regularly go for higher prices than similar items listed on eBay.

As I developed my auctions I realised that using eBays additional picture service was COSTING ME a large proportion of my profit so I looked into other ways of getting my pictures on my listings. I also realised that the format of the listings was another major factor. I wanted to use the additional pictures to illustrate a detail or fault but it was no use having the picture at the bottom of the listing away from the description as per eBays standard approach.

So I did some research and learned that the answer to my problems was HTML to generate a template for my listings and allow me to pull my images into them without having to use eBays image service, sure it was still gonna cost me to host my own images but no where near what eBay was charging me. Using this has meant that my eBay Listing Fees have dropped by nearly 90%.

My buyers then started to ask me if they could use my templates and how they could include images on thier listings, advice which I always gave to them. I then decided to put this advice together on a few webpages so that they could use it as a reference and to upload some of the templates that I have used in the past so that anyone can use them for FREE.

I hope that these simple bits of advice help you to take advantage of Auction Euphoria, and really develop your profits from the amazing, and addictive, animal that is eBay auctions.

Mike - Webmaster and eBay Power Seller.

Online Auction Trader

FREE eBay Selling Templates, can be used by anyone you dont need to ask my permission to use them anywhere you want.

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Do you want to have a lot of auctions going but don’t have time to keep track of them all? Trust me, you’re not alone. With more and more people making significant portions - if not all - of their income from their eBay auction websites the need has arisen for many people to have someone manage the listing of their auctions for them.

Enter eBay listing services. With these convenient services, you don’t need to spend all your valuable time listing many repeat auctions. eBay’s listing services will automate all the repeat listings of online auctions so that you can concentrate on running your business and keeping your customers happy, and spend less time on repetitive chores.

eBay has lots of easy to use auction management software. One of the best ones for managing repeat online auctions is eBay’s Turbo Lister. What this program does is keep track of multiple auctions at once, using a program that looks a lot like Windows Explorer, so experienced Windows users will have no trouble adapting to it.

Using an easy-to-understand WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) user interface, Turbo Lister enables you to keep track of literally hundreds (or even thousands) of auctions at the drop of a hat. The best part? This program is completely FREE to registered eBay users!

What Are Some Other Helpful eBay Services?

eBay provides many helpful listing services to both experienced and novice, small and high volume sellers to help them keep track of their auctions, no matter how much or how little they happen to be selling. For low volume sellers, eBay’s basic listing form is very easy to use - you don’t need to be a computer expert to use it.

For sellers who sell the same items repeatedly, eBay provides their “Turbo Lister” to help you with your online auction management. And for higher volume sellers, eBay offers their Selling Manager and Blackthorne listing services.

John Lenaghan writes about eBay and other online auctions for the Online Auction Advisor website, where he writes about things such as dropshippers, how to make money on eBay and many other auction-related topics.

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