Item Details
Now, it’s time to set your price. For the starting price, enter the lowest price you’re comfortable selling the item for. This price should cover all your expenses (eBay fees, production fees, et cetera), and give you at least a small profit. My total cost to sell a print, including shipping, is approximately $6 USD, so I’ve set my starting price at $9.99. (The lower your starting price, the lower your insertion fee.) The starting price does not include shipping–you get a chance to add that later.
I have also added a Buy It Now price of $14.99, which is the same price I sell small prints for on my website. The Buy It Now price allows bidders who are in a hurry to snap up items immediately, as long as no bids have already been placed.
For this item, I will not be adding a reserve price. A reserve price is a hidden amount you can enter, which is the lowest you are willing to sell for. You might use a reserve price if you are selling an original painting you don’t want to part with for under $200, but you’d like to encourage early bidding by advertising a low starting price. When people bid on a reserve-price auction, until the reserve is met they will see a notice reading “(reserve not yet met)” beside the current bid amount, which indicates that the seller is not obliged to sell the item until the bid exceeds the reserve amount. Some buyers consider reserve auctions annoying, and will not bid on them–that’s worth keeping in mind.
Once you’ve decided on your price, you’ll be prompted to enter the quantity of items you’re selling (with multiple-item auctions, every buyer who meets the lowest successful bid gets a copy. If there are more interested buyers than there are items, the people who placed the earliest successful bids will get the items.) Unless your prints are wildly popular, bids are very unlikely to exceed the minimum in multiple-item auctions, and it’s a better idea to sell them one at a time to increase your profits.
Next, you’ll select the duration of the auction, which can be anywhere from 1 to 10 days. The shorter the auction, the lower the fee. Long auctions are good for one-of-a-kind items you want listed for plenty of time, so that as many prospective buyers as possible can get a look at them. Most of the bidding tends to take place in the last 1-3 days of an auction, but it’s worth keeping it running for longer just to get those extra views. Interested bidders can “watch” your item and be automatically reminded to bid nearer the closing date.
Shorter auctions are good for sellers who regularly list identical items (such as open-edition prints). In the case of my print, I’ll be choosing a three-day listing.
You may also choose an item location, if you’d like to be listed regionally. This is a good thing to do for larger items, such as wall-hangings, sculptures, and big canvases. Buyers who live near you may be more likely to bid if they know they’re close enough to save on shipping. This feature is also useful if your items have particular interest for people in your region.
If you didn’t add pictures to your description, you may attach one in the “Add Pictures” section, and if you didn’t want to design your own auction layout, you can pick one from the Listing Designer menu for a small fee.
The next section contains various options for increasing your item’s visibility. The most worthwhile one is the Gallery feature, which adds a thumbnail image of your item to the search result listings, and also enables people to find your listing in the Gallery. (Don’t select the “Gallery Featured” option unless you expect to sell your item for a very good price, however–it costs $19.95! Make sure you pick the $0.25 “Gallery” option instead–and don’t forget to link to the image you’d like them to use for your Gallery picture!)
Most fantasy art does not command high enough prices on eBay to make most of the promotional features worthwhile. Bold or highlighted listings are worth it for items over $50 or so, but spending $40 to get your item featured on the eBay homepage probably won’t generate enough interest to make it worthwhile. The little “gift” icon is cute, but I haven’t noticed any appreciable distance in sales with it enabled. If you offer gift wrapping or shipment to gift recipients, just say so in your description.
Payment and Shipping
On this page, you get the chance to select which types of payment you accept from a fairly comprehensive list. If you want to use payment methods which aren’t listed, such as Western Union or bank wire transfers, you can select the “See item description” option and outline your payment method there. However, if you cannot accept cheques, money orders, and PayPal, the three most popular payment methods, eBay is unlikely to be worth your while.
You can also enter flat shipping rates, or calculated shipping rates based on the size of the item and the location of the buyer. Again, the shipping methods and rates you’d want to choose would very much depend on what you’re selling.
Next, you can type in a message for your buyers, including detailed payment instructions.
Finally, select your ship-to locations–you can choose to ship only within the United States, worldwide, or to the United States and various other areas, which you can select via checkboxes. (If you are using one of eBay’s international sites, such as eBay.ca, you may be able to offer shipping within YOUR country only instead of the USA, but policies may vary from site to site, so I can’t give you a definite answer on that one.)
Review your Listing
This is your last chance to make sure you got everything right! Check everything very carefully, then choose “Submit Listing” to start your auction!
Article by Socar Myles.
