eBay tips from the 2012 Parent Panel Summit

As a mem­ber of the eBay Par­ent Panel, I had the oppor­tu­nity to travel to eBay head­quar­ters in San Jose with my fel­low eBay blog­gers for two days of learn­ing (and a lit­tle fun)!!

It was so cool to check out the eBay cam­pus and to get some insider knowledge–like excit­ing things being planned that I can’t even share <yet>! But, there was a TON of prac­ti­cal sell­ing knowl­edge that we learned–great for begin­ning & advanced sell­ers alike.

Here are a few tips I can pass along:

1. Before list­ing an item, do some research on eBay by check­ing the com­pleted list­ings. You can do this by select­ing “advanced” to the right of the search bar. - Once in the advanced search screen, type in key­words & select “com­pleted list­ings”. — Depend­ing on the his­tory of the item you’re sell­ing, you should get a list of like items. Prices shown in red did NOT sell, where as items shown in green did. While you’re look­ing at that, also check to see whether the item sold as an auc­tion or “buy it now”, as that can help you make a deci­sion on how to list your item.
2. If you’re list­ing an item as an auc­tion, con­sider hav­ing the auc­tion end on Sun­day night. Research shows that there tends to be peek inter­net use at that time.
3. All kinds of eBay sell­ers have a vari­ety of opinions/experiences about what works best and I’ve heard many sell­ers say that they rec­om­mend start­ing auc­tions at very low amounts (like $.99). But, if you are uncom­fort­able about selling–perhaps wor­ried that you will list your item for that low amount & end up los­ing money, here is a rec­om­men­da­tion: Start sell­ing with an auc­tion at the low­est price you could live with if the item actu­ally sold for that amount. If the item doesn’t sell dur­ing your auc­tion period, then list it as good ’til can­celled dura­tion at a fixed price.
4. We also learned all kinds of tips about shipping–some of which Smarty Pants Mama addresses in her eBay ship­ping kit post.
5. And, for those of you that may not be quite ready to jump into tra­di­tional sell­ing on ebay, did you know they have an Instant Sale option for a whole vari­ety of elec­tronic items fea­ture? The fab­u­lous Emily of, Is This Really My Life, wrote about it here for iPad2.

After all that learn­ing, we got to have a lit­tle fun as well! It was my first time in the bay area and although rainy, it was still great to see a few San Fran­cisco sights!

Dis­clo­sure: I am an eBay Par­ent Panel ambas­sador and my eBay-related posts are spon­sored by eBay. How­ever, as always, all opin­ions and expe­ri­ences are my own.