Many times people are unsure of what category their item should be listed in. This could eventually cause the person to list their item in multiple categories, making the listing fees soar through the roof! Truth of the matter is that a large majority of eBay viewers do not use the category feature at all and instead use the search tool to find the item they are looking for. The reason for this is that the first item brought to your attention when you visit eBay's site is the ‘search’ field; so many people find it quicker and easier than trying to navigate through the thousands of categories available. Therefore, the real topic worth investing is naming your item appropriately.

New sellers (and seasoned ones as well) will sometimes use words such as L@@K or WOW in the title of their auctions. But how often will someone actually search for these words when they want an item? Probably not too many. Considering eBay only allows 55 characters for a title, you best not waste any of them with nonsense words as such. With that in mind, I will now provide some tips for creating the BEST title you can.

• Use keywords that clearly describe what you are selling.
• Try to avoid unnecessary words such as ‘the’ and ‘of’ unless they are part of the item you are selling
• If you have enough space left, spell important words several ways so people who misspell them will still eb able to see your auction
• Browse completed results for items like your own, and find the ones with the highest end price or most bids and take note of their title and category

A starting price generally depends on how valuable the item is and how much of a demand it currently has. For example, a new video game system or electronic device could start at $0.01 and get up to thousands of dollars by the end, where as a valuable antique that is not widely looked for may only get a few bids by the end, and the price may remain relatively the same.

One small detail to pay attention to is the listing fees involved. For example, if you start your item out at $25.00 instead of $24.99, you will owe $0.60 more in fees. This may seem tiny, but it definitely adds up and can be prevented by lowering the price one cent. The chart of opening values and insertion fees is below, and will show you when the fees raise.

One VERY important trick on finding the price to start your item out at is to seek out another item very similar to yours that has bids and is at a nice price. See what the average ending price is of items like your own is, and then you know what NOT to go over when setting the opening value.

In a brief survey, many people admitted that they bid more on items that start out cheap than the same items with a high opening bid. So if at first you list your item for the price you expect to get from it, and you don’t receive bids, you may wish to re-list it and start it and only a dollar or so and see if the bids get to what you expect. If they do not, you do have the option to end the auction early and cancel bids, however that isn’t a good practice to repeat many times. All-in-all, if you follow the advice above, research your item first, and start it out at a fair price, you should have NO problem getting what you want for it.

Figuring out the best times to list and end your items is probably the most difficult and most important part of getting your item noticed! Holidays, major events, days of the week, and the audience your item targets all influence the amount of people who will get a chance to visit your item.

Through research and word of mouth, it has been concluded that Sunday evenings between 8:00PM and 11:00PM Eastern time seem to be the time that the majority of bidding occurs. However, much bidding also occurs during lunch hours when people are at their jobs, Monday through Friday. It is generally not a good idea to list items that will end during major holidays when an extensive amount of people may be away from their computers such as Christmas, Memorial Day, and Thanksgiving. You also wouldn’t want your items to end on a Sunday night, if it is the Sunday that the Super Bowl is on.

How many days should you list it for? EBay offers one, three, five, seven, and ten day options. The ten day auctions cost extra. Benefits of the ten day auction include the fact that if you list on a Thursday evening, it will go through two weekends and end on a Sunday evening. However, a very LARGE percentage of bidding takes place during the last few minutes of an auction, so you might not get one bid during the ten days and then get a few at the last minute. Having an auction last so long may also discourage potential bidders as they hate the long wait. Most of the time, you can be very successful if you list for three days starting on a Thursday evening. One day auctions are not recommended unless you have a ticket or other time-sensitive item for sale.

Also take into consideration that it takes anywhere from thirty minutes up to half a day to get your item to appear in the searches. So having a three-day auction might really amount to only a 2.5 day auction, which could really decrease the visiting potential. If you have a rare item that isn’t sought after by a large portion of people, you may wish to list it for seven of ten days so more people have a chance of locating it.

If your auction doesn’t seem to be bringing in the crowd you'd hoped for, hopefully some of the suggestions in this tip will help you out. First, make sure that your title is as descriptive as possible as explained in an earlier tip. It is also a wise idea to include a rather informative description so people who search with the ‘titles and descriptions’ option checked, will find your ad. It is also appropriate to purposely misspell your item name within the description so people that do make mistakes will still see your items. Be sure to include the brand name and any other major detail of the item(s) for sale.

WARNING: A very common and annoying issue circulating auction sites is something called, ‘Keyword Spamming’. This is where people will hide thousands of unrelated words and phrases into their ad (either by making the text white on a white background or using advanced scripting to conceal it). This is not only against eBay’s rules, but will result in many people being angry at you and your auctions as they are usually unrelated to what the person is searching for.

EBay has a strict SPAM policy as well, in which they do not allow you to blatantly advertise your items on message boards or newsgroups unless it is allowed and on topic. However, there are newsgroups and message boards specifically for advertising and trading items with one another. One such group is alt.marketplace.online.ebay. Be careful that you are at the right group, as another group called alt.marketing.online.ebay is similar in wording, but has ZERO tolerance for ads and will report you if you are caught there. If you are unsure how to access newsgroups, you may wish to ask your internet service provider about it. All groups can be accessed and posted to from http://groups.google.com for free as well. If you want to post your ad in a newsgroup that deals specifically with your type of item, BE SURE to ask for a FAQ guide or just ask if it is OK to post ads there. Otherwise you could potentially loose your internet service and eBay account. Generally speaking however, people won’t go to newsgroups to find items they want; they usually will turn strait to eBay and perform a search. Either way, I am in know way responsible for your actions and postings, as I have provided ample warnings about the consequences of posting to incorrect groups!

Feedback is sometimes what will make or break your sales. If a potential buyer sees that you have negative feedbacks, he or she may think twice about bidding on your items. Although you should always try your best to resolve problems with other parties, you still may run into a problem every now and then where someone leaves you negative feedback. The best way to respond to this type of feedback is to use nothing but factual evidence. A lot of people will be so angry with the negative that they will post a response with no facts, just insults of the other person. If you do respond in a childish manner such as name calling, or making your self look too good, then people who review your feedback may feel a bit concerned about doing business with you. It is OK to emphasize words by using capital letters and even explanation points, but be as precise and factual as possible.

By using facts that can be proven, you are able to make others aware that it was not your fault and they won’t hold anything against you. If you are the one going to leave negative feedback, here are my guidelines for doing so.

• If the buyer has fewer than ten feedback comments, it is not worth your trouble of giving him or her negative feedback. Many times the new sellers will take feedback as a joke and give you a negative, then simply make a new account.
• When you are going to leave a negative, it is best to leave it as close to 90 days as possible, because after the 90th day they will not be able to leave you any retaliatory feedback (well, there IS a way, but I won't discuss it here).
• As mentioned before, be factual and adult-like. No name calling!

Below you will find example search queries, and an accompanying description about each one and what will be returned.

toy (1950, 1960, 1970)

This search query will return all results that have the word 'toy' in their title, along with either the word 1950, 1960, or 1970. In other words, any listing for a toy from any of those three years will be presented to you without the need to perform three independent searches. When ever you insert several terms in parenthesis (separated by commas), eBay will return all results matching ANY of those search terms.

(Bill Clinton, Aerosmith)

Similar to the previous example, this search will return all results containing either the words Bill Clinton OR Aerosmith. As you can see, the search terms do not need to be related in order to receive all of the results. You can include as many search terms in parenthesis as you wish, and any items matching the terms separated by commas will be returned.

walk*

This search query utilizes the wildcard symbol (*) to obtain a wider range of results. All listings with a title that has any word in it beginning with the letters 'walk' will be returned. This way, you will receive results containing words such as 'walks', 'walking', and 'walker' all-in-one. This can save a lot of time especially when you are searching for items which may be in plural form such as shirts. You can also use the * symbol within a word if need be.

cell phone -nokia -motorola -boost* +new

In the above example search you will find several (-) and (+) operators. As you may imagine, placing a (-) character before a term will ensure that no results are returned that contain that particular word or phrase. A (+) sign will ensure that no results are returned unless they contain the term immediately proceeding the symbol. I also threw in an asterisk to ensure that all possible antenna booster devices were removed from the results.

There is currently no limit on the length of an ad you can post on eBay. Since eBay includes the ability for users to search through both titles and descriptions, it is important for you to describe your items as thoroughly as possible so more people can locate your listings. Try to avoid using symbols and abbreviations as much as possible. Spell out commonly abbreviated words such as 'Approximately' and 'Quantity' at least once in each listing before using their abbreviated formats. Also, if your item is one that has several different names it goes by, try to include them all within your listing. Now when people search for an item using both title and description, the odds of them locating your listings increases over those that only include a couple sentences within each ad.

Another reason why you should try to be as thorough as possible when creating the descriptions for your ads is to ensure that no troubles arise after the item gets sold. Be sure to include all relevant details about the item and also mention all terms you have set forth for the transaction (how the item will be shipped, how you handle shipping charges, etc.). Be sure to include a note stating something along the lines of, 'If you have any questions prior to bidding, feel free to contact me'.

Before I end this tip, I should point out that there is a big difference between a comprehensive description, and a description created with the sole intention of luring surfers to your listings. If you include keywords in your description that have no relation to the item you are selling, you are practicing a form of 'keyword spamming' which is against eBay's policies and will result in your auctions being pulled - or your ID being suspended. Also be careful not to use name-brands or other famous trademarks in your listings unless the item for sale is indeed from the company you mention.