Selecting the Right Pricing
Option
As you learned
way back in Chapter 1, "So You Want
to Start an eBay Business...," when you have an item to sell, you can choose to
sell it in one of several different ways. While the most traditional way to sell
is via eBay's standard online auction process, you can also choose various
auction and fixed-price options. Which of these options is best for you? Table 21.1 takes you through the
basics.
Table 21.1. eBay Pricing Options
|
Pricing Option |
Pros |
Cons |
|
Traditional online auction |
Good for items where you're not sure of marketplace upside, and
for rare and collectible items; familiar to all experienced eBay buyers |
Bad for commodity items; never sure of final price or results;
makes you wait seven days to make the sale |
|
Reserve price auction |
Good for high-priced items; good if you have a minimum price in
mind but you don't want to publicize the price |
Confusing to some buyers; could reduce the number of bids on an
item |
|
Dutch auction |
Good if you have a large quantity of the same item that you
believe has upside potential |
Confusing to many buyers; if you simply want to sell a bunch of
items at a given price, use a fixed-price listing instead |
|
Auction with Buy It Now option |
Good if you think you can sell an item at a given price, while
still maintaining the familiarity of the auction process; good for commodity
items |
Reduces the upside of unrestrained bidding |
|
Fixed-price listing (for a fixed listing period) |
Good for commodity items; good if you have quantities of a
single item |
Reduces the upside of unrestrained bidding; might turn off some
buyers who prefer the traditional auction process |
|
Fixed-price listing in an eBay Store |
Good for commodity items; good if you have quantities of a
single item; a good way to "park" items between auctions |
Items are not as visible as they are on the main eBay site; no
pricing upside |
In years past, I would have never advised sellers to run
anything but a traditional auction or an auction with the Buy It Now option.
Today, however, an increasing number of transactions on the eBay site are of the
fixed-price variety; more and more sellers are going the fixed-price route, and
more and more buyers are buying fixed-price or Buy It Now items that they can
receive faster than they can if they bid on an item listed for a seven-day
auction. (Plus, there's no guarantee that they'll win the auction; when they buy
a fixed-price or Buy It Now item, they're placing an actual order.)
Note
There are even more pricing options you can choose from, beyond
those discussed here. For example, eBay offers the Best Offer option, which lets
potential buyers make you an offer below your listed price; there's also eBay's
Want It Now feature, which lets you hook up with interested buyers who've made a
request for a specific item. While it pays to check out these other options, the
basic choice of auction versus fixed-price remains the most important decision
to make.
Should you go the auction route or the fixed-price route? It
all depends on the type of product you're selling, the type of competition you
face (both on and off eBay), and your own business expectations. For many
sellers, running a traditional auction with the Buy It Now option is a good
compromise, the best of both worlds, as it were. But that's not the only way to
go, or necessarily always the best. You have to make this choice for
yourself.
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