I've been selling on eBay since March of 1999 and, although the sight is still a strong venue for selling some of the historic Gloucester, MA estate antiques & collectibles I pick, the way I sell on it has changed. Here are my tips for selling on eBay in 2022.
Buy it Now vs. Auctions. You're usually better off listing a big ticket item using the Buy it Now/Best Offer combo. Auctions are no longer the dominant way to sell on eBay. In its' glory days, eBay's absolute auctions were the way to go! Over course of time, eBay has changed its' search algorithm to favor the Buy it Now format and paid ads, so there's just no guarantee that your valuables listed for auction on the site will garner a strong bidding pool. I'm and auctioneer, my money tree is the Absolute Auction, but not on eBay.
Pictures are still king. Great pictures are your best promotional foot forward when selling on eBay.
List using the Trickle Theory. It used to be that a big bulk upload of items to eBay would get you a bunch of views, because of cross-selling. But now, if you have a lot of items, the site's search engine absolutely seems to reward sellers who list a few items every day over an extended period, rather than a big bulk upload all at once. It's obvious that when I use the Trickle Theory, all of my listings get more views. This makes sense, after all, what do all search engines want? Fresh content. It's the same with Google, and for that matter, it's the same with in-person antique malls. Fresh merchandise sells, stale stock smells!
Skip the 3rd party software. For years, we've been baited into using all kinds of 3rd party software to boost eBay sales. Some of them were pretty good, but when they became popular...BOOM, eBay usually bought the company or mimicked all the features and eliminated the use for their product. Often, this left sellers with dead links, useless subscriptions, and selling strategies that eBay no longer supported. Many sellers had to change thousands of listings to comply with the changes. It's just not worth it. If you're going to use 3rd party software or social media to help with eBay sales, use only EXTERNAL tools & practices, which eBay will have no control over.
Put a link to your contact info in every listing. eBay strictly prohibits off-site links in your listings, but you can put a link to your eBay user profile directly in your listings. In the profile, you can include all of your contact info and your own website URL if you have one. This instills a lot of confidence in your prospective buyers. I've placed my link following this for demonstration: https://www.ebay.com/usr/capeannauction
Sell interesting things. The competition your items face on eBay is tremendous. Everyday dull items ain't gonna cut it! Sell unusual, interesting items, and make them pop with great titles and descriptions.
Tell a story. One postcard of Hammond Castle in Gloucester MA sells for $25 and another of the exact same card sells for $2. Why? Because the seller of the $25 postcard, told a great story about it. People LOVE stories. So tell the story of your listing, even if it's a shore one, and tell YOUR story. Enquiring minds want to know
How to get repeat customers: Enclose a small bonus item with each and every eBay shipment. I like to tuck in a vintage postcard, or an antique coin. Let them know with a small note that it's a bonus item, so that they don't think it was included by accident. By the way, on that note you can ask them for feedback, direct them to your website or include anything else you want them to remember!
See what and how others do it. No matter how much I think I know, I'm always interested in learning how others do things. Take a look at some sellers that have had success on eBay, and learn from them. If you care to see our eBay listings, click on the ship model below.