Deciding On Your Auction Starting Price on eBay
Have a look on eBay and you’ll probably spot two kinds of auctions – ones where there are bids like crazy and others which have no or few bids. Investigate a bit further and you might find another link – the ones where there are plenty of bids often had a low initial starting price…
There are two main philosophies towards deciding on your auction starting price on eBay:
1. You decide what the minimum amount is you’d be prepared to let the item go for and start the auction at that figure (or just below).
2. You start the auction at a low price to attract bidders and hope that the price rises.
Option 1 is safer, but option 2 will probably attract more bids.
eBay buyers want a bargain, but most of all they love the whole ‘auction experience.’ They enjoy bidding against each other, the last few seconds rush to get their bids in… the adrenaline of winning the auction.
What does this mean for you?
Because people are bidding against each other you’re likely to get more for your item than if you started it at a higher price.
Isn’t that a risky strategy?
It depends on how valuable your item is and how much risk you’re willing to take, but you can always start your eBay auction at a low price and then set a reserve price to protect yourself. This way the item won’t sell unless bidding reaches the minimum reserve price you have set.
It is personal preference, and I have seen people do well by starting items at a price near to their true value, but in general it seems that the auctions which do the best are the ones which were started at a low price to draw the bidders in.
