5 HOT TIPS TO A WINNING EBAY AUCTION

Just finished up with a smoking hot seven day eBay auction for my Motorola Razr. Maybe it’s my age, maybe it’s a sign that I need to get a life or maybe it’s just a sick and twisted need for adrenaline any way I can find. Watching the last day, the last hour, the last minute and the last seconds can be a major rush or a nail through your eye painful experience. How you structure your auction on the front end and what you do on the back end can in a large part determine which type of experience you’re going to have.

Here are five (5) tips I used to have a very successful auction. Now obviously there are dozens upon dozens of other tips that could increase your auction success. These worked and have worked for me over the years.

5 HOT TIPS TO A WINNING EBAY AUCTION

1.  RESEARCH: If others aren’t selling the item you have…guess what? Yup, you’re not going to either. Do your research on closed items…these are a gold mine of information.

2.  GREAT PICS: Sure you can cut and paste stock photos or worse yet those of other auctions (very bad practice and NOT recommended). Take several good clear pics of your item. In the long run this could save you from some major headaches.

3. TIMING: This is a short one, post your auctions on Tuesday or Wednesday preferably no later than 7:00 p.m. This allows for folks to see the item during the weekends. It also will end in the evening when most people will be home to watch and bid .

4. LOW STARTING BID: If I’m selling an item that’s valued at $300.00 or less and its trending well I start my auction at $0.25. The psychological buy in from bidders who start in on an auction set so low is quite amazing. It also is a great marketing tool too.

5. BUNDLE: With the auction of my Razr I included the Otter Box Case and belt clip. I had the original Verizon box, instructions and chargers also. I took a pic of all the pieces that were being included.

6.  MARKETING: I use any means that I can to get the word out that I have this item, that it’s for sale, the low price (see tip #3), ending soon, and the eBay item number. I send emails to my previous buyers, I send emails to those posting in the Wanted Items of Craigslist, announce it on Facebook, Tweet the details, find related Google Groups and put an announcement in the signature of your email. Marketing/marketing/marketing…this is your opportunity to drive interested parties to your auction.

7.  BONUS TIP: WHO'S WATCHING?  Your goal needs to be to have double digit watchers of any auction. Preferably 13 or more…call your friends, family, neighbors and ask them to watch your item (tell them to just watch it, there could be problems if they bid but that’s another article). As your marketing let potential buyers know that there are only a few days left on the auction and that very few people are watching this item. Use these words…verbatim. The number of people watching your item and the number of views your auction gets is a direct indicator of your marketing success. For this…more truly is more!

Well using these tips this is how I ended up with my auction. My item for sale was Motorola Razr cell phone with Otter Box Case and clip. The beginning bid was $0.25. I ended up with 12 people watching this item but I had three that came and went as the bids exceeded their comfort level. The auction was viewed 153 times and had 25 bids. Over the seven days the item went from $0.25 beginning to $191.50 ending price. An hour after the auction the bidder put the money in my PayPal account.

To me that was a successful auction!

Top 5 Government Auction Sites

Government auctions are a great way to pick up property for the purpose of resale.  My personal experience was to buy a Dodge 1500 pick-up truck from a government auction site.  The truck was used with an agriculture grant hosted on the campus of Purdue University.  I was able to purchase the truck for $5,000.00 and flipped it three months later for $8,500.00.  As with any auction be it electronic or on site there are do's and don'ts.  It is not my intent here to cover those.  We will save that for a later date.

Anyone interested in this topic could quickly jump onto Google and search for the topic.  In doing so the search would produce roughly 299 million responses.  What I would like to do with this posting is to cut through the chaff and give you my list of the top five Government Auction sites.

NUMBER 5 - USA.GOV - GOVERNMENT MADE EASY 

This is a great site to direct you to auctions posted through state and local governments and or their agencies.  You will find that the main thrust of this page is towards surplus auctions.  The 5 rating is mainly due to the fact that this page is primarily a resource to the parent page USA.gov.  This page is very useful as well in that it provides information and links to a wide array of government services and departments.  If you were interested in buying land in Arizona this site would lead you to Arizona State Land Department or maybe you are in Oklahoma and looking for a piece of heavy equipment this site would get you to Ok.gov.

NUMBER 4 - US TREASURY 


This is another site that for the most part is a landing page which will take you to the sites of other agencies.  It has five links that will take you to property and vehicles that have been confiscated by the IRS to an auto auction site hosted in conjunction with Homeland Security.  One word of caution here is that no one should expect to get property for a steal.  The urban legends of getting Jeeps for $1.00 just aren't happening these days.  Though a bit limited in its offerings it is a good solid site for finding online government auctions.

NUMBER 3 - SBA - BUYING GOVERNMENT SURPLUS

In all honesty I had initially considered this site for first place.  This site is a tremendous resource for those looking to purchase government surplus.  However, the decision to give a third place ranking was due to the fact that it was merely a landing page that took you to other agencies sites.  However, the one thing I think is quite notable is the link to Consumer Action Handbook as well as to government sales and auctions by agency.

NUMBER 2 - GOVERNMENT LIQUIDATION - A LIQUIDITY SERVICES MARKETPLACE

Now we begin to get to the meat of government auctions.  It is here you can enter in to bidding for everything from Aircraft Parts to Uniforms and Field Gear.  To participate as a bidder you must first Register to become a site member.  This is a great site that offers you a wide range of property.  However, due to its greatness the competition can be rather vigorous.

NUMBER 1 - GSA AUCTIONS - ...A GOVSALES.GOV PARTNER

Folks here we are at my number one government auction site the Mack Daddy of sites is the GSA site.  I'm sure you will find this hard to believe but I am old enough to remember when there was no internet.  Yes and I walked to school and it was uphill both ways.  Any way in those days one could bid on surplus government items but the registration was arduous and auctions were held at various regional sites.  This site has given us full convenient access and opportunity to participate in these auctions.  To participate in the bidding you will first need to register.  Register soon and let the bidding begin.