If you sell items on eBay you will want to get as many people to see them as possible in order to attract potential bidders. With millions of items for sale at any one time on eBay any additional promotion you do will make your listing stand out.

I would say that photos and description are the two most important parts of any ebay listing. They give the seller an opportunity to tell you about the item and anything you should know before bidding.

Too Long...

Descriptions should be to the point and not too long. They should only contain relevant information so beware of long text that has been copied and pasted or is so long that there may be something important mentioned somewhere in brief.

Post your item as quickly as you can after payment is recieved, I would say three days after should be the maximum. Remember the handling time you specified on the listing and stick to it, even if it's not always convenient for you.

A happy buyer is the best sort and getting the item to them quickly is the easiest way of pleasing them. People like to buy online because it is convenient and affordable, however the down side of this is that they have to wait. Fast postage is a sign of a good seller.

See my seperate guide on postage options for more details.

More Information

• Packaging & posting items (eBay help article)

99p Listings

Don't be afraid to start a listing at 99p! Listing with a low start price keeps your listing fees down and can attract early bids. With so many people out there someone always seems to bid! Out of the thousands of items I have sold it was very very rare to see an item go for 99p. Bidding can happen right at the last minute and it can be a real thrill to see your item go from 99p to a reasonable amount!

Don't Start Too High!

High start prices will put people off bidding, either until the last minute or all together. People like to get a bargain and if the start price is near the top end of their budget then they might just not bother. Starting low always seems to get people interested and gets the ball rolling for bidding.

Do Your Research

The chances are that someone has already sold what you have to offer before, so do some market research. Knowing the sort of prices that the item has sold for before can be a real help when thinking of what to start your item at. See my guide on searching completed listings for advice on this.

Reserves

Reserves ensure your item will not sell unless a minimum amount has been met, this is a good safety net to ensure your item does not slip by for a poor price. This can be expensive however so please refer to paragraph 1 of this guide.

More Information

• Selecting a Price for Your Item (eBay help article)

This guide details how to style the listings produced by the ebay listing tool.

The HTML produced is as follows:

<div id="ebayFeed">
  <table width="[TABLE-WIDTH]">
    <tr>
      <td>
        <p><strong><a href="[LINK-TO-ITEM]">[ITEM TITLE]</a></strong></p>

Getting your listing perfect will ensure you get a good price for your item. This guide will help you to use eBay's Advanced selling form to get your listing just right.

Welcome, this website is a collection of guides, tips and tricks of how to make the most out of buying and selling on eBay.

I'm Joe (ebay username morehawes and I have been trading on eBay for over five years now. I have had almost 4000 transactions and managed to pay my way through university by buying and selling electrical items. Over the years I have been awarded with power seller status and run my own shop to build up an excellent reputation.

This site will be being updated all the time, please make sure you drop me an email for eBay advice or something you would like to see included on the site.

I hope you get some useful tips from the site and HAPPY EBAYING!

Joe.