101 Auction Secrets Revealed!

By Tim Campbell

AuctionTip #61: Products to Auction at No Cost

One excellent way to acquire product to sell is by consignment. When you do this, you're basically an auction seller for hire. Though I have only done this with friends and family it is very easy to scale this up into a full-fledged business.

Today in fact, while looking through the local newspaper I saw someone advertising similar services. They took it a step further as well by offering to acquire any item for a party for a fee.

If I had the time I'd like to try my hand at it. You've got potential customers all around you...

You could place ads. Contact business owners and ask them if you can auction their products, services or anything they need to liquidate.

I can think of hundreds of people who want to sell their excess goods, but are just too intimidated by the process to fool with it.

Typically, from what I've seen, the consignee pays 15% or more on goods sold.

My experience with this is limited, but I do know that it's a lucrative opportunity- and very low risk.

You could for instance set up a small on the side consignment operation to help compliment your normal auction business.

This would be a boon of repeat business and referrals.

It’s as simple as running some ads in the local newspaper. If this sounds appealing to you, look into it. I’m thinking of taking out a few ads doing this, this evening. I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes in the next edition of the Auction eBook.

This is one other way around the product supply problem, which will always be there in one form or another until you are your own source.

AuctionTip #62: Testing Your Auction Ads

In marketing there is a concept known as leveraging. It simply means getting the most out of your time. Or more specifically: getting the most from your advertising dollar.

In order to get the most from your auctions the critical ingredient of testing comes into play.

Services like Honesty.com offer free counters and image hosting will give you an easy free way to do this.

Keep up with your page hits and bids you receive on Dutch auctions.

Test different ads against one another. You'll be amazed that something as simple as a more persuasive headline can explode your bottom line:

http://www.honesty.com target=new.

It's a critical tool for keeping up with and improving your auction results.

Testing is one of most essential ingredients to your overall success. If you want to know what works best, you must test.

One of the drawbacks of testing is that your efforts could possibly bomb. It’s natural to find something that works and stick with out of fear of losing.

Push through that fear and keep trying to find better results. Your goal is to establish an ad that is a winner.

AuctionTip #63: The Notorious Auction Buyer Personality Types

Here are some of the personality types you'll bump into:

The Impatient Buyer- People are impatient and want their goods fast. The "Antsy Buyer" is the embodiment of this time honored sales principle. Be patient with them... explain things.

The Post-Auction Heckler- Post auction heckler's think that the bargaining begins when the auction ends. Put your foot down. Tell them no unless you have time for it.

The Unhappy Buyer- Some folks will be disappointed with your product or service regardless of how good it is. Someone cut them off in traffic and they're taking it out on you.

The Deadbeat- The most irritating bidder in the world is the one who tells you, "The check is in the mail"- of course it never comes... 1-4% of your auctions on end this way.

AuctionTip #64: Places Where You Can Get Clipart

Don't be afraid to weave some image and graphics into your auctions- it makes for a code ad if you do it judiciously...

If you ever need anything to up your description go to:

http://www.clipart.com

AuctionTip #66: You Might Want To Do This On The Weekend...

Make a mental note to yourself to post feedback for buyers once a week- leaving posts as payments arrive will quickly drain the life out of your day.

Buyers get antsy and hassle you about this stuff. Tell them you leave it in batches.

AuctionTip #67: Save Money and Time on Relisting

If your item doesn’t sell the first time you list it, you'll be able to relist it at no additional charge if it's a straight auction- this doesn't apply to Dutch auctions. Once the unsuccessful auction is over, eBay will send you an email with a link. Click the link and follow the instructions. Even that takes time. If you don't want to change anything to improve your chance of success, use Andale's automatic relist feature.

AuctionTip #68: Use Asterisks in Your Item Titles

There are a lot of items up for auction on eBay, and it’s easy for your item to get lost in the thousands of others. Use asterisks in the title. Here’s an example:

***** ANCIENT_ROMAN_COINS! *****

Catchy isn't it? It flags your prospects down doesn't it? This is so simple to do and yet so powerful.

AuctionTip#69: EBay Is Bugging Out!

Apart from the occasional downtime, eBay is notorious for it's computer glitches. Some sellers get headaches trying to list their auctions using Internet Explorer.

If you have ever tried to post and get the "Page Can't Be Displayed Error"- then you'll know what I'm talking about. This can be very, very annoying…

Here are a few workarounds that will work for you if this happens:

· Post auctions using Netscape.
· Post auctions using Mister Lister.
· Make sure the html isn't buggy.

One way sellers mess up is by including , , and tags in their ads. This has been known to cause the problem, so don't include them.

By the way, you can include the body tag in the ad just as long as there is no close to it. The only reason you would want to do this is if you had some background image to use…

Enemy number one with html ads on eBay is bad table design.

Bad table design has cost me hundreds of dollars last year. How? Well, bad table design might result in your ad being seen in one browser and not the other.

Or no browser at all- or loading too slowly, and so on- weird and irritating stuff none of us have patience for;

If you're new to html steer away from using tables in your ads, especially if the ads are featured... just dress things up with plain and simple html.

AuctionTip #70: Use Bold Text Option in Your Titles

Another very powerful way to get your items noticed is to select the bold title option when setting up your item’s auction. Use of this option must be specifically selected and eBay will charge you an extra $2.00 for using bold, but your item will stand out.

Use this for items over $10.00 or it’s not really worth it. Now, to really make your items stand out, use asterisks use uppercase letters, AND a bold title.

Back Next

(Tips #1-10)  (Tips #11-20)  (Tips #21-30)  (Tips #31-40) (Tips #41-50)
(Tips #51-60)  (Tips #61-70)  (Tips #71-80)  (Tips #81-90)
(Tips #91-101)  Final Words

Business Startups Newsletter