How To Use eBay Completed Items Search to Your Advantage

Are you an eBay seller? If so, are you successful at what you do? Perhaps, the better question to ask is if you are making a profit selling on eBay? If you aren’t, there are a number of steps that you can take to increase your chances of making money on eBay.

When it comes to improving your chances of making a sale on eBay, your first impulse may to be change the way that your eBay items are listed for sale. For instance, it is often suggested that you upload detailed pictures of your items, provide detailed descriptions and such. While you certainly will want to try doing so, you will also want to focus on the items that you are listing for sale. Your problem with making a profit on eBay, might be the items that you are trying to sell. If you have a poor quality item or an item that other sellers can't seem to sell either, you may not be able to sell it, but you would still be responsible for paying your eBay fees. In this case, you will not only be unable to make a profit, but you also may end up losing money.

When it comes to knowing which items you can profit from selling on eBay, there are some who will tell you that it is impossible to do. While it may seem impossible, it isn’t. Before actually trying to list a particular item for sale online, like an old music CD for instance, you can check to see if that item has been sold on eBay before. This information is found by doing a completed items search for the name of the item you want to sell. If that particular item was sold before, you can also figure out exactly how much money it sold for! This will give you a good idea as to whether or not it would be worth it for you to spend the time creating your auction listings and paying eBay’s fees. Although the decision as to whether or not you want to post your item for sale is yours to make, a completed items search may give you inside information; information that you will want to take into consideration when making your decision.

To perform a search of completed items, you will want to use the advanced search option. The link to the advanced search form can be found by eBay’s traditional search box. The only thing that you will do differently is check the box labeled “Completed Listings Only.” Your results will include auctions that meet your search criteria, but that have already been completed. If an item sold, its price will be in green print. If an item did not sell, the asking price will be in red print. As previously stated, performing an eBay completed items search gives you the ability to tell whether or not you have an item that has been a good seller in the past.

If you are like many eBay sellers, there is a good chance that you are always on the lookout for great deals, bargains, or antiques. Familiarizing yourself with popular eBay items, ones that can be considered “hot sellers,” is a great way to make yourself a profit on eBay. In fact, you can not only use a completed listing search to determine if an item you already have is worth money, but you can also use this eBay tool to help you determine what items are in demand and how much, on average, the item sells for. If you scout yard sales, flea markets, or thrift stores, you may want to have a partner at home looking up eBay completed listings, while you are out shopping for items to sell on eBay. If that isn't practical for you, another way is to use a cell phone with an Internet eBay search application or bring a laptop computer with Internet wireless access when you are out scouting for things to sell.

Performing an eBay completed listing search will only take a few minutes of your time and can help you make money as an eBay seller, not lose it.

eBay Bucks Program Helps Buyers and Sellers

eBay hates it when sellers lower the price of an item and then raise the shipping charges to an outrageous amount to compensate. When this is done eBay loses money in Final Value Fees and other conscientious sellers face unfair competition when they charge actual shipping and handling.

I can remember as far back as 2006 at the eBay Live conference in Las Vegas hearing Bill Cobb, the President of eBay North America, tell us that eBay will be taking steps to stop these unscrupulous sellers from overcharging for shipping. Since then eBay has put several procedures and other steps in place to get sellers to stop overcharging for shipping and handling. Some of these include encouraging sellers to offer free shipping, creating the Detailed Seller Ratings (DSRs) program, and adjusting search results to favor sellers charging free or reasonable shipping.

AuctionBytes, a trade publication for online merchants, suggests that the new eBay Bucks program is another great step in the war against high shipping. With the eBay Bucks program,
"...buyers are able to earn rewards based on the purchase price of items they buy on eBay using PayPal. The buyer earns 2 percent of the purchase price (up to $200 per item and a maximum of $500 per qualifying period) and receives an eBay Bucks Certificate at the end of the quarter to use against purchases in the following quarter. Shipping is not included in the "purchase price" used to determine the reward amount.

Now the buyer has a reason to buy the $20 item with free shipping over the $5 item with $15 shipping. In the first example, the buyer receives 40 cents, in the second example it is only 10 cents. It sounds like small numbers, but if you're looking at items in the hundreds of dollars, or a buyer who purchases a lot throughout the quarter, which sellers do you think buyers will choose?"

For the complete article, go to Will eBay Bucks Deter Excessive Shipping and Handling? By Lissa McGrath.