eBay is an absolutely massive online marketplace, making it an attractive place for buyers and sellers alike to gather. Despite the fact that eBay can be a lucrative place to tout your wares, many new sellers find it difficult to earn enough money to make ends meet using the platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In our experience, this is largely due to how these sellers define their eBay pricing. The e-commerce platform is not easily navigable, so many new sellers price their items with (seemingly) no rhyme or reason, basing their eBay pricings on their own preconceived notions rather than doing their research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you are serious about making a profit on eBay, you need to know how to use selling prices to your advantage. Whether you are an e-commerce beginner or an experienced seller in a sales slump, check out our definitive, step-by-step guide on eBay pricing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before you ever begin an item listing, you need to take a good, hard look at the item you would like to sell. It is not enough to take photos and let the listing speak for itself, as the type and condition of your item will inform your eBay pricing as it can be compared with other similar items. Here are a few things to note about your item:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before you begin perusing eBay for similar items, try to uncover as much information about your item online. This can help you uncover new details about your item that weren\u2019t apparent during your examination, such as manufacturing dates on tags that were lost due to the years. Researching your item also helps you to better understand who your target audience for that item will be. For example, some brands or items have loyal followings on social media websites like Reddit, which can give you an idea how in demand your item will be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This can be a dangerous game, as there is a big<\/em> difference between \u201csold\u201d and \u201cselling\u201d eBay prices. Not to mention the sheer number of items for sale on the massive e-commerce marketplace at any given time!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Luckily, eBay features a number of advanced search options to help you find the exact item you\u2019d like to sell, making it easy to compare and contrast prices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Using the keywords you surmised from your initial examination of an item, input them into eBay\u2019s search. You can search specific categories or exclude words from your search, which is helpful if your item\u2019s name or brand could easily be confused for another. From there, you can refine your search between fixed price, Buy It Now (BIN) listings, auctions, listings that offer free returns\u2014the combinations are endless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That being said, the most important search filter you can use is the \u201csold listings\u201d filter.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Without checking the \u201csold listings\u201d filter, you will see any number of exorbitantly priced BIN or auction listings. As mentioned, there is a big difference between the prices of sold<\/em> and selling<\/em> eBay prices. If these prices aren\u2019t considered by the seller, it can be extremely frustrating for the buyer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Think of it like this: have you ever walked into a vintage or second-hand shop to see that the store has placed print outs of eBay listings on some of their items? While many do this in order to justify their prices on highly sought-after items, like vintage mid-century furniture, you may notice that these shops have mistakenly printed out a listing that is actively for sale, not a sold listing. This results in ridiculously expensive second-hand items, as the \u201cselling\u201d price reflects what the seller hopes to receive for the item, while the \u201csold\u201d price reflects what buyers are actually willing to pay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do not<\/em> base your prices on the wishes and dreams of a different eBay seller with delusions of grandeur. Instead, you should base your eBay pricing on solid data that reflects the current buyer market. We urge you\u2014please use the \u201csold listings\u201d filter!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now that you have the \u201csold listings\u201d filter on (or at least we hope you do), you will want to search for listings that feature items that are the most similar to your own. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Make sure that you are being realistic when searching eBay pricing, closely comparing sold items with your own. For example, if your item is damaged, don\u2019t expect to make a sale if you list your item for the same price as a different listing that features an item in mint condition. On the other hand, if your item is in perfect condition, don\u2019t sell yourself short by price matching a listing that features a damaged version of the item!<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you find a listing that features a perfect match for your item, eBay features a \u201cSell one like this\u201d button within the listing to make things easy for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even with eBay\u2019s extensive search features, using the marketplace as a price comparison tool can be extremely overwhelming, especially if you want to sell a popular item in a category with hundreds of thousands of listings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Luckily, eBay simplifies things for sellers with its price recommendation tool. It is surprisingly accurate, and while it does not give you a complete picture\u2014it cannot examine each listing and each item as closely as a human being can\u2014it is a valuable tool to have in your eBay pricing arsenal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n eBay\u2019s price recommendation tool allows you to input specific details about your item (though not as many as we would like) along with searching specific listing types, like auction or fixed price listings. Then, the tool will gather data, showing you:<\/p>\n\n\n\n This alone is valuable information for sellers to have at their disposal, but eBay\u2019s price recommendation tool goes a step farther by pulling data from multiple places to help you make an informed decision. These are the five different categories that eBay\u2019s price recommendation tool with which can assist sellers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n We love eBay\u2019s price recommendation tool because it takes the majority of the guesswork out of pricing your items to sell on the platform. Still, this data-driven tool does not account for a number of things that should be considered when deciding eBay pricing. For those of you that are selling extremely niche collector\u2019s items, the eBay price recommendation tool may not have enough data to give you an informed price estimate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More importantly, this digital tool is simply not able to consider the more human aspects behind an item\u2019s cost when determining eBay pricing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Though the item itself is the major determining factor behind any listing price, there are a number of other factors and fees sellers need to account for in their eBay pricing. Here are a few costs you need to consider before listing your item:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Customers tend to love free shipping, but by paying for shipping yourself, this can considerably cut into your profits and should also be considered when determining eBay pricing. Many sellers will offer \u201cfree shipping\u201d but simply tack on the price of shipping into the item\u2019s listing price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Additionally, you will need to research shipping costs for domestic and international orders. Some shipping companies will be cheaper than others for specific items, and though it\u2019s a bit more work on your behalf, you may be able to save money by using one shipping service over another depending on the item sold.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTake advantage of eBay\u2019s price recommendation tool.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Factor personal fees into your eBay pricing.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n