New to Selling On Ebay, a few questions...

[kittycatgirl2k]

Heyas,

I'm no stranger to ebay as a buyer but as a seller... I haven't really sold much of anything in the past with any success. I have a couple of consoles I want to unload and have a few questions.

I have a black old style PS2, a DS phat and an XBox 360 I would like to unload. My questions are:

Should I start the auction at one cent or about in the general area of what I hope to make from the auction? Should I set a reserve price?

I have a few games I could bundle with the systems if it would help to sell them (stuff like sealed NBA Jam for PS2 and Splinter Cell (Xbox) to go with the Xbox 360). Should I include these in the system auction or not?

Whats the best way to title the auction? Especially where the DS is concerned Im not sure what would be the best way to attract attention to it.

Thanks for any help -

[sonicdescent]

Heyas,

I'm no stranger to ebay as a buyer but as a seller... I haven't really sold much of anything in the past with any success. I have a couple of consoles I want to unload and have a few questions.

I have a black old style PS2, a DS phat and an XBox 360 I would like to unload. My questions are:

Should I start the auction at one cent or about in the general area of what I hope to make from the auction? Should I set a reserve price?

I have a few games I could bundle with the systems if it would help to sell them (stuff like sealed NBA Jam for PS2 and Splinter Cell (Xbox) to go with the Xbox 360). Should I include these in the system auction or not?

Whats the best way to title the auction? Especially where the DS is concerned Im not sure what would be the best way to attract attention to it.

Thanks for any help -

There are two schools of thought..I happen to think you should start the auction at 99 cents to get the cheapest listing fee, and put no reserve. I think the value will go as high as it should no matter what, and setting the opening bid higher may have a bid slowing effect. Others say people think there is something wrong with an item if you list it low. A buy it now for a quarter couldn't hurt, set it at what you hoped to clear.

Bundling, with those particular games, probably wouldn't help the sale too much..but on the other hand wouldn't sell too high separate either.

Title the auction with as many search words as you can think of that also paints your item in a positive light. Be as descriptive as possible in the actual ad and if anything give a worse description than reality, this covers your ass from difficult buyers. Offer free shipping..this may seem like a why would you do it?, but usually bidding goes higher on free shipping items enough that not only would it cover shipping, it will give a few extra bucks. Put a real picture, not a stock picture of your item in the ad, and spend the extra 35 cents on the consoles to have it appear in the search. I wouldn't mention that it is not a lite in the title, but of course in the ad.
eg:
Nintendo DS Like new free shippng

[ViolentLee]

Keep in mind that you pay for putting up a reserve. I'd start the auction at about the lowest you would possibly accept, price-wise.

Putting up an actual picture is key, as sonicdescent says. I'd actually put more than one for each system -- zoom on the DS screen to show no cracks, or a top view of the Xbox.

As for description, I'd mention it was tested and works fine (if it's true). If there are no pets and no smoking in your home, I'd put that as well.

On a side note, I just put up some auctions, and was going to use "Like New" in the headline, and got a message that eBay doesn't allow that kind of wording anymore. Not sure if they'd remove it, but I didn't risk it. I use "Mint" instead. Takes up 4 less character spots in your headline, too.

I don't know if I'd go with free shipping, but if you do, I'd probably put up a subtitle to highlight this. Again, "Free shipping" uses up a lot of letters in your headline, and when you're already putting "Microsoft Xbox 360 Premium Game Console Mint" extra characters are at a premium.