eBay Auction Research
Tips and FAQ for a Home Business

The first step before you do anything on eBay is to of course sign up and make an account. It's free. Choose a name that is easy to recognize but not necessarily your own name. For privacy reasons, you might not want any person to see who you are. If you are planning on selling items from your company, you will want to have a name that matches your company name so that you build up trust with the eBay population, though.

Create an Excel spreadsheet for the type of item you are interested in. Put in the starting date, starting price, length of time, winning price, and a brief description of the item. Now watch for 2-3 months and keep track of items that fall into the category you're interested in. See if they sometimes sell well and sometimes sell poorly. Try to see the difference in listing styles when that happens. Do some include more photos? Is there certain words in the title that seem to attract attention?

I've seen times when someone lists a collectable plate set at $500 for the set - even though it is obvious that 10 other sets are selling at that EXACT SAME MOMENT for only $20. If that person had done some research, they would have seen that their request was ridiculous. On the other hand, if you start your listing too low, demand will usually kick it right up into the proper levels. Of course, if you start your auction too low AND give it really awful key words, then your target audience may never find it. So it's important that you figure out what is best for your item type before you begin.

eBay Working from Home

Home Business Ideas
Working from Home