How to Use eBay Dutch Auctions for Effective Listings Online

Posted at May 6, 2009

How many of a particular item should you sell on eBay? It’s a common question for many sellers, so here are some eBay tips regarding that.

eBay has two methods to go about selling several of the same item. In these kinds of eBay selling endeavors, you can create Dutch auctions (also known as “Multiple Item Auctions”) and host multiples of the same product simultaneously, or you can sell each product item individually in its own individual auction.

Many people dismiss Dutch auctions on eBay as examples of poor tips for selling on eBay because they think having a higher quantity of goods makes the item up for bid seem somehow…cheaper. But nothing could be further from the truth!

In some cases, Dutch auctions are actually part of some of the really excellent eBay tips to utilize and can help you sell more products even faster. But in other cases, I don’t recommend using them because having too much volume of product in your eBay selling can actually harm an auction. In this article, I’m going to share with you some of the tips for selling on eBay that include reasons why you’ll want to consider a Dutch auction and when you’ll want to sell products at auction individually.

There are no good eBay tips that say you can’t give away something free to a happy customer to bring them back to your products. So many people involved in eBay selling are missing that valuable knowledge, and I wanted to share that with you, because if you are and can understand how it works synergistically to increase your profitability, it should be one of your best tips for selling on eBay and can translate to a formula for success.

I’ve noticed, too, when I’m searching through auctions on eBay (and again I’m using eBay selling as an example since we’re talking about eBay tips), where I’m looking for a product, and I see a product, but I also see that it’s offered again or more times – the exact same listing, the exact same information and the exact same auction.

Is that one of the biggest mistakes sellers make – having numerous quantities of a product, but not choosing to list them in a Dutch auction because they would rather list them in individual auction after individual auction? Should Dutch auctions be on a good list of tips for selling on eBay – or not?

I think it really is a decision that the seller has to make, and they have to ask themselves what’s the goal? What is the goal of having multiple listings of the same item as opposed to having just one Dutch auction that has the same product but in multiple quantities? And should this be one of those eBay tips that’s dependent on different factors? The answer is “yes.”

The reason why you’ll see individual listings for eBay selling of the same product is because these sellers want to get more exposure through the specific categories simultaneously. If an auction seller has multiple items, but they only show one item for each listing, they want to get as much exposure as possible in numerous – we’ll call them submarkets and categories – areas on eBay’s site and use these tips for selling on eBay to their ultimate advantage.

So that’s why you see that in terms of making a volume correlation between using a Dutch auction with the same product in multiple quantities as opposed to having a quantity of one item but having it listed multiple times in different categories. It truly is handled on a case-by-case basis and can be part of a repertoire of good eBay tips, depending on how well it is used.

As part of other excellent tips for selling on eBay, people really need to focus their eBay selling on visuals. You can really center in on this, and that is when you have a product you’re selling, you need to communicate the benefits of the product as opposed to the features. With eBay tips like this, it’s important to realize that if there’s a visual on your product in one form or another, the visual should communicate what the features are. If you look at, for instance, an ad for a vehicle, you’ll notice what the features are – it’s green, for example.

There will be a picture, probably, of the inside of the vehicle to show you that it has an automatic transmission. You can see the tires; you can see that the vehicle has chrome on it. The visual medium should say that indirectly for successful eBay selling.

What’s important and should not be excluded as one of the smart tips for selling on eBay is that in the message, you need to communicate the benefits. People are driven to buy according to what the product or service is in terms of how it can benefit them. I know this, and there have been countless research studies done showing this factor one of the best tips for selling on eBay and is what motivates people to buy. If you really want to stand out, you need to be direct and make sure you have a compelling message with a visual component to it that stresses benefits as opposed to features.

If you can understand these eBay tips and do them right, you’re well on your way to succeeding.