As a reseller you’ll no doubt be keeping a close eye on sites like eBay to resell your items and to try and bag the best bargains. But eBay is big business, with thousands of people bidding on every item. So if you’ve spotted an item you want to purchase for resale, how can you ensure you beat the competition? Here are a few bidding tips.
Know Your Price
If there is a specific item you want to resell it can be tempting to dive into an eBay auction and keep bidding until the item is yours. This strategy could see you paying well over the going rate for a product as bidding against another buyer can sometimes take a product price very high. Instead try to find out the average going rate for the product you are looking for. You can search online to see what other sites are selling them for, find out their RRP and you can also search eBay for similar products sold. If you search for the product name and click ‘products completed’ you will see a list of products previously sold – if it’s green it means someone bought it for that price so you’ll be able to work out an average and stick to it.
Look Out for Local Bargains (Collection Only)
A lot of sellers on eBay will list items for collection only and these items tend to have less bids as generally most people want their item delivered. So it’s worth looking out on the product pages for ‘collection only’ and keeping an eye on these items as you’ll probably face less competition when bidding.
Follow Your Item
On eBay you can follow items which can make it much easier to keep a track on. By following an item you can get instant updates when someone bids on it and it will help you to remember the closing date and time of the auction. You can then manage your bids more effectively and hopefully out-bid your rivals at the last minute!
Look at All Costs
When you’re bidding for an item don’t automatically think you’re getting a bargain… lots of sellers list high postage costs and packaging costs so to get a true idea of your buying figure you should take extra costs into consideration. This will help you to manage your budget.
