I am often asked by subscribers to UK Auctionline web site to have a look at their eBay listings. This is usually because they are not doing as well selling their items as they had hoped. When I go and look at the listing I will often find that they have made one or more of the common mistakes that deter bidders.

1. Too many negatives. Some people, especially newcomers to eBay have a very real fear of being cheated or ripped off. Because of this they apply negatives in their listing. This can be in the form of a long list of types of payments they wont accept or conditions that they apply. Something else I have seen is the warning that thee seller will not be responsible for any item lost in the post. Even worse are threats such as negative feedback if payment is not made within a certain time after the auction ended. These sorts of restrictions and threats are a great big turnover to any potential bidder.

2. High shipping charges. Most reasonable people are happy to pay something over the cost of postage to cover packing materials. But as I saw the other day someone who charging $10 to ship a $4.99CD, that is pushing it a bit. If you doubt how the average bikdder views hyped up shipping costs just go and read the commentgs on any eBay forum and see what buyers feel about it.

3. Not using a Gallery Photograph. I assume that no one who is serious about selling on eBay would consider putting up any listing without a picture. I cannot think of any item that would not benefit from a photograph. But there are still a great number of sellers who do not use the gallery feature to have a photograph next to their listing in the search results. Ebay??s own figures show that the use of a gallery photograph can increase the final bid figure by as much as 12%.

4. Setting you opening bid price too high. If you want to attract the most bids and therefore a higher final price for your item you should not set too high an opening bid price. A low opening price attracts casual browsers who place a bid just on the off chance of getting a bargain. Once a few bids have been entered other people start noticing and come to your listing to see what it is all about. Then before you know it, the price is shooting up. However, if you start with too high a price you could end up as one of the many listings that attract no bids at all.

5. Not communicating. I know some eBay sellers who really resent having to answer e-mails. In fact I know some who just do not answer any questions from sellers. How stupid is this? A question from a seller is a great opportunity for you to build up rapport with a potential buyer. A quick and pleasant response will almost certainly encourage bids whilst a curt or a non-reply will not.

The bottom line is that eBay is a numbers game, the more people you can get to bid on your items the higher the price they will achieve. Therefore it is important to do everything you can to encourage bidding not trying to deter it.