How To Get More Money For Your Trains On Ebay.

Advice About Selling Toy Trains On Ebay.

The following advice is based on my experience and the experience of my friends. Between all the contributors to this article over 50,000 transactions have been done in the past five years. Some contributors run full time businesses selling trains on eBay and list hundreds of items a month.

I write a monthly newsletter about antiques, collectibles, and eBay. Sign up for my eBay newsletter.

Learn what NOT to do in your auctions, and get better prices. Get Less Money For Your Trains On Ebay

Here's a list of ways to get higher prices:

Auctions should always run through a weekend. Many buyers will spend a few hours looking through the listings on Saturday or Sunday. Not all of the buyers look at the ebay train auctions daily like most of us do. Always remember you are not the buyer, you are the seller, and don't know what the buyers habits are.
As for when to have them end, I used to think Mondays were the best days, but now I think it doesn't matter. Also I am beginning to think shorter auctions are better than longer ones. I did a test last January with ten day, seven day and five day auctions. The ten day auctions brought less money than the seven or five day auctions. The five and seven day auctions reached similar prices. I will test this again in June with a larger number of similar items. If I had to guess I would say the shorter auctions bring more money because the buyer bids when he sees it. If he waits he can forget, change his mind, or find something else to buy.
Instead of starting your auctions at your minimum use a reserve and start them lower. I am now starting a lot of my auctions for $0.01. Even for the items that will sell for thousands of dollars. There are a lot of bottom feeders out there who will bid insanely low amounts. I had someone bid $5.00 on an engine that sold for $1650.00. Maybe its just entertainment, but I don't care why they bid these low amounts because when a buyer looks at my auction in the listings and sees 15, 20, or even more bids; he's more likely to look at it. Also high numbers of bids means high demand, and might serve to increase a buyers bid. I have only been doing this for a few weeks, but it seems to be working.
Put a link to your other auctions in your description, and tell the viewers what else you have. This will bring your listing up in more searches, and will result in people looking at other auctions.
Never end your auction early. Many bidders will wait until the last second to bid. I don't wait anymore after losing a car I wanted and would have paid hundreds more for because I couldn't get an internet connection. But this article isn't about buying, it's about selling so I won't get into that.
You can get FREE boxes to ship with from the post office. Order online at usps.com. The post office will even drop them off at your house. When you are at the post office mailing packages pick up a rate fold. This is a large folded sheet of cardboard with all the shipping costs in easy to use tables. UPS shipping is cheaper on heavier items and the insurance is always cheaper.
Ship all items with delivery confirmation. The post office charges 35 cents for this and it lets you know when it was delivered. Some unscrupulous buyers will claim they never got the package, and try to get a refund. Just pass the 35 cents along to the buyer.

Learn the right way to sell on eBay at iwantcollectibles.com