I used to be a huge baseball card collector, and I started selling some baseball cards in high school, but ultimately I was too engaged and emotionally attached to them.

When players are hot their prices go up and the momentum of increasing prices makes people more willing to pay book value for them.

When players retired or the next year's cards come out last year's cards and the retired players are old news. They get a bit of a bump if they are about to go in the hall of fame, but otherwise their book price drops and people are typically less willing to pay anywhere near book price because the momentum is gone.

I sell an ebook for $79 (discontinued in favor of my seo training program). At one point in time someone was bidding over $1 a click on Yahoo! Search Marketing (then known as Overture) and sending traffic to eBay listings for my product name.

I decided to list my ebook on eBay to see what would happen.

• About 5 people bid on it
• It sold for about $33
• The person who got second place complained that they wanted it at the same price the winner got it for

Other items in the same space selling at a higher price point sold for a price much closer to their actual retail price, which sorta led me to the following conclusions:

• If your product has a high pricepoint propped up by a lot of hype it is going to sell far better on eBay than if your price point is lower. The opportunity cost of missing out on a deal is much greater with a high price point.
• If you sell your item exclusively on your own site you do not want to sell it on eBay very often or you could lower its perceived value.
• If you decide to run auctions on eBay a good way to do so is to add extra stuff to your listing to make it unique. But again you would not want to do that too often because if your eBay listing sells for more than your direct product sold for on your site then you could end up making many of your direct customers angry.
• A good way to run auctions is to partner up with a charity to give the profits to. Rather than reducing perceived value this acts as a public relations and image booster. Some charities will also reference your company and your listing on their website.
• Another way to test eBay demand without debasing your perceived value is to set a minimum bid near your retail price and track how many people view your listing. Some people do this in combination with linking out to external reviews to drive direct traffic, though I have to image that eBay likes items that sell more than product research related listings.

 

This is a technique that is common amongst many affiliate marketers...

A person who creates a product also creates an easy to modify product which acts as though it is real information even though it is a sales letter for the associated products. Creative affiliates spread these offers far and wide around the web. Some list on eBay knowing it has little chance to sell, but that if it does sell that those people are likely to buy the end product too.

Package it

Another way to sell free information is to package a collection of it and offer it as a bundled deal. Give it a great name, and offer something exclusive and of value to sweeten the deal. Lots of great free information on the web can be thrown in as a free bonus.

Differentiate Your Offer

Many craft / hobby type item on eBay would sell for more if you simply added a free information product with your listing. Why?

• People like thinking they are getting free stuff.
• Adding the bonus differentiates your offer from everyone else selling something similar.

Domain Names vs Websites

Lots of domain names are put for sale on eBay. But it is hard to tell if the domain names have much value given how widely their prices differ from one another.

Some names, like a calorie calculator, could simply have a script and a logo added to them to prevent the sale from being viewed as a just a domain, and having it thought of as more of a whole website for sale.

I have went to Coachella a number of years. But some years I bought tickets that I could not use due to fun stuff like getting sued. Some advice from my experience

• Some people are willing to pay a premium for tickets instead of ticket print outs.
• If you have ticket print outs some people will pay more from a person with lots of account feedback built up.
• With most concerts it seems that the ticket prices tend to peak out at about 5 or 6 days before the concert and then fall like a rock on the last few days.
• You can get burned if you try to predict the peak. If you see a downward tend then you may want to quickly create a buy it now listing. 
• Selling with a buy it now price that is about $10 or $20 less than what they sell for right now is a safe bet if you are starting a new listing with less than a week until the concert. This allows people to buy them quickly at a small discount and gets your tickets sold before the bottom falls out on it.
• If the bottom falls out and you are still going to the concert and have extras you can probably sell them at the concert itself.
• You can get an idea of pricing trends using Stubhub and eBay's Marketplace Research tool

My wife and I went to Las Vegas for a conference about a week after we met in person. When we walked out of the Bellagio the fountains kicked off to Fly Me to The Moon. It was such a romantic moment that I don't even know how I was in it (as I am not mr. romance).

A bit later I wanted to get my wife a special gift and I found a 1960s wooden Snoopy spin up characiture that plays Fly Me to the Moon when it spins. That was probably the best gift I ever bought. And it went to the most loving person I ever met. :)

With everyone who matters to us there are shared experiences that feel special. You can recapture and rekindle that magic and memory for next to nothing with the right gift. The right item might only appear once every few years, but you can save a search so you are ready when it does.

Have an eBay listing you want to gain extra exposure for? Here are some options to help market your featured items

Keywords & On Page Optimization

• Use the eBay marketplace research pro and other keyword tools to find relevant keywords people are searching for.
• Ensure you use your keyword in your page title.
• Use relevant keyword modifiers as well by doing research with tools like Quintura. For example,
  • the word buy relates to just about everything on eBay
  • the words free shipping, discount, etc. work for people looking for deals
  • colors work well
  • if an item is new or used then that helps distinguish the listing from other item types
• Use bulleted lists and other information formatting techniques that make it easy to break up content for easy readability.

Off Listing / Off Site Optimization

• Create a leading editorial document in your field that people reference, and use it to drive link equity to important listings.
• Work with charities to donate a portion of the proceeds to them. Get them to reference you and/or your listings on their websites.
• Create a blog that tracks interesting information in your space.
  • Consider having one off eBay for personal use and promotion while also having one on eBay that focuses more on what you are selling on eBay.
  • Use both to promote important item sales.

Optimizing Your eBay Blog

eBay recently mentioned that this blogging platform is SEO friendly, but you also need keyword research and content strategy to fully optimize your blog. The Blogger's Guide to SEO offers tips on how to set up a blog that drives traffic, builds trust, and makes sales.

I thought I was posting a blog post when I was setting up the blog. This is much nicer. I like the rich formatting, but think they should also let us link to eBay listings of note, items we are selling, or other useful pages in here.