How To Get More Bids On eBay

Wondering how to get more bids on eBay? Most sellers salivate over the prospect of having a bidding war on their item. We’ve had bidding wars happen a number of times. Sometimes the reason is plainly clear — you’re selling an in-demand item. But do you ever scratch your head and wonder what made THIS particular eBay item generate so many bids?

While there is no guarantee of success in getting more bids on eBay, based on our past eBay selling success, here are a few pointers:

• After you figure out from your pricing research how much you can reasonably expect to have your item sell for on eBay, cut that price by two-thirds. That’s right. If you expect to sell something on eBay for $30, start the bidding out at $10. That will attract more bidders because of the low price. eBay buyers want to find a good deal.
• Another benefit of starting off at a super low price is that once someone places a bid, human nature starts to kick in. If you ever study marketing, you’ll understand buyer personas and the inclination that once people have some skin in the game, that motivates them to keep at it. Human beings are competitive. People want to “win”. It becomes at a point more about “winning” and beating out the other bidder than it is about getting “a good deal”. People like to have bragging rights. “Hey, I won the auction! There were two other people bidding and I am the champion!” This, of course, is to your benefit. Each incremental bid of $1.00 or so adds up really quickly. It’s more money for you as the eBay seller.
• People don’t like to lose. If it only costs $1.00 more to keep on going for a chance to win, the psychological motivation to keep on going is profound. Think about people who are addicted to gambling. Of course, bidding on eBay is vastly different than that, but the same psychological principle applies: People like to “win”.
• One caution: If you want more bids on eBay, don’t start your bidding too low. If you’re selling a Fine China set on eBay and start your bidding at $0.99, some people will think “What’s the catch?” If you price the opening bid too low people may be turned off by that, thinking that if something is too good to be true, it probably is. You have to find that sweet spot as a starting price. Again, in our experience, 2/3 off the expected selling price is the sweet spot.

There are other tricks of the trade in to help you get more bids on eBay. We only covered one here. What are some strategies you use to induce more bidding? Let us know in the comments below.

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