How to Ebay?

[EricJ]

ok, so I just had hoped to pick up a few tips for ebaying minis. I just don't have the space to have my old ones sitting around, so I am going to start selling off pieces that have already competed in contests. So what do I do to get the most interest? I guess it's an ego thing more than a money thing really, but I'm scared I'll be selling off my GD winners for $30 if I do it all wrong.

Any tips?

Horror stories?

Anyone wanna buy something? :D

[Ritual]

Just put "pro-painted" in the subject! :D

[EricJ]

real advice! I want real advice!

[lauth81]

Using the reserve price option is the obvious choice here ... This way you don´t sell anything below a price you think is too low.

[Nathan Caroland]

PUt a price tag on them and then slap them on your account, blog, various sites and let that sit for a bit and see who the interested parties are perhaps. Might take longer but you sell them at what you feel comfortable with.

Or, just put a BUY IT NOW at the price you want and offer nothing else in options. Or put a minimum reserve on it so that if it doesn't get to the monetary amount you want, you aren't obligated to sell it.

[Lordfishbane]

A few things I can recomend:

Dont use a reserve, the one thing that seems to turn off bidders is the chance of not winning the item they are bidding on. Start the bidding at what you comfortable letting it go for, use a flat rate for shipping AND handleing so if the shipping is a bit off then no one can complain about being gouged $1.50 more then what it cost to ship.

Make sure to list any contests it placed in or won, and by all means toot your own horn in the description of oher contests you have place in or won to show the proof/means of quality.

[gi6ers]

Pimp the hell out of it on any forum that'll let you...CMON, FOD, here, Frothers etc. Use a pic in auction listing and put lots of keywords in there.

[matty1001]

Use as many pic's as possible. Ebay lets you use 12 max I think. If you arn't going to be using photobucket to host your pics. Fill up all the slots. Better to have 12 photos from different angles than just a front and back shot IMO

O and yea, I never bid on stuff with has a reserve price. I just hate it. I like to think that if I bid, i will get it. (or be outbid etc..)

[Jabberwocky]

Anyone wanna buy something? :D

I'll be bidding...

[Wren]

You've got a strong enough rep that I think FF's route is worth trying. Saves you Ebay fees, as well. I've had collectors contact me privately asking me to sell stuff I've posted on CMON or to do commissions, so it's ended up that the only thing I've sold on Ebay was for a charity auction. I have to think you've had offers like that too, and that you'll just have to get the word out a little to have more.

I have been paying note to advice from Ebay sellers for when I do jump into the pool, though. If you do go the Ebay route, start with something that's good but not spectacular. I'm told people will bookmark artists they like, so you'll build up a little more of a following of customers after a couple of sales. Since your stuff is high-end you'd probably want to Ebay one or two at a time rather than several at once, so potential customers who might want to own multiple pieces have the opportunity to do that instead of just being able to afford to bid on one.

Figure out if you want to ship outside the US. If you ship inside, you have postage options of delivery confirmation and insurance (be sure to include those in the cost of the shipping in the listing and let people know they're included). Confirmation options are usually absent or limited when shipping to other countries because it depends on their arrangement with USPS. And if you get insurance then you have to list the accurate price on the customs form, which for your stuff would likely be higher than what's allowed under 'gift', and the recipient will have to pay additional taxes when picking up the parcel. My charity auction went to an outside the US customer, and I got away with the insuring it for more than customs amount by explaining to the clerk that it was a charity auction and the actual value of the item was much less, but I don't think I could make that fly every time.

There's some advice from display painters for selling on Ebay in this thread on Reaper forums, and I think there are a few other threads in the same forum section. Look for posts by Vaitalla (Anne Foerster, Reaper staff painter and used to sell a lot on Ebay), ixminis, Elouchard (Eric Louchard) particularly, but there are also comments from buyers.