Researching Your Item
Researching your item is one of the most critical steps in the auction process. It not only allows you to improve the quality of your listing, but also how to price it!
I suggest two primary resources for doing your research.
  &  
Google is able to provide us with a full list of resources to better understand the history of our item, while Ebay grants us a little more insight as to the auction process & whats been working in the recent past.
Step 1.
I am sure you have all seen this search bar. It is located on virtually every page on the Ebay Site.
An Image of the Ebay Search Bar.
This is where it begins.
Simply type the name of your item in the white box where you see "Search".
(Example "Mickey Mantle Baseball Card")
and click the blue search button.
Step 2.
This is an image of Ebay Search Results
As you can see,
Our search yielded several results.
Feel free to click
on the image to enlarge it.
 
However,
Our interest is in the
auctions that have finished.
You can select the completed listings by checking the box. We have highlighted it in yellow to make it easy to find.
 
We can find those
in the Navigation List
along the left side of the page.
 
Scroll down until you see the title
"Show Only"
& select
"Completed Listings"
This image shows us a list of completed auctions which are similar to the item we are interested in listing.
 
Ebay has now
provided us with a list
of all the completed auctions
which are similar to our item.
 
Now comes the big question:
"What are we looking for?"
Step 3.
Its time to take a hard look at the list we just created.
The auctions with the $ amounts in Green are the ones which sold.
This is where we want to focus most of our energy.
What did these sellers do right that made their items sell?
Here are a couple of auctions that sold successfully.
 
Here are a couple of
auctions that sold successfully.
 
Note how much we can learn
from this page alone.
 
Both buyers wrote effective Titles
that clearly brought in customers.
Note the different ways the item sold. One through stand bidding while the other through Buy It Now.
 
We are also able
to see that one auction sold
through the bidding process
while
another sold through
"Buy It Now".
 
 
Step 4.
By clicking on the title, we now have access to the Shipping & Delivery Information, Accepted Payment Methods, & of course their pictures.
 
Let's dive in a little further by
clicking on the "Title".
 
We now have access to the
Shipping & Delivery information,
Accepted Payment Methods,
of course the Pictures.
By clicking on the bid count, we can learn a little bit more about the bid progression.
 
If you would like to learn
a little bit more about
bid progression
& the starting bid,
simply click on the
bid count next to the final price.
 
The description is a key part of your auction. Item specifics can make or break your auction.
 
Last of all is the description.
Item Specifics is a key part of
your description.
"Don't Neglect It"
Also take note of the yellow arrows
at the top of the image.
Shipping & Payments info is also
available simply by clicking on the tab.
All of the information we have just discovered will
play a significant role
when we start making decisions
on our upcoming auctions
in the next steps.