Need some advice on how to price products?

jessicahuang

hello, all. i am a fresh new to here!

i did lot research and also came out some products that i want to sell for a try. but my problem here is when i check the price for similar idems on ebay, there are pretty much about the same price or just a litter lower than what i paid for buying those product. I wonder how those peopel can get benefit from that, and i am directing import from china, so i am pretty confidence about the price that that are offering me.

my question is normally, how you guys price your item? do u do by comparing others' and list the price in between, or do u list the price by how much profit you want to make? or u just keep ur price lower than anyone else!

by the way, i am thinking about selling computing accessories, so, this category may just don't have much profit on it. so, even i change my selling product later, i still need some advice on how to price the item!

lots of thanks~

wish all u guys make lots of money! :

jessica

grace-salehoo

Unfortunately, your situation is not a new one! Ebay is over saturated in many categories now. I suggest listing on eBay international sites (eBay UK, eBay Australia etc) and on auction sites such as Yahoo auctions and UBid as well as on eBay.com.

It can be worth advertising offline in newspaper classifieds and so on too.

These days, the key is to diversify :)

jimmy_huber

Well if your selling on ebay. You would benifit the most bids if your starting price is a penny. That way youll get more attention to your auction. The bad thing is the possible risk of your item selling low.

Try to time your auction to end on a sunday night around 9 PM . Thats when most people are home settling in for the next weeks gruel..

If your directly importing from china and still not getting good prices to compete then you might have a poor supplier and might want to consider searching for an alternative and cheaper supplier...

Or a different marketplace to sell your items.

jessicahuang

thanks for all the advice!

i have another question is regarding to the shipping cost.

i heard people said that one can even made some profit on shipping cost as well. i wonder if that is the turth, or those people just did something wrong.

i think we need to honestly list the shipping price that the buyer need to pay, right?

thanks!

grace-salehoo

It's true that some sellers do make a profit on shipping. In the past, some sellers have sold the item for an extraordinarily cheap price and then made their money on the shipping.

However, eBay have recently decided to crack down on this practice and if they see any shipping costs that seem too high, they may take down the auction!

I don't recommend making a profit on the shipping both because of the risk of eBay pulling down your auction and the risk of getting negative feedback from disgruntled buyers.

However, in saying that, it is fair to include a handling charge for the time you spend preparing the item for shipping, taking it to the post office etc. It's up to you to work out a fair price for this additional charge. Remember to list this charge on your auction as well: e.g. 'Shipping & Handling total = $**'. Otherwise customers may complain the shipping is too high.

jimmy_huber

I bump up my shipping costs a few dollars to compensate for the lower starting fee. My shipping on most of my items is very low. So I only bump about 2 bucks, My excuse is Handling and gas. You can use that excuse but only for a fair amount. 5-6 dollars handling charge on items would be acceptable to ebay.

nando

Try to list your item on a good price and offer free shipping. Usually buyers appreciate that

jimmy_huber

Actually nobody really knows this but from experience free shipping and higher starting price can literally kill your auction. This has been widely discussed in the powerseller forums. Unless your item is very hot and will sell above retail. Free shipping in most cases wont help your auction at all.

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