Using "Buy It Now" to Sell on eBay

I'll admit I'm no professional when it comes to selling on eBay. I think I have somewhere around 50 pieces of feedback, and that includes BOTH buying and selling. So, this may be a bit anecdotal, but I can tell you that it has paid off for me in spades recently!

eBay is actually going to be changing their structure as of March 30, so the costs are going to be a little bit different. Even under the new fee structure, it will still cost only 50 cents to list an item with a "Buy It Now" option.

My experience using the "Buy It Now" option is pretty limited, no doubt about it. The first time I used it was a few months ago, when selling an old robotic arm toy that belonged to Hubs. We'd done some looking at other ones listed on eBay, and set our starting bid at $9.99, and just for fun, I put $19.99 on as the BIN price. It sold within a few days!

So, when I listed items from my 40 Bags Decluttering Challenge, I thought "what the heck" and put BIN options on many of them, ranging from $4.99 to $9.99. Out of 11 items, five sold using BIN. Another three have bids, which typically removes the BIN option, and three don't have bids any yet. I've made almost $30 by spending an extra quarter under the current fee system!

Another thing I try to keep in mind when determining at what price I list items is what I would pay for the item. If it really isn't worth that much, I list it low, usually 99 cents, or even 49 or 25 cents, and a time or two I've even listed at a penny, just to garner interest. I figure I can donate it, but it takes time and gas money to get it there, and this way it's going to someone who actually wants it. This time around, I even listed a DVD with free shipping. I looked at the other copies of the movie and noticed that there were several bids on one with free shipping, while several others had no bids at all. So far, I think I'm about even to where I'd have been listing it at 99 cents plus shipping, so I actually consider that to be ahead.

Do you have any tips for selling on eBay? Have you had much luck doing it? For more frugal ideas, visit Life As Mom.