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Pricing merchandise on eBay can be a little tricky if you have not had a lot of experience in selling through online auctions. Even those of us who have been doing it a long time, still have to think hard about where to set the starting bid. There are many factors to consider.

If you price the item too high, you will pay more fees to list the item and you run the risk of not selling the item. On the other hand, if you price the item too low, you run the risk of selling the item for merely pennies if not very many people bid. Of course, you can set a reserve price that you will not be willing to sell the item for less than that amount, but then you run the risk of bidders getting discouraged when they do not meet the reserve. With all these risks, it is hard to know how to price your items.

The first thing you should do is find out what the value of your item is because you may be under or over estimating what it can sell for. If it is a collectible item, you might want to consider price catalogs as a resource for this information. If it is another type of second hand item, you might want to look at thrift stores to get an idea of how much you can reasonable ask for the item. If it is a new item, you can look online for other stores or individuals that are selling a similar item.

Just because your item has a particular value does not necessarily mean that is what it is being sold on eBay for, though. The next thing you should do is use the tools on eBay to search for similar items. Find those that have already been sold to see what the selling price was. Or, you could search for similar items that are listings about to end. This will also give you an idea of how much you can get for your item on eBay.

Next, you need to create your listing and decide on a starting bid. Many people start the bidding at a penny because it is believed that this encourages more people to bid. As I stated earlier, this can be risky. Probably the best strategy is to decide, based on your research, what the absolute minimum is that you would be willing to accept for the item. This is also going to depend a lot on how attached you are to the particular item and/or how much you have invested in it.

Say, for example, you are selling a hot Christmas toy that you paid $19.99 for before the toy was in high demand. If it is still in new' condition, in the box or packaging, you obviously do not want to get less than $19.99 for it. Your research indicates that this toy is selling for around $50

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