There are actually five types of auctions offered by eBay. The first type is the traditional auction. As you are already familiar with, this is where you bid for items up for 1,3,5,7,or 10 day auctions.
The second type is the Dutch auction. Dutch auctions allow you to place a lot of items up for sale in one auction. Bidders can then bid on as many of the items as they want. For example, you place 20 identical screw drivers up for sale. One bidder bids $7 per item and wants 10 screw drivers. Another bidder bids $8 and wants only 5, and another bidder bids $9 and wants 8, and another bidder bids $10 and wants 12… Both the $10, and the $9 win the items and both the pay only $9 because $9 was the lowest successful bid. One note about Dutch auctions, bidders may refuse partial shipments. Listing fees are based on your opening bid price, then it is multiplied by the number of items in your listing. The maximum listing fee is $4.80.
Reserve price auctions are the third type of auction available on eBay. A reserve auction is an auction that has an undisclosed reserve price set. If the item up for bid has a reserve price that has not been met yet, it will say that just right of the current bid. Once the reserve price is met, the “Reserve not met” label disappears. Fees for listing an item with a reserve price vary from $2 to $100. The funny thing about reserve prices is that they are refunded to you when your item sells.
Restricted access auctions are for those items that can not be listed in the general categories on eBay. These items must be listen in the Adult only area of eBay. If someone wants to view or bid on these items they must have a credit card on file to verify they are 18 or older.
Private auctions are used often when dealing with expensive fine art pieces. eBay private auctions don’t show names on auction listings. Any seller can choose to list the item in a private auction for no extra charge. If you are not using a private auction, anyone can view the items you have bid on. The main goal of the private auction is it maintains the privacy of the bidder.
There are numerous items that are not allowed to be bought or sold on eBay. If there is any question in your mind whether or not the item you want to sell is permitted on eBay, go to the help screen and type in your item then restricted and click search. If you are curious as to what items may be sold under restricted status, type the name in the search field and see what it pulls up.
Continue to "review part 2".
