Occasionally, it happens: Some of your auction items just don’t sell. And now you have piles of unsold stuff lying around, cluttering up your space, and driving you batty! Don’t give up on those items just yet. Save them for the next free listing day on eBay!

What are free listing days?

Roughly once or twice a year, eBay offers you a whole 24 hours to list as much product as you possibly can — and it doesn’t cost you a penny. To qualify for free listings, your auctions must begin on the day you list them (no scheduling future auctions) and should be a standard listing length. You still have to pay for extra features and final value fees — and you don’t get much notice (usually no more than 24 hours!). Used properly, though, free listing days offer a number of distinct advantages to sellers, including…

* Higher profit margins on your sold items
* Big savings on large quantity and high-priced listings
* A time to test and experiment with auction strategies
* A great time to get rid of your extra junk and/or relist items

However, because EVERYONE wants to take advantage of free listing days, your listings will take longer to upload and appear in the searches. But the money you save should more than offset the annoyances. There are a number of ways you can find out about the next free listing day. The easiest is to sign up for eBay’s “PowerUp Seller Newsletter” at http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/newsflash.html.

You can also check out the “Special Seller Promotions” page at http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/newsupdates/specialsellerpromot.html, or go to eBay Community page and look under “General Announcements.”

Like we said, eBay won’t give you much prior warning. So the best way to take advantage of the next free listing day is to plan your strategy in advance and be ready for the day it arrives.

Get ready…Get set…Plan your strategy

So how can you make sure you’re on the ball when the next freebie listing day rolls around?

Try…

* Preparing your items in advance: Every eBay business experiences ebbs and flows. During your next ebb period, why not start photographing, writing descriptions, and otherwise preparing auction listings for the next free listing day. Maybe you have items you’re not sure will sell…these are perfect! You can experiment with different items. If they don’t sell, no harm done.

* Prepare test auction listings and strategies: Free listing days are an ideal time to experiment with new titles…item descriptions…categories…starting price…reserve versus no reserve…you name it. Consider in advance what strategies you want to test, how you can tweak your auctions, and maybe even make up a listing template or two.

Your biggest obstacle on free listing day is time. So prepare what you can in advance at your leisure — and don’t sweat it when the next Free listing day comes along.

Power strategies for making the most of free listing days

Once the free listing day arrives, there are a number of killer tactics you can use to maximize the opportunities it presents:

* Sell your high-ticket items: While you might normally list your high-ticket items with a lower starting bid and a Reserve price (to save on listing fees yet protect your interests), now you drop that Reserve price — and list them closer to their true value. Normally, if you listed 100 items with a value of $500 or more, the insertion fee would be $4.80 per item, equaling a whopping $480! But on a free listing day, you can save every penny!

* List your “relist” items: Mass relist your “relist” items with software such as Turbo Lister. Since you already have auction listings prepared for them, you can list them in minutes.

* Post “placeholder” auction listings (carefully!): Many PowerSellers use “placeholder” or blank auction listings that include a “coming soon” note on them. If you have hundreds of items that you could never get ready in time, try using this technique — then you can prepare your listings at a more leisurely pace.

Be aware that some buyers and other sellers frown on “placeholder” auction listings. Not only are the eBay servers already overloaded with real listings, but it’s very difficult for buyers to find something in particular if they’re scrolling through pages and pages of blank listings. That said, if you have the stock, but not the time, this strategy can really pay off.

* List unique items to find out their market value: If you have an item or collection that is so obscure and downright kitschy that you don’t know its value, try this surefire way to find out what it’s worth. List the item with a high starting bid (but not too much higher than you think it might be worth) and put a much higher Buy It Now price on it. If you get bidders right away, you know the item’s worth at least that much; if it gets snapped up at the Buy It Now price, you know it was worth more, if no bids, you know to relist it at a lower price next time around.

* List items in roomy categories: Some categories are deluged with listings at the best of times. During a free listing day, these numbers can multiply! So how can you make your item stand out? Stick with categories that aren’t as flooded so your own items don’t get lost in the sea! The DVD category, for example, has on average 326,075 items for sale. On a free listing day, this number can go up to over 600,000! That’s a lot of competition. If your item could fit in more than one category, choose the one with fewer listings!

To maximize your visibility, try to list your items in the earlier hours of the sale. One thing is for certain on a free listing day: Everyone wants to take advantage of it! So the eBay server tends to be overloaded and sluggish, with listings taking a few hours longer than usual to show up. If you list early enough, you’ll be able to gain a few hours of exposure.

Read this foolproof system for finding profitable products you can sell on eBay.
————————————————————————

Copyright © 1996-2007. All Rights Reserved.
The Internet Marketing Center