Online auction sites are the largest online marketplace

Selling success is about being in the right place, at the right time, with the right product.

The Right Place

Online auction sites are the largest online marketplace in the world. Including the U.S., eBay has a global presence in 39 markets. A few of these markets include Singapore, India, Germany, Australia, Ireland, Italy, Canada and Taiwan. There are thousands and thousands of different types of items that are currently up for auction on the site. eBay has approximately 276 million registered users worldwide that trade more than $2,039 worth of goods on the site every second. The online auctions has hosted over 532,000 stores worldwide and has over 276 million registered users worldwide that trade in over 50,000 categories. eBay calculates that there were 637 million new listings added in Q4-07. At any given time, there are approximately 113 million listings worldwide, and approximately 6.7 million listings are added per day. Approximately 54 percent of eBay's profit comes from international markets with the rest coming from the U.S.

The Right Time

Picking the right time to sell an item is a critical step of the auction process. Many items are seasonal in their marketability. You might have a great product at an even greater price but if you pick the wrong time period you will not reach the full potential selling price of an item. Be mindful of school semesters, vacation and travel peak times, holidays, celebrations, and those times when people prepare for them, sport seasons, and many, many other factors involving and influencing the timing of a prospective sale. You should also pay special attention to an auctions ending time. Does it really make sense to end an auction for a pair of custom oven mitts on Monday at 3:00 in the morning? Probably not. Your best bet is to end your auction on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon.

The Right Product

As mentioned above, eBay believes that one can achieve success if they are in the right place, at the right time, with the right product. Therefore, it becomes very important for would be and current sellers to do their homework and perform research into the nuances of the categories eBay offers. Sellers, if they master the act of choosing the correct category, can build "insider strategies" and insights that will give them a real, and potential profitable, advantage over other auctions sellers. Speaking of other sellers - if a "competitor" is selling the same type of item be sure to investigate which categories they are utilizing. Some sellers specialize in selling a particular product in a particular category. Other sellers place auctions in multiple categories. In the end, a seller must choose which item he/she prefers to sell. According to eBay, based on Q4-07 GMV, the following categories delivered $1 billion or more in worldwide annualized GMV: eBay Motors at $17.2 billion; Consumer Electronics at $6.8 billion; Computers at $4.1 billion; Clothing & Accessories at $5.6 billion; Home & Garden at $4.1 billion; Collectibles at $2.9 billion; Books/Music/Movies at $3.3 billion; Sports at $2.9 billion; Business & Industrial at $2.3 billion: Toys at $2.7 billion; Jewelry & Watches at $2.5 billion; Cameras & Photo at $1.8 billion; Antiques & Art at $1.2 billion; Coins & Stamps at 1.2 billion and Tickets & Travel at $2 billion.