14 secrets for selling on eBay
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Prince put an old Bonanza model kit up for auction with an opening bid of $14.99, knowing that it was worth about $200. (And that he had paid $5 for it at a garage sale five years earlier.) It sold for $212, he says.

It's the allure of an auction, he says. "When you put these things out for low bids, even if they think they're only going to give you so much and walk away, once they start bidding they get an emotional attachment."

10. If you're selling at auction, consider a reserve. How it works: Start the bidding anywhere, but if the item fails to reach a preset price (the reserve), you don't have to sell. On the site, the listing will notify bidders that there is a reserve on the item, but only the seller knows the amount. EBay charges a fee for the service, but the fee is refunded if the item sells.

"If you're selling something really unusual, you can still start it at a low price, but you can put a reserve on it," says McGrath.

11. Research upgrades. EBay offers a number of upgrades -- things like boldface titles or highlighted backgrounds -- that sellers can use to attract extra attention to their listings. And sometimes you can capture a buyer's attention by doing the opposite of what everyone else in the same category is doing, says Griffith.

Tip: If you want to try some of the higher-priced add-ons, eBay often runs specials, so keep checking the site, says Brad Schepp.

What works, and what's just a waste of good profits?

Some advice from veteran sellers:

• Gallery photo: This is well worth the extra 35 cents, according to experienced sellers. What it does: When your item appears in a search list, a smaller version of your photo will, too. "It's the kind of thing that takes you from quickly scanning through lists of hits to stopping and saying, 'Let me go further,'" says Prince. • Boldface title: For $1 extra, eBay will list your headline in bold, "so it stands out," says McGrath. Use it with an item that will bring at least $10 to $20, he says. • Featured plus: For $19.95, this feature puts your results at the top of the search page. Don't use it unless your item is going to bring enough (several hundred) to make it worth the output, "but it will get your item more visibility," McGrath says. • Highlight: This highlights the title background, and at $5 a pop, this may not be something you want to use with everything. But when Brad Schepp was listing a vintage comic, he noticed no one else used it. He did and "got a bid on it within a day," he says.

12. Get experience. Start small. If you're new to the site, consider buying or selling a few things before you put anything valuable on the block. Many potential buyers will check out a seller's feedback score, says Debra Schepp. If you have a track record from buying or selling, that will boost your credibility.

13. Harness the clock. For an auction, consider who your buyer is, when they would most likely be shopping and when they would have time to bid, says Prince. "I still favor the weekends for starting and stopping an auction," he says. Prince generally puts up items on Saturday around 6 p.m. And if he knows that an item will be particularly popular overseas, he might adjust his posting time with that time zone.

In addition, use the eBay feature that allows you to see just how many people are checking back on your particular item. That could be a clue that there might be a flurry of last-minute bidding. "It's an interesting little mechanism that really helps the seller," he says.

14. Have fun with the experience. EBay is probably the most inexpensive way to put something in front of the largest potential audience, Prince says. "It's still a cheap way to get your items out there. You just can't get that kind of exposure."

Dana Dratch is a freelance writer based in Atlanta.