Take Advantage of 1 day Auction Listings

A recently added feature on eBay called the "1 day listing" can be extremely useful for ebay sellers. Contrary to the feelings of many ebay sellers, a one day listing can generate as many or more sales than the longer auction listinga.

To understand the reasons for this, you should first understand the mentality of the average buying ebayer. The buyers visiting ebay are looking for a deal. Once they locate it, they will bid on it, will want to know the result of their bid almost immediately and if they are the winner - they want the product immediately.

As an eBay seller, you also need to know the default display settings for searches submitted by potential buyers. eBay default settings show the auctions ending soonest at the top. So as a seller you can capitalize on this and have your items always listed near the top by using a 1 day auction, since items with more than 1 day left will always be under yours.

Also, many buyers on ebay buy on impulse rather than logic. As a seller, it can be advantageous to place a one day auction so you can impose a time limit on your buyers, thereby encouraging them to buy now rather than "watch" the item.

Auctioning Vacation Rentals - an untapped market

While online auctioning of just about everything has grown exponentially in the past few years, and 'by owner' type websites list tens of thousands of personal getaways, property owners still appear to be very shy about auctioning time in their vacation homes. They may be missing exceptional opportunities to market their rentals.

The top dozen or so of the 'by owner' type of vacation rental websites advertise thousands of vacation rentals each. Some claim memberships in excess of 10,000 properties. Yet, make a visit to the auction giant eBay, and it is difficult to coax up a fraction of one percent of those numbers at any one location. The examples on the right are actual live auctions. Click on one to see more information, or use the search box to do your own search.

Take Gatlinburg, Tennessee for example. A popular East-Central US vacation area, Gatlinburg is home to thousands of condos, cabins and chalets, most of which are on the vacation rental market. Even more properties are available in the neighboring shopping and amusement mecca of Pigeon Forge. A recent search of just one of the major vacation rental sites returned 281 properties available in Gatlinburg, while eBay listed 7. Take into account that there are a least a dozen more vacation sites advertising rentals there and you have a huge discrepancy - er, make that opportunity!

eBay Vacation Rental Auctions - challenging, but rewarding

One of the most challenging items facing a property owner who wants to begin using eBay auctions is just getting permission from eBay to do it. Anyone can sign up and open a sellers account on eBay almost immediately. Armed with only their bank account and/or credit card information a person can sign up and post an auction for Grandpa's pocket watch in just minutes. Getting permission to use that same sellers account to auction off time in the family's beach condo can take 2 weeks or more.

EBay throws a lot of security around any auction involving real estate to protect both the buyer and the seller. In the case of Vacation Rental properties, they farm this responsibility out to Square Trade. In order to auction time in your condo, you must become "Travel Verified" with Square Trade.

Becoming "Travel Verified" involves some on-line forms, a nominal membership fee and, most importantly, proving to Square Trade that you have the legal right to rent the property. While the process can be a bit daunting for the eBay Newbie, following the instructions to the letter will generally result in a verification number that you must include in your auctions. Don't even bother to post an auction without it, because eBay will quietly delete the auction within 24 hours and refund your fees.