Quote Originally Posted by Lizzie
Thank you for your advice, all of it was really helpful, and I've been thinking about what you said above. I have a few signed etchings that a downtown gallery would not take to sell because they are by an East Coast artist that isn't much recognized here. I'll get my feet wet with those. One more question, when you put down a base price, do you have to sell for that price if that's the only offer you get? So, you should put in a lowish but reasonable price to start with? For instance, the etchings cost me $100-$150 when I bought them 20 years ago. I doubt if they are worth much more than that now. If I put, let's say, $40 as a starting price on them, would that look reasonable?

This is a very useful thread, thank you for starting it, Kim ,and good luck with your sale.

You have two options to make sure that you get a minimum price:

Either specify that figure as the Starting Price, or
List the items with a reserve. This is not visible to the bidders, it will just say " reserve not met" until someone bids over that figure. When I do this, I usually say in the text of my ad " Reasonable Reserve" or "Low Reserve" to encourage people to bid.

Placing a reserve DOES affect your listing fees, so add up the costs carefully before deciding how to list your item.


Also, RE EXTORTIONATE SHIPPING FEES as Donna experienced, you can report sellers who are overcharging on shipping and selling the item for a very low price to eBay. It is a way for them to circumvent paying the correct listing fees - when an item sells, you are billed by eBay a percentage of the selling price, EXCLUDING shipping, so dishonest sellers use this trick to circumvent eBay fees.