I saw this old eBay thread pop up and I couldn't resist. Good photography Joe, I'm not often impressed, (even with my own). You know Joe instead of having the DealerRefresh logo and "Moderator" under your name, maybe they should put the DealerRefresh logo and "Instigator". You're a little rough with people sometimes but I always am sure to read your posts and there hasn't been one that I didn't enjoy!
I too used to kill it on eBay but a few bad months and the buzz wears off. I think there is still a lot of potential there but you have to be dedicated like Jeff and Shereef mentioned.
Here's my take/listing procedure on eBay:
First of all Texas Direst is quite the anomoly. They have a lot of cars, list a lot of cars and are near several huge metropolitan areas. All this coupled with what I am sure is a fine tuned phone presentation etc and the success makes sense.
First off, good feedback is essential, so is registering as a dealer w/ eBay. You'll be assigned a rep that you need to make good friends with, very good friends with!
What vehicle to list? Those convertible BMW's and Classics are probably good choices but the BMW dealer up the street is listing convertibles all of the time, it's not as special to everyone else as it might be to you. The fact of the matter is a good eBay car is one that has a high likely-hood of selling on eBay. Any car could be a good ebay car. Check every used vehicle in your inventory against eBay's "Completed Listings". This is a feature that I don't think many people take advantage of. Just like you might check Manheim to see what a specific vehicle is selling for there you can check eBays "Completed Listings" and 1. See what a vehicle sold for, or 2. See how high the bid was at auction end. See if your vehicle is in the ballpark. There are intricacies that I won't get into, (i.e. auctions that end early revert back to initial price etc). You're looking for vehicles, (remember to watch the trim packages LT, LS, GT) that are either selling for or the bidding is getting up to the amount that you need to get out of your vehicle. You may not have any in inventory. Don't waste your time and money listing something anyway. Wait until something comes up. Checking the "Completed Listings" takes some of the crap shoot out of it.
Now that you've found a car selling on eBay in the range that your vehicle has to sell for, spend the extra $10 and 10 minutes it takes to use and set up a listing template that will allow you to receive the bidders contact info. You will have access to every single bidders contact info. LEADS! eBay offers a sufficient template through their dealer center but third parties offer more features.
Listing procedure! This is where some people disagree with me. I am whole-heartedly against "Buy It Now" options. My opinion is that we need to look at eBay as a lead generating source rather than another AT or Cars.com. So you'll want to gear your auctions toward generating as many leads as possible. Buy It Now Options actually discourage bids, bids=leads! I use a reserve price with an extremely low starting bid, $1000 or less. Yes you will get some "bottom feeders" that will bid $1100 on a $20k car but that's OK they are the ones that bring the current bid up to where you want it. Who knows, they might be worth a phone call.
The next thing used to be more important than it is now because eBay has corrected some of this but always use the subtitle line, (It's an extra $.75), for search engine optimization for eBay searches. A Lexus 430 LS may not show up under a search for a Lexus 430LS. Chevrolet and Chevy, BMW 525i and BMW 525 i etc. eBay has corrected some of this but it doesn't hurt. If you still have room on the subtitle line after seo, fill the space with hot buttons, Low Miles, Navigation, Local Trade. Your listing template will give you a standard factory make and model to play against. Think of every way a person might search for that vehicle and try to list it on the subtitle line.
Quality photography is a must, (hint if your camera fits in the breast pocket of your shirt, it's probably not good enough, or if your camera doubles as your phone It's probably not good enough.) 20-25 photos is sufficient.
Always start your listings on a fri and pay the extra $10 for a 10-day listing as opposed to the standard 7 day. Starting a 10-day listing on Fri will give you two full weekends and two Mondays of auction time as opposed to one of each. eBay gets the most hits over the weekend and Mons are a strong 2nd. It's worth the extra $10 to get the extra exposure. Plan your auctions to stop at convenient times for your market. Between 4:30 and 6pm is a bad time. People are getting off of work etc. Late evening is the best 7-9pm.
There are some other details that I won't get into i.e. I use a three call follow up process. The first call is right after they bid. I just introduce myself and leave my number with instructions to call me, ice breaker. By the 3rd call we are on a first name basis.
Last thing, Never ever reveal your reserve price. You will get inundated with requests to know what your reserve price is. Do Not give it out. This will ruin your auction. My canned response, "It's company policy that we never reveal our reserve price to anyone let me explain why. Let's say you are willing to bid $45k on one of our vehicles. When I tell you our reserve price is $50k you'll be discouraged from bidding your $45k. This takes a Forty-Five Thousand dollar bid away from our auction and could mean the difference between us selling the car and not selling the car. In addition to that it costs a little more to have a reserve auction rather than a Buy It Now price auction. It wouldn't make any sense for us to pay the extra money and then tell everyone what our reserve price is anyway............
I'm not saying that other methods don't work. This is just the formula that I have had a tremendous amount of success with.
and that my friends is how you sell on ebay!
