When researching a product to sell on ebay one of the important things that you need to know is 'what will it sell for?' Obviously no one can guarentee this selling price but Ebay gives you the tools to get a good idea.

The background to this is that a friend has been made redundent and has decided that he will make his living on ebay, which contrary to popular thought is still very much a possibility. His idea is simple, he is advertising to do house clearences and unwanted item removal with a view to selling this on at both offline auctions and Ebay.

He was voicing some concerns over the fact that he obviously has some in depth knowledge in certain areas but in others he has none and hence he didn't want to be paying to much and leaving himself no profit. So I walked him through a feature that is readily available to all Ebayers and one that is seldomly used to the full.

The feature is the Closed Item Search.....simple really.

This allows the question, "What is something worth?" to be answered quickly and as accurately as is humanly possible. It really is like having a crystal ball supplied by Ebay.

Let me give an example, take the Samsung D600 Mobile Phone..

Log into Ebay and in the search box at the top just type in Samsung D600 Mobile Phone. At this point try to think how the listing titles would be written so as to get the 'complete' set of results that will give you your expected selling prices accurately.

Hit the search button..

What this does is bring up the current auction listings that are active for your chosen search term, scroll down the screen on the left hand side and click the box that says "Completed Listings" and then hit the Show Items button. (you may have to enter your Ebay username at this point)

Then click the Price column twice and this sorts the data into ascending format, ie. the highest to the lowest selling price. Like always green means it was sold and red means that it wasn't.

What you have now is a guide to the expected highest selling price and the lowest selling price and pretty easily determine the average selling price, obviously some of the selling prices will be slightly skewed (particularly in the mobile phone example used) due to the 'must have' effect but generally these are very easy to identify and eliminate.

A quick click around the completed auctions can also give you an idea of the best selling formats, titles, categories to list in ect so that you are furthur armed to maimise your Ebay profits.

Now then using my friend as an example. Say he gets a call off someone wanting to dispose of a certain number of items he can, whilst still on the phone, determine his likely selling prices and be able to give them a price that he knows he can make money on.....even if he has never sold that product before.

When it comes to Ebay remember that most people see Ebay as a benchmark as to what they are willing to pay and hence what the value of any goods are. So using this simple but effective free tool you will be able to give yourself the chance of going into a sale pretty much confident as to what you are going to get back money wise.

It really is like having a crystal ball..

Mike - Webmaster and eBay Power Seller at Ebay Selling

We offer free templates, information and product sourcing to enable you to develop your online auctions into a sustainable, long term income stream.

We also operate a Ebay Forum where any advice can be sought on any aspect of Online Trading.