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Guest post by: Lisa Suttora Become an Author

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The low opening bid strategy is often promoted as the way to make the sale on eBay and increase the final selling price of your item. But does it work? And will it deliver as promised? Many sellers start their items at .99¢ and hope for a high bid winner.

While this can build excitement and create a bidding frenzy, it's important to do your market research first before using this strategy.

Because by not implementing a low starting bid strategy correctly, you can easily lose a lot of money on the sale!

Two Keys to Success

There are two important factors to consider in deciding whether or not your item is right for a low opening bid:

1. Previous sales price

2. Selling strategy

Previous sales price. Check eBay's Completed Items to look for similar items and research the previous sales price of items similar to yours. This will give you an indication of the demand for the product you're selling.

If a similar item is listed at auction format with a low starting bid and doesn't get bid up past the amount you're hoping to get for your item, you're better off listing the item as a Fixed Price listing and not at auction.

If the item you have is getting bid up regularly to a high final sales price, this is a good indicator that the same strategy will work for you.

Selling strategy. Selling strategies are also an important factor in determining your pricing strategy. You'll often see big sellers on eBay start every item at .99¢ and you may wonder "Don't they lose money on some of these items?"

Yes, they do lose money on some of these items, but they make money on the others. At the end of the month the business is profitable because the profits offset the losses.

While this strategy may work for a higher volume seller who has enough profits to offset a loss. It will not work for a low volume seller who are selling a handful of items. Unless of course, your research shows that your item is in demand.

Once you've looked at the data and you're clear on your strategy, the next step is to test and track. The only way you can know for sure if this strategy will work for your business is to test it. Start with one item at a time and track the results.

As you work with this strategy more, you will begin to see a pattern of what works and what doesn't work for your business!

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Referred by: http://www.themarketingmindset.com

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