Over the decades , eBay has introduced all sorts of different auction types, in an effort to give many people more options when they buy and sell their things on eBay.

For every seller who doesnt like the idea that their product might sell for a far lower price than they intend, theres another who target to shift hundreds of the identical product quickly. eBay tries to cater to all tastes. This e mail gives you an overview of the different kinds of auctions and their advantages for you.

Normal Auctions.

These are the bread-and-butter of eBay, the auctions every body knows: buyers bid, others outbid them, they bid again, and the winner gets the merchandise . Simple.

Reserve Auctions.

Reserve auctions are for sellers who do not want their items to sell for less than a certain price a concept you will know about if youre familiar with real auctions. They work just like normal auctions on eBay, except that the buyer will be told if their bid does not meet the reserve price you set, and theyll need to bid again if they want the item. If no-one is willing to meet your price, then the auction is cancelled, and you keep the item.

Fixed Price (Buy it Now) Auctions.

Buy it Now auctions might work in one of two ways. You can add a Buy it Now button to a normal auction, meaning that buyers may choose either to bid normally or to simply pay the asking price and avoid the whole bidding process. Some sellers, though, now cut out the auction process altogether and simply list all their items at fixed price. This lets you avoid all the complications of the auction format and simply list your items for how much you want them to sell for.

Recently, eBay added a twist to fixed price auctions: the best offer. This means that buyers might contact you to negotiate a price, which could be a nice way to get sell some more stock at a small discount. The only downside to reserve and fixed price auctions is that you pay a small extra fee to use these formats. In general, it is more value using reserve auctions for higher-priced items and fixed price auctions for lower-priced ones but remember that you can combine the two formats.

Multiple Item (Dutch) Auctions.

These are auctions where you might sell more than one of a certain merchandise . Dutch auctions could be done by bidding. Buyers bid a price and say how many items they want, and then every one pays the lowest price that was bid by one of the winning bidders. If you have trouble getting your head around that, then dont worry people else does too! These auctions are very rare.

What is more common is when a seller has a lot of one merchandise , and lists it using a combination of two auction types: a multiple-product fixed price auction. This just means that you may just say how many of the item you they have, and offer them at a fixed price per unit. Buyers may enter how many they want and then just click Buy it Now to get them.

Now that you know about the different types of auctions, you should generate sure that the items you plan to sell dont violate eBays listing policies. The next e-mail will let you know whats allowed and what is a big no-no.