eBay[c] The Missing Manual

2017-07-07 02:10:07

8.4. Live Auctions

Anyone can bid at eBay Live Auctions, but not just anyone can sell. You have to be a licensed auctioneer (or someone who's paying a licensed auctioneer to control the bidding at your real-time auction). If that's you, you can apply to sell on eBay Live Auctions by going to www.ebayliveauctions.com and choosing "Sign up as a seller" "eBay Live Auctions application form." When you do, the eBay Live Auctions form shown in Figure 8-12 appears.

Tip: To find an auctioneer, or if you're interested in becoming one, check out the info at the National Auctioneers Association at www.auctioneers.org/aboutNAA/index.php.

Figure 8-12. The application form for becoming a Live Auctions seller is straightforward. You need to supply your business name and logo, contact information, and the categories you want to sell in. Only licensed auction houses (or those using their services) can sell through Live Auctions.

Once you've registered, eBay lets you post your auction catalog on the site, but it's pricey: $1,500 to list up to 10,000 lots. Live auctions are subject to a Final Value Fee of 5 percent of the selling price, although this fee applies only if an Internet bidder wins the lot.

Note: Buyer's premiums, an additional fee that buyers pay on top of their final bid, are standard at most auction houses. Similarly, most Live Auction sellers charge a buyer's premium of 15 percent to 20 percent. If you charge a premium, let buyers know in the catalog how much extra they'll have to pay.

Besides opening up your real-time auction to millions of bidders who'd never fit into your auction house, eBay Live Auctions offers auctioneers these benefits:

Bulk upload tools make it easy for you put your catalog on the Internet.

Buyers must sign up for an eBay Live Auction before they can bid in it. You can set your own registration requirements for your auction; you can require that bidders have a credit card registered with eBay or are ID verified . If you prefer, you can even approve all bidders yourself before letting them bid.

eBay collects absentee bids in advance and delivers them to you at the start of the sale.

During the auction, you need a computer with a high-speed Internet connection in the sales room and a worker to input bids as they're made from the floor (so eBay bidders can see who's bidding how much on the auction floor) and to call out bids that come in from eBayers (so bidders at your sale know what the eBay competition is bidding). After the auction, eBay sends you a list of all the winning Internet buyers, so you can contact them and get paid.

Note: Several states are attempting to pass laws requiring online consignment sellers (like eBay Trading Assistants) to become licensed auctioneers (see the box on Section 7.2.5.2). The upside of this regulation is that TAs who have to get this license may qualify as a "licensed auction house" and be able to sell on eBay Live.

8.4. Live Auctions

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