How to sell your art on eBay
If you are an artist looking to sell your art online, there is no other better and easier platform to push your paintings into the masses than eBay, this ‘how to sell your art on eBay’ guide will feature general advice plus lots of resources geared specifically towards serving your eBay needs and help you understand the eBay art market.
The benefits behind eBayWhy you should sell your art on eBay
The number one reason for choosing eBay as your primary output channel is its vast market size and deep outreach. There is not one person who hasn’t heard about eBay at least once. Many are using eBay to find art for their friends and loved ones or to decorate their walls, right now! Another reason to sell your art on eBay and use eBay as your distribution channel is its easiness of operation. No contracts, no qualifications, no (or little to none) fees are required in order to sell your art on eBay. The internet giant lures in with its ‘no nonsense’ approach to online selling, perfect for artists who want to pull a stable monthly profit without spending an unnecessary amount of time on the business side of things. Last but not least, it is quite inexpensive to sell your art on eBay.
But how to sell your art on eBay when there are so many talented and resourceful artists to compete with? Selling art on eBay, requires a lot of patience and dedication. As with anything, there is no easy money to be had, but with the right attitude as well as the right material it is possible to generate a considerable income from your art work. You might want to check out this how to sell your art on eBay guide as it offers comprehensive mentoring and tons of material (like eBay templates and eBay tools for art selling).
Some points to consider before you can sell your art on eBayWho should sell art on eBay?
eBay is a tough market. While, as said before, it does get a gigantic amount of traffic, do consider that some categories of art are a lot more popular than others. Your chosen category might not get any traffic at all. If you want to make ‘Art’ your professional career and become a recognized painter (sculptor, photographer, etc.) than I would advice against selling art on eBay as it WILL undervalue your future potential. Not everyone should sell their art on eBay. Selling art on eBay is for individuals who would like to sell art as a hobby or make it a side business. You should concentrate your efforts on gaining a representative or being featured at a gallery and let them do the marketing and pricing strategies, if you want to become a renowned artist.
How to sell your art on eBay – Part 1Who buys art on eBay?
In a buyer-dominated market (eBay offers a lot of purchasing power to the consumer, as it presents the average eBay shopper with many opportunities to buy cheap and to buy diverse, hence it is a buyer dominated market) price is king. It is important to understand who buys on eBay and why they buy on eBay before beginning to understand how to sell your art on eBay and how to price your art work. Lets look at the general demographics of eBay shoppers.
People who buy on eBay are looking for a bargain. Thats all there is to it. Many artists who sell their art on eBay make the mistake of pricing their art similar to an art gallery. Ebay shoppers are not prepared to spend a lump of money on art, especially on unknown art. Do understand that you can not sell your art on eBay by pricing your artwork akin to an art gallery, as they are promoting already established, renowned artists, who have spent an extensive amount of time promoting their paintings.
Now the next step in understanding how to sell your art on eBay and how to choose an appropriate pricing strategy is finding out the motives of buyers who shop for art on eBay. Usually a buyer will become interested in your artwork because:
a) He likes your style/movement of choice b) He likes your subject c) (Most common reason) The buyer believes that the painting will complement a room’s decorThose are the top 3 reasons behind an eBay art purchase. Keep this in mind to find out how to sell your art on eBay effectively. There is another common reason, which is buying art for investment value, but we can rule this one out since you are not an established artist and do not hold any investment value at this point (hey, things can only improve from here on!)
How to sell your art on eBay – Part 1.1Helping you choose an appropriate pricing strategy to sell your art on eBay effectively
You might be asking yourself ‘How to sell my art on eBay if the competition is so fierce?’ The explanation is easy. Ebay is a buyer-dominated market, as apparent from the points described above. Basically the demand for art work as well as levels of competitions are prime factors in determining ones price range. Ebay’s economy is characterized by (nearly) perfect competition. That is, from a certain point onwards (usually determined by buyer rating and shipping price/time), it does not matter who to buy from and selling your art on eBay becomes a matter of superior pricing strategy and understanding of the consumer as well as the provider (your competition) market. This creates lots of rivalry as well as lots of choices for the buyer (hence eBay’s popularity).
To successfully sell your art on eBay you have to figure out competition and price levels for your field first. As basic economics dictates: do not sway away from the average price level, in a perfectly competitive market. Research your competitors, conclude the average price level, set a price for your art work and then sell your art on eBay. A shortcut to price determination is figuring out the average price for the type of art work you are selling and then asking yourself ‘Based on the average price level, what is the lowest price which would make a sale on eBay reasonable?’
Here is one how to sell your art on eBay resource that will provide you with tools to help you determine your perfect price range as well as crush the competition. Find out the number one mistake of failed eBay artists and why selling your art for an opening bid of 1$ or less is a huge NO-NO.
A number of tips to sell your art on eBayMake your eBay art dealing experience more fruitful
Choosing the right category is very important. Listing your art work in the wrong category will devalue your pieces considerably. Before listing your art work, find out what kind of art is listed in what kind of categories, making sure that your pieces match the other pieces listed in the category of your choice. It takes some time to build up a following, selling your art on eBay. Be patient and you will be rewarded. Make sure your auctions end on the weekend, preferably in the evening hours, to sell your art on eBay more efficiently. Research, research, research! How to sell your art on eBay – Part 2What sells on eBay?
The question behind how to sell your art on eBay can be resolved by identifying art demand. Working out what sells and what doesn’t will provide you with further understanding of the eBay art market. Hammertap and TeraPeak are two market research solutions which you can take advantage of. Please consider that although painting to a market may sound as a great way to sell your art on eBay and drive in more sales, it may reflect on your artwork and diminish its quality if you don’t enjoy painting motives which are hot on eBay right now.
How to sell your art on eBay – Part 3Conclusion
In conclusion I would like to say that it is not as easy as it may seem to sell your art on eBay, but it can be done with the right tools and the right attitude. We would really like to recommend the ‘how to sell your art on eBay‘ online course, as it is specifically geared towards any artist who would like to sell his/her art on the eBay market. The course is packed with detailed advice on everything eBay, covering the topics of eBay research, how to figure out the right price, secrets of successful eBay art listings and much, much more (including professional template files and image optimization tools). Do check it out if you are looking for a superior and very comprehensive ‘how to sell your art on eBay’ guide!
Hello my name is Chris, an art enthusiast and art dealer, I’m running Pocket of Tea, a private gallery based in Bologna, Italy. Apart from dealing art we blog about the arts world, new and upcoming artist and feature lots of advice on how to make money through art. Hope you enjoyed the article.
Cheers,
Chris
Millions of transactions occur on Ebay every day of the week, and you probably know this unless you are brand new to the internet which is doubtful. If you do not do basic but critical tasks such as optimizing your auctions, then you will not make as much as you could have. It is the little things that will go far such as what you do during your auctions as well as your preparation for each one. Optimizing your auctions is important on eBay, whether you’re selling a product related to Gympie Tourist Information niche or any other niche.
Your main aim when optimizing your auction is to focus on making more sales, getting more bids, and for that your potential buyers need to find you. Looking for items on eBay is similar to searching for terms on Google, in that buyers will type in keywords that match what they’re looking for. That’s why it’s essential to use appropriate keywords in the title of your listing, as well as in the item description. There’s no point in thinking up keywords that are unusual or unpopular, as these won’t get many searches. Stick to keywords that are popular and accurate in describing the item, as you only have a certain number of characters to use here. You can improve your auction results by creating great layouts, and for this you have to have some familiarity with HTML. If you want to be able to manage your auctions and do it all yourself, this is a good skill to have. You need HTML code, for instance, if you want to alter the color of the font, though this isn’t hard to learn. HTML codes for color aren’t hard to find, and you can find them by doing a search. This element can be very important, and eBay sellers who ignore it may be losing many potential customers. Anyone who wants to succeed on eBay should learn at least the basics of HTML for this reason. For example, if you’re selling a product related to Accommodation in Gympie with a shorter auction, you may just be losing profit by paying more in fees.
Reserve prices are something you have to consider if you want to optimize your eBay auctions the best way possible. A reserve price is an option you have, where you only allow the item to be sold if the bidding reaches a certain price. Sellers usually only do this with high end items. Reserves can be useful if you’ve invested a lot in an item and don’t want to sell it for way below its real value. On the other hand, when buyers see that an item has a reserve, it may scare them off, which can mean fewer people bidding. If you are going to set a reserve, you should make this clear in the description of your product.
Overall, optimizing your auctions can make a big difference in your outcome, and this holds true for eBay or any online auction you might be using. If you don’t do work on the optimization part, you’ll be leaving a lot of money on the table and there will be chances that it doesn’t turn out to be a success. So don’t take your auctions for granted and put in the effort to make them stand out from the crowd. It doesn’t matter what niche you’re targeting, whether it is the Gympie Business niche or any other, you will always find that eBay is an amazing place to sell.
Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.