eBay Auctions - List consistently!
by aisling d'art ©2006
When you begin selling your art at eBay, it's often just to get a bunch of art out from underfoot in your studio. We clear out things that are just sitting on the shelf, to make space (physical and mental) for more creativity. And, at eBay, we know that the art is going to someone who will enjoy it, even if we're getting well below our usual gallery/shop prices.
But, infrequent bursts of eBay auctions won't lead to consistently good selling prices. In fact, your art may end up selling for demoralizingly low prices.
If your only goal was to get the old stuff out of your studio, prices may not be much of an issue. But, if you're going to use your selling prices as a guage for deciding if eBay is worthwhile... Well, infrequent auctions are not a good measure.
One big key to eBay is consistency. Putting something in, at least once a week--and in the same category so people see your work regularly--is probably the single most important feature in getting better/higher bids at eBay.
eBay will still be a rollercoaster of bids for a long time. The artists who make the best money and get fairly consistent bids, have been doing this for at least two years.
That sounds daunting, but if you check the auctions of people who seem to sell art there regularly... your jaw will drop when you see how much some of them are getting for art that isn't even charming enough to be called "outsider"!
So, even if it's your art that turned out ho-hum, work on consistency as best you can. (Not consistency in quality... at first, you're simply working for name recognition.)
Just keep placing art in eBay, no matter how low the bids. It all averages out, if you look at what you earn over, say, six months.
(And yes, this is "do as I say, not as I do" advice. I have flurries of auctions at eBay, followed by months when I don't put anything into the auctions at all. But, having studied what others are doing as well as times when I've been consistent with my own auctions, I feel confident in giving this advice. One of these days, I may just follow it myself!)