9 Secrets to Making More Money on Your eBay Auctions

Maybe you found your son’s old Pokémon cards in a box in your basement.

A collection of old toys and other items waiting for auction
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Maybe you found your son’s old Pokémon cards in a box in your basement. Or perhaps you ordered a professional camera, but you realize you have no time to use it. It’s time to de-clutter, and you want this stuff – valuable stuff to somebody out there – gone, now. What do you do? Sell it on eBay, the popular online auction site.

I’ve done it myself. It’s fun and easy, and it quickly fills your pockets with some extra cash. I have sold, for instance, a tennis racket, a tennis bag and strings. To sell the racket, I took some pictures, wrote a product description, listed it at eBay’s recommended “Buy It Now” price ($75) and sold the item within two days. Great. . . until I found out that other eBay sellers had sold the same racket for double the price. Why did I come up short? Lots of reasons, I’ve discovered.

Here are 9 simple ways to get more money on your eBay auction.

Ilya Kneppelhout
Intern, Kiplinger's Personal Finance