5 Tips for Successful Selling
So you’ve decided that you are going to put some of your assets up for auction. That’s great! Whether you are looking to make room for new items or are simply looking to make some extra money off of your unneeded property, auctions are a great way to go about accomplishing your goals. However, it can take some effort to bring in the results that you want from your auction. While us here at Repocast.com will do what we can do make sure your auction is successful, we’ve come up with a few tips for successful selling that you can use to come back with a higher payoff from your auction.
1. Decide what you are going to sell
First things first, you are going to want to figure out what exactly you want to sell from your personal or business assets. While this may be an easy task for some people, others have a hard time parting with items that have sentimental value. While you are determining what’s heading out the door, evaluate if it’s worth it to try and sell. While we strongly believe that you can auction just about anything, there are some items that you wouldn’t want to buy in an auction, so you shouldn’t try to sell them. We recommend that household and personal items such as toiletries or used bedding, used medical equipment, illegal items or items with personal information be donated, shredded, or thrown away rather than auctioned off. See the full list of items that we will not accept here.
2. Clean up your items
Once you have decided what you want to sell, make your property as presentable as possible. We’ve accepted A LOT of property from individuals and businesses that is dirty, unorganized, and generally unpleasant to handle. The state of your items will show up clearly in the photos that we take of your items, which will then be presented to bidders looking at your items online. No one wants to bid on dirty items, the dirt takes away from the value of the property. It may take some extra effort on your part, but if you take the time to clean and organize your items you are more likely to see higher bidding. People are more likely to bid on items that actually look like they are worth something, so if you are trying to get the most out of your sale, give your property a good scrub before the auction.
3. Have a great description
Since bidders are often participating online and aren’t able to come inspect the items themselves, they often rely only on the photos and general descriptions listed alongside the lots. If a bidder doesn’t know exactly what they are bidding on then they won’t want to place a very high bid. When you provide a detailed description with your items it makes it easy for bidders to trust what they are buying – making them more likely to place higher bids. A good rule of thumb is to include any information that you might want to know about an item, such as its age, past use and working condition.
4. Keep people informed
Looking for higher sales? Bring in more bidders! The more potential bidders you have on an auction the more people that will be interested and thus the more people likely to bid – driving up the highest bid. One of the best ways to bring bidders to your lots is to keep them informed and updated throughout the auction process. Share the online link to your auction on your personal or company’s various social media platforms. It’s a great way to let people know that you are having an auction and allows them to prepare in advance as the auction gets closer. Plus, if you are willing it will allow them to ask you more questions directly so that you can give them even more information about your items.
5. Work with an auction house that values the seller – not just themselves
Some auction houses are focused on making as much money as they can from each of their sales. Here at Repocast.com, we want to make sure that our sellers are just as happy with the profits they make as we are. We focus on having great customer service, providing you with everything that you need to make your auction as successful as it can be. If you are interested in selling with us contact us here.
And there you have it, five tips for successful selling that with bring you more profits from your auction! If you have any questions about the auction process or are looking for more information about holding an auction with us click here. Or, if you’re interested in checking out some of our current auctions to see what your auction could look like, click here to go to our auction site.
