Auction-style

What is it? The seller offers an item at a starting price and allows buyers to determine the final value by placing bids. At the end of the listing the item is sold to the highest bidder. An auction-style listing can run for 1, 3, 5, 7 or 10 days. Most sellers choose to run auction-style listings for 7 days as buyers respond well to this duration. However, for certain types of items and stock turnover demands, you might find longer or shorter auctions are more appropriate.

When to use it: Auction-style listings are great for most items, especially those that are high-demand, hard-to-find or unique, as they allow the market to determine the final price. They create a buzz around your products, and often achieve higher prices than you'd get with a fixed-price listing. This is why auction-style is the most popular listing format on eBay.

Find out more about Auction format



Buy It Now

What is it? The seller offers an item for a fixed price. The buyer purchases the item by clicking a Buy It Now button. A Buy It Now listing can run for 1,3,5,7,10 or 30 days, or Good 'Til Cancelled if you have a shop.

When to use it: Use this format for items that have a well-known market value, such as brand new CDs and DVDs, or for times when you need to control of the price of an item.

Find out more about Buy It Now format



Auction-style with Buy It Now

What is it? The seller offers the convenience of Buy It Now on an auction-style listing. The listing ends if someone clicks the Buy It Now button. However, if someone places a bid first, the Buy It Now option disappears.

When to use it: This format is great for high-demand, hard-to-find or unique items, but it has the added bonus of appealing to those buyers who prefer not to wait or risk losing the item to a higher bidder. The starting price should be well below the Buy It Now price to encourage bidding. The Buy It Now price should be the lowest price you'd happily accept for the item.

Adding Buy it Now to a live auction-style listing: You can add a Buy It Now price to an auction-style listing up to twelve hours before it ends as long as it hasn't yet received any bids.

Find out more about editing a listing



Selling more than one of the same item?

If you've got multiple quantities of the same product and a good idea of the price you want to achieve, try a multiple-item Buy It Now listing. This format enables you to create one listing that offers more than one of the same item. Buyers can then choose how many items they want and buy them using a Buy It Now button at a fixed price. Further buyers may buy further items from the same listing until the listing ends or all the items are sold.

This type of listing strategy is perfect for sellers with lots of products on the shelves who want to maintain a permanent presence on eBay. It's a cost-effective way to list which gives you control over the final price of each item, and it can often lead to multiple purchases from the same buyer.



Not sure which listing format to use?

A good way to find out what works is to have a look at completed items to see which format other sellers use to get the best price for similar items. You can also get more detailed information on final prices and volumes sold using each format via Marketplace Research by Terapeak. Or experiment - list a few items and see what works and what doesn't.

For more help and advice see Listing tips