Steps to Profitable Auctions on eBay

1. Research the hell out of each item you post. Dig through eBay to find what similar items fetch (and how often they sell). Check other places (Amazon, abebooks.com, other forums) to see what they charge for the item.
2. Use low starting bids. Low starting bids cost less to list, and they encourage participation. The more popular you expect an item to be, the lower you should set the starting bid. If you expect only a few bids, start bidding closer to your minimum desired sale point. Do not use a reserve.
3. Start your listings on Thursday afternoons and evenings. Run ten-day listings. Time your auctions to end on Sunday evening between 7pm and 10pm. This gives two weekends to attract bids.
4. If needed, pay the extra ten cents to prepare listings in advance and schedule them to start on Thursday evenings. Prepare a group of listings in advance, then schedule them to start within a couple of hours of each other. (Don’t have your listings end closer than within two minutes of each other.)
5. Offer free shipping and delivery confirmation. You could charge for these, but free shipping builds goodwill. Delivery confirmation gives you peace of mind. Free insurance is of dubious value; I sometimes offer it, but generally only on expensive items. You might offer it as a customer-paid option.
6. Offer a money-back guarantee, but only for when the item is not as described. (Not for when a person changes his mind or makes a mistake.)
7. Craft your auction title with care.
8. Write a good description listing the strengths and flaws of your item. Write things like “I think this book is in great shape, but be aware that the cover has a small tear and the previous owner’s name is on the flyleaf”, etc. Try to place additional keywords in the description, but sprinkled into conversational sentences.
9. Be thorough. Longer descriptions are better.
10. Refuse to accept bids from headaches: people with negative feedback, people who haven’t been paying, foreign bidders. (Note: foreign bidders aren’t a headache for everyone; if you love them, let them bid!)
11. Take photos and post them in the description. Use the 35-cent gallery feature so that your photo appears when people browse listings. If condition is a concern, use many photos to convey the state of the item.
12. Answer questions. You will receive many questions about your items. Some of the questions will be stupid. Answer them anyhow. If it’s a question that many people are likely to have, post the your response publicly.
13. Be amiable! A friendly, easy-going person is going to receive better response than a brusque, business-like persona. Make jokes. Show enthusiasm.