There are a few things that you really need to know before you start selling on EBay.

What to Sell.

First off, you need to know what it is you're going to sell on eBay:

Have a think what's your specialty or what your interests are? You'll do far better on eBay if you become a great source for certain kind of products, as people who are interested in those products will come back and buy from you again and again. You won't get any loyalty or great feedback if you just sell rubbish at auctions or stupid prices.

When you think about what you want to sell, there are a few other things you need to consider. The most important of these is to always sell what you know about or what you enjoy selling. If you try to sell something that you just don't know anything about then you'll never comply a good auction description and sell it for a good price.

You should then consider which things you could actually get for good enough prices to resell, and then delivery costs on top depending on the type of product you have for sale that is.

Always Prepare Yourself.

There are always going to be ups and downs when you start selling on eBay. Don't give up if something goes a little wrong with your first few sales: the sellers who are successful on eBay are the ones who enjoy it, and have stuck at it no matter what has happened. You are the only person who can learn from your mistakes.

Anyone can become a seller on eBay, as long as they believe in themselves - and if you do decide that selling on eBay is not for you, not to worry as the start-up costs are so low that you won't lose anything.

So if you're ready, you now need to know about the different types of auctions eBay has to offer, you can then decide which one you will use to sell your items.

Over the years, eBay has introduced all sorts of different auction types, in an effort to give people different options for when they buy or sell their things on eBay.

Take a look at the list below:

Normal Auctions

These are the auctions everyone knows about: buyers bid, others outbid them, they bid again, and the winner gets the item. It’s that simple.

Reserve Auctions.

Reserve auctions are for sellers who don't want their items to sell for less than a certain price - a concept you'll know about if you're familiar with real auctions. They work just like normal auctions on eBay, except that the buyer will be told if their bid does not meet the reserve price you set, and they'll need to bid again if they want the item. If no-one is willing to meet your price, then the auction is cancelled, and you keep the item.

But It Now Auctions.

Buy it now auctions can work in one of two ways. You can add a Buy it Now button to a normal auction, meaning that buyers can choose either to bid normally or to simply pay the asking price and avoid the whole bidding process. Some sellers, though, now cut out the auction process altogether and simply list all their items at a fixed price. This lets you avoid all the complications of the auction format and simply list your items for how much you want them to sell for.

Recently, eBay added a twist to fixed price auctions: the 'best offer'. This means that buyers can contact you to negotiate a price, which could be a good way to sell some extra stock at a small discount. The only downside to reserve and fixed price auctions is that you pay a small extra fee to use these formats. In general, it is worth using reserve auctions for higher-priced items and fixed price auctions for lower-priced ones - remember that you can combine the two formats.

Multiple Item ('Dutch') Auctions

These are auctions where you can sell more than one of a certain item. Dutch auctions can be done by bidding. Buyers bid a price and say how many items they want, and then everyone pays the lowest price that was bid by one of the winning bidders. If you have trouble getting your head around that, don’t worry - everyone else does too!