While eBay is a very user friendly vessel to sell your goods, not everything sells. To avoid wasting your time and money, take some time to research what's hot and what's not.
There are a number of options available to find information on hot items. If you would like to pay for a service that is loaded with market research analyses, consider using eBay's Market Research. You can pay for a one-time usage or subscribe by the month.
If you just want to get a feel what may sell, click on the BUY button at the top left of any eBay screen. The link will reveal a plethora of categories of items. Find some categories that interest you – example: dolls or cameras.
From there you will be able to select a search criterion; choose Price – High to Low. The results will show the higher priced items first. You can also refine your search to show only completed auctions, which gives you a more accurate picture of what actually sold.
Finally, if you merely want to see if the widget you have sitting in your basement is hot, type in the name of whatever it is in the search box and see what comes up. You may be surprised to find that it is selling for $100 or you may find that there are multiple listings for the same widget yet no one will enter an opening bid of $2.99.
It is one thing to see current auctions, however since much of the bidding doesn’t occur until the final few minutes, it is better to look at closed auctions. Then you’ll see if your Tommy Bahama shirt is really worth anything. Or you’ll see that your old baseball cards had 23 listings and not one of them sold.
The bottom line is research. If you want to find out what's hot and what's not, do your homework first. It will pay off in the end.