Whether you’re looking to sell your well-loved workhorse excavator because you recently upgraded, or you want to list your inventory of skid-steers to a larger market, eBay can help. Since the mid-90s, eBay, an international e-commerce site known primarily for helping sellers auction off their used items, has expanded in recent years and is now a major primary marketplace for a variety of niches, including the heavy equipment and its related industries.
If you’ve never dealt with buying or selling anything on eBay, it’s remarkably easy and in addition to all of the resources eBay itself provides to sellers, your friends here at IronMarkets have put together a list of easy-to-follow best-practices to help enhance your eBay equipment listing.
Before we dive in officially, you’ll want to set up an eBay account, acclimate yourself with the site, and read up on some of the literature that eBay provides.
Do Your Research
Listings across eBay have a lot of commonalities – they’ll all have a title, description, and photos – but your industry likely has some unique aspects that you’ll want to consider when listing your equipment. Start your research by searching for similar items on the site. This accomplishes a few items on this list, but the main one we’re covering right now is that it gives you a sense of what the market looks like. Take notes – are these items selling, what prices are they selling for, how long are they sitting before they sell, and so on. Also do some research off eBay – is there a new model of your item coming out soon, what are the overall specs, is it a well reviewed piece of equipment. All of these can help you determine if now is the right time to sell.
- ProTip: When you begin to type in the name of the item(s), look at what terms and phrases eBay suggests – these are eBay’s internal AI suggesting popular search terms to you – you can utilize these by including relevant one in your title and description to help with overall SEO and rankings.
Utilize SEO in Your Title + Description
When potential buyers are searching on eBay or across the web, the search engine will pull in keywords from the title, description, and any additional information you’ve included in the listing, so be descriptive, use a wide variety of terms and phrases that someone in your industry might be looking for. Use a combination of your own terms, suggested keyword and phrases that eBay might suggest when creating the listing, and also include the manufacturer’s specs too (just note that those details are from the manufacturer). The more details the better.
Include Good Photographs + Utilize Video When Possible
Selling on the web is very visual, and you want the buyer to feel like they are looking at the item in person, so include as many photos as you can, and incorporate videos, like a machine walkaround or even the item in operation, to help potential buyers get in your shoes. Don’t be afraid to show any wear-and-tear, dings, or imperfections on the equipment, most people understand that a well-worked machine is bound to have a few signs of wear-and-tear. eBay will let you include up to 24 images for free.
- ProTip: Label your images with relevant keywords before uploading, as that text gets combed when a search engine or eBay provides a potential buyer with results.
Be Transparent
Whether there are a few scratches, the entire engine was refurbed, or the cup holder doesn’t hold a standard coffee cup size, be sure to list all information regarding your equipment. Getting a surprise as a buyer is likely to lead to negative reviews and potential refund or replacement issues. Be upfront about everything – the good, the bad, and the ugly. There’s almost no such thing as ‘too much information’ when listing equipment, particularly used equipment, like this online.
Set the Right Price
Remember during our research phase we suggested that you note what similar items are selling for? We’re putting that to use now. Spoiler alert: what you WANT to get out of your used equipment might be different than what the market is interested in paying for it. EBay offers both its traditional auction and buy-it-now pricing options, so you do have some flexibility in how you set the price. At the end of the day don’t be afraid to adjust your prices – you only make money when you sell an item and the longer it sits the less money you’re making.
Bonus ProTip + Final Thoughts
Provide the same customer service you do in real life. If someone has a question pre-sale or needs an issue resolved post-sale be sure you’re prompt, helpful, and professional just like you would be in real life. Trust us, things like that provide tons of ROI for how little time they take you to do, and in the end you’re looking to pass along a piece of equipment that has served you well to someone else who can put it to good work and continue their journey in the industry.
