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Selling through auctions

When you list an item for sale in an eBay auction, you choose a starting price, and interested buyers place bids. When the auction ends, you sell to the highest bidder.

You can choose whether your auction should run for 1, 3, 5, 7 or 10 days. A 1-day auction is designed for items that need to be sold quickly because they're time–sensitive, such as event tickets. Unsold auctions may be automatically relisted

Set a starting price in the Choose a format and price section of the quick listing form. If you use the advanced listing tool, you can set a starting price in the Pricing section.

Pricing tips:

  • A low starting price can help attract bidders
  • You can add a Buy It Now price to an auction listing, and it will be shown until the first bid is placed. The Buy It Now price has to be at least 40% higher than the auction starting price
  • You can add a reserve price to make sure you get the price you want for your item

Fees for auction-style listings

For more details, see our Fees for private sellers and Fees for business sellers articles. 

Listing in auction-style format works well if you want to let buyers decide what your item is worth.

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