How to do better next time?

[badkitty]

Have sold a couple of things on ebay recently but am new to it. Was quite disappointed with only getting £105 for a nice dining table and 4 chairs which was only selling as too big for our room. It was a nice set from Cargo homestore, I took some good photos, ended auction on Sunday eve. I put reserve on of £75 which maybe was my mistake as too low, but the advice on ebay was to start with a low reserve to get more interest. I also explained in the ad that there were a few scratches on the table top. However it was pretty good condition as could be seen from photos. It got about 25 watchers. Anyway am wondering if either I was just unlucky, or if this is about what you would expect something like that to go for, or if I should do something different next time like set a much higher reserve? Any opinions or tips welcome as have some more items of furniture to sell!!

you don't set a low reserve to get interest you set a low starting bid to get interest.
Low starting bids can only be risky if you don't have a reserve. You should set the reserve to the amount you actually want it to be. Bidders don't know your reserve, so low or high it will neither encourage or discourage.

Have a look at completed listings of similar items to see whether your price compares favourably. If any went for a higher amount have a look at the key words they used in the searchable title.

It could also be because you are a new seller?

I think furniture can be a bit of a tricky one, because there are not such specific recognised brands as, for example, clothing, prams, electronics, etc. So there can be hundreds of listings for similar items, but it's not always easy for the buyer to judge quality and value, especially if they're not familiar with the brand.

Where you live can also play a part, because furniture will usually be local pick-up only so you'll only get people bidding who live close enough to collect. If you live in a city, great, otherwise you may not get enough people bidding against each other to boost the price.

In other words, you're probably not doing much wrong, so I agree with the advice to research completed listings for an idea of what similar items have gone for, then set a reasonable reserve (ie not unrealistically high, but one you'd be happy to accept) with a low starting price.

I've also had some luck recently by listing an item with a high-ish Buy It Now price, with the 'or Best Offer' option, which allows bidder to make you an offer below the Buy It Now if they feel it's too much. It's then up to you whether you want to accept that offer or not.

It might also help if you could give an idea of what you paid for it/the RRP, especially if the retailer doesn't have it in their current range. For example, you could say something along the lines of 'this cost me £xxx new from Cargo Homestore, so bid now for a great value product...' you get the idea!