Acer wrote:
You can schedule it in advance to start automatically whenever you like.
Yes, you can, but last I checked there was a small fee to schedule an auction (i.e. something like $0.10 or $0.25). Not a lot, but it can add up.
Depending on if you care about your seller star rating, you might consider doing free shipping. Just start the auction at $1 + whatever the shipping fee would be. That way, you get a 5-star rating automatically for shipping. Vs if the buyer pays separately, they can put whatever star rating they want for that, even if the shipping cost is the actual, real, and reasonable cost, they can still give you 1-star because theey thought it was too much.
If you're not going to sell a lot, then it doesn't matter, since you need at least 10 buyers to actually give you feedback before the star ratings will show up.
Of course, the flip side of free shipping, is that things actually might cost "more" for the buyer in some areas (i.e., I don't get charged tax on shipping, so if there's a separate shipping charge, I actually save a little on the tax).
And of course, if you're doing calculated shipping, you have to charge for shipping. Sounds like you're selling small things, so the shipping shouldn't be super expensive anyway. If you're selling anything large, something to keep in mind, if you choose UPS or FedEx for the shipper, is that eBay uses RETAIL rates and charges that to the buyer, but you'll get eBay's discount and your shipping cost will be lower. So, you "make" money on the shipping but at the expense of buyer's possibly being annoyed at high shipping charges (again, goes to the star rating).
Also, consider if you actually want to ship something for $1, or if you'd rather take it to e-cycling. Since that's a possibility with an auction. If not, then you might want to set your starting price a little higher. If you just want to get it out of the house and into the hands of someone that might find it useful, that's ok too! (I'm almost at that point!).
