As eBay has grown and evolved over the years savvy eBay sellers have had to adapt, as is the case in any business. In the early days of eBay, virtually any items put up for sale would receive multiple bids. This allowed the sellers to start an auction at $1 and not have to worry about the final winning bid amount. The market price on eBay would dictate the true value of the product.

As time passed, more and more sellers entered the eBay arena which led to a dramatic shift in starting bid techniques. A majority of eBay Powersellers now use the fixed price format. In order to do this effectively, the seller needs to do a lot of eBay research prior to putting auction items up for sale.

By using the eBay Search Function and researching the last two weeks of completed auctions on an item, you can gauge what that item should sell for. It is a good idea to eliminate both the high and low final sale prices and then take an average of the remaining items to determine the fixed auction price.

There are several reasons top eBay Powersellers use this pricing strategy. Even though there are more sellers and increased competition, buyers are also more knowledgeable and they will also do a simple check of recent sales before they look for the item priced in the average range and simply buy it now.

This allows Powersellers to obtain market price and actually increase their sales because they do not have to wait for the end of the auction to complete the sale of their items. Another plus, this also thwarts the auction sniper who uses automated programs to shoot off a computer-generated bid in the closing seconds of an auction.

Use the pricing technique that the top tier of eBay's elite sellers are using today to increase your monthly sales and receive fair market prices for your auction items.