Are you planning on selling?
If so you have to work out your actual costs for the item, including how much time you put into the description, pictures and uploading. I monetize this at ON minimum wage which is 17 cents a minute.
Then you have to work out the shipping cost for regional shipping. This will help you decide if you are going to use Flat Rate or Calculated Shipping and also whether or not you will be using Free Shipping, which gives you a nice break on shipping FVFs.
And of course, you have to work out the fees you will be paying eBay and Paypal.
Now that you know how much your item really cost you, you can decide how much profit you want to make on the item.
Frankly, there are buyers who will pay more because the listing sounds so good. There are buyers who will pass up a good deal for the cheapest carp around. There are buyers who believe that the highest priced item is the best one. There are buyers who prefer to deal with high feedback sellers and buyers who prefer to deal with newbies.
Write like you have no pictures, picture like you have no description. And set up your Seller Preferences before you start lisiting.
But if you are just buying:
How long have you been looking?
Is it available locally?
If I buy this, will there be milk for the baby next week?
Do I have a credit card attached to my Paypal account?
How much is shipping? Import fees?
Set your budget. Don't forget the shipping costs. Bid once, bid late and bid your maximum.
If you are constantly losing to higher bidders, raise your bids, if you can afford to.
