How to Sell Art on eBay

Have you considered selling your art on eBay? With its extensive history on the web (eBay was founded in 1995!) and enormous customer base, eBay is a solid sales platform to consider. As with other sales channels like Etsy and Art Fire, unless you’re incredibly experienced selling on eBay or have the time to put in to aggressively marketing your work you will not want to depend on eBay alone.  With the right approach, however, eBay can make a nice addition to your other art revenue streams.

First, let’s take a look at what a few successful eBay artists are doing right.

What Successful eBay Artists Are Doing

Jon Allen (statements2000)

Jon Allen creates metal sculpture art and offers free shipping on every piece. His work runs a wide gamut from $10,000 down to $40 for the smallest pieces, with the bulk of it landing in the mid to low hundreds.

• Nearly all of his art has free shipping
• All photos show the art installed in a mockup space
• Highly descriptive product titles for easy searching
• The artist’s name is included in every product listing
• He has 100% positive feedback

Chuck Black (wildlifeandart)

Rather than regularly listing inventory on eBay, wildlife artist Chuck Black chooses some pieces to auction there and links to the eBay auctions on his website.

Chuck graciously shared his thoughts with us on selling on eBay:

“In order to be successful in eBay, starting prices low and running auctions consistently is critical. The platform is best used to supplement your bigger plans. Don’t start auctioning paintings off with the hopes of high prices. What’s more important is that you are giving back to your supporters. Providing an opportunity for someone to buy an original who might not be able to afford high dollar art is very meaningful. It helps build your reputation as a good person and increase demand for your art through word of mouth. Overtime, this pays off tremendously.” – Chuck Black

• Each product includes an extensive bio with tons of pictures, a photo of Chuck with the listed painting, a description of the piece, his reasons for painting it, etc.
• Pieces are sold ready to hang
• Highly descriptive product titles for easy searching
• The artist’s name is included in every product listing
• He has 100% positive feedback

What do these successful artists have in common? First of all, each of their product listings is highly descriptive. they prioritize high quality photos of their art and showing the art in a mockup space (see our list of the top apps that allow you to preview your art on a wall), and they have 100% positive feedback. More important, however, is the fact that these artists all have an established web presence apart from eBay. Current collectors can search for them on eBay, and they can point new collectors to their eBay auctions from their other sales channels and web presences.

Feeling inspired? Here are ten tips to help you sell art on eBay.

10 Tips to Sell Your Art on eBay

1. 1. Open a dedicated seller account just for selling your art. Do not mix your original art in with any other goods that you may sell on eBay; this hurts your professionalism and ability to be taken seriously.
   2. Take high quality photographs of your art (here’s how) and better yet, show it hanging in a space.
   3. Take some time to figure out the most effective keywords for your descriptions. eBay by design has a highly customizable search feature to help buyers find what they’re looking for. Collectors can search by medium, subject, style, features (framed, matted, signed), region, surface, color, size, so include as much information in your listing (not necessarily all in your product title) as possible. Don’t skimp on these details to save time or expect your images to speak for themselves!
   4. Include a detailed artist bio and photos. Work-in-progress photos are appealing, as well as images of you with your work or actively working in your studio space. Buyers love to get a peek behind the curtain, and this lends you a great deal of credibility.
   5. Write a detailed description about each piece for sale including details like why you chose the title, your reasons for creating the piece, where it would look really great, and who you envisioned loving it when you created it.
   6. Decide on a reserve price, which is a hidden “lowest price” so you don’t get stiffed. If you are auctioning the art rather than using the Buy It Now option, your reserve price should be the lowest price you would be willing to sell the piece for in any other setting. This ensures you receive at least what it’s worth and don’t get lowballed.
   7. Offer free shipping by factoring the cost of shipping into your reserve price or Buy It Now price.
   8. Link to your eBay shop from other places so more people can find you.
   9. Get good feedback (here is a great post that breaks down eBay feedback, why it’s important, and how to request feedback from buyers: https://crazylister.com/blog/improve-ebay-feedback/)
   10. Keep your branding consistent. eBay is one more sales channel on the internet to let potential collectors know you exist. Keep your web and offline presence consistent with your artist statement, colors/fonts, profile picture, etc. You can find customizable eBay templates to help you do this here: https://pages.ebay.com/tg/en-us/storefronts/designtemplates.html

Having an already established name is very useful in getting your work seen and sold on eBay, but it isn’t absolutely necessary. eBay offers a wide range of options for selling your art the way you want whether you want to use a timed auction, offer it for sale at a fixed price, or accept offers on a suggested price. Like other third-party websites, eBay should not be your only source of art revenue, but with a little work it can be a really useful addition to your growing art business.

Do you sell your art on eBay? We’d love to hear about your experiences! Let us know in the comments!