Try to anticipate who your buyer is, and try to schedule your online auction so it will close when they would likely be online.
ie auction items that appeal to retirement age people or stay-at-home mums do best ending mid-morning, and on a similar theme Friday and Saturday nights are not the best time to end youth oriented online auctions etc
10 day auction spanning 2 weekends is a safe bet to start off with.
When developing your description, try to anticipate all of the questions prospective bidders may ask and address them as briefly as possible. This saves monotenous stupid pricks sending you silly emails day and night
Publish your postage and packaging/handling costs sensibly up front and clearly state your payment acceptance policy. Cheque, PO, BACS, Online methods etc etc.
Scan the other adds to get a fair knowledge of the prices stuff will sell for (unless your names Ryan), expect to be shocked in both directions at times (low and high end of sales)
In your description take account for both the clever and the not so.... selling something like a 3 bar map sensor.... in the main description write it twice, once somewhere as
3 bar and once as
3bar. This is used in the search engine to find your item and you will get more hits.
Learn some of the HTML codings to liven up or accentuate your listings
The title is limited to 45 characters. Don't waste precious space with useless descriptions like "Awesome" or "Wow". Nobody searches for an "awesome" rocker box cover.
Once sold your e-mail to the winning bidder should be sent as soon as possible after auction closes and include:
Final Price
Shipping Costs
Payment Options
Time frame in which you expect payment
Mailing Address for Payment
A hyperlink to your feedback page (to encourage +ive feedback).
Keep in touch with the buyer, let them know when payment arrives, when the item has been posted and an expected delivery date, this works wonders for your feedback profile too
Enjoy it as its sometimes frustrating, fun. silly. stupid, annoying, time consuming, but mainly profitable
Not that I have ever sold anything mind........