There are three ways to sell multiple items on eBay.
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Online auction-type listing (also known as a Dutch Auction)
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Online Auction-type listing: List identical multiple items together in an online auction. The winning bid in a multiple item listing is based on the highest bid per item.
Example: Suppose you have 50 hammers, all the same, that you'd like to sell for at least $5.99 each. You would list them as a quantity of 50, and a starting price of $5.99.
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Bidders specify both their offered price per unit, and the number of items they want.
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Winning bids are selected in order of bid price per item – that is, a bid for 5 units at $12 per unit is ranked above a bid for 10 units at $11 per unit.
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If two bids have the same price per item, the earlier bid is given priority. Winning bidders will pay a price equal to the lowest winning bid.
Example:
For a listing with 10 available items and 2 bidders:
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Bidder A bid for 8 items at $5 each.
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Bidder B bid for 3 items at $6 each.
In this case, the lowest successful bid is $5. So the outcome of this listing is:
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Bidder B wins 3 items at $5 each.
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Bidder A wins 7 items at $5 each.
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Bidders cannot lower their "total bid value" (the bid price per item times the number of items on which they're bidding) when they raise their bid in this type of auction listing.
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Winning bidders have the right to refuse partial quantities. This means that if you win some, but not all, of the quantity you bid for, you don't have to buy any of the items. In the above example, Bidder A bid on 8 items, but won only 7 of them. Bidder A can refuse to complete the purchase, because Bidder A did not win the quantity he or she bid on.
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Bids are displayed when you click on the link reading, "Bidders list". Bids that are not currently winning show their bid prices, but bids that are winning show the price that these bidders would pay if the auction ended immediately. This means that, in the Bid History, all winning bids show the same price per unit – the lowest winning bid. To place a winning bid (a bid that wins at least some units), a bidder would need to exceed this price.
Fixed Price listing: List multiple, identical items in one listing with a fixed price for each item. Buyers can choose the quantity they want and pay the set price.
Example: Suppose you have 50 hammers that you'd like to sell for $5.99 each. You would list them as with a quantity of 50 and a price of $5.99. Buyers can purchase any available quantity of your item at any time, without waiting for an auction to end.
In Both Formats: eBay only permits multi-item listings in which the price times the quantity is less than $100,000.
Note: In order to sell with this format, you must:
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Or have a feedback rating of 30 or above and be registered on eBay for 14 days or more.
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Or if you have a PayPal account, and accept PayPal as a payment method on the listing, your feedback rating only needs to be 15.
Lot listing: Sell similar items together in one listing to one buyer (a case of shaving razors, a record collection, etc.).
Example: Suppose you have 50 hammers that you'd like to sell together to one buyer for an average price of $5.99 each.
To list these hammers as a "lot" you would first click the Lot tab in the Quantity section, and enter "1" in the Number of Lots box and "50" in the Number of Items Per Lot box. You would set the price to $299.50. The winning bidder will win all 50 hammers.
