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Buying and selling cars at online auctions such as eBay is becoming increasingly popular. From a seller's perspective, there are a few tips that you might want to follow to boost your chances of a sale.

Car Buyers Want Pictures

To get the best price, make sure that your car is looking its best. It is all in the details ... get a good (not cheap) car painting job done if the current paint job is faded. You might also consider having it professionally detailed and cleaned up.

Spend a bit of time and money on your listing. Since you are selling online, your buyer cannot physically 'kick the tires,' so to speak, so you need to present your vehicle for auction with as much detail as possible. That means you should write an accurate, detailed description and provide as many pictures as you can. If you have a lot of pictures, you can present them in a slideshow. You can also offer to send more photos by email, although it is likely that most people will not go through the time or trouble to ask for more pictures by email. Nonetheless, you will be much better off having as many pictures as possible available on your eBay Motors posting than having just one or two photos.

Photo Tips for Selling Your Car Online

This might seem a bit odd to you, but make sure you take a picture of the underside of the car. Your auction visitors want to make sure there is no rust or other damage. In wintry areas such as the Midwest where salt is used on the highways, rust is a big problem. No one wants to buy a rusted out vehicle. You might want to take some photos of the fender wells while you are at it.

Put your auction visitors in the driver's seat. For instance, you will want to include a picture of the dashboard that shows the odometer and interior of the car, from the driver's perspective. You will want to feature other quality pictures of the interior such as floor mats, the seats and headliner.

It is obvious that you need to take pictures of the outside of the car. The exterior pictures should show all four sides of the car; that is, the driver's side, the rear, the passenger side, and the front.

If there are damages or flaws to your vehicle's exterior or interior, it is much better to be safe than sorry. That means you should take close-up pictures of the flaws and note them in the description. By being upfront, you will not have an irate buyer later.

Be sure to clean up your engine compartment and then take pictures of it. Take the dipstick out and photograph a close up of the oil to show that is fresh and clean.

Your potential buyers will also be interested in the trunk space, so make sure the trunk is clean and take some pictures of that, too.

Finally, you might receive email queries. Be sure to answer them politely and as soon as you can. Include your phone number so people can call with questions.