posted on June 26, 2003 02:19:10 PM new
Hi people: I'm at a loss to understand why 64 people have looked at this auction but no bids whatsoever. I'm used to not getting bids on things until the last day, but when there are that many hits, there is usually at least 1 bid. Any thoughts? Have I done something wrong?
Welcome to the club. I've had over 100 hits on one of mine and no bids. Your auction looks just wonderful to me. Perhaps people are waiting until closer to the end of your auction. What I might suggest (and this came from a poster a couple of years ago) is that you make your counters invisible. People may wonder why so many people have viewed and nobody has bid. Just a thought.
Cheryl
My religion is simple, my religion is kindness.
--Dalai Llama
posted on June 26, 2003 02:59:46 PM new
Hi Roadsmith,
Your auction looks great. I only noticed one little thing, but it shouldn't be affecting bids. In your shipping instruction area you have the following text.
<font color=red>* Buyer: Please DO NOT send payment until you've received the totals from me. * PayPal user? For items under $15, personal check or money order preferred, but not mandatory. ~Roadsmith</font color=red>
If you change it to the following it will work better.
<font color="red">* Buyer: Please DO NOT send payment until you've received the totals from me. * PayPal user? For items under $15, personal check or money order preferred, but not mandatory. ~Roadsmith</font>
posted on June 26, 2003 03:59:18 PM new
Maybe they just wanted to look at Cher. Actually, I'm surprised you got many hits. I'm no expert on records, but in my experience the "best of" records are not collectible. It's the early ones from an artist, or unusual ones like the Beatles White Album, that would bring the bids.
posted on June 26, 2003 04:46:16 PM new
Adrian: Thanks! I've never had to put quotes around the color when I want to change the font color. I see that this is in all 34 of my current auctions. Yikes. I'll have to look into it. Are you absolutely sure the quotes have to be there? They've never been there for me before, and I've had blue, red, and green fonts. Hmmm.
Later: On a hunch, I've removed the asterisks. Won't know until the auctions are over now, but that's one way to find out.
[ edited by Roadsmith on Jun 26, 2003 04:53 PM ]
posted on June 26, 2003 06:27:19 PM new
Be patient, still 3 days to go. I just sold a Haviland plate ca 1900, the reserve was $100.00. It sold in the last 15 minutes. What can I say?
posted on June 26, 2003 06:59:50 PM new
You can't use HTML in the Payment Instructions section.
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California voters: Be a part of the first-ever successful gubernatorial recall! Defy media pundits! $21 million of our money is going down the tubes daily because of our incompetent corrupt governor. Visit http://www.recallgraydavis.com to download your recall petition.
posted on June 26, 2003 07:20:18 PM new
Hi Fluffy,
You are able to use html in the payment section. I do it all the time. I must admit though it only works intermittently. Not working at the moment.
Roadsmith,
I think the quote marks are fine if they are used or not. It comes down to your preference. I have never had any problems with them being there. Really the only change that you had to make was the </font> tag. You had a bunch of extra stuff in there.
Cheers,
Adrian
posted on June 26, 2003 07:38:07 PM new
Automobiles and stuff in the Weird Stuff category frequently get thousands of hits without a bid. A lot of looky loos on ebay.
posted on June 26, 2003 09:19:32 PM new
Adrian: I need you to explain what you mean by the "extra stuff" I had in the [/font] tag. I was under the impression that I have to have the same words in the ending [/] as I have at the beginning. Hence [font color=red] and then [/font color=red]. If this is incorrect, someone please clue me in?
posted on June 26, 2003 09:38:45 PM new
Hi Adele,
The tags used to define font are:
<font></font>
You use the first half of the font tag to define how you wish to display the font eg; color="red" size="5" face="arial" etc. You do not need to put all of that stuff in the closing tag. It is only there to tell the browser that the preceding <font> tag is now finished. I hope this helps. It might save you a bit of typing too. I find typing to be a PITA, so I do as little as possible. Do you use a html editor? I don't mean publisher either. It is very inefficient. If you do not currently use a specific html you could try Cute HTML. I have found it to be very helpful.
Regards,
Adrian
posted on June 27, 2003 11:24:15 AM new
I am suprised you are questioning the lack of bids. I routinely don't get bids until the last hours of an auction. There have been many times I have gone to bed with no bids on auctions, only to awake to several bids with the final amount in excess of what I predicted.
Many people (including me) put items on their watch list, then bid at or near the end. Sometimes I think people just don't want to be the first to place a bid.
posted on June 27, 2003 11:41:00 AM new
Record collectors are picky and they usually want to know about every little scratch or scuff on the vinyl visible in bright light. Often they buy records to copy onto cd. "Excellent condition/no damage" might not be specific enough.
posted on June 27, 2003 11:59:08 AM new
"Many people (including me) put items on their watch list, then bid at or near the end. Sometimes I think people just don't want to be the first to place a bid."
I never bid early. I always snipe, usually at less than 10 seconds.
posted on June 27, 2003 01:00:56 PM new
Thanks, everybody, for your thoughts. I too usually snipe something I want. But now the hit count is 284 on this record, and still climbing. This has never happened to me before. I'm not particularly concerned, but I am puzzled that there's not even one bid. It may well be true that the record collectors want more information, but wouldn't one of them have sent me a message?
As I said, I'm not irritated, just amazed at 284 hits, no strikes.
posted on June 27, 2003 04:40:54 PM new
A lot of people read this board and it's probably lookyloos.
I guess Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves" is on volume one?
BTW, don't feel bad, I had 350 lookyloos on a bike bag....had to relist it!
Japerton
posted on June 27, 2003 04:44:30 PM new
OK, so I've got to ask again what I've wondered for years.
What good are counters?
Here we see a prime example. Roadsmith is getting hits but has no freakin' clue what they mean.
--
California voters: Be a part of the first-ever successful gubernatorial recall! Defy media pundits! $21 million of our money is going down the tubes daily because of our incompetent corrupt governor. Visit http://www.recallgraydavis.com to download your recall petition.
posted on June 27, 2003 05:28:23 PM new
The counters are good for arousing curiosity.
If an item only gets 4 hits in 7 days then you know that item probably has a narrow audience on ebay and it may not be worth listing at that venue in the future. The counters are just a small piece of the puzzle but every clue counts.
posted on June 27, 2003 05:51:19 PM new
Yes, but without knowing who looked at it or why, I can't see the value.
Besides, if one of those four hits resulted in a bid, that would be fine by me. I only need one bid.
--
California voters: Be a part of the first-ever successful gubernatorial recall! Defy media pundits! $21 million of our money is going down the tubes daily because of our incompetent corrupt governor. Visit http://www.recallgraydavis.com to download your recall petition.
[ edited by fluffythewondercat on Jun 27, 2003 05:52 PM ]
posted on June 27, 2003 07:57:35 PM new
The counters aren't great but they are a hell of a lot better than nothing. Wouldn't you rather have some input, no matter how vague, than none?
I still maintain that as many as 50% of all counter hits are from fellow sellers viewing auctions in researching items they want to sell themselves.
posted on June 27, 2003 08:09:01 PM new
Get used to it.
I've had an item on for 25 hours now.
Has gotten 656 hits, no bids.
If it goes full term it will more than likely get 2-3 thousand hits and no bids till the last 15 minutes.
I have a BIN so I hope it don't go full term.
posted on June 27, 2003 08:50:11 PM new
Roadsmith-Wow! just looked at your other auctions that one album is doing great. It is a very unusual one, did you know what you had?
posted on June 27, 2003 09:31:30 PM new
Libra: Ho. Ly. Cow!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just looked at that auction, after 5 hours off the computer, and I cannot believe it. I know there's a German bidder bidding on it, but I haven't looked at the bid history yet. $50! No, I had no idea what we had here. Our rich neighbors moved away and just dumped 150 records with us, said they don't want them and I could sell them if I wanted to. About half of them were classical, not worth listing, but the other half are jazz, early pops, early folk music, and some international things like this record. You just never know, do you? I cannot believe this. Well, it may not be much to the power sellers, but it sure makes my weekend.
posted on June 27, 2003 09:43:25 PM new
Roadsmith:
You said "Our rich neighbors moved away and just dumped 150 records with us, said they don't want them and I could sell them if I wanted to. About half of them were classical, not worth listing,..."
Do you mean the classical records were damaged? Or is it that you feel that no one listens to classical music?
Hey... you never know... the one's with the money to spend may be the one's browsing for vintage classical music albums while they listen to their scratchy worn out albums.
Just a thought...
Greg
Greg Williams
Retro Bargains
www.retrobargains.com
posted on June 27, 2003 11:40:00 PM new
Greg, thanks for your thoughts! I certainly don't mean that the classical records are worthless, or that no one listens to classical music anymore. But my husband is a real classical music buff (for most of his life), and he's gone through the classical records and kept about 40 of them he thinks are rare and knows he doesn't have yet in his collection. After he tapes what he wants, I'll try to sell those.
I have a ROOMFUL of stuff to sell on ebay--collections, and 800 postcards, and probably 500 books, and Beanie Babies, and costume jewelry, and unless I wanted to turn into one of those old hermits who has stacked aisles of stuff and can hardly walk through it all, I have to be a bit more selective about what I want to sell. Alas.
