posted on February 16, 2004 10:34:25 AM new
In the past 2 weeks I have a widget sell for more than BIN. This has happened 2X. Can anybody explain how & why this has happened. Don't get me wrong, I'll take the extra bucks.
posted on February 16, 2004 11:19:43 AM new
It does go away, what Sanmar is saying (I presume so at least) is the final bid price is higher than the original BIN price - That has happened to me too, it's kind of nice!
posted on February 16, 2004 12:00:17 PM new
What kills me is when I have something that doesn't sell for weeks at say, $20.00 beginning price and a BIN at $30. I lower the price the following week to $10, and all of a sudden it gets tons of bids and climbs over $40.00. If those bidders only purchased it the week before they would have had a better deal.
The bummer is the opposite though. I've had an item get bids up to $40 and then the bidder flakes and gets a FVF. I relist it and only sell it for $20.00.
You never know what will happen. The beauty of auctions...
posted on February 16, 2004 12:51:18 PM new
The only thing I can think is that the item with the final amount over the bin must have received more than one bid. The second bid may immediately follow the first bid. Perhaps the first bidder thought he'd get the item for the minimum bid but then got into an unexpected bidding war?
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posted on February 16, 2004 01:28:11 PM new
Part of the psychology of starting with a low bid is you suck people into an auction they otherwise might not have participated in.
This is my most interesting BIN story. About a year ago I put up a piece of Bose equipment for $1.00 starting bid and $169.00 BIN with shipping included to the 48 states. My big mistake was no reserve so the first person who bid $1.00 killed the BIN. Three days after my auction started another auction was started with the same object and they stole my description. I didn't see this auction until three days before closing. Three previous auctions for this object had closed at $125, $145 and $175. Mine was for sale from Florida and the other one was in England. Two newbies, one from England and one from Alabama, started bidding against each other and soon mine was at $325 and the other at $335. I was sure it was a classic case of shill bidding. Mine closed at $325 and I never checked the other auction to see where it closed. I was wrong about the shill bidding and everything went smoothly afterward.
The point being of course that people often pay more than the BIN, especially if started low and with no reserve. If you want them to use the BIN price I would suggest starting at the halfway point or above. I almost always start my auctions at less than ten dollars and the average ending price is $37.41 to this point.
[ edited by getalife on Feb 16, 2004 01:29 PM ]
posted on February 16, 2004 01:36:11 PM new
Those newbie bidding wars are much rarer these days. They do still happen though and that is why it is very important that there is a steady influx of new bidders on ebay. Yet you frequently see sellers complain about these same bidders. You gotta take the good with the bad.
-------------- sig file ----------- *There is no conclusive evidence that life is serious*
