posted on May 2, 2005 03:38:47 PM new
I usually don't waste time talking about just a few bucks....in fact, I'm normally the first to ask "how much money is involved", before any of us waste our time talking about a problem that turns out to be a $10 issue......but....a recent experience reinforces to me that Ebay is in decline and I bring it up.
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.I don't list much. What I do list has lots of hits and I have over a 90% sell through rate for years. I list with a starting bid of fair market value( what one dealer would pay another dealer), and what sells goes for at least this.
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.I recently experimented starting 1 item at 99 cents...no reserve. Figured...let's go...give Ebay and the bidders what they really want. This item was a gold bracelet, with $90 in gold value alone. I could have sold it to my neighborhood jeweler for $75-80. The listing clearly stated the amount of gold. Clearly stated solid gold. Mucho pictures showing item and markings. Over 180 hits. No questions. 10 people had it on their watch list. I've listed 5-6 similar items over the years, and they all sold for over $100. This one wound up getting 10 bids and selling for $12. NEVER AGAIN will I list for .99NR.
posted on May 2, 2005 03:47:28 PM new
Personally, I never put my starting bid at less than I am prepared to take for the item. If is doesn't sell, I would rather keep it than take less than I paid for it, or feel it is worth. I often find that something gets no bids, and when I relist, it goes way above what I expected.
posted on May 2, 2005 04:32:48 PM new
I know of several sellers who post here, with myself one of them, that learned the hard way to start an auction with an opening bid of not less than the minimum one is willing to accept. A few years back, Ebay was very unreliable, and was prone to crash from overload, neglect, pms, or gremlins. This happened a few times on Sunday evening, when sellers had a lot of auctions closing. Many of us had items that would have done well in the final hour, only to see the site crash and have the auction end during an outage with only one bid. At the time, Ebay had no policy concerning extending an auction affected by an outage. I revised my opening price strategy after one particurlary disastrous crash and have followed it since.
A $75.00 solid state device will always blow first to protect a 25 cent fuse ~ Murphy's Law
posted on May 2, 2005 06:40:22 PM new
ebay bidders are becoming very good at bidding,no need to bid high,if they lose ,more will come ,so why the hurry??
too much supply driving the price down,eco 101!
-sig file -------
Eat grass,kick ass,never go belly up!
posted on May 2, 2005 08:27:18 PM new
and THEN here I come with a ho hum "ITEM" and they are driving the price to the MOON!!!!!!!!!!!!!! go figger........I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Last L@@kkkkkkkkk...........seconds ago,,,,,,,,, $240.00!!!!!!!!!! yehaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!! $150.00 was TOPS in my mind,,,,,,,,,,,,,,hahahahaand the LIVE SWAPMEET bottom feeders said I was CRAZY at two fingers, hahahaha, hahahaha, hahahaha,,,,,,,YES!!!!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Good Luck!
[ edited by jackswebb on May 2, 2005 08:32 PM ]
posted on May 2, 2005 09:02:24 PM new
The biggest problem with the method is the fact that ebay has the watch system. It promotes watching instead of bidder. I am glad that you did learn the lesson, however sorry that it cost you what it did. I wish ebay would wake up and really listen to anyone with a brain when it comes to watch lists, and stupid catagory changes. All it does is confuse potential bidders away.
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Alive in 2005
posted on May 3, 2005 12:48:32 AM new
Ya, I hate those darn watch lists reminding people of something they're interested in. However, I don't quite see a connection between a watched item and how high someone bids ????
.99? Never. Why start an auction at less than it costs to run it !?
posted on May 3, 2005 05:19:05 AM new
G'morning longtime1 and y'all ... I agree. I tried a couple times over the past few years, a string of .99 auctions for our antiques and it was a disaster each time. ...
STILL, (if you haven't already) WISH ALL OF YOU would put in ebay's suggestion box, that ebay institute a 'snipe' option of bidding, which would increase our bottom line, as well as ebay's. ... instead of all them "watchers", a lot of the watchers would actually have their pending bid in, in case they can't be in front of their computer when the auction ends.
posted on May 3, 2005 05:27:15 AM new
That's a good idea, Marcia. I have a feeling that a lot of the watchers are other sellers seeing how high your item is going. I pay little attention to the watch list and almost wish we were unable to see it as before.
PS: We're still awaiting warm weather to come to Peninsula to bike ride. It's sleeting and snowing here right now. I'm darned sick of it all! Where's spring???? I still haven't planted my flowers.
posted on May 3, 2005 05:32:38 AM new
Hi Cheryl ... yes, I'm sure some of the watchers *are* other sellers, waiting to see if somethings sells for how-much. ... but I get emails all the time from potential bidders saying "Oh man, I meant to bid on that but was in the middle of a bottleneck on the highway when it ended. Let me know if your high bidder doesn't pay, and I'll buy it." ........ or "I see that item I was watching didn't sell. Let me know when you relist it" .... arghhhhh, more relisting relisting relisting fees.
ebay "took over" paypal and implemented the listing management programs to 'take over' some of the business out there on the net; you'd think they'd be delighted to take some of the business away from vrane and other sniping programs, too.
posted on May 3, 2005 06:15:57 AM new
what is wrong with proxy bid?
These bidders are so cheap,they want to get it for the lowest price possible.
-sig file -------
Eat grass,kick ass,never go belly up!
posted on May 3, 2005 02:03:14 PM new
I did a 99 cent jewelry sale recently to get rid of some old stuff I had. NEVER AGAIN. I have always offered 1/2 off total shipping if one winner take 4 or more auctions. I forgot about this and one winner got 5 items for 99 cents and then got it shipped for $2.00. Plus my darn cat must have pick up a piece and carried it somewhere else so I ended up giving her a really nice piece to replace it. I think it cost me $10 or more to give her my jewelry????
posted on May 3, 2005 04:02:28 PM new
Problem is there are a lot of savvy bidders out there who know to snipe auctions so they don't force prices up. eBay hasn't kept up with this growing trend and since eBay doesn't allow auto extensions to auctions (unlike Yahoo) - eBay no longer maximizes the return to sellers or eBay shareholders (Hi Meg!).
I know that when I bid, I always use a snipe utility so I don't have to wait until the small hours (NZ is GMT +12) when most UK or US auctions finish. Also it avoids my competitors following my bidding (and outbidding me). I spot a lot of bargains that my competitors miss (until after I bid in the last 5 seconds).
