posted on November 21, 2000 06:23:28 PM
My sales are good overall--things are picking up. However items mostly sell for less than they have. Many very good items don't even get a nibble. Clue phone to bidders: if you want something cheap, you still have to bid.
A lot of last hour bidding doesn't happen because eBay runs so slow in prime time that no one has the patience to wait for an item to load. I clocked auction loads last night at 45 seconds using a 56K modem. (I logged on more than once--it's eBay's problem) Sorry folks that is the kiss of death. In case eBay doesn't know...this is the Internet and pages that don't load in about ten seconds get elected to the back button --no recount even in Palm Beach.
posted on November 21, 2000 07:03:38 PM
I have to side with the people in the excellent category. Things are so brisk in the last couple weeks that I've been having trouble keeping up. Almost everything I have posted has been bid on and the bids I have received are far above my expectations. I've even had quite a few people in the last 10 days or so contact me to do business directly on similar things I haven't put up for auction.
Right now I just wish there were more hours in a day so I could prep additional items for auction.
posted on November 21, 2000 07:07:37 PM
Depression glass sales in Nov. are WAY down as opposed to August! Go figure! Price Guides are a thing of the past and we just have to wait till everyone finds that out.
If 15 million ebay buyers don't buy then that sets new prices. That will take some time to settle in. I am ready to call it a year till January.
posted on November 21, 2000 07:26:48 PM
First of all, thanks to all who have contributed here. I am learning so much and I sincerely appreicate it!
Let's talk length of auctions. I initially tried to base how I ran my auctions on what I liked as a bidder. I hated 10 day auctions! I started with 5 day auctions even though I would have loved to have run 3 dayers. Now, I'm running 7 day auctions. My thinking is this (and it has changed a bit due to the new BIN feature) :
10 day auctions with a BIN price would give you more pack for the punch (i.e. 10 days of exposure for the same price as a 3, 5, or 7 dayer). Where I just realized, today, that this might backfire on a BIN auction is that everybody is not going to use the BIN and those people get left impatiently waiting out the 10 days (possibly finding something else in the meantime or having enough time to change their minds and zapping you off their watchlist which was so often the case of myself as a bidder).
7 day auctions are still a bit long but, if you time them right, you get 2 weekends of exposure for those who don't get to eBay everyday.
5 day auctions are two less days of exposure than 7 and much more fun for a bidder but, unlike myself, everybody and their brother doesn't live on eBay and this could cancel out somebody having the opportunity to view or bid your auction.
3 day auctions could be exciting but, with (maybe even without) the chronic outages, decreased exposure and the continual problems with keeping the description searches (and whatever other searches there are) working, they could also be cancelling out the opportunity to view or bid.
Have I put too much emphasis on worrying about people not seeing your auctions or am I missing a key point here entirely (i.e. why/when people bid)?
This brings up another point. As of tonight, 3 of my 5 auctions left, got bid on with one being within the last hour of the auction. My BIN prices were ignored (they were only $1 to $2 higher than my opening bid). My thinking is that my BIN's might have been ignored due to having to register a credit card to bid....don't know. So, had I run shorter than 7 day auctions, maybe I wouldn't have made this post in the first place today - who knows? Well, now it's 4 of the 5. So strange...
posted on November 22, 2000 05:05:20 AM
The Million Auction March to me, means if it doesn't sell at ebay, I can move it to Yahoo and let it sit free for 30 days.If it still doesn't sell bring it back to ebay and you may have a whole new bunch of lookers(bidders?).
Yes, sales are going very well for me and right now I am doing mostly collectible china, pottery and glass.I have changed a few things tho.
Since the ebay outages(this last bunch I mean)I have my items run 10 days thru either one or two weekends for added exposure. I have my items come off during the day when there is less chance for an outage or an overload when people can't get in to bid.
No options on shipping. Breakables like these must be insured and go priority except in a few instances like sets of dishes where the weight is high.
Lastly, I usually start it low and let it go! Easy for me to say when it is mostly from an estate that was left to me! But the thing is tho I may be dissappointed in a sale or two so many go far above what I expected so that it more than evens out.
Now if I could just stop playing Slingo and list more........
posted on November 22, 2000 06:37:12 AM
Mine are doing great, can't complain at all. I had 21 close last night 17 with bids and most with multiple bids several with 10-15. I am very satisfied with sales, things did slow down in August and Sept for me, but have picked up very well October and November. I have even managged to close a few things on Yahoo, which before, I didn't at all, they just seemed to sit and gather dust!
posted on November 22, 2000 06:57:59 AM
I have been selling on ebay for 3 years, love the atmosphere and the ability to walk to my computer in my own house and see how things are progressing. I have found that sales are down, but I remember thinking the same thing this time last year. I personally do better from mid January to April/May. Holiday frenzy is over and people are looking for collectibles, etc for themselves. I also wonder whether the ecomonic uncertainty, ebays drop in stock prices, presidential controversy, etc. have an impact that is keeping people from opening their pocketbooks. I do have to say, that when poeple see something they want that is unique or rare, I can still get high prices. Meredith
posted on November 22, 2000 07:35:00 AM
Compared to last year they are off compared to the year before they are off more.
But I am selling about 80% of what I sell right know.I hate to relist so I start bidding low.
I start a lot of items at 1.00 no reserve and see how they do.Every item is unique and
at least 300 years old some items as much as 500.
But I buy in very large quantities i.e. hundreds of an item at a time.Then I put out the better of the items first which gets my money back quicker.Then everything else after that is pure profit.
But you have to be very selective and know exactly what you are buying.
The high end items do not sell as well as they used too.So I try and keep items under 30.00 each wherever possible.Unless its something unusual.
I have been getting a few sales a month off my web site and the prices are in some cases double what they go for on ebaY but people can have a choice as to what they want.
EbaY and AW have all been working fine for the last 10 days.That helps a lot too.
Some items I sell are related so I put a large number out and list free shipping that way I find myself shipping a number of items to one bidder and I raise my selling price a little to cover the cost.
Like Twinsoft we all have our own different strategies,I also go after International sales too and that helps as well.
I rarely list items for sale during the day I do better at night and Thursday is always a good night for me.
If I find something thats of interest I do research and see if it sells on ebaY.
Case in point I found some early engraving of about 1590 I have 32 of them and they are copies of origionals by a very collectable artist.If orgional they would be worth thousands each.
But these are 50 years after his death but still rare.I noticed that these get good prices on ebaY but the reserve are unreasonable on them so they rarely sell.
So I got these and put them out at 1c with a reserve of 105 on them.
I put a buy price on one at 125.00 and it sold within 24hrs though I did not realise this for 4 days.
Then the other has a day left and its at 300.00 dollars and I have 30 more to go.
Should be a good piece.But it takes a lot of time and effort to find such items and you have to have some knowledge of the areas I sell in.
Luckily I love history and that helps a lot
back to listing.
posted on November 22, 2000 07:43:52 AM
Hi Everyone!
I sell new and used clothing (mostly) and last week was a record week for us. Many of you probably do the $1000 plus weeks but this was a first for me. I hope this is just the start of the holiday season. I bit the bullet and listed items for Sunday this week. Hopefully some will stay in to shop instead of the malls....even though I'll probably be out there too....hate to miss a bargin.
As to relists being better for me than when I started, what I've changed is that rather than relisting at a lower price, relisting in another category works best. Changing the Title, the night it ends, and fine-tuning the description are next effective.
Least effective seems to be lowering the price - though of course I'll do that even if it means I just break even on an item because I figure if it hasn't sold after being listed twice, I've made an error somewhere. I also would rather break even on an item than have it sit in my basement taking up space. I'm new at this, and expect to make some errors in judgement - if I break even, I take that money, buy something else, and hopefully make my full profit on that.
Don't know if this all works for others, but I hope it gives you some ideas.
posted on November 22, 2000 11:41:29 AM
I feel quite lucky to have had a good October and November.
Have relisted items I could not give away before, and they are selling really well second time around. I never list a lot, so if I sell 3 out of 4, it is really good for me.
Maybe my taking a break from Ebay this past summer has changed my perspective?
******************** Gosh Shosh!
posted on November 22, 2000 12:04:39 PM
After a dismal week last week and a sad one the week before things are picking up nicely.
items I expected to go for 10.00 are going for 24 and 26 with four days yet to go.
75% of my stuff ending sunday has bids and almost all are multiple bids.
Happy Happy day.
posted on November 22, 2000 01:44:52 PM
The last few months hve been my best ever, I sell model trains and die-cast. I've been selling almost 2 years now.
