posted on September 20, 2000 07:03:38 AM new
Hi all - I know this has been discussed since the Watch feature really took off, but seems like in just the past few weeks I've seen a strong trend towards no bidding until the last day. Maybe it's just the stock I have listed. I also wonder if there is a lot more being sold right now so buyers don't even see the listings until the last day, or what.
posted on September 20, 2000 07:24:29 AM new
hi Keziak: I sell collectible items, ie one of a kind or very rare type of movie collectibles. Very often, bidders wait (on ebay) to bid at the very end of the auction. By doing this, they often get the last bid in and, therefore, are the winner of the items.
posted on September 20, 2000 07:26:04 AM new
Yes, I have noticed that there are very few bids on any of my things until the very last moments, often seconds of an auction. Then at times it takes off, with 2 mysterious bidders appearing out of no where, in the very last SECONDS of the auction. Also suddenly a lot of things are just not getting any bids, despite the opening bid being a reasonable price for the item. It kind of takes the fun out of selling things here, and all of the paperwork; writing the ads, listing the things, photographing, recording,emailing buyers back and forth, packing, and trips to the post office, and deciphering the ebay invoice and billing system- This seems to be a lot of work for very little gain in the end after ebay costs, all of the work, and what the item originally cost me. Is anyone really making significant money here for the hassles and work involved ??? -sometimes I wonder about this .
posted on September 20, 2000 07:46:10 AM new
I always get bids during the week - but, invariably the major bidding comes in the last day. The $$ value of the bids coming in in the last few hours is about five times or more what is bid during the week. If I only relied on what was coming in during the week I'd starve out of the business.
I have noticed that this is even more true since the watch feature began. I also will invariably get an email from folks who had an item on watch and forgot about it asking if I still have it. To me, that hurts eBays bottom dollar because if I sell it to them - eBay isn't getting their cut. I think the watch feature hurt all of us - including eBay.
posted on September 20, 2000 08:09:55 AM new
Ditto here. As a buyer, I loved the "Watch" feature--I could track auctions without bumping the price in order to have it added to my bidder list. As a seller, I really feel like it loses me money, since the number of people who are going to actually get bids to register in the last seconds of an auction is limited. Maybe we ought to drop a hint to Ebay that it's costing them $$$ in the form of lower Final Value Fees.....(JUST KIDDING!!!!)
posted on September 20, 2000 08:22:37 AM new
About that "Watch" feature...All in all, I dont think its a good thing for sellers here on Ebay or for Ebay's final value fee ( are you listening Ebay? Its costing you thousands!!)
If as a buyer I can go in and list things I would like to bid on and come back later...my "watch" list is going to get longer and longer...while the actual number of items I do bid on is going to be smaller and smaller. ( I hope Ebay soon discovers this means lost revenue to THEM as well, making auction watching "free sport" provided by Ebay and sellers!) Just my thoughts on the matter.....
posted on September 20, 2000 08:23:35 AM new
It is inevitable that a week long auction makes for lots of hits and fewer bids. The Watch feature exacerbates that problem, but since anyone can bookmark an auction, it simply makes it more convenient to not bid.
Worse is that it lulls people to think that long auctions means they can take their sweet time about responding and paying up.
I'd run shorter auctions if I thought that my exposure would be adequate.
posted on September 20, 2000 08:26:11 AM new
As a buyer (and a seller) even without the Watch feature I never bid until the last day. Before ebay implemented the feature I would just bookmark the page as I'm sure a lot of other buyers did. I don't even think the watch feature is easier to use with all that password crap.
posted on September 20, 2000 08:34:17 AM new
You are all right on.
1) Watch feature ==> few bids till last minute, took many months to build momentum. But now almost all serious buyers do it, often last few seconds (under 10 secs!).
2) Many people, like myself, forget==> lower bidding levels. Less $$ for seller & for Ebay
3) Considerably less computation load on Ebay computers (you are talking 100's millions of bids). Ebay saves on capacity, saves $$.
4) "Saved capacity" ==> most listings ==>> more listing $$'s for Ebay.
5) Trade off for Ebay, loss for sellers. Ebay has all info to maximum $$ balance in its favor.
6) My suspicion is that ability to handle larger number of listings each of which has less bids allow them to maximize their profits for lower average value items. These yield higher final valuation fees so Ebay's total % take on the closing is much higher.
7) Overall tendency of depressing closing prices & shifting the bidding to the end will also encourage sellers to use shorter 3 & 5 day auctions and to use no reserve auctions, further freeing up computation per transaction.
8) I was around July 99 when Ebay tried all kinds of policy changes to channel sellers to do just that. It was the only time I saw them back off due to a spontaneous and pretty uniform seller opposition at a time when they were very vulnerable. They are achieving their goals by a flanking action with the watch feature.
9) As a buyer, the concept of the watch feature is attractive and certainly legitimate. The $$ results will just have to play out naturally. But it has made the whole process less exciting for both buyer & seller. I now seldomly see the excitment of a sequence of bids & counter bids played out over days. This loss will certainly reduce the attraction to serious aficionados, the best retail sales. <B>I hope that Ebay finds a way to re-invigorate the broad segment of these buyers. They have it for the very special & highly promoted items. But not for the broad segment of most sellers.</b>
Pheww...... sorry, don't mean to lecture. At the moment, I HATE the watch feature & the last minute bidding for most of mine!
posted on September 20, 2000 08:54:50 AM new
If you bid a high proxy early, you run the risk of having a shill bidder artificially bump up the price. And unless you can't be there at the end of the auction, there's no benefit for the buyer to place an early bid.
And I also think once you learn how to snipe, you enjoy the excitement of it much more.
**********************
That's Flunky Gerbiltush to you!
posted on September 20, 2000 09:03:44 AM new
"And unless you can't be there at the end of the auction, there's no benefit for the buyer to place an early bid. "
With esnipe you don't even have to be there...
But what sniping does is reduce the bidding to a sealed bid type auction. If you are a good sniper (or use esnipe) you have to put in your one and only max bid -- since you don't get a second chance. This eliminates the bidding frenzy and results in lower closing bids.
posted on September 20, 2000 09:34:22 AM new
what sniping does do is remove the "I'll show him [that other bidder]" factor. If you look at an item for awhile and weigh how much you'll pay for it, rationally, and then put that in as your snipe, the seller won't see the "irrational exuberance" that comes from a bidding war that is drawn out in time. It also guards against having some newbie bid you up just so they can notch a 'win' at any cost. THAT is why I snipe.
Consider that in some categories, it is overwhelming to browse even some typical search results. Many buyers just browse what will be ending that day or so. Has always been like that.
posted on September 20, 2000 10:20:04 AM new
My most recent listings have been getting lots of early bids, usually the day after I list them, and in one or two cases only hours after I've listed them. I'm not sure why - maybe it's because I use fairly low starting bids?
posted on September 20, 2000 10:20:33 AM new
A remarkably high number of auctions have one or two bids--mine average two and many of those that have more are by bidders eager to get an item for one penny over the next guy.
Most "last minute" bidding can be done anywhere in the one week period. People just don't want to be outbid in the last moment.
posted on September 20, 2000 10:44:31 AM new
Hi,
Well I sure can't claim no bids till last minute.
My last auction run of 45 items got a total of 370 bids.
I started all bids at $1.00 ran them for 10 days and had 1 auction in a high traffic "feature catagory". All auctions had the "personal picture gallery"
I did EXTREMELY well on these auctions. Hopefully I have finally found a good formula for selling my stuff.
Now I need to get busy and get some more on.
I could do if I would just stay off of these boards.
edited for packer by packer!!
.
Having a BAD hair Day! ...
posted on September 20, 2000 01:24:25 PM new
I have had this happen more and more. I dont blame the "watch" feature..instead, I think its because in the last year & 1/2, there were newbies coming out of the woodwork!! I think the news was really getting out about the great "sales floor in the sky" and people were registering in droves..The newbies were placing bids right away. It seems lately that there are less newbies, and more "pro's", who have made an art out of sniping. There have been a few times that I have gone in, sure I was going to have to relist, only to find a couple last minute snipes..I have also started doing 3 day auctions to test it out..and I get just as many bids with the 3 day..I just think many people automatically go for the stuff ending within 24 hours regardless..MHO..
posted on September 20, 2000 01:53:43 PM new
Hi Packer...
When you say "personal picture gallery," do you mean the thumbnails of the pics you have listed in the eBay gallery, called up by a link in your ad?
I just came back to eBay after a long break and inserted the code to search the eBay gallery for my items. This was on Monday...so far it hasn't worked. All I get is the "clelia.ebay.com - no response - server could be down or not responding."
