posted on September 25, 2000 09:27:01 AM
Since I'm relatively new to selling I'm always looking to learn from sucessful sellers. But some of the tactics I see on eBay are hard to swallow.
I sell inexpensive but quality 14kt jewelry.
All tested 14kt gold with natural stones. I've been stocking up on items for the holidays because I've been doing relatively well.
My dutch auctions have steadily increased in
item count until a few sellers have started to run .01 dutch auctions selling the same items. Thus totally killing my bid count. I see that other competitors running dutch auctions with the same item at set prices have been losing their bid counts to these .01 sellers.
Since my items sell for well under $20.00 each, I attract mostly newbies or impulse buyers to my auctions, as do my other competitors. But the attraction to these .01 sales are definately grabbing their attention. One guy has over 300 bids so far on 4 items over a 2 day period.
I doubt highly that any of these .01'ers are making a great profit, if any, on these sales but they sure are hurting those who sell at a firm price. My sales are down 80% over the last week.
So what recourse do I have? Do I stoop to hyping my customers and run a .01 sale? This type of advertising just rubs me the wrong way. I'm not a junk peddler and never will be, and to go into competion with Ginsu knife dealers in the Gold Jewelry catagory is not what I anticipated when I invested in this auction business.
Maybe I'm really naive, but I was hoping that customer service coupled with a quality product would be enough to start out with on eBay.
This WoW - L@@K - Liquidation - Closeout, Bullshid - BARF belongs in the tabloids. It seems that eBay is starting to deserve the bad rap thier getting on TV.
If anyone wishes to discuss this with me privately email me at [email protected]
posted on September 25, 2000 09:57:32 AM
Have you tried Featured Auctions for your dutch auctions? That can be a very effective way of attracting attention.
As far as selling at a firm price, well, eBay IS an auction site, not a retail store. Most bidders enjoy the game of TRYING to get an item at well below retail.
posted on September 25, 2000 10:39:00 AM
I wonder if any of your competitors are getting enough money per item to be profitable or if they are scamming. Real gold and natural stones cost $$ and maybe they are selling shorted 14K gold (marked 14K but actually less) and/or lab created stones. A lot of buyers wouldn't know the diff.
posted on September 25, 2000 11:04:09 AM
Are you sure the .01 sales are Dutch? I run some $1 opening bid auctions on pricey stuff because I know it will find its price. But I'd never consider a .01 Dutch auction. Are they making money off inflated handling charges?
posted on September 25, 2000 11:08:52 AM
I second magazine_guy's question -- look very carefully at their handling charges.
A LOT of Sellers are shifting profits into that arena. Ebay frowns on Fee Avoidance, tho, as I understand it, so if there are high handling charges, you might let [email protected] take a look. If the charges are listed specifically (and I'm betting they're not), you'll have to do a little investigative work to find out what the handling charges are.
posted on September 25, 2000 11:34:30 AM
If I were you I'd buy one of their items. If the quality of their product is substantially lower, I'd emphasize the good points of my product, ie, number of prongs holding the stone, or non-dyed stones. Needless to say, you would not mention your competitor's id because it wouldn't be necessary. Most buyers will look for a good cheap deal once, but if the quality is not there, they will not become repeat buyers. They will look for something better.
posted on September 25, 2000 11:43:58 AM
>Your recourse is to play the game better or go out of business.. Its the American way.....
No way will I stoop to playing this cheap game nor go out of business. Instead of selling a zillion $20.00 gold items per month I'll move up to selling a few pieces of authentic designer jewelry at 500 bucks and give my buyers a good deal on a great item. I like sleeping well at night.
Do you think Tiffany's would resort to a price war with WalMart? NOT !
>Have you tried Featured Auctions for your dutch auctions? That can be a very effective way of attracting attention.
All my auctions are Featured Category, and have done ok. This week I'll be lucky to pay the insertion charges with the profit. So far I just can't afford $100 insertion fees for the Main Featured.
>As far as selling at a firm price, well, eBay IS an auction site, not a retail store. Most bidders enjoy the game of TRYING to get an item at well below retail.
I offer my items at a price which is just a few points over what a brick and mortar shop would pay. This equates to a win/win situation where the buyer and the seller makes out ok. I'm not trying to get rich quick, but a steady little income would be nice.
>I wonder if any of your competitors are getting enough money per item to be profitable or if they are scamming.
The guys that are selling at a set price are all offering the real McCoy. I bought from all these folks before I entered into the arena. All summer it was good healthy competition.
These .01'ers I'm not sure of. I know I could buy synthetic saphires etc for less than a dollar a carat, where even the poorest natural stones wholesale for $10 and up. And plated chain can easily be tagged 14kt.
I don't know if they are scamming. I do know they don't have any feedback rating to speak of and what feedback rating they do have they got by buying 10 low priced item to accumulate their feedback inside of a weeks time.
As an example there is one of these auctions out that is up to $1.25 with 130 bids. At the very minimum 1 gram of 14kt sells for 7.50 wholesale at todays gold market and a natural stone at $10.00 That's a minimum of $17.50 cost for each of these .01 items.
Scammer or gambler ?? you be the judge.
If you owned a gas station would you blow up the station accros the street, or just enter into a healthy competition where you both can make a living?
Sorry to ramble, but this whole situation just plain sucks.
posted on September 26, 2000 06:06:16 PM
>I wonder if any of your competitors are getting enough money per item to be profitable or if they are scamming. Real gold and natural stones cost $$ and maybe they are selling shorted 14K gold (marked 14K but actually less) and/or lab created stones. A lot of buyers wouldn't know the diff.
I emailed this particulat seller a few times over the last 36 hours for a confirmation on the karat content with no reply whatsoever.
He's obviously a rip off artist.
It's no wonder eBay is taking such a bad rap with the media.
posted on September 26, 2000 06:58:40 PMInstead of selling a zillion $20.00 gold items per month I'll move up to selling a few pieces of authentic designer jewelry at 500 bucks and give my buyers a good deal on a great item.
Quazz: I think you yourself have just provided a very good solution to your problem - change your target customer!
posted on September 26, 2000 07:06:28 PM
quazz...I sell sterling & gemstone jewelry out of my home, some of it handset and some finished pieces purchased at wholesale prices at gemstones. I had to stop selling on eBay because I couldn't get the prices I needed just to break even. All my items were excellent quality, but I was consistently underpriced by the competition who were working with much larger quantities. I've finally just taken my business locally where I not only get the prices I ask for, but word of mouth keeps my inventory moving at a pretty good pace.
I wish I could be more positive for you, but the jewelry category now contains almost 219,000 items. (When I first started selling 2-1/2 years ago, there were about 40,000 items and almost every item sold.) It's tough to sell anything above wholesale amount, especially when most buyers know a better deal will be just around the corner.
posted on September 26, 2000 07:39:46 PM
... just a reminder that one of the highest ranking feedbackers on eBay sells everything at 1c minimum bid, no reserve, no dutch auctions. It's my wife's '[email protected]' userID on eBay. Selling all our used music CDs at 1c starting bid was part of the business model that she and I developed. We get beat up a lot but at the end of each month we're in the black.
BTW, she's getting awfully close to 20,000 unique feedbacks on eBay. What's the next color star I wonder?
posted on September 26, 2000 07:58:14 PM
>Quazz: I think you yourself have just provided a very good solution to your problem - change your target customer!
