quazz
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posted on October 9, 2000 08:17:07 AM
I had a nice increase in sales and hit/bid ratios throughout the summer. I relisted the same Dutch auction 12 times with good results using only the Featured Category area.
Three weeks ago without warning the relisted auctions took a dive and sales and hits plumetted 75% or more.
In an act of desparation I re-listed this week in the Featured and Featured Category and so far I'm having the worse auction ever. I'll be lucky to make enough for the stamps let alone eBay's charges.
I am sooo disappointed and confused on what I'm doing wrong nor do I understand what my competetors are doing right.
There are 2 or 3 competetors that I have kept up with all summer. These guys are all doing ok with their re-listings, but I'm flat on my face.
What's the secret to getting hits? Featured auctions don't seem to make any differance.
Do I need to run .01 dutch auctions to grab buyers attention? I'm not selling junk and my html is ok along with the pics and description. My Feedback is fine at over 100 with no negs, and I did well for so long and then SPLAT!!
Any ideas or words of encouragement? I'm lost.
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quazz
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posted on October 9, 2000 03:55:44 PM
Heh, no response in 12 hours.
Can'tcha feel the love?
What's with this group? You all seem to be afraid to discuss tactics.
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macandjan
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posted on October 9, 2000 05:17:55 PM
Not enough info here for me to help much. I have pretty much given up on featured in category due to the $ increase and one seller is losting so many items that way the section is as big or bigger than a normal page.
What kind of items. What else is different about the competition? Something has to be.
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twinsoft
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posted on October 9, 2000 05:26:48 PM
It sounds like you forgot to pay homage to the gods of auction bidding. I find that dancing backwards while throwing a few drops of beetle juice over my left shoulder usually gets the bidding going in a big way. Good luck.
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labbie1
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posted on October 9, 2000 05:57:29 PM
Are there differences in shipping costs?
Are there differences in payment methods accepted?
September was really awful for me. Very disappointing, but it is beginning to pick up finally! It's still wheezing though...
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quazz
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posted on October 10, 2000 04:56:22 AM
[quote]What kind of items. What else is different about the competition? Something has to be.
[/quote]
I'm selling 14kt gold chains. Same size and weight as the others. The only differance in the item is mine are described as made in USA where other list as Italian.
[quote]Are there differences in shipping costs? Are there differences in payment methods accepted?
[/quote]
Payment methods are exactly the same. Shipping and cost of the items are within
.50 of each other but I add a little gift pouch to offset that.
The only thing I can figure out is the guys that are doing the 1.00 auctions are grabbing the majority of the bidders.
There are three of us that don't do 1.00 auctions. The other two guys list 100's of really inexpensive jewelry items weekly where I only list one or two. Perhaps they are getting alot of hits from the buyers that click the "view other auction link". These other two main competetors are also PowerSellers with very high feedbacks.
The Featured Auction is getting less hits this week than my Featured Category did the previous week. A total waste of money.
It baffles me to see my auctions plummet so badly without changing anything. But two other sellers I mentioned seem to be trudging along OK without changing their auctions either.
I entered into this arena knowing that the competition was tough. But, I worked hard to compete and the results where OK through the summer. I never planned on getting rich quick. I just hoped for a slow but sure climb to a little extra income to subsidize my retirement.
I opted to do this retail selling for only a short time, perhaps through Xmas, to build a little working capital to venture into other more interesting areas. I started with $200 and built it up to where I spent all the summers profits on my last stock order.
Now with the last 3 weeks producing no income to speak of, I'm sitting on 1500 bucks worth of stock that I can't seem to move, and I can't afford to insert any more expensive auctions.
Now where did I put that beetle juice?
[email protected]
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cybercat
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posted on October 10, 2000 08:53:42 AM
Personally, I never have paid much attention to featured auctions or auctions in the featured categories when shopping eBay so I don't think it is worth the extra bucks they charge. The best value is the gallery picture.
Keep in mind I have never sold gold chains or any new items for that matter--I have a couple of thoughts--but take them with a grain of salt. Have you checked to make sure your pictures are still coming up in your auctions? Have you made sure your html is viewable to Netscape and IE browsers? Are your TOS simple, easy and unthreatening? Those are three things that make me lose interest in an auction right away.
Perhaps you need to take some new pics (make sure they load fast) and re-word your description to give the auction a fresh look--and be sure to mention the pouch is included. A close-up of the links and a mention of the "fine workmanship" might spark some interest. If the chains are hand-made or have soldered links and are less likely to break--it would be worth a mention. A close-up of the 14K stamp on the clasp would assure your buyers that it's really 14K.
Also, you may have hit on something with the "Italian" gold. My mother watches those "shop at home" jewelry shows on TV and they always make a big deal out of gold items from Italy. I'm not sure how they are different--perhaps the workmanship--I dunno. I always figured if something was 14K it had the same gold content no matter where it was from. It's just possible that Italian made gold items are "in" right now.
I've also noticed that the people on the TV shopping shows always mention how much their price figures out to be "per gram." Evidently this means something to jewelry shoppers--they don't mention how much it figures out to be per troy ounce--which I always thought was the usual way of pricing gold. They are also mentioning how much regular retail outlets charge for their items to show what a bargain they have.
Lastly, you might want to list the chains separately in a regular auction. A lot of newbies aren't sure how a Dutch auction works and just don't bid on them. I know I was confused by them at first. Another point about a Dutch auction--when you see the seller has a whole bunch of an item--it doesn't seem so "rare" or "special"--especially to a newbie. If you only seem to have one--it might be more desirable.
I'm sure a perenniel seller like gold chains will do well as a Christmas or Channukah gift. This just might be the calm before the storm of frenzied Christmas shoppers hits.
cybercat
Edited to add that you might want to change the length of your auctions or day and/or the time of day they are ending since most people seem to bid in the last minutes these days. I know I have started shopping the "Ending Today" category myself.
[ edited by cybercat on Oct 10, 2000 08:57 AM ]
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heike55
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posted on October 10, 2000 03:12:22 PM
How about listing some on yahoo. It's free over there. At least you could have some sales without incurring any more fees.
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msstone
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posted on October 10, 2000 09:46:34 PM
I think I can answer some of your questions. American gold has a bad rep. Prior I think it was in 84 don't hold me to the year. US gold was stamped 14kt but it was not. It could be 13Kt or 12Kt. It now has to be 14 kt if stamped 14 kt but that does not get rid of the stigma. While Italian Gold stamped 14Kt is 14Kt There has not been any inconsistancies to it. Italian gold is considered the top of the line as far as 14 kt chains go.
Gold is sold by the troy gram instead of 28 grams to an oz. it is 32 gms to an oz. Chain and jewelry is priced by the gram. I find that people don't want to pay retail for jewelry. they barely want to pay wholesale.
I put a ruby and diamond ring in 14 kt and started it at $1.00 it got up $35. This was last winter when things were busy. Thankfully I had a reserve on it. The funny thing is that I could have broken the ring down and gotten $35 for scrap gold from it.
I am a powerseller and sell stones primarily. There is a lot of competion out there and less people willing to spend money. People seem to be afraid to spend money right now. When that happens Jewelry is the first thing that people stop buying.
Feature auctions have become a rip off since it now costs $39.90 for the same coverage that was $19.95 before. I also noticed that I got less then half the hits since the new featured policies went in.
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quazz
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posted on October 11, 2000 04:53:13 AM
To respond to some of the responses;
My auctions work fine with IE, Netscape and WebTV. I even had eBay tech support check the code, pictures and placement. All checks out fine.
My page design, pics, and TOS are very clean and simple. Perhaps, my copy needs to be re-written with a little more "hype"
I place the ad on Yahoo a few times with no hits or bids whatsoever.
On Italian vs US gold. American and European smelters use the same techniques and sources. They both use recycled gold. Even old dental gold goes into the crucible for re-fining. The machinery is pretty much the same on both sides of the puddle. So in reality there is very little differance between them. However, Turkish gold is a different story. Their refining methods are superior and Turkey produces the purest gold in the world.
The idea that Itailian gold is better than US may be the determining factor in getting hits is close to the mark.
There is one competitor that is "leap frogging "Featured and Featured Category" auctions. Starting one auction and closing one auction every three days, his eBay charges have to be over $1000 per month just for this one item. How can you compete with this kind of Power Seller?
Another competor must be using "spam" to get the kind of hits he's getting.
Just do a search for "SOLID 14KT GOLD ROPE CHAIN" for an example of extreme competition.
All in all it's been a study in marketing. I'll just keep trudgin along with cheaper insertions till my stock is gone and write it off to a good education.
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twelvepole
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posted on October 11, 2000 12:18:25 PM
How can you compete with this kind of Power Seller?
How about better quality and a lower price? I think most of us look at starting bids and go from there, unless it is a known rarity ( 14K gold isn't) then why not try for the best bargin?
Ain't Life Grand... 
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capotasto
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posted on October 11, 2000 01:04:41 PM
Ain't Life Grand...
Well it's better than the alternative...
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quazz
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posted on October 11, 2000 02:52:35 PM
How about better quality and a lower price? I think most of us look at starting bids and go from there, unless it is a known rarity ( 14K gold isn't) then why not try for the best bargin?
14kt gold is 14kt gold and I'm buying from one of the most experienced and reputable makers in the business. My selling price is right on the mark with very low 15% markup and my shipping price is half of some others.
Do you think 1.00 either way really makes a difference?
All the chain dealers seem to be offering a really good deal to the buyers, cutting retail by at least 50%. The only way we can do it is because of the low overhead of auctioneering. Some dealers may make a few pennys more by selling lighter weight chains, but to risk an unsatisfied customer isn't worth the very few dollars extra.
This Featured Auction bit just doesn't make cents, unless you use some sort of trick to grab the bidders.
Buyers get what they pay for. But what I offer that is special, is really good customer service and very prompt delivery. My feedback shows that.
I'll get over this setback and with what I've learned here, and suceed in perhaps another area with different items.
The bottom line is that in my first 3 months I've sold to over 220 separate buyers, made some nice friends, and have learned the fundamentals and proceedures for future auctions. From that viewpoint this has been a sucess.
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msstone
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posted on October 11, 2000 03:51:11 PM
Quazz, I feel for you. I know what you are going through. My prime catagory is flooded the number of sellers has increased 600%. The good news is that some are dropping out.
I have some silver chains from my old jewelry stores. I can't compete with the price that is the going rate for silver and make any small profit. I decided to add pendants to the chains so that they would not just fall under a price for gram price so I could have some small profit.
You may try to pick up some inexpensive pendants to add to your chains to make them different and to give you a little better price. Crosses seem to sell well, as well as pendants with inexpensive gemstones or cz's.
I give a free gemstone with every purchase. I have only recently started advertising that I do that. Up until now I just gave the additional stone as a surprise for my customers. You may want to try that or something similar. People like to get something extra.
[ edited by msstone on Oct 11, 2000 04:07 PM ]
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