posted on November 18, 2000 04:06:43 AM new
Listed 4 items w/BIN. Starting price was $24.99, BIN was $36.50.
Next day one person does a BIN, then emails me twice, once to give me her phone number and an address to send the item to, once to tell me she won't be available via email due to loss of computer.
NO mention of payment!
We called, got an elderly gentleman who said that they were visiting him, and he didn't know when/if they'd return, but he took the message.
I'm digressing, argh.
"Buyer" was a 0-FB ebay member.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch... NONE of the other items (all 4 were identical) have received ANY bids.
We've been selling these for a while, and this total lack of bids at this point is VERY unusual. VERY.
My conclusion:
1. As noted by a couple of other posters here, people seem to think that they're *paying* when they do the ebay credit card verification thing. *Groan*...
2. People who might otherwise *bid* on an item are spooked off by the "buy it now" price. Yeah, I could make the "buy it now" price equal to the opening price. I could also eat broken glass and put nails in my eyes.
3. Guess what? You don't want to deal with Igor the -3 FB nightmare? Tough luck. It's HIS call whether or not HE wants to deal with YOU. Once he clicks that "buy it now" button, he's YOUR newfound friend, whether you like it or not.
posted on November 18, 2000 05:55:39 AM new
Good observations sourpuss.
I listed five items with BIN yesterday and no bids so far. Except for one item that I wasn't too sure of (had to guess what it might bring by looking at completed auctions, and unfortunately the price range was all over the place), they are all priced within reason, and have normal opening bid prices--but no bids yet. BIN prices range from 12.50 to 175.00. Opening bids from 4.50 to 95.00. Too early to say these auctions will flop, but I think if I'd listed normal auctions I'd have at least a bid or two by now.
But I didn't even consider the Igor factor. Now I'm worried.
[ edited by loosecannon on Nov 18, 2000 05:57 AM ]
posted on November 18, 2000 06:25:08 AM new
Well I am testing the system, because I use it exclusive on Yahoo and have found it wonderful. I only put a few auctions up on eBay to test it and 2 have sold. Whether the buyer knew what they were doing or not, I don't know, but whether they "knew" they were the winner - or not, a bid is a bid and that is a commitment, I am sure they realize they might bid and be the only bidder when the auction ended in a regular auction, so till something weird happens I'll keep testing the system.
I did have a problem last evening with an auction not closing when the bidder bid. My opening bid and BUY IT NOW prices are the same so it should have closed but it didn't. BUT MY eBay showed it closed, and my eBUD program picked it up as closed, but it was up and running, so I manually closed it. I feel the bidder will come through as the item sold for $39, and when I normally have it on an open auction it goes $70 and up.
I hadn't checked this morning, but stopped in the middle of writing this to check auctions and I have had 2 more sales with BUY IT NOW - looks encouraging.
Hang in there, it takes a while for bidders to catch on. I have buyers on Yahoo, who are amazed when they bid and immediately win, and Yahoo has had this system for ages.
posted on November 18, 2000 09:02:04 AM new
I think ebay needs to take the Buy It Now one step further and actually charge the buyer, run the cc thru Billpoint, and credit the seller's account for the purchase. This would end the confusion of buyers thinking they have already paid for the item.
posted on November 18, 2000 11:58:46 AM new
I wonder if there's a psychological factor at work. For example:
Bidder sees the Buy It Now Price of $36.50, opening bid of $24.99. Bidder thinks, Hmmm, I could buy this outright for $36.50 or place a first bid and potentially get it for $24.99 if nobody else bids.
Bidder decides they don't want to pay the higher BIN price, being accustomed to the eBay mindset of potentially paying the least amount possible via low winning bid. Or maybe $36.50 just strikes them as being too high a price, especially after you factor in postage, insurance, blah, blah, blah.
Bidder decides their best bet is to place an opening bid and keep their fingers crossed. They go to place their opening bid ... but hesitate. Bidder thinks, Hey waitamminit. This seller isn't stupid. If he's got a Buy It Now price of $36.50 on this doodad, then he must think he can get at least that much on the auction. Heck, he's not going to risk taking a loss on this. I've already decided I don't want to pay $36.50 -- or more -- for this particular doodad. But apparently the seller has every expectation that the price will go that high or higher.
Bidder stares at the screen and decides, Why bother bidding at all if the auction's probably going to end at a price I don't want to pay?
Bidder hits their "Back" button and moves on to other items.
posted on November 18, 2000 12:10:42 PM new
Another scenario: Bidder sees an item that will in all probability go much higher than the begining bid. BIN price is what they would have proxy bid anyway, and they want it NOW, for that special someone, so instead of having to wait 3, 5 7 or 10 days for the sale to end, they can get it NOW. Or, its an item they have been looking for and the BIN price is reasonable, so why wait and take the chance of losing it by being sniped at the last minute?
I am trying out the BIN function as we speak, but so far, no bites. I dont know if I will use it again. Maybe for higher priced items that I want a set price for. Beats using the reserve, especially if I start the bidding at what I would actually take for it. BIN would make bidder happy, as well as myself.
[ edited by FrannyS on Nov 18, 2000 12:11 PM ]
posted on November 18, 2000 12:12:11 PM new
yup this all makes sense as long as buy it now buyer have to be verified with CC # they might as well be makeing payment all in a one shot deal .
As far as people being scared off by the buy it price a bid is an Offer to buy either way buy it now or bid and wait if they win they are offeringto buy and should be willingto pay.
the way auctions are heading Credit and debit cards are going to be a must I see in the future all payments and shipping being paid automatically at the time the auction closes ebay and yahoo are setting buyers and sellers up for this slowly but it will happen im sure in the near future paydirect only for yahoo auctions BillPoint only for ebay auctions no exseptions.
This will cut out any confusion about chargeing fees for services like paypal in your auctions and dead beat bidders.
I can also see a comfirm shipping in the future that sellers will have to fill out within X amount of days Before payments are tranfered to sellers bank maybe all buyers will pay a shipment tracking fee in some such way as the buyers account will be billed monthly for and the sellers credited.
This would make online auctions a bit safer investment for both buyers and sellers.
posted on November 18, 2000 05:47:40 PM new
Well I don't understand why a bidder can only use the buy it now price BEFORE the bidding begins. Does the BIN option disappear after the first bid? It would be nice to allow a bid at the BIN price at any time during the auction.
This is the way Yahoo and Amazon work.
BIN pricing can also be used to let the buyer think he's getting an incredible deal. For example an item with an expected final price of $25 could be started at $1 and a BIN price of $100.
posted on November 18, 2000 06:05:20 PM new
>>BIN pricing can also be used to let the buyer think he's getting an incredible deal. For example an item with an expected final price of $25 could be started at $1 and a BIN price of $100.
_____
Come on, I'm a buyer and I'm not stupid and most buyers aren't that stupid. They either have a good idea of what the item will sell for or they rely on bidding to set a market price. If I see an item and I have a good inkling it will sell for $25 when the bidding is done and the seller has got a BIN price of $100, that just tells me the seller is using the BIN to play a game with my head rather than actually sell the item, and I don't appreciate that.
I think BIN is attractive mostly so you can get the auction over with and not have to wait the 3, 5, 7 days, put up with having to outbid people, having to check every day, etc.
________
I never had one, and I didn't want one, and I don't, so now I do...
posted on November 18, 2000 07:37:21 PM new
Not too much luck with my BIN auctions. Got an opening bid one one however. Guess he/she didn't like the BIN price. It did change to a regular auction like it was supposed to.
I'm thinking to cancel the other BIN auctions and restarting them tomorrow as normal auctions. I've done OK that way and I think I'll continue that way.
posted on November 19, 2000 09:11:03 PM new
Epilogue:
Two of the remaining three items got opening bids yesterday. The third got an opening bid today. One of the three got a second bid today. Two closed at opening bid, one closed at four bucks over opening bid. This is the lowest we've ever gotten for these items.
Don't know if it was BIN confusion, election mess panic/distraction, a combination of the two, or something else (no idea what).
Where we go from here, hard to say. Do we use BIN again? What to do, what to do...
PS: the one BIN buyer indeed thought she paid when she registered her CC w/ebay. I think that is going to be The Big Problem (at least in terms of happening most frequently) with BIN.
posted on November 20, 2000 07:24:50 AM new
We got 4 sales yesterday from "BIN". We set our BIN price at what these item ussually bring, and out of about 20 listings, 4 where snappped up quick. (I kinda like it.)
I'm not sure about the Credit Card thingy, did get one email from a buyer wondering "if I should have paid for it then", got to check and see what's up with this, Seems to have confused the buyer.
posted on November 20, 2000 07:35:13 AM new
I've used the BIN feature on most of the auctions I've listed recently. I had my first sale last night, the first time for both myself and the buyer. We are both pleased since we've skipped the usual 5-10 wait and we're moving right along. A few of my others have caught the opening bid. Fine with me, it has a built-in profit, and now they have bids rather than sitting on someone's "watch" list.
I don't want to like it TOO much though. I'm annoyed that ebay plans to charge for it later.
posted on November 20, 2000 09:58:23 AM new
On Yahoo, I've tried the $5.00 start bid, a BIN of $20, never a taker. It hasn't encouraged more bidding either. What has worked is having a start of say, $8.50, and a BIN of $10.00. I do that a lot and get an extra $1 or two every time because people figure what's another dollar, and they can close the auction early with them winning. It works best on items where you only expect one or two bids.
"If you lend someone $20, and never see that person again, it was probably worth it."
posted on November 20, 2000 05:29:33 PM new
I've noticed something odd with BIN. Many of my auctions with BIN prices set are sitting there with absolutely NO bids where I would normally have several by now. I can't even imagine why...
