posted on January 10, 2001 05:25:15 PM
I sell "new" collectibles on ebay and have recently set up a web site where I sell the same items. Occasionally someone bids up the price of an ebay item rather high. This is great for me (what every seller wants, right?). But, now that I am building my web site, I am wondering what happens when the buyer sees a link to my web site in my emails and discovers that the same item is selling at my web site for 1/3 of their ebay high bid.
Will this make an ebay bidder furious--or is it not something to worry about? I would appreciate any experiences others have had or comments.
posted on January 10, 2001 05:32:03 PM
In my experience when I have clicked through to someone's website where they are selling the same things, the price on the website is slightly higher.
Usually the seller will start the bidding on their auctions way lower and have an idea of what they will usually go for then set the price on their website accordingly.
posted on January 10, 2001 05:45:18 PM
Actually, this is one of the reasons I finally took my website out of my auction listings.
Yes, it can & does happen. I've had this happen several times..the worst of which was when a bidding war took place & bid an already high priced item 3 times higher than what it sold for normally on my site.
You must decide for yourself what you will do. If the customer remarked on it, I would drop the price back to the website price. While some might say this foolish, it generally made the customer very happy & often they became repeat customers of both my auctions and my site.
posted on January 10, 2001 05:54:18 PM
I use auctions as advertising to get folks to discover my web site. I set the buy price of my auctions to the selling price on my web site. Before there was a buy price, I used to put in the text of the auction that if the bid went over x$, I would pay the shipping. Sometimes someone bid even more than my selling price + shipping. Then I would have the pleasure of telling them they overbid and they could pay less or I would add a gift. This is the kind of response that gets customers to come back and refer their friends. It's worth a lot more than the extra few bucks you can otherwise take them for.
posted on January 10, 2001 05:58:05 PM
Yes, there will be a certain percentage of bidders who will be furious with this.
If a bidder foolishly bids a widget up to $60, then afterwards discovers that he can purchase it from your website for $20, he's not going to be happy. Yes, the bidder should have done his homework before bidding so high. Yes, the auction is a binding contract. Yes, you would be perfectly within your rights to demand the buyer pay the $60 agreed upon in the auction. I don't think it would be good business to do so, however, especially if you are trying to build repeat business.
It sounds like the new rules regarding links would make it difficult to promote your website in the auction itself. From what I understand, you can say "Please visit my website" but you're not supposed to say "Please visit my website for great deals on this and many other collectibles." I think your EOA notice is probably the place you'd best be able to promote your website - and you're going to say, "Please visit my website, where you could have bought this item for a third of what you're paying" -- -- --?
As I say, you'd be within your rights to hold fast to the $60 price, but I think the message that sends is: If you're dumb enough not to do the research up front, I'm right here, ready to take advantage of you. Not exactly the sort of attitude that endears me to a seller. As eventer has said, I think dropping your price to the website price would be good business if you're trying to develop repeat customers. At the very least, I would suggest you offer the difference in the form of credit for additional items from your website.
Using the "Buy It Now" feature might be a way to go that avoids this whole issue.
posted on January 10, 2001 06:07:06 PM
That's a tough question. It happened to me and I told the customer I wouldn't give him any credit for the higher eBay purchase. I don't think the price should be renegotiated after the auction ends. The bidder has no right to ask for this; after all, they set their own price.
Let's say the minimum bid for the item was $9.99. Customer A bids $14 and Customer B bids $15. Customer A would have been happy to pay $14 for the item. Customer B is a cheapskate who complains when they find you are selling the item for $9.99 on your site. At that point, dropping the price down to $9.99 for B is unfair to A, and it's unfair to the seller.
You might be interested to know that none of the people who discovered the lower price on my site compared to what they paid (INCLUDING the one who bid the price up to the 3X amount I mentioned in my earlier post) EVER asked me to reduce the price.
I volunteered to reduce the price and, in each case, the buyer was extremely grateful & came back, in each case, to spend quite a bit more off both my auctions AND my website because they "appreciated" what I did. AND, each one told me they would have been willing to honor their bid amount if I hadn't lowered it.
I not only the same amount that I would have had I made the buyer stick to their original bid amount but in the case of the one person w/the 3X bid, made several hundred dollars more in sales & she sent other buyers to both my auctions & my website.
If reducing the price back gets me that kind of business, I'll take that kind of "unfairness" everyday.
posted on January 10, 2001 09:21:39 PM
Eventer, I understand your point. The problem with anecdotal evidence is that it is not always true: Just because you work a deal in the customer's favor once does not guarantee a return customer or repeat business. If it did, we'd all get rich selling items at half-off. Of course, you can work any deal you want with your customer.
Another problem you face is one like this. Let's say the customer never does find out about your web site. He just goes on buying one widget a week from you via eBay, until you've sold 100 items. Then, one day, the customer discovers your web site, and realizes he's overpaid you for 100 widgets. Then what do you do? Refund the difference in price for 100 widgets? Would you refund, say, $500 dollars, or would you tell the customer he's plain out of luck?
posted on January 10, 2001 09:22:33 PM
Here is a similar situation I encounter fairly often: I list an item on ebay for $7.00. It bids up to $15.00. After the auction ends I get an email from someone else (someone who has not bid on the auction). They ask what I would sell the item for "off auction".
I am listing this same item on my web site for $7.00. And if this person had just come directly to my site and bought it I would be happy with the $7.00. But somehow, it doesn't seem fair to the high bidder to charge them 15.00, then sell the item for half that price to someone who was scanning the auctions, but did not bid. Just another little can of worms.
posted on January 10, 2001 09:28:02 PM
To me, it takes a lot of tinkering with the prices on your site. If you run into that situation all of the time, then your web price might be a bit too low. I tried starting auctions at the web price, that just doesn't work. My web prices are 5-7 dollars over my auction prices, that works best for me.
Since I am fortunate to sell a lot of the same items, I try to adjust the prices so the web price is always a bit higher than the auction price, but not too much, since I want web sales too.
There will always be cases where 2 bidders get into a bidding war and prices will go over. You do what you feel is right in that regard.
posted on January 11, 2001 04:10:50 AM
If the item in question you have more than one of then you might want to consider a dutch auction on it if it is a popular item.
You wont feel guilty of making you over paying bidder pay way too much.
If you had an item starting at $7, the price on your website ........then 5 bids pushing it up to $15.00. Would you rather ........
A. Sell one at $15.00 and hope to god they don't go to your site and feel ripped off
B. Have 5 customers selling 5 $7 items
Since you said you have a website then I am assuming you have more than one of this item.
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posted on January 11, 2001 06:47:17 AM
Your website price should always be higher than your average auction closing price. Many people would prefer to browse a website and buy what they want, when they want, without having to bid and wait. This is a "value added" service and justifies a higher price.
As for controlling the auction ending price; this is best accomplished by adjusting the quantity available through dutch auctions. If you are happy with $7.00 each and receive an average of 5 bids from 3 bidders, list 4 widgets at $7.00 and price them on your website at $9.95.
In addition to the 3 bidders, you have to think about the other 25 people that did not bid. Why didn't they. Was the price too high when it passed $10, or $12? Did they not want to wait 6 days for the auction to end?
Chances are, all four listed in the dutch auction would sell at $7.00 and at least one would click through to your site and buy one for $9.95. A much better profit than selling just the one at $15.00, and no chance of hurting anyone's feelings or losing future sales.
