posted on January 12, 2001 03:27:57 PM
Where is "Buy it now" headed? When is Ebay going to start charging for it---and how much?
Unlike bold print or featured auction options, "buy it now" should remain free and simply be a choice you have when listing. It doesn't really give you much of an advantage over anyone, so dropping it when they start to charge for it will be simple and non-detrimental to my auctions.
posted on January 12, 2001 03:34:04 PM
It was posted on the Announcement Board today. It will remain free for the 1st quarter:
*** Buy It Now ***
To the eBay Community,
We are excited to announce that Buy It Now will become a permanent feature on eBay!
We are very pleased with the performance of Buy It Now since its launch on November 17. Use of Buy It Now has continued to grow steadily, and reaction to the feature has been overwhelmingly positive from both buyers and sellers. Buyers love the convenience of an immediate transaction, particularly when shopping for gifts. Sellers have benefited from faster auctions and the option to offer another way to buy.
Responding to sellers' requests, we introduced Buy It Now for Mister Lister on 12/29. We will make further enhancements by enabling Buy It Now for Dutch auctions and offering a Buy It Now search tool.
We will continue to offer Buy It Now as a free feature through the first quarter of this year, after which we will evaluate pricing against the cost of enhancements and maintaining the feature. Please share your feedback with us so that we can continue to improve the feature for both buyers and sellers.
posted on January 12, 2001 03:44:50 PM
"Please share your feedback with us so that we can continue to improve the feature for both buyers and sellers..."
Let's tell them to keep it free! After all, they are getting more money because of BIN.
posted on January 12, 2001 03:54:26 PM
Yup! Keep it free and we will continue to use it. Everybody I've talked to agrees that if ebay starts charging they will discontinue use of "buy it now".
posted on January 12, 2001 07:01:31 PM
I think ebaY should make BIN free permanently. BIN prices are usually a little more than the seller is willing to take for the item, so the items are off ebaY's system faster and yet they still collect fees.
IMO, there is no reason to charge for it as someone said above, using the feature doesn't really give you an advantage.
posted on January 12, 2001 07:39:37 PM
It would seem to me that E-Bay would make more more off BIN not to charge to use it,as in my case I list the item higher than I would normally sell it for,so E-Bay would collect a higher fee off me everytime a buyer uses it.Where if they charge for BIN, I won't use it.
posted on January 12, 2001 07:51:10 PM
As a seller, I like this, and a few of my auctions have sold this way - However, I wouldn't pay to use this, so when they do start charging (and they will) I won't use it. I would think most sellers would not pay either.
posted on January 12, 2001 09:24:17 PM
I totally despise the "Buy It Now" feature as a seller. As a buyer I like it, because I have snagged some nice underpriced items as soon as they were listed, had they been a regular auction, the price would have gone much higher. Then I pay by PayPal and get the item within a week!
As a seller, I used it for most of my items the week it became available, and NEVER again.
A new user (registered a few months ago, but had zero feedback) went out of control and bought 19 items, all with BIN, two of which were mine. I suppose he figured $5 here and $10 there wasn't so bad, but after it was all over he realized how much he owed.
Instead of just leaving it alone, which would have been bad enough, he posted negative feedback to most of the sellers the same day, with the message "no email." The real kicker is that his registered email was invalid, so all email bounced.
Hee ruined my flawless feedback rating, so I decided it was too easy for a bad apple to go out of control and screw things up for me. Also, I think many newbies get tempted, and just ignore the EOA emails, thinking they have the option of taking it at that price or leaving it. They don't realize that us sellers take this seriously.
posted on January 12, 2001 09:44:00 PM
BIN has been interesting for me, as I use it on only those items that I buy in bulk. (I haven't used it on my unique one-of-a-kind auctions.)
Overall, it has increased the volume of sales which benefits both me and ebay. As soon as an item sells, I usually relist it so they get more listing fees as well. In some cases buyers pay a little more than usual for the BIN price, and that helps ebays final value fee.
Being a seller who likes to keep costs down, I am not looking forward to paying more for this service, and will have to re-evaluate its use auction-by-auction and adjust the frequency of relisting accordingly.
With ebay's reputation for shallow thinking I wonder it they will be wise enough to balance the increase in BIN fees against the reduction in insertion and FVF's? Because they have a great tool, one that could be the goose that's laying golden eggs, but if they push it they could easily kill the goose and lose the eggs!
posted on January 13, 2001 01:24:57 AM
I'm always pleasantly surprised when one of my auction items sells with BIN. My prediction is: Ebay will charge for it; many will leave in protest; most will come back.
posted on January 13, 2001 04:56:04 AMmotive8[ - the same scenario could have occurred even without BIN, as many of us who've been burned by out-of-control bidders can,unfortunately, attest.
posted on January 13, 2001 07:26:04 AM
I think that if / when eBay charges for Buy It Now.... it will likely be in the form of a "success fee".... meaning, it's FREE to offer it as a buying option, but IF the item sells with the use of BIN, a fee will be incurred.
I wonder if it would be a flat rate "success fee" of something like .25 OR if it would actually be a set % of the Buy Now Price?
I believe they would likely use the FLAT RATE fee, since imposing a fee based on the percentage of the BIN price would only encourage sellers to put OUTRAGEOUS Buy It Now prices on their items in order to get them into the special BIN searches... but DISCOURAGE the actual USE of BIN in favor of the traditional AUCTION since the opening bid would be so much less than the BUY IT NOW price offered.
OR... the opposite could also happen with BIN. Some sellers might set lower BIN prices to avoid paying higher "success fees" based on the percentage of the BUY IT NOW price... which would drive ending values DOWN and create a smaller revenue stream from BIN auctions.
Yep... I'm placing my bets on the Flat Rate "Success Fee" - since one of the advantages is that it would still be "FREE" at the time of listing and Sellers will be able to justify the added FIXED expense of BIN in the event their items are successful via the use of Buy It Now. ALSO, eBay could tout Buy It Now's "VALUE", since items with BIN would be included in searches of only items offering BUY IT NOW.
Regardless, I won't be paying to offer or use BUY IT NOW.
I'll just begin placing "BUY NOW" in the title of my listings and let the bidders know to eMail me after placing the first bid.
In cases of IDENTICLE items, I'll sell to the bidders every step of the way... keep the auction running and sell to every bidder that places a subsequent higher bid!
posted on January 13, 2001 07:48:13 AM
NO linr... how much is it worth to YOU? Rest assured that the sellers that DO "support" BIN by paying a fee to offer it, WILL pass those added costs onto YOU.
posted on January 13, 2001 08:52:22 AM
How would they do BIN for a dutch auction??
Maybe it's too early in the AM, but that thought just totally makes no sense to me at all...
It's worth a lot to me. I'm sure you already knew that, though. Isn't that why I am using Buy It Now to begin with?
Why do I want to wait around a bid and such... I just want something. I am willing to pay a higher premium on that item because I want the item ... don't want to wait 7 days. Too much trouble to buy it "off market". If they support Paypal or BillPoint and buy it now, then I look for these items a LOT more. Sellers I buy from will make more on the item from me (and bidders like me) than if they had listed their item without a buy it now price. I know this because I have been buying on auctions for several years, and I am paying higher prices on BIN items for a reason. It is much better for me to be able to know definitively the price I am paying for an item. I understand it will most often be a higher price than if I let the bidding process play out. If I were a seller, I wouldn't be threatened by a buyer wanting to use a feature I thought should be free. I would try to learn and understand the reason why they are willing to pay more for the same item because it would help me increase my profits.
Every item type may not benefit from this, but it is a benefit to me and the types of items that I buy.
I like Buy It Now. I will continue to support sellers with my money who use it.
