posted on January 17, 2001 04:04:41 PM new
Aloha all, to BIN or not to BIN, that is the question. I have tried BIN for the past 2 months and found little satisfaction from it. I got more bids when I ran stuff as regular 5 day auctions than with BIN. I thought of saying "First Bid Wins" in my titles instead of "Buy It Now" but I haven't tried it yet.
As a seller, do you find it a bad or good thing to continue using BIN (or change it to First Bid Wins) or not?
And what are bidders feelings about BIN?
I look forward to the feedback as I am relisting some auctions in a few days.
posted on January 17, 2001 04:47:43 PM new
I've been an eBay seller for just about 4 years now. I've just started using the Buy it Now feature during the past few months. I think that when this feature is used responsibly, it can be very effective. Just make sure you follow a few guidelines on the items you place a BIN on.
1) Don't put a BIN on an item you've never sold before. You really don't have any idea how much this item will sell for. You could easily undercut yourself on your profit margin.
2) Use reasonable BIN prices. I've found that on my items 50% more than my minimum bid works well. It's attractive enough to my bidders, but profitable enough for me!
3) Use BIN on your auctions that you're relisting. Think of it this way... the auctions COULD have ended last time at the minimum bid. If you set a BIN for a bit higher then your minimum, you're certainly not loosing anything if a bidder snaps it up quick! I've found that by using BIN on my relists, I get a higher percentage of bids on my relisted items than before.
I think that by following these guidelines, BIN can be a very effective tool. As far as putting "BIN", "First bid wins", or "Buy it Now" in your titles... I don't think any of them will make that much of a difference. Most bidders seem to just look for the Buy it now logo next to the auction. Use the valuable title space to further describe your auction item instead. (for instance I've found that if I put both Coke and Coca-Cola in my title I almost DOUBLE the amount of hits I get!) I hope this info is helpful. Good luck with your auctions!
posted on January 17, 2001 05:16:46 PM new
Despite what I previously said about BIN and how I didn't want to use it any more, I may occassionally use it now. Due to an out-of-control newbie who used BIN 19 times in one afternoon and posted negatives to almost all the sellers almost right after, I decided it was a bad idea.
After hearing about how some of you had good luck with it. I tried it on an item that sells about half the time. I had a high number of hits with a 7 day auction, but no bids.
I relisted it, raised the price, used BIN, and within 3 hours it was sold, by a newbie with a zero feedback rating. Oh boy...
Well, he got his WBN, and paid by BidPay right away, and even posted a positive feedback for me!
If BIN is this good, I should use it all the time! But, as mentioned by eauctionmgnt, only use it on items you know well. If I do use it, I'll consider using it for relisted items only. There's always that fluke auction where the price goes way beyond your wildest dreams, so that's another reason I hate to use it.
[ edited by motive8 on Jan 17, 2001 05:18 PM ]
posted on January 17, 2001 05:24:43 PM new
I really love BIN! I seldom sell any sort of "collectible" item, and make a point of knowing something about the value of what I list, so I can use BIN to my advantage very well. Really sold a lot that way all through Dec and into Jan.
If they begin charging for it, though, I doubt that I will use it much, if at all. My business is not the least bit contingent upon that feature.
posted on January 17, 2001 06:19:47 PM new
I love to buy using BIN. No waiting for the auction to end and hoping I can snipe better than the person I'm bidding against. Just click the button and send the payment. I bought a lot of stuff around Christmas that I would not have bought if I had to wait 5 or 7 days for an auction to end.
posted on January 17, 2001 08:00:27 PM new
I'm not so sure that thread says it all. What it does say is that if you don't know what your item is worth, BIN may be a huge mistake.
There are a lot of different sellers using eBay to sell a lot of different items, and what works for one does not necessarily work for all. The thread below has a few other things to say about BIN.
posted on January 17, 2001 08:30:46 PM new
No, it does NOT say it all. It merely says that in her particular instance, BIN was not the best method of selling for her.
There are many instances where BIN is perfect for people:
1. People w/large amounts of similar items who feel comfortable w/a set price.
2. People who manufacture their own items & have a constant steady supply to sell
3. People who perhaps prefer a continuous turnover of their inventory to waiting.
I pick & choose when to use BIN. I know for some items, the auction format is the best way to achieve the price I want for my item.
For others where I manufacture my own items & have a constant supply, BIN allows me to charge a consistent price & give me a high turnover rate which is better than a few pennies more waiting around for a week.
I recently listed the same item 3 times in a day because each time I got one up, it was snapped up via BIN. The instant cash flow & turnover of inventory was excellent & better than waiting a week to see if it was going to get bid up a few bucks more.
BIN is right in some places & wrong in others, each person needs to judge their inventory based on what they NEED to get from it.
posted on January 17, 2001 08:50:51 PM new
You are 100% right NY but there are some BIN addicts out there who don't quite understand how to maximize auction sales. The only time a seller should use BIN is with new items. Otherwise you are missing sale $. I ve explained it too many times to do it again. Good luck in all of your auctions!
posted on January 17, 2001 09:45:32 PM new
As a seller I'll never use it. As a buyer I've used it once to my advantage. But with the kind of stuff I sell, I often don't know what a fair BIN price would be, to tell the truth. I may know it's desirable and someone will want to buy it, but for what price? It's far better (for me) to let them bid.
Plus, I like it when those bidding wars develop on an item I have. BIN could eliminate that on an item (if indeed they BIN rather than bid), and out of ignorance or chance, I may let the thing go for far less than I could have gotten on auction. Not willing to do that.
posted on January 18, 2001 07:48:19 AM newnwphotog-
I know you said "I ve explained it too many times to do it again.", but humor me here, and try it one more time. Below is a copy of a previous post on another thread. Explain to me how I am losing money using BIN here (keeping in mind that the item in question is not new, and is in limited supply).
I have an item that typically sells for $10 to $15, with an occasional (once every 3 months or so) sale at $25. In order to get that one $25 sale, I'd have to list 12 seven day auctions, resulting in an average of 11 sales at $12.50, plus one at $25, for a total of $162.50 in 3 months.
Or I can list the item as a seven day auction with a BIN price of $12.50, and, on average, make a sale every 3 or 4 days (say 2 per week), resulting in 24 sales for a total of $300 in 3 months.
I understand that by using BIN, I am losing out on $12.50 in every 12 sales, but what you may not be taking into consideration is that by using BIN, I am generating income at nearly twice the rate, which allows me to obtain other items for sale, which in turn generates additional income.
It's not only how much you make- how fast you make it is important, too.
posted on January 19, 2001 01:37:17 AM new
Thanks for the replies everyone. I am going to print them out and keep them handy. Have a great weekend!!
Ernest
http://www.paulzgifts.com
posted on January 19, 2001 02:13:38 AM new
I search diligently for the BIN in my collecting category. I sell relisted items with BIN to get them moving. I have found that the BIN feature will sometimes spur quicker bids. A person will bid early to void the BIN feature.
I will probably still use it after they charge a fee for it.
posted on January 19, 2001 04:58:53 AM new
I haven't used BIN yet, but I will use it if I am 100% positive of the market price.
Three months ago I listed a jersey that was similar to many others that were listed on ebay. They were all dark blue; the one I had was light blue. The selling price of the others = approx. $20 - $25. So, if I used BIN, I would have used $25.00. After 7 days this jersey closed with 49 bids at $277.00.
Why? The winner told me it was a rare jersey that was worn for one game back in the 80's. I would have never known that..
BTW: That is the only time I ever made it to the "hot" category. 3 years on ebay. So, maybe in another 3 years I will find another goodie like that!
[ edited by pumpkinhead on Jan 19, 2001 05:00 AM ]
posted on January 19, 2001 07:31:36 AM new
I agree with the posters that said if you sell the same item all the time and basically have a sense of what it sells for, BIN is great. Get it listed and get it sold and put another one up.
If you have something that is not listed on ebay over and over, a one-of-a-kind, or something you are not sure of at all, then don't use BIN.
posted on January 19, 2001 07:51:07 AM new
I have been using BIN for the items that I have listed a couple of times and got no bids on them...also, for the tag end of lots that I have already made a very good profit on and I now want to just clear the remnants out quickly so I can move on to something else.
Rocker