posted on March 1, 2001 09:03:27 PM new
And while we are still reeling from all the hands out in the last month...don't forget Ebay warned us the BIN feature will be an additional fee in the near future.
One of the reasons I listed and bought on ebay is I figured I saved on sales tax (and government is trying to change that too!)..now with all the fees there isn't much difference.
posted on March 2, 2001 07:52:23 AM new
Same here. I'd miss it, though, because inventory has been moving VERY quickly this month through BIN purchases and its been a boost to my cash flow.
Only other option to speed things up would be to drop down to 3-day auctions, but I don't want to limit my exposure - but I don't want to pay the seller's premium for 10-day exposures except for my special items..
posted on March 2, 2001 08:02:08 AM new
I'm a "hobby seller", I sell maybe two to three items a month. I don't understand the advantage of "Buy it Now" to me if I have to pay for it. It's a gamble, I could sell my item immediately, but there's always a chance that someone could come along and bid lower than my buy it now price and then the option could be gone within the first two minutes.
Would a better option for me be to set my opening bid at the same price as my buy it now price or should I do a three day auction and set my opening bid at the $9.99 price? I sell collectible ornaments that generally close in the $30.00 and above range but I'm afraid that if I set the opening bid & the buy it now price as the same, I may not get any takers. I've done well with the $9.99 opening, but the bidding is usually fiercest in the last hours.
posted on March 2, 2001 08:06:06 AM new
If anybody wants to buy something right away, they can always go to my web site.
I don't need eBay's "Buy It Now."
posted on March 2, 2001 08:37:31 AM new
I have used it a few times but I decide not to get used to it because I knew that ebay would and will charge a fee for it. My guess it .25
posted on March 2, 2001 09:25:52 AM new
I wouldn't mind paying a small fee if it were structured so that you would only be charged the fee if the buyer used BIN. I've been putting it on a lot of my auctions, but most don't close with BIN, and I couldn't afford to pay the extra fee on all of those.
posted on March 2, 2001 09:55:32 AM newThe whole point of "buy it now" is to offer bidders the choice of paying more to guarantee they get an item NOW --and to move the sellers merchandise. This notion that you will have to PAY for an option that another bidder could undo in the first couple of minutes simply by bidding the starting bid really underlines how flawed Ebay's plan is with this feature.
Remember, you don't really want to keep the BIN option available once a starting bid is placed--that's not my concern---and the reason is this: once bidding is underway, as soon as it looks like the BIN price is getting closer, a bidder will grab it and end what may have been a hot auction. What you actually end up having happen is BIN becomes a max bid price and sellers end up limiting how high their auctions will go. Not too smart.
Again, charging for BIN (which can be erased by a bidder in the opening minutes of the auction) is unfair for that very reason, among others.
Also, BIN should be considered a purchasing option---NOT an enhanced exposure feature. BIN is a gamble for both buyer and seller: The buyer is gambling that the item may have gone for more, and the seller is gambling that it probably would not have. It is foolish for Ebay to charge for this option. That's like charging sellers everytime they add something to the description.
Additionally, I have noticed that fewer and fewer sellers (at least in my corner) are using BIN. I tried it and liked the option, but it kind of faded into the background and I forgot about it for awhile --and then I stopped putting it in my auctions altogether. I suspect others have done the same--especially since we all knew that eventually the BIN crackpipe was going to cost us.
MY advice?
It's an auction, leave it as such. SCREW BIN.
Ebay is making a lot of money now--one of the few. Let them spend some of it upgrading their crap so outages and downtime are EXTREMELY limited and rare. They need to do this before they even dare ask for more of an investment from us in auction fees, because at the moment they cannot guarantee that we won't be screwed out of bids when the site is down at auction's end!
"Anyone selling on ebay can do a BUY IT NOW without using the feature. It is called END MY AUCTION EARLY and it's FREE ! Why pay ebay to end an auction for you, when you can end it yourself for free?"
posted on March 2, 2001 11:41:44 AM newRemember, you don't really want to keep the BIN option available once a starting bid is placed--that's not my concern---and the reason is this: once bidding is underway, as soon as it looks like the BIN price is getting closer, a bidder will grab it and end what may have been a hot auction
Sure, in a hot auction you wouldn't want to use a BIN but, what happens if it isn't a hot auction? For example, I have a lot with a $10 opening bid and a $50 BIN. Bidder A bids $15 and wipes out the BIN. Bidder B bids $30 and bidder C bids $50. Bidder C ends up winning it for $31. But, if the BIN was still available Bidder C would have won it for the $50 BIN price. So, for auctions that you expect to get a lot of action BIN isn't desirable, but for auctions where you expect just a few bidders a BIN may be desirable.
posted on March 2, 2001 11:44:12 AM new
I use Buy-It Now frequently and it improves sales and cash flow. Like many ebay sellers I know what things are worth and I set my opening bid close to the value of the item. As a result I often sell items on only one or two bids - and never cut a deal to sell unsold items after the auction for less than my opening bid. I set a Buy-It-Now price at a modest amount over my opening bid - maybe $10 on a $50 item and I sell a lot of items on Buy-It Now.
Assuming ebay thinks through the process (which benefits them because they have shorter auctions) they will price it so it has the same impact on listing fee as a reserve auction - listing fee based on the Buy It Now price and not add another separate fee.
Most of my Buy It Now auctions also use Billpoint Instant Payment so ebay gains that way too.
I have seen lots of folks who list an item with a low opening bid and a high Buy It Now price and they never get a benefit from Buy-It Now.
posted on March 2, 2001 03:56:06 PM new
I'm loving buy it now. My books, vintage clothing and collectibles are going faster and at higher prices than ever before with this feature.
My guess is that Ebay will implement a fee that kicks in only if the auction is ended with Buy It Now.
If that's the way they structure it, it will be fine and I'll pay it.
If it's a fee no matter whether BIN is used or not, I'll probably still use it, but not without complaints.
posted on March 2, 2001 04:13:30 PM new
The only way I would pay for BIN is if it stayed there after bids like the take it price on Amazon and Buy it price on Yahoo, otherwise it would be a waste IMO.
My point is that you don't always KNOW when an auction is going to heat up. FOr that reason, allowing the BIN option to stay after the first bid is placed creates a situation where, if the bid approaches the BIN price, someone will grab it for the BIN price. This effectively puts a cap on how high your auction will go.
Again, this is in those situations where you really don't know how hot an auction will get. Too many times I've seen an item go for $10 one day, $65 the next, then $6 the day after that. BIN can put a cap on what potentially would have been a good payday.
