posted on May 2, 2001 10:53:16 AM
Do you have some sort of formula or rule of thumb that you use to decide when you are having too many auctions close with no buyers? Is only a very high sell rate acceptable? Or do you expect to have no-sales and relist once? Twice?
I'm trying to get past emotional responses to my auction sales and become more pragmatic. On one hand, I am writing off my ebay fees as a business expense. So to a certain extent, I should be able to afford some listings that don't sell. On the other hand, it's money for nothing, and there is a limit to what I can afford.
I do list from time to time on Yahoo, and every sale there is a nice bonus [also, I list heavily on Amazon and half.com]. But part of me says the road to success involves listing more stuff on ebay - the more I list, the more I sell. Another part says to only list if I am pretty sure I will sell, but it's hard to know that.
Just wondering how others make such decisions. thanks -
posted on May 2, 2001 11:25:37 AM
Since I use Ebay almost exclusively, I pretty much list and relist there, and then if it doesn't sell, take it off for a month or two, and then trying again for 2 rounds (listing and relisting). I've found sometimes the break does help - and sometimes I get emails saying, "I see you have Blue Widgets, so you have Red ones (the ones that weren't selling))" so I can put one up for them and still get the occassional sale that way.
Since you do books, I'd think if it doesn't sell on one site, rotate it to the others, and have a circle set up - Ebay - then Amazon - then Half.com for 1 or 2 months, then back to Ebay, etc.
I try to keep in mind that ebay is still a fad in many people's mind. They may get on ebay, bid like crazy, then not get back on for a couple of months.
Items that sold like hotcakes last month may be dead the next & come back strong 2 months later.
I consider everyday on ebay is potentially a brand new customer base, so don't get too concerned if sales are off one week, or even one month.
Every now & then, when things get slow, I run a "sale" on my stock items...with a bit lower price & try to generate interest. It's a way to clear out older merchandise & get people back to coming to see what's "on sale" and what else new I might be offering.
posted on May 2, 2001 02:39:46 PM
Only talking about book auctions here but I think ebay is great for some items but is very very unpredicable. One time , a book will sell for $ 3.00 and the next for $ 25.00 . Changing categories sometimes helps. Amazon is nice as you do a reserve without penalty and I always start my books off higher there than ebay~ also buyers there don't seem to care about the extra shipping costs coming from Canada but I know they really care on ebay when I am selling a lot of say 20 books and the sh is $ 12.00 and the next person is selling 20 books and is shipping for $ 2.00! Amazon charges a fair amount for its own s/h so customers I think are used to high s/h costs. relisting is cheap on Amazon ie free . I find if I start an auction high ( like $ 8.00 is high for ebay) nothing sells, but if I start too low, the bids are too low to get up to where I would like it to end at. If I really know an item will go high, I list for a $ 1.00 to get some interest from several bidders.) so if I have listed a book to begin at $ 6.00 and it doesn't sell, I will relist at $ 3
.00 and often it goes for more than the $ 6.00 that didnt sell the first time around.
Depends on profit. Lots of items that I sell are mine therefore profit is all mine. If you are buying a book for $ 12.00 and you sell for $ 13.00 ~ lots of time there!~ I am going to try and diversify as well and explore more than one item. Therefore if books are slow, maybe cowboys boots are big that day. Also a take it price seems to sell more items if I haven't received a bid~ I listed an item for 10 days ~ no bids but a buyer asked me to relist which I did for a buy it price and it sold in less than an hour ~ not to the buyer who had asked me to relist!
posted on May 2, 2001 06:49:14 PM
Keep in mind ebay is a auction all you need to find is two bidders who want your item
I have had lots of items catch on second or third listing .
I have done compleated searches on items before I list and found several had been listed with no bid's , then listed mine and done well
After the 2nd or third listing I will start looking to reduce opening bid ,re-write the ad maybe new pictures,or differnt catagory
A car salesman once told me "there is a a**
for every seat" a lot of truth in that statement.
posted on May 2, 2001 07:59:00 PM
I just sold close to 400 CEDs. I listed them one at a time then about 3/4 of the way thru went back and listed the ones that didn't sell the first time around. As time went on it seems I gained a following on the movies - especially after I went to shipping of $4.99 for the first one and 99 cents for each additional CED. (They are really heavy). I have many duplicate customers and found that some with no bids the first time ended in a bidding war the second time around.
posted on May 3, 2001 05:38:40 AM
I used to feel that if I couldn't sell something the 2nd time around, it was hopeless. Not anymore.
There was a book I couldn't seem to give away last spring and summer. In December it went for over $20!
Just recently, there were some books I'd been trying to sell since last summer and a few from earlier this year. They sold just in the last couple of weeks.
It's just a crazy thing that a person has to want your items at the exact time you have them up for sale. It makes me think it's actually a miracle of some sort that it happens as much as it does.
