ecomputeremporium
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posted on June 10, 2001 04:27:25 AM
I am having trouble competing in the RAM section. I can't start my auctions at $1 because I am selling higher quality RAM than the other guys and people don't understand that. I have tried the $1 starting bid. My auctions would go for the same that the cheapo guys auctions were. These guys are selling really low quality Hong Kong ram that probably doesn't work half the time. It costs more to buy American Made good quality RAM. The competition is really steep. I noticed that some of my competiters get 1 neg feedback a day and still sell a ton of RAM. There are some real bad people out there. I also found a guy that is going to all the RAM auctions and emailing the winning and losing bidders that he will sell them cheaper ram. I tried turning him in but he just keeps creating new id's.
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squinkle99
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posted on June 10, 2001 07:10:01 AM
Realizing that ebay's # of characters allowed in a title line is quite restrictive, you may consider dropping some nonessential wording from your title and replacing it with some of these phrases:
different
better quality
higher quality
more dependable
more reliable
Or just use the thesaurus feature on your computer to come up with some words that require less characters. I think the only way to let people know that your stuff is very different is to grab their attention with it from the first moment they see your title. Hope this helps.
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tomwiii
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posted on June 10, 2001 07:29:44 AM
One thing I've never understood about COMPUTER&ELECTRONICS sales on eBay is...
WHY?
Why should I buy from YOU when there are so many places on the web?
This is not a criticism! I'm really curious how you compete with places like CRUCIAL -- which is where I plan to buy my 256 upgrade.
How do ya do it? If I see a price on eBay that's TOO CHEAP, I avoid it! If I see a NORMAL price on eBay, I just go to the KNOWN web-site!
Truly, I'm baffled by folks buying expensive widgets, gizmos, and gadgets on eBay!
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mrspock
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posted on June 10, 2001 07:51:59 AM
I don't think you can compete . As a long time electronics buyer I will buy from the cheapest source that i am confidant will repalce the item if defective
you will have a tough time convincing me that your product is superior and deserves more of my $$$$
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fountainhouse
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posted on June 10, 2001 07:59:00 AM
How about:
Made in USA
No Junk
Reliable
Well-Made
I'm sure your description already explains the difference between the high-quality RAM you sell vs. what's normally found in the listings?
I'd design a template that hammers on that point -- then market your little niche by creating a two- or three-letter identity you can put in your titles to allow your buyers to find you easier.
Market, market, market the fact that your stuff is quality and all the others are junk.
Nancy
[email protected]
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dman3
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posted on June 10, 2001 08:42:43 AM
I think the answer to this is pretty simple.
SInce Ebay is an auction you shouldnt be competeing by price since the buyers are mianly in control of setting that.
There is no such thing as a price to High or too Low for buyers if the bidding or starting bid is hight then they want to pay they can move on to another Auction with lower bidding.
If the Price is to low buyers can bid it up to there likeing.
The key to sucessfull buying is the seller haveing good description of there Item enough for the buyer to know what they are looking at.
the key for the seller is to take the time to read all the descriptions and terms before bidding when you make your bid you are agreeing the item is what your looking for and set your price accordingly.
anyone who is a seller on Ebay should be doing some of there buying on ebay if ebay has what your looking for If your not buying from ebay what is this saying for how you think and feel about people who sell on ebay yourself being one of these people.
I find the Key to selling at online auction is to forget trying to compete set your starting bid at what you need to get for your item there is a buyer out there for your item.
Searching out like Items on Ebay that you have to sell to find the lowest start bid to set your Item at in my eyes is no better then shilling.
Weather you set a starting bid at $1 or at $20 Wont actually change the out come yes the $1 Start might get 2 or three bids more one a like Item but the price in the end on both will work out near close to the same as the same bidders are setting the price.
dont matter if your Item is made in Japan , USA or where ever there is limit to the price buyers are willing to pay for it.
ALso It shouldnt matter if your buying the item from Ebay or from some well know company your not buying the person selling the Item your buying the item based on the product its self Exsample What is the difference if you buy a dell computer from Dman or if you buy it From dell Both are the same computer both have the same name Made and garenteed by dell.
The mind set for Auction has to be a bit different from other bussiness The answer is not to compete to get the sales the Question is when your looking is how flooded is the market for that Item on ebay IF there is thousand of the same thing already on ebay you must ask yourself is there a market of thousand who want this Item is there enough interest for yours as well or would this item be better sold locally flea market new paper want ad or hobby magazine where there is less people selling it.
There are people now that come here and post who are finding there is some Items they are selling better and fast takeing to local auction or fleamarket then they can on Ebay.
yes they still sell on Ebay but they are learning to plan there selling venue or market for each item before they invest in the goods this is good bussiness sense.
When Ebay frist started and there Item count was far lower and things were harder to come buy you could sell anything for a good and better then good price but its shear size and amount of Items and multiple Items is working against Ebay now Driveing down prices and Makeing it a good bet larger number of auction will end with fewer bids or none at all.
Add to this the amount of negitive media about buying and selling from online auction the gripping about fees for other service the gripping about shipping cost and handleing and you can easily see how in just the last few 12 to 18 months How ebay and Online auction s has become a market that is now more then 50% less effective for most.
Another big Problem of Ebay is that it hasnt the advatage of walmart or other B&M models if these companies want to incress sales they just build new store and exspand Ebay is already world wide where is there left to exspand too inless they find life on other planets to grow too......
http://www.Dman-N-Company.com
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dman3
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posted on June 10, 2001 09:18:24 AM
OK If you are asking how would one be able to compete offing the lowest starting bid you can afford there is a few way and it might even work out to your advatage.
It is posiable to set up a webserver right on your own windows computer you would need DSL or cable modem to have your computer online 24/7 But here is what you could do with this.
one You could build your own online website and or store on your own computer complete with CGI and perl access the programs to do this are avalable from free to $99 .
You can host your own auction pictures & counters from your own computers and set up your own auction manager saveing you $$$ there also the server comes with STMP you would be able to have all your auction mail to your own business name.
With a little learning you could even have your end of auction notice auto sent to your buyers.
this would save any seller time and money on the cost of running auctions.
This is also away around ebays new no links rule as you could host your own photos and counters you would according to ebay policy be allowed small links to your website as you are provideing the photo and counter services for your auctions.
You can put up all your Items at a lower sure to sell price based on saveings you no longer pay out for webhosting services , photos, counter, and other manageing you get links back to your website.
Run your own photo gallery save the extra charge from ebay for that you could use a credit card merchant account like Ibill from you own website for buyer who want to pay with credit card saleing paypal and billpoint fees yes you still pay fees haveing a merchant account but your only paying one source this way not 1 to 5 different companies.
You can run all your auction 5 to 7 days saveing the extra .10 on ten day auctions and lower your starting bid by at least you saveings.
If you cost per auction is from $1 to $5 your new cost will drop back to .30 to .60 + FVF
Offer the buy the choose of Priority mail but make fixed shipping parcel post or Media mail Yes some sellers and buyer say difference in parcelpost and Priority to most areas is .05 but when your trying to find a way to cut cost to lower the Price for you and the buyer Every penny you cut ads to your saveings.
ALso find other Places to advertize your Items Locally some times one Item these days will sell better in wanted papers and digest and fleamarkets then on ebay whats the difference where the sale happens the money all goes in your bussiness.
http://www.Dman-N-Company.com
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dubyasdaman
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posted on June 10, 2001 11:23:27 AM
Here's a free tip (and that's probably about what it's worth):
You will NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, EVER (did I say NEVER?) be successful selling higher quality computer hardware on ebaY in a category that is cram-packed with cheap alternatives. Especially RAM. Memory is so cheap anyway that quality has little impact on a buyer's decision on who to buy from. RAM is now a cheap commodity. Use it till it dies and then replace it. As a matter of fact, entire computer systems are getting to the point where you use it till it dies (or becomes obsolete) and then replace it.
If you look at the RAM listings on ebaY, you will notice 2 things:
1) The ending prices are all pretty much in the same ballpark for the same size chip.
2) The shipping & handling charge is 10 times actual postage.
Draw your own conclusions.
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tomwiii
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posted on June 10, 2001 05:35:25 PM
"W":
Your name drives me BONKERS, but your points are always RIGHT-ON!
EXACTLY what I was THINKING -- but ya stated it so much more succinctly!
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zypher
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posted on June 10, 2001 06:52:25 PM
I bought a stick of RAM a couple weeks ago on eBay. As others have said, the ending bids for similar units are very close. It came down to one factor...the shipping cost.
I couldn't believe how RAM sellers universally overcharged for shipping. Some as high as $15 to ship a stick of memory that weighs about an ounce!
I went with the seller that only charged me about twice what it cost him to ship instead of four times.
My advice: charge reasonably for shipping. Put it in your auction title, (eg, $5 SHIPPING) and you'll set yourself apart. Once they view your auction you can seal the deal with a description of your higher quality product.
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ecomputeremporium
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posted on June 10, 2001 07:04:49 PM
I don't think you people understand. Fisrt I tried the low shipping thing and nobody bought it because the price seemed so high. I sell memory just fine just not as much as I used to I think the demand is going down. Most people on Ebay just don't read auctions. You can put 2 identical auctions one for $32.99 and $13.99 s&h and one for $46.98 free shiping everything else being the same the free shipping will sell nothing and the high shipping one will sell quite a few. I don't understand it. From what I see you just can't sell a lot of quality memory on Ebay people just don't want it. They want the cheap crap from Hong Kong. I can buy really crapy memory for $16 a stick for 128 MB PC 100 from Hong Kong but I have no warantee from the manufacture it is strict FOB. I buy the Viking memory for $35 each and it comes with a lifetime warantee already wraped in a anti-static bag and is made by Americans. Ebay charges me outragous fees and takes half my profit. The Hong Kong stuff is terrible and I would have to buy an expensive tester to make sure it worked before I sent it out. I noticed some of the guys selling the crapy stuff have lots of bad feedback and charge ouragous fees for returns and don't promise anything and don't hardly answer emails. Why do people keep buying from a guy that has consistantly got 1 neg feedback a day for several years. Explain that.
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gravid
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posted on June 10, 2001 07:22:18 PM
I have no doubt your items are higher quality than the competition but to say HALF of the chips the other guy sells is an exageration. They would be going out of business. For most customers if it does not work it is going back right away for exchange so what do they care?
It is more probable that 99.9% of yours are golden and 98% of theirs is. Not as important to the customer as price if they do not have a must work or we die situation. In which case they are not hunting eBay for bargins.
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eastwest
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posted on June 10, 2001 07:38:15 PM
these are things i do
offer free shipping if they buy two items
say the word free shipping in yout statement
if you want to get them to your site fast i will givyou a tip , but it will only work once or twice...then the rest of them will do it !!!!!
list at .1 cent offer free shipping if reserve is met...then tell in your T.O.S what the reserve is ....then offer buy now for 1 cent higher.. This will also let the person buy it if they want it !!!!!
What does this do???
Well you will get amazing hits !!!! You can use this if you word your TOS right
State in your TOS that american ram is better quality...
tell me what you think
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snakebait
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posted on June 11, 2001 01:43:45 AM
Make sure you have a web address accessible.
I am looking to buy memory for my camera. Tonight actually. I have looked at the best deals at auctions so far, and ruled out anyone with a high shipping fee. The rest I have either hunted down their email addresses or asked through the eBay mail system for their web addresses and got their email from there. Then I emailed the vendors asking for their best price with shipping. I always get the best deals this way. I refuse to buy retail items on eBay.
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dennis1001
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posted on June 11, 2001 02:20:49 AM
Personally I think you are SOL. You are targetting the wrong market. If you are going to sell on eBay, sell the cheap stuff like everyone else. THEN emphasize your low shipping costs. Most people buying memory on eBay wouldn't know what to do w/ CL2 memory. BUT just in case they do, make it a point to mention that you have the higher quality memory on your web site.
The other problem you face selling better quality memory is that most of the people that do understand the difference are shopping at that web location you mentioned - their current price is 20% below yours for CL2 memory and includes free shipping!
If you want to continue selling better grade memory, you're going to have to figure out how to educate customers on why they would want to pay more for their memory (and having convinced them, why they would want ot buy from you).
Good Luck!
Dennis
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imabrit
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posted on June 11, 2001 05:05:18 AM
The fact is that you cannot compete and never well so its not worth the effort.
Reason being people on ebaY look for the cheapest price possible,quality does not matter as you do not see it and eventually computers become out dated.
Plus they will take a chance on a cheap item
and for all these guys negs they have lots of positives as well.
Its like playing the lottery but in this instance most people win there are a few loosers.
You may as well get used to it as its not going to change in fact its probably going to get worse.
Adrian
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