posted on July 26, 2001 02:37:00 PM
Just bit the bullet on a couple of items that SHOULD sell for $40-$50 each.
Put them up on a THREE-DAY, $1, No-Reserve to see how it goes.
Testing many theories.
That many look at only the new items.
That many look at only the going, going, gone items.
That buyers who "WATCH" longer auctions may get bored or forget about their desire for my item. Loss of "impulse" buying.
We shall see. I never had problems with 1NRs before -- and my short auctions have done pretty well as well.
For the record, I am going to start using the code '1NR' in my titles for this type of auction. Packer, I know you do a lot -- if you've got room and start adding it as well, perhaps we can make and market this as a sub-market within ebay. People can search for 1NRs quickly and easily.
I also started adding my personal 'code' as well. Thanks for that tip.
posted on July 26, 2001 02:46:22 PM
OMG!! you are brave! What if you only get a couple dollars? you have bitten the bullet all right...........
When I am buying, I look at ending first, then lowest, then whatever strikes my fancy, depending on what I am hunting for. NR's are a plus, though.
When I am selling, I rarely use reserve, (in fact, have only used it about 5 times in about 18 months, and only because the items werent mine), but I would be nervous as hades if I put an item out there for a buck that I knew could get 40-50 dollars! You will have to keep up posted!! Search on 1nr, eh?
posted on July 26, 2001 02:59:01 PM
Way to go peiklk, I really wish you all the Luck.
Your brave with the 3 day thingy, I go 10 because I want as much exposure as possible. I've thought about running 7 days within the 10 days, especially if I'm using a "feature catagory".
posted on July 26, 2001 03:13:29 PM
Good luck. I just hope you sell International and that the UK is awake when your auctions end. There are folks in UK who are looking for bargains. I always bid on bargains in Going, going, gone. The problem is so are other folks!
posted on July 26, 2001 03:46:48 PM
I, too, wish you luck.
I decided to go take a look at how many auctions with 1NR are currently listed. I Found 633!
I checked on a few and found some, with the 1NR in their titles, that had started their auctions at higher values! I noticed it because the title had the $1 and the current price was at $XX.XX with NO bids! There will always be those that try and "use" the system to their advantage I suppose.
I have tried the $1.00 NR and did not come out ahead. I was sick for a week when one of my items, I was sure would go for $150+, closed at $1.00! Especially since I had paid $75 for it( I had made a great find). Similar items always sell in the $150-$200 range. To add insult to injury, I even offerred FREE SHIPPING and featured it! I could not believe it ran the whole time with only 1 bid. It had gotten that bid the first day. I was so sure a "sniper" would come along! All the "profit" I made off the other items (none of them closed in bragging range) that round went to cover the loss of that 1 auction. I will not be brave enough to try that again!
Maybe if someone gave me a bunch of stuff and all I would be out was the listing fees and my time, I might try it again.....no, probably not.
I do applaud those that are able to pull it off consistantly. You must have nerves of steel. What do you spend on Rolaids a week?
posted on July 26, 2001 04:27:40 PM
Win some, lose some. If you do $1.00 NR be prepared for a roller coaster ride.
My best tale to date: Listed an item in the featured category that should have sold for over $500.00 and it closed for a paltry $27.00! Then the winning bidder turned out to be a deadbeat. I felt jilted and relieved at the same time. That's eBay for you.
posted on July 26, 2001 04:53:24 PM
I have 27 item's listing tonite, all 1/NR we'll see what happens. I've had one listed at 1/NR has two day's to go and has only received 3 bid's out of 103 visit's not too exciting! But it's worth a shot. What have we got to loose. Hopefully I'll save a lot of time editing & relisting. Plus the relist fees. And who knows after AW fees,Ebay fees,and paypal fees With a little luck I could end up with 27 nickles!
[ edited by dadofstickboy on Jul 26, 2001 04:56 PM ]
posted on July 26, 2001 05:02:25 PMPacker-Actually it gets even better...I sell Internationally and I had not said anything about not shipping FREE out of the US....My buyer was from Canada!
I had featured this one item because I was so sure it would sell, it was a gorgeous item and I wanted to use it to "point" to my other auctions. I really have no idea why it bottomed out that way. One of the mysteries of the auction world I suppose.
As someone has already said...win some, lose some!
It was also a great test of my "character". I was sorely tempted to find someone to go and snipe at the last possible second just so I wouldn't lose it for $1.00! Then I thought of just taking my NEG and telling the buyer I was sorry I couldn't let it go for that. It was really a "trying" time. That's why I don't think I will do it again....started me thinking maybe I wasn't cut out to sell in this venue afterall. I have sorta' shifted from being more of a seller to being more of a buyer. Of course, at my start prices, you have to be nuts to bid on one of my auctions! I will not give my "stuff" away again!
JJ here.
I have followed Packer's path. (Perhaps that could be made into a movie: Packer's Path)
I listed two LP's by the Jefferson Airplane.
I think the $1.00 would have worked except I forgot to put or could not fit the word "of" in the title of Crown of Creation.
I got one bid for my buck. That is ok. My mistake. Next time I will list only one LP at a time.
Can someone please email me and let me understand the format for your own gallery?
I have auctionwatch gallery going now. Do I need my own and is it similiar?
My wife can not stomach the $1.00 NR auctions I put up. We were going to try it with a Sony Mavica, howerver, we decided against it and wound up with a BIN two times in a row.
posted on July 26, 2001 08:45:20 PM
Here's my theory on the $1NR auction format.
They work no better, but sometimes far worse, than the same item with a starting bid that's realistic, but still allows for a fair profit with 1 bid.
With $1NR you CAN, and WILL lose on "some" items. With a price where you are making 100%-300% with 1 bid, you will NEVER lose, even with just 1 bid.
I suppose if you are investing very little on your merchandise it's easy to take a few bad hits once in awhile, but for those of us that have invested some money in the item it's a risky [and IMO foolish] way to run your biz.
eBay is a fickle market, and what goes through the roof one week, can hit rock bottom the next. Anyone that's been doing this for the past 2-5 years knows that.
I sometimes start items at $1NR when I have little or nothing invested in the item. If I have to pay $50 for an item I feel will fetch $150-200 on a good week, I'm not about to bet the farm on a $1NR auction format.
I too have had some bad experiences with $1NR auctions. As long as I know I only paid a dime for the item, settling for $1, even though I know it's worth 20-30 times that amount, makes it a bit easier to swallow.
Sulyn's post is a prime example of why I will never list items valued in the $100 and up range for $1NR.
posted on July 27, 2001 09:05:00 AM
Update so far... (after about 14 hours)...
No bids. Minimal traffic. Now these are computer items, so the traffic may be slower. But I thunked myself on the head this morning, realizing that I listed them for 3 days ON A WEEKEND!!!
Sure they will end Sunday night (10ET/7PT), but last weekend, ebay traffic on all my auctions was deplorable.
I'm half tempted right now to can the auctions and resubmit next week.
I have not listed a 3 day auction in over a year now. Last time I did this it was for an item that usually went quite well, sometimes receiving bids of over $100. It sold for only $24.99 (my cost) as it didn't get into the search until the last day.
The same thing happened with a couple of other items that should have done much better so I said never again. Maybe it depends on what you sell but it didn't work for me.
Good luck. It takes guts to do what you are attempting to.
Edited to add that I did not have the guts to start my items at $1 NR.
posted on July 27, 2001 09:26:30 AM
FWIW, I'd cancel them. There's the Search problem mentioned...plus a mid-summer weekend, in the height of vacation season. Also, here on the East Coast, it's supposed to be beautiful weather. You'd have to be very lucky to do well in these circumstances, IMO.
posted on July 27, 2001 09:29:17 AM
"With $1NR you CAN, and WILL lose on "some" items. With a price where you are making 100%-300% with 1 bid, you will NEVER lose, even with just 1 bid."
You WILL lose, if it gets no bids... you lose the listing fee. Plus you lose the time value of the money you have invested in it.
posted on July 27, 2001 09:34:54 AM
peiklk, I'm not sure what advice to give you. It can be a bit risky to run 3-day auctions, but 3-day $1 NR auctions ending on a Summer weekend seem particularly risky.
From you initial post, you are testing a theory that most lookers check out auctions on the first and last day. While this is true, there can be a significant amount of hits on the in-between days. You might want to use a counter to test the waters on your particular items. I launched a bunch of 10-day auctions last week, and while the first day had by far the most hits, almost every other day had approximately 50% of the first day's page views. While there's no way to tell if they are unique pageviews, that means (in all likelyhood) the 10-day auctions are getting three three times the number of pageviews than 3-day auctions of the same items would.
It just seems to me that if you're running $1 NR auctions, you'll want to maximize the amount of time that your items are exposed. Short auctions seem, by their nature, more conducive to higher starting bid prices to reduce the risk. If your third theory holds true that bidders get bored watching a long auction, then I would suggest putting a BIN price on your auctions. The combination of a BIN plus $1 NR should attract action - either people placing the initial bid just to "kill" the BIN, or the more impatient types who will just BIN the auction before somebody bids and makes the auction drag out.
For the record, about half of the 10-day auctions I launched are $1 NR auctions too. The other half I felt are low-value, low-demand, so I opted to place a starting bid that I'd be happy getting one bid. I always thought the best pricing strategy is a combination of the two (based on the relative demand of the item), plus strategic use of BIN and reserves, when necessary. Some of the $1 NR auctions are already at a fair price, a couple are languishing at $1 or a little higher, but I have faith in the last-day bidders. Most of them are getting a lot of pageviews which frequently (though not always) means there will be additional bidding activity on the last day.
If I were you, I wouldn't end your auctions early. But then again, my personal policy is to never end auctions early, unless there was an error in my description or something. Ending them now would also result in a failed "experiment." At least they'll be ending on Sunday night, which is generally a good time to end most auctions. Good luck!
posted on July 27, 2001 09:48:18 AM
Thanks for the recent batch of responses.
Before I read them, however, I wimped out. The weekend thing was just toooo scary for me. Silly me, I should have realized that I was doing this on a weekend. ARGH!!!!
It apparently took more guts to do this than I have. Or less sense than I have (as I'd like to spin it. ).
Thanks again for all your input. Even though I don't have a lot to lose on these two items (they came with a computer I got and I already had them), I'm trying to get this business going and to do so, I need to maximize the sales I have at the beginning to produce funds to roll back into the business.
posted on July 27, 2001 10:05:32 AM
A wimp still wearing their shorts or an insane person flying without them? You had to decide and who knows what may have happened? I think you made the right choice.
posted on July 27, 2001 02:27:39 PM
Last night I listed 32 auction's @ 1/NR.So far I had one sell with BIN,1 item has 2 bid's. As for the other's visits up the wazoo but no bid's. Tell's me they will try to snipe at the end for $1.00 with a little luck they will bump each other and someone will end up paying 1.50- 2.00 top's.
posted on July 27, 2001 02:41:22 PM
Well I decided to give it a shot, You guys have perked my curiosity! I too last night listed 5 pair of popular shoes for .99 NR(I know, I got a little crazy with 99 cents) I am happy to report that I have bids on all 5(some multiple bids)- I also did 10 day auctions, so we shall see how it goes.
posted on July 27, 2001 02:48:55 PM
I do this ( $1, no reserve, but NOT 3day) on very select merchandise.
I've probably done 100 auctions (out of 2000) this way, and only once did something go for the $1. The other 99 where VERY exciting auctions, and most of them went HIGHER than I thought they would.
Half of the items where things I just knew where going to be good, but didn't have any idea how good. You know, the "find" you make now and then that is something that only shows up on ebay once every couple of months. Some of them blew me away with what they brought.
An example is a Heath Kit 25 inch Color TV kit, complete, never taken out of the boxes from 1975. I paid $30. I had NO idea what it would go for, but I knew it was a goodie. It brought $467. It went over $100 with the first 2 bids 40 minutes after it showed in the catagory pages. Snipe bids sent it from 325~ to 467 in the last 10 seconds. Very fun auction.
Who Need's a stink'n Sig. File?
There will always be those that try and "use" the system to their advantage I suppose. 
