posted on August 11, 2001 11:14:04 AM new
Opinions please
You have 5 identical items. You want a min. of $30 for each. Do you list all 5 in a dutch for $30 or do you list them in 5 seperate auctions starting at $30...............Just wondering how others do this type of thing
posted on August 11, 2001 11:19:34 AM new
Unless I am in a hurry to get them sold, I list them one a week. There is enough competition on ebay with out having my auctions compete with each other
posted on August 11, 2001 08:54:31 PM new
I'd agree with Microbes. If you do feel you need to list them all at the same time, then at least be sure they don't end within a few minutes of each other. I've watched auctions by same seller listed extremely close together (probably by a bulk lister), and it appears that the seller loses money by doing that.
Last year, I had several old ink bottles (made for the old school desks with the bottle hole in the corner). The first time I listed, I put 4 of them on within a few days of each other. The 1st one sold for 50% more than #2 and #'s 3 and 4 sold for even less. I went to listing them one at a time, once a month for the really unusual ones. Twice a month for the more common ones that don't really command as much "wow" attention.
posted on August 12, 2001 05:48:38 AM new
microbes/islander
i guess i did not really give all the details in my 1st post....i have approx 200 of this like item. over the past 4 months i have been listing them seperate getting 50 to 55 bucks for them. it seems i have weeded out all the big dollar bidders and i want to try and sell the balance at a reasonable price for all who are fans of this item. $30 has been determined to be that price. I think i have milked pretty good for higher bidders. Sooo does that make any difference in your method............hope this makes some sense
posted on August 12, 2001 06:33:18 AM new
I've had items like this. When you've flooded the market, what I do is wait a month or two, and then relist. But if you just want to dump them, I might list them seperatly, (and make sure the auctions don't close within minutes of each other)
posted on August 12, 2001 11:26:21 AM new
Is it possible that someone may want more than one of these? I know I have passed on identical auctions because the seller listed items separately. I wanted three widgets, and although there were five listed, I did not want to risk getting outbid and stuck with just two, so I did not bid at all.
Although it doesn't sound like this is relevant to you, I thought I'd bring it up anyway.
In your situation, if I wanted to get rid of them quickly for $30.00 each, I would either do several smaller dutch auctions, or list them separately with BIN.
posted on August 13, 2001 11:49:43 AM new
I agree with dman3, both about the wrongheadedness of dutch auction, and about the listing strategy. List it with maybe a $20 minimum and a $30 BIN. That way, if someone wants more than one they can do BIN to their heart's content. As a buyer for hot items, I've used this strategy to save on shipping. The seller, of course, is ecstatic because s/he gets the price, and saves on all the time involved in multiple transactions.
Important -- Beware of making your minimum too low if you are using BIN. Once someone bids, the BIN option is gone (unless you use a reserve, which is a wholely separate issue).
posted on August 13, 2001 11:58:27 AM new\I wanted three widgets, and although there were five listed, I did not want to risk getting outbid and stuck with just two
Unless the rules have changed, if you bid for three but only win two, you are not obligated to buy if you don't want to.
posted on August 14, 2001 12:28:08 AM newmrpotatoheadd, perhaps I wasn't clear enough. My problem was the seller listed five identical items separately, not in a dutch auction, but five separate auctions. In this case, if I had ended up high bidder in just one or two of the auctions I would have been obligated to buy, even though I needed three.
posted on August 14, 2001 07:27:26 AM new
I agree with Microbes, if you've flooded the market, it might be a time for a hiatus. My vote is to keep doing them one at a time. If it is a book, video or CD you might want to try amazon. I had very good sales on amazon of hard-to-find videos.
I think many people find dutch auctions confusing and will not bid on them. I still don't really understand them and I've been on eBay for a long time ....
posted on August 14, 2001 11:52:15 AM new
I say list them separately. For items under $9.99 this is best since listing fees are lower and you can list more auctions in relevant categories than one dutch auction.
Also, from an administrative point of view, it is easier to track auctions when you have one buyer, one item number. I stopped doing dutch after the headache tracking dutch auctions and filing FVF. Ewww...
* ~ * ~ * ~ * http://techgems.net
posted on August 14, 2001 12:15:53 PM new
i guess i have been unclear about a ting or two.............. the market has not been flooded but it hass been milked of the bidders that will pay a high price of 40 to 55 bucks.....the re have been plenty of underbidders between 20 and 40 bucks. the items are worth $30 especially with the football season upon us. I could even probably get a couple three more $50 winners but i have over 300 of these items and figured $30 would get many more takers. I want to keep the number listed at one time to no more than 5, just for the illusion there are only a few available. that strategy will work on some and not others i do understand that. i plan on dropping the price to $20 in a couple months if sales slow at $30, as i am sure they will,$20 each would definetly flood the market. optimisticly though i hope $30 will hold into christmas, we will see......i have about $5.00 invested in the entire lot so my cost is not a concern.
as a bidder i prefer dutch when there is more than 1 because ihave bids in on all 5 so to speak, as opposed to single auctions where i only have a shot at the one i bid on, if that makes any sense at all........
thanks for the input that has been given so far
