imabrit
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posted on September 26, 2001 01:17:42 PM new
Well I decided to give it a try and see what happens.Last week I ran 3 auctions for AMA.
Started all 3 items at 1.00,these are regular sellers for me and not second rate or items that do not sell.
I no that I pay for shipping as well and that all the money goes to AMA.
I was hoping that it would drive some bidders to the res of my similar items.But that appears to have not been the case at all.
I sold 3 single pages from a large folio Bible a King James that was printed almost 400 years ago.
All 3 items ended at 52.50 each.I have not sold any pages for that price in at least a year.
In fact I have about 13 more pages listed under regular auctions,more interesting Bible parts.these are priced at 29.95 each and I yet to have a bid on any of them at all.
So AMA did well,it did not help my other auctions in any other way at all.
Which was a shame well the money goes to a good cause and at least I gave it a try.
I do not see them reaching there 100 mill goal plus I think 100 days is way too long.
Bidding is way off for me probably less than a 30% sell through rate about half what it has been in the past.
Hope things improve and soon.
Adrian
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di
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posted on September 26, 2001 01:23:54 PM new
Very interesting, I wonder what the results would be if you had started your non A4A auctions at $1 too. Maybe the $1 starting bid got everybody bidding!
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imabrit
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posted on September 26, 2001 01:32:53 PM new
Its possible I have ran these at 1.00 starting before and they typically sell in the 15.00 to 20.00 range.
Its too scary to try that the way things are.
I did have a bidder offer to pay shipping as well and mail it to me.I told him I was responsible for shipping and not to worry about it.
Adrian
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mrspock
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posted on September 26, 2001 01:49:59 PM new
I see a lot of stuff selling there very high which is great as far as money going to victoms
But I do wonder if ther will be a lot of deadbeats as folks get carried away bidding for a good cause but will they actually pay ??
spock here......
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docpjw
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posted on September 26, 2001 01:54:06 PM new
Actually Spock,I wondered the Same Thing...Adrian,I thought that was a VERY nice gesture of you,in your Donation,Thanks! 
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srfnfshn
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posted on September 26, 2001 01:58:40 PM new
imabrit,
My results were similar to yours.
I sold 3 things for AFA.
I started all 3 out with retail type bids and all 3 ended well above fair market value.
I don't believe these auctons drove bidders to my other items and bidding is way way off.
At first I didn't understand all the hubbub about these AFA auctions, but I sure see the problems with them now. That's not to say that I blame the lack of bids totally on AFA, but I do think it's a contributing factor.
Edited to add:
One of the items sold for over 3 times retail price and the other 2 also did very well. All 3 items were paid for very quickly.
[ edited by srfnfshn on Sep 26, 2001 02:01 PM ]
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imabrit
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posted on September 26, 2001 02:03:15 PM new
One huy paid already so we will see what happens with the other two.
Having said that I rarely have dead beats problaby a ratio of 1/500.
Probably because of the material we sell.
I am glad they brought a good amount for the fund as I could not have donated that much myself.So it worked well.
I think ebaY should have made it 10 million dollars as thats not a bad amount either.
100 million though is a completely different story.
Adrian
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tomwiii
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posted on September 26, 2001 02:05:24 PM new
Same here!
My 8 AFU auctions (all 3-time losers on eBay) are getting multiple bids!
My 40 regular auctions are now only up tp 8 items with bids! These are the creme-de-le-creme of my MonkeyPorn! Even the PAGE VIEWS are way off!
OTOH: I just had some guy with good fb bid on 8 of my BOOHOO auctions...SO...ya know where I'll be this XMAS!! 
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ahc3
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posted on September 26, 2001 02:05:53 PM new
I sniped an item yesterday, and the underbidder contacted me and accused me of basically being Unamerican by sniping, when we should be bidding high and often. I told him that my sniping actually increased the bid amount of the item over his maximum bid (which was way under market value of the item) and that if it was unethical, ebay would not allow it. I noticed he placed his bid 40 minutes before the auction ended. Such hypocrites!
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keziak
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posted on September 26, 2001 02:13:54 PM new
Adrian -
When you sell a page from an old Bible, is it illustrated? Or just a key text? Just curious.
Tom - If I ever knew, I have now forgotten. WHAT is monkeyporn...?
keziak
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imabrit
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posted on September 26, 2001 02:17:57 PM new
keziak
Early editions of King James Bibles where never illustrated,only the earlier Geneva's where from 1560 onwards.
I used to have some illustrated pages from a 1541 Great Bible.I currently only have one of those left and it hangs on my wall.It shows Moses talking to God and he Moses has horns.
I have pages from incomplete books as far back as 1479.
I do have a large amount of illustrated none Biblical from a German History of the World printed in 1564.
Plus some English illusrated pages from the history of England printed in 1577.
All items are genuine and not reproductions.
Adrian
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tomwiii
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posted on September 26, 2001 02:18:14 PM new
Oh!No! a true innocent! Bet ya didn't know there was a whole sub-culture of simian-smut freaks out there in feeBayland didja?? 
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imabrit
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posted on September 26, 2001 02:54:50 PM new
tomwiii
Yes I did I just avoid them like the plague
hahahaha.
We do sell other things other than those of a Biblical nature.
We have items from Roman times,Medieval times to the time of Queen Victoria.
Has to be at least 150 years to be of any interest to us at all.
Adrian
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tomwiii
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posted on September 26, 2001 02:59:51 PM new
Would ya be interested in me Mother-in-law?
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imabrit
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posted on September 26, 2001 03:24:40 PM new
Nope ours finally moved out after living with
us for 8mths.All I need is another one.
But if you pay me enough I might consider it.
Adrian
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suz23
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posted on September 26, 2001 04:14:24 PM new
I had a golden A book ~ Roy Rogers. I had looked up completed auctions and all were under $ 10.00 before Sept 11 and AFA~ last night I looked in actual bidding auctions and most were over $ 25.00!(cowboy golden books looked a big item with AFA. auctions) Huge difference~
I noticed some Nancy drew AFA~ one that normally wouldn't receive a single bid or maybe one bid was up over $ 25.00 ~ a 1969 ex library with wear! nothing special for that kind of price and the auction hadn't ended it!
Suzanne
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commentary
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posted on September 26, 2001 05:08:11 PM new
Why does a buyer want one page of a bible? What are they planning to with it? Frame it?
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tomwiii
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posted on September 26, 2001 05:11:54 PM new
Lot easier to memorize one page...right?
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imabrit
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posted on September 26, 2001 05:23:38 PM new
People will collect and frame besides how many people can afford 6000.00 or more for a complete one.
So I search for old incomplete books between 1460 and 1630 and sell them by the page.
Makes for an interesting and varied business.
Some are illustrated,some small others large.
I have had incomplete books that if complete would have been worth 30,000 or more.
But an incomplete volume is of little worth to collector.But people like to collect certain subjects,printers etc etc.
Its also an inexpensive hobby as how many items can you buy for around 30.00 that are true antiques and hundreds of years old
Adrian
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undercovers
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posted on September 26, 2001 06:40:26 PM new
i hope this is within the topic....first, do you guys think that there are hundreds of us out there on ebay that are doing these 'market tests' for the AFA auctions...which defeats us by keeping merchandise over there thus decreasing sales for us(which by the way i think is is adversely affecting my business)
second, has anyone done an auction over there (AFA) and in the auction text said something like...'please look at our other things that we are auctioning'.....or something like that??? is that any help???
third, do you also think that there are those other first time donations .....that again every newbie is doing to do their part thus keeping auctions in AFA....again, keeping action going on our auctions...
fourth,
what are boohoo auctions and where will you be this xmas??
fifth,
adrian your line of work sounds so interesting....don't know if i would have the heart to sell those pieces....short of telling us your source....are bibles that old american....or are they european??....are they already tearing up??...and how do you date them if incomplete??
finally....tom what is monkey porn??
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imabrit
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posted on September 26, 2001 06:46:54 PM new
undercovers.
I did not in my description ask other bidders to look at my other auctions.I kind of felt it was inappropriate. Sorry for the spelling.
Though others may have done so though.
The Bibles are European as nothing was printed in the USA by way of a Bible until about 1770 I think.
They are reff sources you can use to identify a particular printing.Though you do need some kind of date within the item.
So what I get may have a Title page somewhere but missing other parts.
Some Bibles can be identified without having a title page.For example what was sold on ebaY.Only a few editions where printed that way between 1613 and 1617 and these do vary from one to the other.Therefore you can identify which is which.
The more difficult is a 1611 or a 1634/35 as these are very similar.
Adrian
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kathyg
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posted on September 26, 2001 06:51:45 PM new
I've had 2 AforA auctions close so far - both for frivilous toy kind-of-things that are proven good sellers. Both sold at 2-3 times going rate.
I think an important thing to note, is that they both still came in at under $20, which is a comfort level for a lot of people.
I don't think these items contributed at all to my overall bids, but I was running no related auctions and didn't really expect it. Overall, my bids are way up this week anyways.
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srfnfshn
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posted on September 26, 2001 07:05:52 PM new
second, has anyone done an auction over there (AFA) and in the auction text said something like...'please look at our other things that we are auctioning'.....or something like that??? is that any help???
Yes, I did that. Even though, like imabrit, it went against my grain I figured I'd give it a try. It made no difference.
The other thing I did was to make AFA auctions "All sales Final." That didn't seem to hurt the bidding.
I'm not listing any more AFA auctions. I have given in other ways and I shouldn't have jumped into this. IMO AFA is poory thought out. I've seen lots of better suggestions in other threads. It's a shame AFA wasn't done differently.
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tomwiii
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posted on September 26, 2001 07:17:39 PM new
undercovers: my pre-AFU sell-thru at Yahoo (BooHoo) was usually 40% -- acceptable for $0.20 per.
Since AFU, my sell-thru at Yahoo has shot up to around 90% and THAT's where I'll be until XMAS if this baloney continues!
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keziak
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posted on September 26, 2001 07:59:30 PM new
I guess that explains why I can't find any "monkey porn" on ebay right now.
It must be on Yahoo.
; - )
keziak
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tomwiii
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posted on September 26, 2001 08:22:31 PM new
A truly SAD day for eBay...
But...sheer joy for Yahoo!
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susan1232
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posted on September 27, 2001 06:02:37 AM new
I did a search on something I wanted to bid on yesterday. Two up for auction. The regular one had a top bid of $32.00. The other one, identical item, AFA auction-top bid $102.00. Wow-that's quite a difference!
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