sn0bbish
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posted on June 3, 2002 07:41:09 AM
quick question... i cant decide to put a reserve price on my items or just make the starting price what id make the reserve price. say i will only take $5.00 for something, make it the reserve price or the starting price?
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sweetboo
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posted on June 3, 2002 07:53:30 AM
I personally never put a reserve on something that is under $50.00. I will put the starting bid at the amount I want. You will get all types of answers here and I think you need to try it for yourself. I know a lot of people hate reserves and won't bid on it if it has one, especially if there is someone with the same item that doesn't have a reserve.
Your call! Good luck
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sn0bbish
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posted on June 3, 2002 08:01:17 AM
thanx. i as an avid buyer are put off by reserve prices. i just kind of wanted another opinion. i put the prices as starting prices. hopefully it wont be a disaster because i didnt start it at $1.00. i have good stuff so who knows.
thanx again.
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Dejapooh
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posted on June 3, 2002 08:04:48 AM
I usually NEVER bid on Reserve price auctions unless I really want an item. I just put a bunch of stuff up at $.01 with no reserve and everything sold between 10% and 500% above what I expected. I am VERY pleased.
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mrfoxy76
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posted on June 3, 2002 08:17:56 AM
ditto if i see an item with a reserve i just skip it and look at the next.
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sweetboo
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posted on June 3, 2002 08:46:57 AM
sn0bbish, don't get put off by reserve prices. Keep in mind, if you have an item you spend $100 on and you want to get $150.00 out of.. put a reserve on it. Collectors that are looking for items that are hard to find in their local area will be happy to bid on it. Some will email you and ask the reserve. I always tell them... it can't hurt me at all. Some people put the reserve price amount in their auction description.
But if you items are worth less than $10... never put a reserve on. It is a waste of your money for listing if it doesn't sell...simply because people didn't want to bid on a reserve auction.
There's no danger of developing eyestrain from looking at the bright side of things!
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sanmar
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posted on June 3, 2002 09:10:44 AM
I never put a reserve price on anything under $25.00. I sell lots of pieces of china from $2.95 on up. Never have any problem doing this. I just sold a Davy Crockett Camera set with a BIN of $40.00. It sold 2 1/2 hrs. after it was listed!! So it all depends on what you are selling. A collector knows what the value of something is. Probably knows better than I do.
[ edited by sanmar on Jun 3, 2002 09:12 AM ]
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Libra63
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posted on June 3, 2002 09:16:24 AM
I only put a reserve on my items when I have paid a lot for them which is very seldom to none. I always start my auctions at the price I would like to get for them and that price includes the fees I have to pay to eBay and AW. I wish I had the nerve to start auctions at 1cent but I can't get up the courage to do that. I see some very good results when I surf. Dejapooh, how long have you been doing 1 cent auctions and did you have any second thoughts of anything that you listed?
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Dejapooh
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posted on June 3, 2002 09:42:32 AM
Last week was my first experiment. I've been selling on Ebay for a long long time. I have thought about it, but could never work it up. I sell Olympic pins. I Found a torch for SLC to add to my collection (I was in the torch relay as a support runner), and it came with 125 nice pins. I put 30 of them up at $.01 to try it out. It was nervous time for a while. Some items that should have sold for $10 were still around $1 sunday afternoon, but by the time all of my auctions closed, everything was up where it should have been, and one items brought 5 times what the same item has brought in the past. When you start at $.01, you get more eyes and more bidders early in the week. That means that you have more people checking back sunday evening. I have also had quite a few offers to cancel the sale and sell it offline (I never do that). All in all it generated quite a bit of interest. Dozens more looks, and lots more bids in number and in price. I can't think of anything I listed for sale that went for LESS then I wanted... and many items went for quite a bit more. Take a hand full of semi-common stuff, take a deep breath and give it a shot...
PS I also raised my shipping prices from $2 per order to $3 per order with these auctions. No one said a word about it. It offered a bit of insurance that I would get almost what I paid even if it sold for $.01 With the postal rates going up, it was almost time to raise the prices anyhow.
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Dejapooh
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posted on June 3, 2002 10:10:06 AM
I never use BIN. Once every week or two, an item sells for several times what I expect it to. If I had a BIN, that would not happen as often.
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pelorus
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posted on June 3, 2002 10:12:13 AM
dejapooh: You are now charging $3 shipping for a pin? I'm surprised you haven't gotten any flack for that yet. I am a believer in charging a little above postage for handling, but wow.
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classicrock000
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posted on June 3, 2002 10:16:04 AM
I am one who also hates reserve prices-start off with want you want.I see this alot in
electronics someone puts a starting bid at
.25 cents and the reserve is $500.00-ahh whats the point?? I want to know right off the bat what you want for the item-if it goes higher thats fine-at least I know in the ball park what im going to pay for it.
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caffeitalia
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posted on June 3, 2002 10:31:56 AM
In my experience with reserve auctions is it tends to bring out a lot of deadbeats. They bid on your items hoping to stay under your reserve and if they go over, they dissappear or quickly retract the bid. At $5.00, you are better off simply listing it and save the reserve charge.
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Libra63
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posted on June 3, 2002 10:45:22 AM
Dajapooh-Thanks for sharing your story. How lucky you were to be able to run for the Olympics. It was quite an event in Wisconsin. I don't find your price for shipping to high, when you think of your time and materials besides going to the postoffice. What do you think about 1 cent video shipped for $7.50 media mail. Isn't that excessive? I don't know what state you in but I do have a "I saw the flame" flag from Wisconsin and if you would like it I could send it to you free.
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bidsbids
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posted on June 3, 2002 10:50:50 AM
I too avoid reserve auctions. Many sellers that employ the reserve auction want the safety of not losing their item to a very low bid and the advantage of starting their item at a tiny amount to attract bidders. The big tradeoff is that many bidders avoid reserve auctions and the sellers lose a large audience.
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profe51
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posted on June 4, 2002 06:41:27 AM
It depends what you're selling. I'm mostly selling antique militaria right now. These are unique and rare and I'm not willing to take a chance on giving them away. My bidders are nearly 100 percent knowlegeable collectors who understand that they are not going to steal these items and don't mind the reserve a bit. I rarely have to relist for reserve not met. I've also got a roomful of old computer junk which I'm going to put up before it gets chucked into the dumpster, and that stuff will go up at no reserve with low starting prices.
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trader1949
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posted on June 4, 2002 08:09:40 AM
pelorus I not surprised at the $3.00 Fee. Shipping and handlingis about much more than the cost of mailing an item to a buyer. There isn't a retailer out there that doesn't tack on to the price of an item additional amounts to cover all his over head cost that are incured in offerring to the public their items. Even when purchasing items on line from other wbsights or through mail order houses minimum handling fees of $5.00 are common. I think what he has done is only cone and sound business prctice. Sellers are on-line to make Money and even in some cases to make a living. There is no reason for them to give their items away.
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bigdaddywes
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posted on June 4, 2002 09:05:06 AM
I too stay away from reserve prices. I have found that if you have a very marketable item, you can start things at a very minimal price. I even put it in my listings. "BLUE WIDGET... VERY NICE.. NO RESERVE.. ONLY $.50"
This not only gets their attention from the listing when they are searching. But when they bid on it, they become emotionally attached to YOUR ITEM... Some one else may already have an item like that listed for $10, but they have bid on yours for $2 and again at $7. The thought of getting "THAT" item weighs heavy on them, and they often buy yours at the last minute when it gets to $12. It has worked for me this way MANY MANY times.
Occasionally it doesn't work out, and I sell something a little cheaper than I thought I should, but I more than make it up on the next sell that sells for 300% more than I ever thought possible.
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sn0bbish
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posted on June 4, 2002 09:45:54 AM
well i guess a starting price of what i want for it is better. i dont sell things like antiques or anything really serious like that. right now im selling sanrio things. i hope to get my hands on some older vintage stuff since a coloring book i had went for $14. i was way shocked at that. maybe once i get into serious selling ill try reserve but until then.
=)
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Dejapooh
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posted on June 4, 2002 10:32:57 AM
$3 for shipping and Handling? Lets see, My selling expenses run about 10% of a normal sale. Usually lowest price is about $5, so we can work from that). $.50 for Expenses, $.45 postage (or $.52 if over an oz. $1 into my insurance pool (I self insure... for every package I mail, I add $1 to a pool of money. If something is lost, I refund or buy a new one from myself from the pool. If the sale is over $50 or $100, I will pay for insurance). Time, gas, maintanance on my car to go to the post office... Hard to judge... A run to the post office is usually 30 to 45 minutes. My time is priced on my paycheck at $47 per hour, broken over the 20 packages I mail on a normal trip, that would be about $1 per package. Seems to me that $3 is about right... In fact, I had one guy buy 11 pins, total of $250, Paypal was around $7, Shipping will be about $2.50, insurance will be $3, and I still charged him $3 for shipping. Would I pay $3 for someone to ship me a pin? It depends on the pin... I always take shipping into account when I place my bid.
What about the $.01 video and $7.50 shipping? Same difference. If I would pay $7.51 for it, I would bid. If I would only pay $5, I would not bid.
Libra63, Thanks for the kind offer. I have been trying to decide if I want to start to collect the torch relay pins. It would make a nice addition to the torch I just bought. I think there are about 200 or maybe 300 pins made for the torch relay... I have about 12... (I've got a ways to go). Send me an email at [email protected] Thanks.
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quickdraw29
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posted on June 4, 2002 11:01:45 AM
I only use a Reserve on low supply, high demand items, to extract a (max bid) higher than average price. Using a Reserve just to get a minimum bid is a waste. You're better off starting the bid higher with a BIN 10% higher.
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