posted on August 29, 2001 04:50:00 PM new
For a change of pace, let's say you've just gotten home from driving around yard sales (or wherever) and now you've got a box of overlooked treasures.
I use an eBay search, followed by a Google search for any still remaining, as a guide in determining the item value and selecting an opening bid.
posted on August 29, 2001 05:08:06 PM new
jimhhow,
Sure looks like it. Hard to believe that an individual -- and I have an idea who that individual is -- would spend an entire day creating fraudulent AuctionWatch accounts, but then again, everyone needs a hobby.
Look at the thanks I get. I mean, really, I *did* spend one buck bidding on an auction there this past week.
posted on August 29, 2001 05:48:57 PM new
Looks like we have another bounty hunter here. Must have something to do with the word BID in the auction name.
posted on August 29, 2001 08:45:22 PM new
What happened to the Paypal offer? I was going to ask "Do I hear $55"
Anyone who's been around here a long time knows who Dim really is. I for one respect people's right to privacy, if he wants to post his ID that's his call alone. Like me he prefers his auctions and ratings not be harassed over chat board opinions. Since such immature behavior is sadly routine at BV I am surprised anyone is willing to post there with their seller ID.
Gee, I wonder what he needed Dim's info for exactly?
posted on August 29, 2001 09:10:58 PM new
---Back to the topic
I have always done my pricing by ebay's closed list.
From what I can tell a lot of sellers do no research, just throw items out there for whatever they hope to get. Why else is there so much stuff sitting on free sites at $25, 40 and 50 openings that sells in quantity for $8, 18 and 22 every day on ebay?
Here's the most recent example of a typical pattern I've found in comparison shopping again and again. I saw an ad on BV's front page for $35. I always research the best deal and found:
Yahoo- no ads
epier- no ads
BV- 1 other seller had the exact item $8 open, $10 Take It
ebay- 1 exact item $6.95 open, $8.95 Buy Now, shipping $1.00 cheaper than both BV ads. Item also available for direct sale continuously in sellers ebay store for $8.95.
My local Wal-Mart- $15 every day
Come on now, $20 over Wal-Mart and $26.05 over ebay- is it any wonder some items just sit? Pricing must be researched AND competitive if anyone hopes to draw buyers away from ebay. You can't just make up a price and hope some sucker will go for it without checking around.
Of course it doesn't only happen on the free sites, I also see some sellers open on ebay for double the price the exact thing closes for every day. Those sellers simply waste their listing fees by not doing their research. It seems to be overlooked as a vital step no matter where you want to list.
The worst example I've ever seen was on free Yahoo. (Moderators, this refers to a years old auction so I don't think it's against guidelines to be somewhat specific.) A few years ago Avon released a Michael Jordan item. After a few weeks it was withdrawn from sale due to a trademark lawsuit. A few months later someone posted one on Yahoo for one million dollars with a title screaming EXTREMELY RARE, IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND RECALLED COLLECTIBLE!!! Same week on ebay there were 7 exact listed opening from .01 to $9.99. Only 3 of the 7 ads got bids and the highest sold for $6.50. The point there being, if there's not an established value sellers have to take a chance opening low to see what the market will bear. It was hardly a million $ but I guess the seller figured he had nothing to lose letting it relist over & over at his outrageous price. Hmmm, I wonder if he ever sold it.
posted on August 29, 2001 09:42:29 PM new
Yep, I do basically the same thing. And in fact often times end up keeping particular items either because I can't find anything out about them or what I do find out about them is so darned interesting that I can't part with them.
I don't recall just how long ago it was I was in a thrift shop that had just received a ton of donated stuff from an antique shop cleaning out some inventory. There were a couple of very interesting looking bottles. Each was made of stoneware, with a head for the lid and a body for the bottle.
There's an inscription on the bottom of them that reads 'Oberammergau'. Well, I had to drudge up the help of my sister before we could finally figure out what on earth these things were.
Come to find out they are bottles that at one time held a stomach remedy made of gentian, and this stuff is sold to this day in little villages in Germany. The bottles were made in a town called Oberammergau. Oberammergau also happens to hold a fascinating history about a play that is put on (I'd have to re-read to remember everything) because of a time in their history a few hundred years ago when nearly the whole village was wiped out with the plague. The village elders got together and made a promise to God that if he spared them they would hole this play on a regular basis. The year 2000 was a significant anniversary for the play. That also happens to be the year I found the bottles and was going to list them before the play started running. I think I listed them once with a huge reserve in hopes they wouldn't sell, then never had the nerve to re-list them.
Now today I ran into another interesting item. These are ceramic figurines of the Peanuts gang. These are very ordinary ceramic figurines, made by an individual in an ordinary ceramic shop. There's Snoopy's dog house, Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Pigpen, Sally, regular Snoopy, Red Baron Snoopy and I think one more. Anyway, as I said, this set isn't extraordinary in a way most people would know. But in one way it is extraordinary. The molds the set was cast from were originally made during the 1960s and were a copyright infringement that were later ordered destroyed. We had a set of these molds when we owned our ceramic shop, but when we found out what they were, of course destroyed them. I do believe they ended up as pothole filler in my folks' driveway, LOL.
The fellow from whom I bought them told me they ought to be a really good seller. He was tickled to get $30 out of them, and I was tickled to give it to him since I'd been trying to find them again for the last 15 years. I think it might take some real talking to convince me to try to sell them though--especially considering the copyright.
Anyway, since I started auction selling and buying I do have the most interesting collection of knick-knacks anyone ever has seen, and I'd imagine it could get worse yet.
-----------------------------------
posted on August 30, 2001 03:33:51 AM new
Well Dim, they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. From yesterdays threads I'd say you have quite the obsessive admirer!
I have a pretty good idea who it is too, if fact I saw him earlier on another board attempting to cast suspicion from himself to his other favorite AW target.
Yes, ebay closed item search. It's very helpful to browse closed collectibles before you hit those sales. I've seen some things that went for $100 and up I would probably not have paid $3 for at a yard sale or Goodwill without checking ebay. I often find the tackier and uglier IMO turn out being the highest $ sales. To think I used to pass over tacky stuff at any price-until I learned better. The ebay closed search has to be the best seller resource there is.
Looks we all agree that you can't top eBay search (I use both active and closed auctions myself) to get an idea of the value of items.
I've quite often had some items for which an eBay search came up empty and, since they had titles, a Google search sometimes turns up a website or two offering the items for sale.
posted on August 30, 2001 07:56:42 AM new
I mostly use the current items search on eBay as more and more items are selling with only one bid anyway and snipeing is not as prevelent as it once was since esnipe started charging fees. I use the Google search engine a lot to find items not on eBay or to see what the web sellers are asking and then try to include that info in the auction description.
I try to use the current selling situation of a particular item to my advantage when I can. For example, if a seller has an item going for $15 with several bids and couple of days left ( and the closed items search shows that the $15 is about the average price ) and I have that same item that I bought for only $3 I will try to list it in the same category and put a BIN price of $12 to lure one of the competing bidders from the other sellers auctions. That works 90% of the time, all's fair in love and war and auctions.
