Thread: Still learning the Bay

I've been buying on fleabay for many years. I just now started selling.

I've sold 3 items so far and I think I have been doing it wrong.

I set what I thought was a reasonable price as the starting bid. I sold all three items but all with only a single bid at the last minute.

This time I put the starting price at slightly below what I have in the razor and got 2 bids immediately. I'm hoping for a bidding war at the end. We will see.

I guess it is a gamble. The old method of protecting yourself with a reserve seems to scare off bidders. I see many of those wind up with no bids at all.

On a positive note, the person that bought my last razor was the first bidder on this one. I guess he liked what he got.

There was a Filharmonica a couple of days ago that got no bids with a starting bid of 99 cents. The only reason I can see for that was the "reserve not met" flag.

there is so many things that can help to get bidders. One more thing you can do is put your auction listing in us dollars. It will attract a few more

I'm not sure what you mean. I'm in the US, so all my listings are US Dollars.

I've noticed the 'starting price effect' on UK eBay - even if the price is reasonable for an item, having a starting price at all seems to discourage people from bidding. Once people have made a bid, it seems that they're likely to bid a little more to get the item, and if several people are doing this the price can go up a lot. Fewer people seem willing to jump in, even with a sensible price, to start with - lots of people will enter a very low bid for a bargain. I've watched eBay a lot more than I've bid on it, and I've only sold a couple of spare DVDs just to see how it works, but I got that impression strongly.

It's also noticeable that the two largest-volume UK vintage razor sellers have very low starting prices, and minimum postage charges. I think people are very put off if they think the seller is trying to pad the postage for a few extra pennies profit.

You can pretty much guarantee interest in your item by starting with a low price but there is no way of knowing if the price will rise to what you really want. At the same time you want to protect yourself so the auction doesn't end with you on the losing side. Plenty of people start low and if they don't like the way things are going they cancel the auction towards the end.

I need to read up. I don't know how to cancel an auction or what the consequences are.

Yes a lot of people will cancel the listing, or (and please dont do this) shill bid on it themselves until it gets where they want it. Sometimes it is just bad timing, there could be a similar razor that others are interested in, bad pictures, who knows. With razors there are so many different factors that can come in place.

The other thing to consider is if the razor is worth as much to a buyer as you think it's worth.
If you're stuck on getting a certain dollar amount just set it up as a BIN with a reserve below the BIN price. It will take longer to sell this way, but you'll get what you want.

If you're willing to let the market decide, start your auctions at $0.99 with no reserve. Make sure they don't end at stupid times (shoot for about 10PM pacific). Sundays tend to be the best day of the week to end your auction, but a lot of razor sellers know that, so there's a lot more competition on Sunday nights. Going with a $0.99 / no reserve, you'll do better than you thought on some, and worse on others but they definitely get more attention.

Also, a LOT of razor buyers use sniping software. If you're canceling auctions before they end, you might be shooting yourself in the foot. There could be two or more people with high snipes set.

The most important thing: GOOD PICTURES.
A crappy razor with good pictures will often sell for more than a good razor with crappy pictures.

Learning how to set the white balance on my camera made a big difference in selling prices for me.

Originally Posted by HNSB

The most important thing: GOOD PICTURES.
A crappy razor with good pictures will often sell for more than a good razor with crappy pictures.

Second the "Good Pictures" notion. While I certainly am not about the draw undue attention to a flaw, people want a good look at what they are buying. A low starting price is a great attractant to bidding. Although, with all the fees, I wont start an auction under an opening bid of 9.99. If my razor is to lousy to sell for that much, then its too lousy for me to sell it!

Buy it nows are good, ending early is bad. shill bidding is evil.