silly question from a complete newbie

larry_lurex

after years of dithering i have put my first item up for sale on ebay. it's worth about £25-£30. i typed in a £20 starting price. then i read ebay tips. one said 'a £1 starting price will attract more buyers' so i changed it to £1.

i have a few watchers and one bid at £1. i'm sure they will start bidding on the last day.

but here's my silly question: i don't wanna sell below £20, i'd rather keep it. what if the final bid is something like £12 ? will i just get bad feedback for refusing to sell at such a price or are there other consequences ?

told you it was a stupid question, sorry.

elliemoo

Did you put a reserve price on the item?

If you don't want to sell an item below a certain price but want to have a low starting price you should put on a reserve price that way it warns the bidder that the reserve price has not been met.

If there is no reserve price I think you will have to accept what is bid and learn from the experience.

I have heard of people pulling auctions but I am not sure how you do this or in what circumstance Ebay will ok it.

Regards

larry_lurex

here's your answer:

'On eBay, sellers who wish to use a reserve price must set the reserve price to be equal to or greater than £50.00. It is not permissible to set a reserve price level to be less than £50.00.'

so that wasn't even an option.

i don't think anybody can actually make me sell goods worth £30 for £1.

rdwarr

Larry,
It's swings and roundabouts but you'll be Ok in the long run. I've sold hundreds of items on eBay, the worst was something I bought for £30, fully expeced to get £50 but it only bid to £7. On the other hand I've had laptops which I've bought for £100 expecting to get £150 and they've gone for £200.
I've seen auctions go from £60 to £300 in the last minute as well - watching your own can be really exciting!
If you're detrmined that the minimum you'll take is £20, put that as the start price and hope for the best. Reserves only come in above £50. I've never used one myself as I think they put people off.

Nadia

Hi. As your item already has bids on it, you can't change the starting price again. If I were you I would send the item even if it went for less than £ 20. If you get a negative feedback on the very first item you sell, this will put off other buyers from bidding on your items. You have to options:

1. To continue with the listing hoping for the best and then send the item to the winning bidder.

2. To cancel the bids you've already got and end the listing but in this case you will lose your listing fees. You can then relist the item with the starting price of the mininum amount you wish to sell it for. That said I have noticed that most items "usually" sell for around their true value anyway and people are usually attracted to bid on items with a low starting price. A lot of people are put off bidding when they see a high starting price.

That's just my opinion and I hope it helps in making your decision .

Cheers

Russ66

Get a friend / family to bid on it @ £20, if someone betters it then job done, if not you don't have to sell it to your mate.

However, you will have to pay the fees, then you & your mate can leave eachother A1 feedback

balsingh

Russ66 wrote:

Get a friend / family to bid on it @ £20, if someone betters it then job done, if not you don't have to sell it to your mate.

However, you will have to pay the fees, then you & your mate can leave eachother A1 feedback

Shill bidding .... its against eBays rules. Then again, most people do it!

Nadia

Russ66 wrote:

Get a friend / family to bid on it @ £20, if someone betters it then job done, if not you don't have to sell it to your mate.

However, you will have to pay the fees, then you & your mate can leave eachother A1 feedback

That's shill bidding and is against the rules.

Nadia

Posts crossed Balsingh .

larry_lurex

many thanks to all who bothered. i'm much clearer now.

to be honest, i'd rather lose a few pence in listing fees than sell at a ridiculous price.

Loopy_Lobes

Only ever start the bidding at the price you would be happy to see your item to sell for.

I often start things off at 99p to attract attention and they've gone for 99p - it's not the best outcome but that's the gamble I take. However, some items that I've started at 99p and have rocketed. It's all part of the fun

Loopy x