Starting price

Peter_Lanky

TurkishDelight wrote: »

Oh and whatever you do, don't go for the 99p + average/high buy it now option- I've picked up some incredible bargains from those.

I assume you're referring to an auction that starts with at 99p but also has a BIN, but I'm not sure what you mean here.

I'm also a little confused at the process. Suppose I start an auction at 99p but I have a price in mind that an item will sell for if somebody doesn't want to wait 7 days, so I add a BIN at this price. As soon as somebody bids, the BIN disappears. Why? I have lost the chance to sell early to somebody prepared to buy at this price. It makes more sense to have the BIN remaining. In fact, it is almost certain that somebody will bid before a BIN comes along, so this type of listing is pointless.

The other strange one is the seller with a starting price and BIN at the same value. Only a fool would surely not take the BIN?

TurkishDelight

Peter_Lanky wrote: »

I assume you're referring to an auction that starts with at 99p but also has a BIN, but I'm not sure what you mean here.

Yes, that's what I meant.

If the buy it now is too high it puts people off bidding as they think that the seller will be awkward if it goes for a low price.

I'm also a little confused at the process. Suppose I start an auction at 99p but I have a price in mind that an item will sell for if somebody doesn't want to wait 7 days, so I add a BIN at this price. As soon as somebody bids, the BIN disappears. Why? I have lost the chance to sell early to somebody prepared to buy at this price. It makes more sense to have the BIN remaining. In fact, it is almost certain that somebody will bid before a BIN comes along, so this type of listing is pointless.

Well, it's unfair to the bidders who have possibly missed out on others.

It's also not uncommon for sellers to have underestimated the value of their item and for it to eventually go for more than the buy it now as the bidders who come in late push it beyond the original price.
It's the chancers who were mentioned above who take the first bid in that case.

The other strange one is the seller with a starting price and BIN at the same value. Only a fool would surely not take the BIN?

It is sometimes a cheaper way to list a buy it now.
Buy it now is 40p, but if it's a low value item the listing fee and upgrade fee is probably less than this.

I agree it looks odd though, and not at all professional.

cyberbob

TurkishDelight wrote: »

If the buy it now is too high it puts people off bidding as they think that the seller will be awkward if it goes for a low price.

I'm not convinced by that argument and personally never seen any evidence. I frequently put a BIN on auctions that is a more than I realistically expect to get. Frequently the items have been bought for that price. When they do go for auction I have no problems getting good prices either. I sometimes think uts worth putting a high BIN as sometimes if someone really wants the item they may pay that price and not risk the auction.

TurkishDelight

cyberbob wrote: »

I'm not convinced by that argument and personally never seen any evidence. I frequently put a BIN on auctions that is a more than I realistically expect to get. Frequently the items have been bought for that price. When they do go for auction I have no problems getting good prices either. I sometimes think uts worth putting a high BIN as sometimes if someone really wants the item they may pay that price and not risk the auction.

Well maybe it's just the categories I frequent then, but a low priced auction + high priced buy it now is pretty much a gurantee of a great price (buying wise).

Depending on how vintage the toys are it's a similar market to the OP though.

lindseykim13

TurkishDelight wrote: »

Well maybe it's just the categories I frequent then, but a low priced auction + high priced buy it now is pretty much a gurantee of a great price (buying wise).

Depending on how vintage the toys are it's a similar market to the OP though.

i have to agree people just browsing through lots of pages see the buy it now price and go right past it not noticing that its also on an auction format too. i have done it myself in the past. but once i learnt have also picked up bargains from this type of auction think it does depend on category (toys and clothes i've got bargains) and also how early the buy it now get wiped off by someone bidding. I have also seen these auctions go for more on bidding than they had the original buy it now price at too.

ebay is a risky business lol

to answer the original question, popular item i start a 99p if only a few people would be interested then it goes on a fixed price buy it now for 30 days costing 40p hths

Jacks_xxx

I think you have to do a bit of research hon, and try things out to see what seems to work best.

Keep an eye on what similar items start at, and go for, then when you list make sure you include the same key words in your title and list in the correct category. How many of them are usually on at the same time, is there a pattern for this? The week before payday often has fewer items on.

Ten days mean you can get views over two weekends, but seven days means that you can make yours one of the last to finish on a particular day which might mean mopping up bidders who are fed up with being outbid and go a little higher ?

Once your item is up and running, if it's up against several starting at 99p I think it's worth revising to either do the same - or put on a BIN to catch people who don't want to wait another week for auctions to end.

Take good pics, give measurements if applicable. Don't have a list of T&Cs that might put people off.

Occasionally one of mine goes for less than I had hoped, but so long as I know I did my best I can just chalk it up to the vagaries of the eBay system and move on.

pseudopensioner

Peter_Lanky wrote: »

??? Is this an answer to a completely different question? It doesn't follow on from my comment.

Given that the "quote" was from your posting, how can you think I was referring to something else?

If you list an item with a start price of 99p and I place a maximum bid of £400, the listing will still only show a bid of 99p, until another person makes a bid.

I hope I never bid on one of your items because you clearly don't understand the way an auction works, and who needs a rude seller?

Occasionally a low bid can bag a bargain particularly in a poorly presented listing, wrong category, limited description and unclear photographs.

I've picked up a few bargains from some of those.

Strapped

Peter_Lanky wrote: »

I assume you're referring to an auction that starts with at 99p but also has a BIN, but I'm not sure what you mean here.

I'm also a little confused at the process. Suppose I start an auction at 99p but I have a price in mind that an item will sell for if somebody doesn't want to wait 7 days, so I add a BIN at this price. As soon as somebody bids, the BIN disappears. Why? I have lost the chance to sell early to somebody prepared to buy at this price. It makes more sense to have the BIN remaining. In fact, it is almost certain that somebody will bid before a BIN comes along, so this type of listing is pointless.

The other strange one is the seller with a starting price and BIN at the same value. Only a fool would surely not take the BIN?

Using an auction / BIN listing pushes you higher up the search standings - can be useful if you have just the one (popular) item to sell.

Peter_Lanky

TurkishDelight wrote: »

Well, it's unfair to the bidders who have possibly missed out on others.

I don't see how it's unfair to bidders. The whole process is a game of change.

TurkishDelight wrote: »

It's also not uncommon for sellers to have underestimated the value of their item and for it to eventually go for more than the buy it now as the bidders who come in late push it beyond the original price.

Again, that's a chance that sellers take. If a seller has underestimated the value, then they take the hit as a lower sale. If the figure they had in mind was what they expected, then they will be happy to sell at that price.

With the BIN disappearing as soon as a bid is made, then potential bidders will only be put off by the high BIN price before a bid, as they will be blissfully unaware of it after a bid has removed the BIN.

Peter_Lanky

pseudopensioner wrote: »

Given that the "quote" was from your posting, how can you think I was referring to something else?

If you list an item with a start price of 99p and I place a maximum bid of £400, the listing will still only show a bid of 99p, until another person makes a bid.

I hope I never bid on one of your items because you clearly don't understand the way an auction works, and who needs a rude seller?

Occasionally a low bid can bag a bargain particularly in a poorly presented listing, wrong category, limited description and unclear photographs.

I've picked up a few bargains from some of those.

I'm not being remotely rude. I was asking if you'd mixed my question up with another one. I'm well aware of what you are describing, however this is nothing to do with my post.

If I look at the list of bids on an auction (not the latest bid) then I can see that (for example) somebody bid £1.20 on a computer graphics card. However, every graphics card of this particular type sells for over £40, so the £1.20 bid was pointless.

In a real auction in an auction room. If somebody is selling something that is likely to sell at say £500, then they might start the bidding at £300. This is not a reserve price or anything, just a sensible level to start the bidding. No point is wasting time with somebody bidding a £1 followed by more pointless bids.