Items not selling well...what listing format please?

Martin_Knott-Lewis

I've listed a lot of my things for sale on Ebay recently.

I've started my auction listings at 99p and although I had betewwen 4-10 watchers, in the end only one bid and the items each went for a mere 99p!

I've tried fixed price Buy it now and many haven't sold.

I'd now like to try auctions with a reserve but Ebay won't let me set a reserve below £50.

Is that right?

After all the trouble of taking photos, etc. I've got listings ending later today, still at 99p and people asking if they can collect to avoid p&p charges.

For instance I have a camera tripod I'd like about £8-12 for, not 99p

I've checked completed listings for an guide on pricing.

Any recommendations?

Martin (not Lewis)

sparkleisshopping

You can't set a reserve price below £50, that's correct.

For the camera tripod for example, have you checked completed listings on it and do they tend to go for £8-£12? If they do, and £8 is the minimum you'd be prepared to accept for it then you need to start your auction at £8.

Sadly there is sometimes a big difference between what you see an item to be worth and what others are willing to pay for it.

soolin

I carry quite a few different lines across my accounts. For most of them i don't get a lot of competitive bidding, so all I do is start at the minimum I will accept, having done my research on ebay first. On my business account I would expect at least a 75% sell through rate and according to my last update from ebay central I was achieving 84% sell through.

So like sparkle says, is your £8 for a camera tripod realistic, have similar items sold for that in the past? If not then your price needs a rethink and you may need to lower your expectations. If similar items have sold for that then try and see why your listings don't attract buyers and others do. Do you have any silly terms and conditions for example, poor stars, anything at all that is putting buyers off?

Lastly, if you don't want 99p for something then don't start at that amount.

SpammyTheSpammer

We bought a couple from two sellers last weekend at a carboot. One was solid and cost £2, the other was more slim and cost £1. Is yours made of a rare metal?


Also, I watch many items but never buy - I just want to see what price they go for...

Crowqueen

There is also a bit of a slowdown at the moment. Given that the economy is still relatively in the doldrums, I think you would be lucky to sell somethings that a few years ago sold very well.

Try listing some stuff nearer Christmas, it might do better then.

Also people are far more accustomed to buying outright rather than bidding - most other popular sites only have fixed price items. I find some items sell better if you put them at a Buy It Now price. That tends to be just books and media though.

macfly

Spammy, not everyone thinks tramping around muddy fields picking through tat is a nice way to spend a weekend. If I wanted a tripod and one was on ebay for £8, I wouldn't go traipsing round on the offchance of getting it for £2. Life's too short.

porto_bello

I think Crowqueen has hit the nail squarely on the head. I can still sell on eBay, but it isn't as easy or as definite as it used to be, 12-18 months ago.

I imagine the number of eBay users has grown, year on year, so in theory there should be a bigger market than ever, but I've found it just ain't like that. :sad:

Perhaps the proportion of sellers is increasing faster than the number of buyers, so more sellers are chasing fewer sales? - Just a thought! :idea:

SpammyTheSpammer

I have 2 great ones - yours for only £8 each +P&P
(tee hee)

This is a Money Saving Site...

Crowqueen

porto_bello wrote: »

I think Crowqueen has hit the nail squarely on the head. I can still sell on eBay, but it isn't as easy or as definite as it used to be, 12-18 months ago.

I imagine the number of eBay users has grown, year on year, so in theory there should be a bigger market than ever, but I've found it just ain't like that. :sad:

Perhaps the proportion of sellers is increasing faster than the number of buyers, so more sellers are chasing fewer sales? - Just a thought! :idea:

I'm not sure about that myself. eBay has managed to capture the attention of the general public and attract "mainstream" buyers, and overall profits have just risen sharply (by about 20% over the first months of this year). Whether or not it's attracting fewer buyers, I think the profile of the site is changing, but that's not solely the reason why it may be slow at the moment. I think there are a lot more persuasive economic arguments than there are comments about the way the site is run.

The one thing I used to sell a lot of are stamps and postcards (I bought loads in Eastern Europe, and used to sell them on eBay without actually dealing in them as a business), and since the credit crunch, I haven't been able to sell that many, and browsing the categories, I see the same ones listed that were on a year ago. If they were still selling I would be able to make a bit of money and perhaps establish myself as a dealer, but there's no market at all at the moment. However, once people start getting spare cash again, I suspect the market will open back up.

On the other hand, I have a number of tarot decks I tried out (I still read the cards, it works for me at least, just I didn't ever need so many decks) and putting one up for sale for 99p always gets me about £7-£10 depending on the condition of the cards.

So there's a lot of variables to it, I don't think you can solely blame eBay management or attribute it to eBay itself, because some of the smaller sites (Tazbar and QXL, most notably) actually went under in the last year or two and eBay profits have gone right up.

lindseykim13

I've noticed (and i sell a variety of things) most old time ebayers go for the collectable/hard to find items on auction, sort of things you do have to traipse around a car boot looking for. My brand new items on BINS go to new ebayers on average they have around the 30 fb mark. Unusually i've had 4/5 cheque/po orders in the last few weeks.
I would hazard a guess the old timers like to bid on auctions old style lol newer ebay users treat it as more of an online shop.

Crowqueen

lindseykim13 wrote: »

I've noticed (and i sell a variety of things) most old time ebayers go for the collectable/hard to find items on auction, sort of things you do have to traipse around a car boot looking for. My brand new items on BINS go to new ebayers on average they have around the 30 fb mark. Unusually i've had 4/5 cheque/po orders in the last few weeks.
I would hazard a guess the old timers like to bid on auctions old style lol newer ebay users treat it as more of an online shop.

Yup. I've been buying on eBay since 2002 and although I don't have much money to spare on collectables and stuff I don't just buy everything on eBay. I stay away from certain categories because I've never seemed to have a good buy there, and I don't like buying clothes on eBay as I like to try stuff on beforehand.

But I used to regularly rummage through the stamps/postcards categories, the old OOP history books and the dolls category, I find loads of old OOP role-playing games like the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition system stuff that I had as a teenager, and I currently buy a lot of secondhand DVDs on eBay, which for things like Star Trek and West Wing halves (and more) the retail price.

I went through a period of not bidding on an awful lot but over this summer I've changed slightly.