Free listing weekends.. Advice needed please.

kiwikaz

I normally look forward to free listing weekends as a private seller if only to save pennies on listing fees.

However, I'm becoming a bit disillusioned with it all. I usually list for a price that I'd be happy to accept should they sell and, IMO I don't think my starting prices are overly unrealistic either.Unfortunately I'm hardly shifting anything :(:(.I seem to have more success when listing at 99p. I know everyone's feeling the pinch at the moment and maybe Ebay's slow at the moment.

Can anyone give me any advice on how they approach or handle these free listing weekends please.

Cheers, Karen.

RFW

If you have items that aren't selling check what other similar items are available and how much others have been sold for.

Then check your listings, do you have the correct key words in your title, are you using most/all the characters available?

Do you have a good picture? A complete description? Listed in the correct category? Is your postage at a sensible (ie not inflated) rate? Do you have any silly or invalid terms such as not being responsible for items lost in the mail?

There are lots of reasons apart from pricing that stops items from selling.

The best way forward is to check completed listings to see if your item has been sold by others and work out why yours didn't.

kiwikaz

Thanks for your advice.
I'll re-look into how I'm currently listing. I've no bids at all as yet so I hope that I'll be able to edit if needed.

Thanks again.
Karen.

porto_bello

It also depends on what you're listing. I'm also a private seller, selling odd items around the house. I tend to list things which are uncommon or difficult to obtain.

If what you've got to sell is common, you'll have to be cheap to sell your item and even if you are currently the cheapest seller, sooner or later someone will undercut your price.

MadelinesMum

Hi, I have had similar experiences to you. On a free-listing weekend I started a dress at £4, had 2 watchers but did not sell. I relisted starting at 99p and it sold for over £10 - using the same pic and description.

I think it all hinges on someone bidding first and there's more chance of that if you start at 99p.

forallotherthings

I think this ^ is probably true. If someone else wants something it makes it seem more desirable to us and if you put it a small bid you're already seeing it as 'yours' so you bid up a little to keep it yours if that makes any sense at all.

Crowqueen

eBay has been slow and the postal cost rises in the spring have flattened things out for me. I get more results on Amazon, one or two sales a week with about 60 items listed, but obviously that is only suitable for things which are in their categories and give a clear amount over the postage credit they give out to send for a price worth selling for. Particularly with general fiction books and larger sellers' access to Amazon pro accounts and bulk postage rates, it's not worth listing half the books I'm trying to get rid of. That said, there are still some things that are shifting well.

The summer is also not traditionally a great time to sell stuff. This summer that has been compounded by the Jubilee, the Euro football championships, the Olympics and now the Paralympics. People are spending any money they have going to all of those and not on eBay .

99p starts are obviously doing OK; make sure your listings are clear and aren't discouraging people from bidding. Loads of restrictive terms can put a lot of people off and often don't protect you as much as you think they do. Remember that you want people to pay you for something, so make sure you are competitive on postage and dispatch particularly. There is little room to manoeuvre; even if you have a full-time job and have to drive 10 miles to the nearest PO, remember that other sellers don't and on eBay it's obvious in a crowded marketplace those who can dispatch promptly and have tight control of their postage costs are those who sell correspondingly more.

My dilemma is whether to stay with inclusive postage or list at 99p plus postage. I'm not selling much starting at £4 on most of my items, but that only means I see 50p. I get auto-5*s, and can charge for first class, which should get there quicker, reducing the possibility of buyers confusing dispatch with delivery, but then again, it may be better to start off at 99p and get some bids.

I'm tempted to try a handful of auctions this week to see whether there is a difference or not.