Is ebay becoming a snipe fest?

bartelbe

RFW wrote: »

It possibly depends how you count the listings as to the percentages. Obviously larger sellers have more items on fixed price in multiple variation listings. There is also probably a higher turnover of value on fixed price, that said the number of listings is still about 50/50.

Ebay have had a problem with auctions for some time, they don't get that much revenue from them, however they are their backbone and what made them so popular. A big percentage of Ebay customers enjoy auctions and even sniping, it would be a dangerous decision for them ever to get rid of them.

Why do ebay make so little from auctions? Is it low final value fees, people only listing when there are free listing days?

porto_bello

Many of us have seen obvious examples of shill bidding and that eBay's response is to choose the do nothing option, if at all possible.

Sniping is the most effective way to prevent a seller nudging up the selling price, by leaving them insufficient time to work out the price of the top genuine bid price and fall just short of it.

Since many snipers are free, I rarely bid 'manually'.

AdamKels

I have found that the only problem ebay has is the fee's. It has killed business side of it. I have made over 1200 pounds selling the random things i have no longer use for, 120 of which was spent on fee's.

I always list my items at 99p, no matter what the value. I find that they reach my asking price. If i start the item at 50, it usually scares potential bidders off. However if i list the same item for 99p, it can sometimes surpass the 50 pound mark.

I have a friend who sells model trains via facebook now because ebay eats into his profits too much.

Old_Git

for those off us who cant sit watching a computer all day sniping is the way to go.

soolin

The majority of my items are auctions as my main line is still antiques and collectables and need to find their own price. I always list at the lowest price I will accept as many of my items sell on the first bid.

I receive bids from day one on these items and may never get another bid, but again that is because I have a very limited pool of buyers.

My modern and new items all go on BIN auctions , mostly variable BINs (which I adore when ebay isn't glitchy)

On my auctions I usually maintain an 80% sell through rate at minimum, often I can get closer to a 95% sell through rate.

I also make more money on ebay than I do on facebook sales for my new goods as even in London I have a bigger pool of people wanting my new items worldwide than I do in an area of about 15 miles on facebook and I have to discount on Facebook to get sales. I do use Facebook though when I am not too busy on ebay- just to move stock.

RFW

bartelbe wrote: »

Why do ebay make so little from auctions? Is it low final value fees, people only listing when there are free listing days?

The majority of auction listings will sell one item (with the possibility of second chance offers), the majority of fixed price items will sell several items with quantity and variations.

The daily deal could never be an auction listing, it wouldn't bring in the revenue.

For smaller sellers auctions are a good way of getting a good price for less common, sought after items and attracting attention to fixed price listings of the same items.

About 5 years ago we sold mainly auction listings and rarely fixed price, we're the other way round now. Our business has changed a lot because of the economy so fixed price now works better. Markets always change.

I've been to a few Ebay conventions/universities and almost every time the first question addressed by anyone in authority (from the CEO down) has been about auctions, they always say that they will never get rid of them. I'd be foolish to say that will never change, especially in the fickle world of Ebay, but it does seem unlikely.

jetplane

Allison_Haskins wrote: »

I pretty much always snipe, partly convenience and partly to avoid shills. With 99% of items there's enough completed sales to determine what a good price is.

As a seller, I find it's not worth 7,10, 30 day listings, pretty much all the watchers appear in the last three days and bids in the last 12 hours. My thinking is buyers are looking for the immediate purchase of Amazon but at 2nd hand prices. Amazon could take business off Ebay by developing their Maketplace.

As a buyer I agree with this, more and more I am finding that I am sniping. I often used it for convenience and to save me from auction fever but now I find that it is pointless watching a bid for 7 days as nothing happens, so I only look on the listings with one day or so to go. Even if I put an early bid all of the action occurs in the last couple of minutes.

Crowqueen

Amazon could take business off Ebay by developing their Maketplace

Their marketplace seems to be doing better for me than eBay is at the moment. I think they have higher standards for sellers in general and I'm not sure they would want to dilute that - it's sometimes not quantity people are after but quality. From personal experience, although I continue to sell privately, I'm finding it harder and harder to trust private sellers when buying. I'm not sure I'd be so happy to buy certain things from Amazon if they decided to copy eBay - I go there mostly because I can trust items like electronics more than I can trust the same thing from eBay.

AshleyPomeroy

bartelbe wrote: »

I will use an example, a 1st edition book. The cheapest it was listed for anywhere else was £40, and that edition was no where near the condition of mine.

You have to check the completed listings if you want to see how much eBayers are prepared to pay for something. Judging by your example it was a not-particularly-sought-after first edition that was worth £29.99 to one person over a period of three weeks.

There isn't enough data to draw a conclusion; it could be that the winning bidder intended to put it on auction straightaway for £40, because he assumes that is how much people will pay for it. Judging by your experience he's going to have a long wait - but his bust is your boon, because you shifted the merchandise. Sucks to be him.

It could be that the bidder was the one person in three weeks who really really needed that book. But that didn't help you, because there wasn't a second person who needed the book, to bid against the first person. Sniping would not affect that. In that case a fixed price listing would have been the better option.

And this bugs me::money:

Frames four and eight have a white background; the background should be transparent, like in the other frames. That has nothing to do with eBay, it just bugs me.

Buster_Danog

I have to say I also use sniping to avoid the auction fever thing - bidding above the price you intended just because it keeps going up. I prefer to just have a maximum price in my head and stick to it. I don't know what it is but when I used to sit there at the last minute my heart would be pounding like I was about to go out and fight Mike Tyson. In addition to that I lost auctions due to my bad internet connection.

As for my recent listings I started them at around five quid and that is for nearly new clothing. I didn't want to risk selling items for 99p which were beand names and worth more. It does happen.

I won an auction for 99p a few weeks ago where the item could have been sold as a fixed listing or on Amazon for £25 easily. Mysteriously it was "lost" in the post. I decided not to leave the seller bad feedback, but I suspect he never sent it. From watching similar items in the weeks before that he must have been convinced there was a bigger demand for that item.

Anyway, it's a major change for me and ebay. I prefer not to sit there bidding at the last minute, but then as a seller I miss seeing the bids of people who seemed like they were sitting watching the auction. You can't have it both ways.