Is ebay becoming a snipe fest?

Crowqueen

but then as a seller I miss seeing the bids of people who seemed like they were sitting watching the auction.

The frustrating thing as a seller is to have a lot of watchers only to realise the auction ends at an odd time - like mid-afternoon when most people are hard at work - rather than poised ready to snipe. Really good planning and research is required to get the right prices - you can't just sit back and watch bids roll in any more. ecommerce is routine nowadays - it's not the free-for-all, list-anything-and-watch-it-sell festival it was in the old days. People are generally shrewder and more savvy, particularly with money which we all know is pretty tight.

porto_bello

Crowqueen wrote: »

but then as a seller I miss seeing the bids of people who seemed like they were sitting watching the auction.

The frustrating thing as a seller is to have a lot of watchers only to realise the auction ends at an odd time - like mid-afternoon when most people are hard at work - rather than poised ready to snipe. Really good planning and research is required to get the right prices - you can't just sit back and watch bids roll in any more. ecommerce is routine nowadays - it's not the free-for-all, list-anything-and-watch-it-sell festival it was in the old days. People are generally shrewder and more savvy, particularly with money which we all know is pretty tight.

With auctions, similar to Soolin above, I list for the minimum price I'll accept and if there are additional bids, it's a bonus. If an item doesn't sell, I'll relist it on the next FLW.

Whether bidders are using snipers or bidding manually, I tend to list auctions so that they end in the evening and usually on a Sunday, when the highest proportion of bidders will be able to log in and bid.

I don't get excited about watchers - there is no guarantee that watchers will become bidders. However, usually, if I have 10 or more watchers for an item, I've found that's usually a good indication that it will sell.

Crowqueen

A while ago I was getting rid of a collection of items (now all gone).

They started off at 99p and although I exaggerate slightly that they usually went for £10 (because looking back through my feedback for those sales the closing price could be all over the place) there was a good chance they would all sell.

The only problem I had with this was forgetting that starting them off/ending them at 2pm was worse than 8pm - but I did still get enough for them.

Agree with watchers as well - one or two is neither here nor there, but from personal experience more will suggest that the item will sell - but not the price it will end at nor the number of people who will bid.

Things can work very much like clockwork depending on several factors. I ran a survey a number of years ago for a political party's youth division and I was told by a friend that response rate to surveys is 3.3%. I was surprised at how accurate that figure was but I sent out 1000 leaflets and got back...33, or 3.3%.

So my own rough rules of thumb do work for me. Particularly with some of the tarot/new age stuff I have, I find accentuating the 'hint' that there is 'some female nudity' in the pack gets people bidding. I'd obviously never lead people to expect it if it wasn't there, but it's got me some good prices .

Buster_Danog

Whaddayaknow? Sex sells on ebay too.

bartelbe

AshleyPomeroy wrote: »

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.

]

Ebay is a very poor guide to the value of some items. I know a bit about the second hand book trade for example. It can take months to shift a single rare valueable book.

That doesn't mean the book is overpriced. It just means there is a limited specialist market that you have to access to get top value.

bartelbe

Sergeant_Troy wrote: »

Whaddayaknow? Sex sells on ebay too.

I suspect it sells everywhere.

bartelbe

porto_bello wrote: »

With auctions, similar to Soolin above, I list for the minimum price I'll accept and if there are additional bids, it's a bonus. If an item doesn't sell, I'll relist it on the next FLW.

Whether bidders are using snipers or bidding manually, I tend to list auctions so that they end in the evening and usually on a Sunday, when the highest proportion of bidders will be able to log in and bid.

I don't get excited about watchers - there is no guarantee that watchers will become bidders. However, usually, if I have 10 or more watchers for an item, I've found that's usually a good indication that it will sell.

I do a similar thing, but it seems pointless. It basically becomes like a fixed price listing, with one finish time. Auctions should be about allowing the market to decide the value, and I am not convinced that ebay auctions are very good at doing that anymore.

soolin

bartelbe wrote: »

I do a similar thing, but it seems pointless. It basically becomes like a fixed price listing, with one finish time. Auctions should be about allowing the market to decide the value, and I am not convinced that ebay auctions are very good at doing that anymore.

This is not a nanny state, there is no requirement for market to be set by buyers.

I sell so I decide my price. If I get it wrong I get stuck with stock I can't sell, but if I know my market I only buy what I know I can sell.

I go to a lot of bricks and mortar auctions and they do not start at a low price if the seller has any reserve. An auctioneer will often start a bit below the reserve but if it does not reach the reserve it's unsold. They don't just start the lot at a pound and hope for the best.

RFW

bartelbe wrote: »

Auctions should be about allowing the market to decide the value, and I am not convinced that ebay auctions are very good at doing that anymore.

It's a swamped market in nearly all areas. It's the same everywhere at the moment, auction prices are down a lot on and off Ebay. There's auctions all over not selling items when they don't reach their reserve.

As I said earlier 5 or so years ago items we listed in auction would mostly reach a good price with 99p starts, that stopped about 2 years ago in a lot of listings. We do still run 99p auctions but they're less and less, they can still work though. I would add that I know the market we sell in has depleted quite a lot, much less buyers with much less spending power. I expect the antique book trade is much the same.

GabbaGabbaHey

bartelbe wrote: »

I listed for £29.99 and got no bids. Listed again, no bids. Third time, one bidder paid the asking price. Now if I had taken your advice and listed at 99p, it would have sold, more than likely for 99p. Someone would have made a packet, and I would be out of pocket.

Alternatively, somebody might have bid 99p. Another bidder might have then gone £1.20 ... and then the red mist might have come down and you might have had a bidding war on your hands, with the eventual sale price well above the £29.99 that your book sold actually for. But you'll never know.

(BTW, the £40 that another copy was advertised at is a total red herring. Only completed sale prices count, not asking prices - anybody can ask any price for any item; doesn't mean that they'll get it.)