Selling your stuff on EBID. advice for new sellers

ThinkingOfLinking

I've just started selling on eBid; so far I have 93 items listed because I'm moving house and really really need to offload things I don't use/wear as my new room is 1/3 of the size of the one I have now and there's no room in the place I'm currently in, let alone such a small new place. Anyway, I was wondering if there's any way to see how many people are watching each item (sorry to mention them but eBay had that facility) and is it common for people to just bid right at the last minute as I have things with 5 and 6 days to go with lots of views but no bids. Just would really appreciate your help so I know what size of moving van to book etc

wigglebeena

Not aware of any such facility, sorry.

Hate to break it to you, but I wouldn't be relying on many sales with 93 items. I had to upload at least a few hundred before I got some (spotty) regular sales.

You will have lots of views: Ebid is quite a 'nosey' looky-loo environment, but it doesn't translate into that many sales (for me). If I sold every item that's had 50 looks I'd be rich!

Have you gone through the list of what to do and not to do with your listings? There are a lot of helpful peeps on the forums, they have lists of stuff Google likes and stuff it doesn't. Mostly, 10 re-lists, add a Buy It Now, don't use ALL CAPS in your title and, v. important, mention the category. E.g. if you list a vinyl single in the vinyl single category, don't just put the title - it's very important to add the words 'vinyl single 45 record' in there, because of how people search. It may seem redundant but it matters.

Judging by improved sales after I started title-tinkering, this does actually help.

wigglebeena

More weekend sales. I'm not complaining: does no-one browse Ebid during the week, though?

I'm not sure I'd be suited to going back to full-time online trading: my Pavlovian reaction to a 'sold' email has become dread of the packing process. (I do hate wrapping. I'm much too OCD for it, checking every little aspect of both the item and the packing materials.) How ungrateful!

soolin

Since it seems so unusual to get a sale on ebid that people get excited about it I thought I would mention that I have my second sale in just over 6 years! I also have the same buyer bidding on two other items.
Sold at slightly under the ebay prices and made only a few pence less on ebid after fees, but a sale is a sale and I was pleased to think there is at least one buyer on there.

The item was a BIN from one of my stores, the other 2 items with bids are straight auctions.

Frugaldom

Congratulations, Soolin! Not quite hitting the big time, yet, but like you say, a sale is a sale.

I listed 2 items last weekend on the eBay free listing day - one not sold, one with 16 watchers but I put it on for 10 days in the hope of generating interest. Managed another sale or 2 from eBid, though, one a returning customer and one a new sign -up. I think I make more from my Buddy points as I do seem to get a few sign ups via my link. Mind you, I'm also saving my eBay Plus points now, as the stuff I need to buy is all on eBay! (Where's the 'rolleyes' smiley when we need it?) eBid/eBay complimenting one another for me at the moment.

soolin

Well no more sales for me at all and I rarely log in any more and just leave my shops running in the folorn hope that a buyer might stumble upon the site. However I was logged in yesterday evening for a while delisting stock items that I was running low off on ebay (and at higher prices on ebay!) and to add more to the shops.

While i was logged in I did some browsing and I came across the full list of shops open on ebid :
http://uk.ebid.net/browse_stores.php
a grand total of 7688.
thot too bad you might think until you remember that each paid up seller can open up to 5 shops which means that could mean as few as 1538 paid up members in total. I don't currently have 5 shops, so say sellers have an average of 3 each that still means only 2563 paid up members and even if they only have one sho each that is only 7688 members.

Looking at some randomnly a vast majority are non UK shops, so it really does look like there are no more than a mere handful of UK sellers fully paid up.

Mayday

As of today, eBid has 749,177 members worldwide and should hit 750.000 within the next 24 hours if it hasn't done so already. Numbers are going up steadily on a daily basis.

Not all sellers choose to have stores, just listing straight auctions.

soolin

Mayday wrote: »

As of today, eBid has 749,177 members worldwide and should hit 750.000 within the next 24 hours if it hasn't done so already. Numbers are going up steadily on a daily basis.

Not all sellers choose to have stores, just listing straight auctions.

Goodness gracious those figures are worse than I even imagined.

Mayday

soolin wrote: »

Goodness gracious those figures are worse than I even imagined.

Forget my post - that's Forum membership - not eBid as a whole membership :mad:

Crowqueen

Of those 750,000, how many are buyers?

It could have 10,000,000 sellers, but without buyers, nothing gives me an incentive to list there, though I do browse for things there.

To reach 750,000 from 749,177, they'd have to sign up 800 people in one day. That's a tall order.