my MAD e-bay challenge

IWantToBeFree_2

I'd go as far as saying that nothing goes to cheap on ebay, at the end of the day you will only get what people are willing to pay for the items.

I always start my auctions off low, usually at 99p or 49p, and run them for 10 days, starting on a Thursday and ending on a Sunday evening and tend to get quite a bit of sucess. I think the key to maximising what you get is all in the timing and the description.

EDIT - I had 139 auctions ending last night, I didn't expect them all to sell but was surprised that 64 did. The rest were mainly old books etc that didn't sell at a carboot.

Made £133.13 before deducting ebay fees & paypal fees, but I imagine that some of them may be covered by postage. Was pleased with that, averaged at around £2 an item which I didn't expect to get for selling a bit of 'tat'.

Still got 39 items on and expect them to sell for a far higher average.

Got another 20 items or so to list this week and thats me done for the time being.

dinx1972

What a shame they all went for low prices, however, the only suggestion I have is to check the completed listings on the advanced search to give you an idea of how much similar items have gone for in the past.

Have to say, my last body lotion and roll on calvin klein auction went eventually for about £11, which I was more than happy with. It was sat in my cupboard doing nothing, so £11 for nothing? OK by me.

Sometimes on ebay I think we get blinkered by the fact that we know how much something cost, and then feel cheated by letting the item go for less. But that is ebay, everyone is out to grab a bargain, you win some you lose some.

Recently a brand new item (competition win that we would never us), went for £31, despite costing £100 new, and similar ones selling for over £50 in previous auctions . Don't get me wrong I am not complaining just trying to show that auctions never go the way you think they will.

MinniMe_2

Mornign all - glad to see everyone is sticking with it. Did another clear out at the weekend so need to do some more listing this week!

Really hoping some stuff sells this week - got stung by £100 phone bill the month - still not sure how that happened - will need to go through the bill with a fine tooth comb - so come on ebay!

IWantToBeFree_2

5p listing day this THURSDAY!

Woop!

newsgroup_monkey

As someone rightly pointed out, as a seller, we're losing out.

How about some stats?

I've bought 105 items.
I've sold 93 items.

how much feedback do I have?

84.

Yes honestly.

84.

That makes me a newbie then?

The worse thing is, I only started properly noting what I've bought / sold properly in the last year. I've been on fleabay since 2000!

That stinks. Oh and what makes me laugh is that I've left over twice as much feedback!

But not as bad as Amazon. Sold 4 things, 0 feedback!

IWantToBeFree_2

I never really used to receive much feedback on Amazon, although I found that lack of feedback/bad feedback never really effected my sales.

I think that ebay will become more and more less about the numbers as well, as a buyer and a seller I now look at the actual words rather than just the feedback score.

I have had to open a dispute over an item not received from a powerseller who has over a 1000 feedbacks and quite a high score, yet if I look at peoples words rather than just the score, he appears to be quite useless at dispatching quick and on the communication front, had I looked at that, I wouldn't have used him...

blondemuppet

Hello all,

Just a quick query related to the feedback theme. Ive sold my first few items (hooray!) but one buyer hasn't left me any fedback. As Im new to all this it would be usefull to have some positive comments to make it seem less like I'm a dodgy fraudster. Is it rude to email the buyer and query if they'd mind leaving some or do you just have to let it go?

IWantToBeFree_2

I'd let it go to be honest, I get annoyed when people start harassing me for feedback, they will have reminders when they log into ebay, if they chose to ignore them, they chose to ignore them. You run the risk of getting bad feedback if you chase them over it.

blondemuppet

Thnaks for the advice. Will just have to list more things and I hope I get more feedback friendly buyers in the future!!

oopalah

blondemuppet wrote: »

Thnaks for the advice. Will just have to list more things and I hope I get more feedback friendly buyers in the future!!

Also, bear in mind that some people are just painfully slow at leaving feedback. I always leave feedback within a few days of a sale, but sometimes it's been weeks and weeks (literally) before I've received my feedback. You just have to be patient.