some notes on ebay from an addicted buyer.

[mopinko]

so, i have been bitten soooo hard by the ebay bug. my collection of fp little people has taken over my whole front room.
so i thought i would share some notes from my experience on the other side of the keyboard.

first, do not try to pad your profits w high shipping charges. lots w free shipping will be much more competitive. we are not stupid, we look at the total cost of the auction. $30-40 shipping charges are a huge turnoff.
smart buyers know this, i must admit. i look for these auctions because in the end the price is lower.

second, take good pictures! dont post fuzzy ass pics. dont take a pic of half your living room and your oriental carpets. again, i look for these auctions. i know the product well enough that i dont have to see that well. and i am expecting things in rough condition, because i am only looking for played w condition. i have gotten a few real steals this way.

third, dont.even.use.a.reserve. just start the bidding at your best price. i find there is a quirk in the ebay system here. i bid on an item with a reserve. i bid over 2x the starting bid, and the reserve was still not met. but here is the thing, until someone else came along an hit the reserve, my bid did not even count. it was only about $10 short of the $70 reserve, but it didnt even count. i did win the auction, but i cursed the seller as my bid sat there not counting. turned out the reserve was 4x the starting bid. that is just flat out stupid. it could have ended up unsold, as many auctions w reserves do.

most of these flaws are certainly inexperienced sellers. you dont see them in the more successful sellers.
dont be them.

[Vinca]

1. I rarely sell via auctions anymore.

I want to give people a good deal and start the bidding low, but then I risk selling a $100 item for $9.99. If you start the bidding at your lowest acceptable price, say $75, nobody bids. I do "buy it now" and offer free shipping on almost everything. It's less of a risk and less of a hassle for me. I started on ebay in the early days, 1998 I think it was, and it was a blast back then. The auction format was a real novelty and there weren't a billion listings so items often went to the stratosphere price-wise. My favorite ebay sale, from about that time, was when I put a miniature Oscar award up as an auction with a $500 reserve. It had been a table decoration at the Academy Awards ceremony in the 1930's. I met the reserve and then it just sat there. I was pretty happy, but was totally surprised when - in the last few minutes of the auction - the bid went to $5,000. Those were the days . . .

[mopinko]

2. i NEVER bid until the last minute.

the last 30 seconds, actually. i rarely lose.

[grasswire]

3. yes, ebay was a money tree back in the day

I couldn't wait to wake up in the morning to see how much money I made during the night. And watching your auction get hot was a real kick. Whee!

I learned to trust the market place in those days. I never used a reserve, started at a reasonable price, and trusted the market forces to give me a good return. I wouldn't do that now; I would set the opening bid at slightly under what I believe it's worth. The condition of ebay mandates that.

[juxtaposed]

5. I remember those days

[juxtaposed]

4. I still buy on ebay to this day. I first started selling back when ebay came online. 1996-8?

I enjoyed it back when you would accept checks only.. No paypal BS.. Back then I had over a thousand positive feedbacks and not one negative, still do!. I would get a hand full of checks per-week and not one would bounce..
The good old days

[Vinca]

6. They've managed to "Amazon-ize" it, haven't they?

There's little seller-to-buyer contact, if any. I always make a point of sending a thank you note to my buyers and I refuse to use eBay's postage feature. I'd rather give my money to the local post office to be sure it gets credit and stays open. I never had a check bounce either and I remember carrying on some really nice conversations with people. I remember one guy from Great Britain sent me such a pretty photo I used it as a screen saver.