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Are eBay's frequent promotions hurting day-to-day buy-it-now card sales?
detroitfan2
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It seems like we've had a good stretch of eBay 10% to 20% off days during the recent months, with "special codes" appearing nearly every other week or so. Has anyone else stopped buying items on a "normal day" knowing that the next special may be a day away? I know I have, and it also seems that my buy-it-now sales have become really stagnant lately. Any thoughts?
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It hasn't slowed me down on rarities, but on stuff I can find any day or don't have any competition for, yes, I've slotted some away waiting for a special. We're also in the lead up to National when many are saving up and/or becoming sellers instead of buyers, so not sure if that's the only factor. On the plus side, Wed-Sun this week are usually one of the best times to win eBay auctions on the cheap.
I think it has affected the quickness in which payments are made. Last round of PWCC auctions I waited a few days to make payment and got a 15% coupon code that saved me $100.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Well, you learn something new everyday, I had no idea you could do that. I thought the item had to "end" during the promotional period, not "be paid" during the promotional period. Must have been awesome to save that $100!
For the eBay bucks promos that is true but for the coupon codes you can apply those to past purchases in your cart.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Looks like winning auctions on the cheap has already started. Won a card for $46 last night that hadn't sold for under $70 previously.
Was hoping a promo was going to pop up today. Have one sitting in my cart from last night waiting to pay and I typically pay immediately. On the selling side, BIN has been a little slow. I have several items listed that are below what the normal selling price has been but they are just sitting.
Promotions have me keeping BIN on my watched items so I am ready to pounce if a promotion comes. There was one coupon day I didn’t have time to look and missed it so now I am more ready. The coupons are getting me to buy cards I would not have bought because the price comes down to where I am comfortable after the coupon. If i see a buy it now at a price I like and have budget left would still buy it - but these promotions have me extending to buy more expensive cards so usually tapped out.
I frequently can’t find stuff worth buying, even with the discount.
I wonder if some sellers have raised prices because of the coupon, since they don’t pay the discount themselves
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I think they do and I think that is not a smart way to do business. While I try to keep my bin prices lower than any others listed, I even lower some prices on stuff during promotions just a little bit. To me, it's all about moving stuff out and having fresh inventory. Personally I get tired of seeing the same crap out there in my searches, overpriced, month after month. There are some cards out there that sellers have listed that I think are only there to attract attention, not to actually sell. I'll admit, I'll bite sometimes, thinking to myself..."why is this card listed at 3x the price it normally sells for?". It's like clickbait but for me, then I'm not going to look at any of that sellers other auctions. But my favorites are the absurd prices on the graded stuff that says "should grade higher" and then they try to get you to pay the next grade up. Great, if it's that nice, send it back in and have it reviewed. Sorry, this stuff kinda gets me fired up, lol
For me there were a good amount of items for my needs in early July. Last week or so it has dried up...
Nic
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When eBay last reported quarterly earnings on 7/18/18, their sales number was slightly below analyst expectations, and they also lowered their sales estimate for the rest of the year. (Stock dropped about 10% after the earnings report.) This subpar sales growth is likely the reason WHY they're suddenly offering more promotions (eBay Bucks and coupon codes); they're trying to increase sales and attract more current and new users to the platform.
Thus, as a couple people already mentioned, it'd be a good idea to continue watching intently for additional promotions and put together a list of items you may want to purchase. It appears the promotions will continue to occur.
As a pure seller/buyer attraction tool, I can't help but wonder how sustainable the promotions will be. Some of them outstrip the auction final value fees. I don't suspect this will last too much longer unless there is something I am missing in their revenue model (like they still get kickbacks from PayPal fees or something).
I would say 90% of my sales happen during their promotions now. It's ridiculous.
I've seen both sides of it.
For buying, most of my coupons I've taken advantage of were buy it nows with no best offer available - those sellers priced pretty aggressively and it worked for them.
A couple of other sellers decided to haggle (both cards were in excess of $400 each), and one told me he wanted to "split" the coupon. My offer was above VCP already, so it's not like I was low-balling and I declined and moved on. His card is still for sale and it will be unless he learns his lesson.
As a seller, the coupons are definitely causing offers to increase at those times. I still get offers periodically, but they spike during coupon periods. I'm usually pretty aggressive about accepting during those times, and in a few situations I've gotten return customers on the next round.
For items that I think are more difficult to find, but not impossible, I will hit the BIN if the price is reasonable regardless of whether there is an eBay promotion. For items that are not difficult to find, think modern wax, I will wait until an eBay promotion regardless of how well priced the BIN is. For items that are slightly overpriced, I will wait until the eBay promotion rather than hitting the BIN. Previously, I was willing to pay a premium 10-15% for BINs for the convenience of being able to purchase the item now rather than waiting for an auction. For way overpriced BINs with Best Offer, I wait until an eBay promotion and then submit an offer expecting a counter. When responding to the counter I try and come up with an agreeable middle ground where I pay more than the card typically goes for but the eBay promotion offsets the extra cost.
All in all, I have been spending more overall - i.e. exceeding my budget - due to the eBay promotions since I don't think they will last. Feels like the Microsoft Bing CashBack promotion a few years back where you could get all kinds of free money from Microsoft for searching using Bing prior to making a purchase. I average 30k - 40k on card purchases on eBay a year so the promotions really only hurt eBay since it is simply moving forward my purchases rather than truly increasing the amount I use eBay. I use the guest checkout option to re-use the one time only coupons.
Robb
I think we all have supplies on our wish list so grab these during a sale or promotion. We have watch items that we think are a bit too high so grab these during sales. Everything else gets grabbed whenever possible. I’ve had watch items disappear during a sale or promotion so it seems to be working. I just wish I could sell more lol. People who hate BINs should love them when they have a deal to use.
My graded card collecting focus is very narrow - Dallas Cowboys rookies in the All-Time Cowboys, HOF Dallas Cowboys and Ring of Honor Dallas Cowboys sets along with player runs of the defensive players from the Doomsday defense era and a couple 1960's team sets. So the eBay promotions don't really help me out that much as the items I'm looking for don't come up very often and when they do I try and get them as I have no idea when another will come up.
I have been able to use the discounts for the 1963 - 1969 football raw set runs I've been working on. Typically for these sets I will watch a few of the HOF rookies or stars graded as 7, 7.5 or 8 that I like and buy when a discount is available. Usually that gets the price pretty close to, or in some cases less than, what a comparable raw item from a seller like Greg Morris would go for.
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