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The Best Time to Sell On Ebay
ElvisP
Posts: 1,052 ✭✭✭
I need to sell some cards due to unseen unfortunate circumstances. Is now a good time to sell or would after the first of the year be better? I know Sunday used to be the best day to end auctions. Is that still true? Any help appreciated. Thanks!!
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now is the best time to buy, the off season, as prices typically drop for most recent stuff. but that doesn't apply to all, as some stuff is in higher demand all year round. if you wanted to maximize, depending on what it is (prospects, potential call ups) better off waiting for spring training.
however, I don't care and sell all year round. and I always start my auctions on Sundays between 9:45 and 10pm for 7 days so they end the following Sunday at the same time. I also try to be cognizant of the current supply on ebay of the card im trying to sell. I will not post it up for auction when PWCC or another big auction house throws 20 of the same thing at the same time for auction. try to stagger my stuff so its not in competition with them. takes away from the pool of eligible buyers. I also try to sell as a BIN/BO before I let it go to auction, again, depending on the card/rarity. if you do a BIN/BO, try to be the lowest one on ebay and offer fast and free shipping. people are more likely to buy when they see that.
myslabs.to/smzcards
Thanks. That is helpful. Most of what I would be selling is vintage. Am I wrong in thinking January would be the worst month since everyone is recovering from Christmas?
If you plan on selling them yourself throw a few up now at prices that work for you with good scans and see if you get any bites.
There may be some cyclicality to auction results based on holidays or tax season etc. but those same cards may sell better in a straight BIN/BO scenario because the high bidder may not have their max tested at the same time. I recently won some cards at around to 20 to 30 percent of my max bids and the same cards could be listed and sold easily for better prices than they went for.
You might also try the BST board as many have had good experiences there and obviously the fee structure is quite favorable with EBAY taken out of the equation.
Good luck.
Good luck no matter what you do; but I will tell you, at all costs do not have auctions end when there's a major sporting event on, etc. You'll lose eyeballs and bids. Otherwise I haven't seen too much difference about day of the week, when it comes to auctions ending, but I would try to end them in the evening, when most people are off work, but not in the wee hours of the night either.
I used to start all my auctions on Sunday or Monday nights but with the Ebay and Ebay Bucks promotions that have been going on, Tuesday-Thursday auctions have been just as good. Of course, as said previously stated, Buy It Now is a good option and then it doesn't really matter when the auction starts/ends. Good luck!
My most recent sales data shows Saturday evening , But given todays Collectors/Buyers/Traders I believe the Key is having a solid listing, with true pics, accurate descriptions, disclosures, your policies and solid detail
I've seen high dollar deals go on a Tuesday afternoon, same as a Saturday Night
BIGLEAGUE SportsCards
"Respect The Hobby"
www.bigleaguesc.com
https://www.ebay.com/str/bigleagueseller
Yeah I think describing the item with full disclosure through the written word and the pictures is the best way to go. Even if its negative like a surface scratch that can only be seen in the right light. Show it and disclose it!
@ElvisP hope all is going ok with your situation. Great tips here to go off of.
Nic
Guides Authored - Graded Card Scanning Guide PDF | History of the PSA Label PDF
Thanks everyone!! I really appreciate it very much. Some great suggestions.
I would go with "Buy It Now" offers. I had some auction items go for far lower than I had hoped and took a loss having the item run for one week. If you have a really hot player then the auction route works okay.
Sunday/Mon. night is best. For Vintage pretty steady, I guess Jan Feb. could be a bit soft. March April not bad due to tax returns.
Thanks again!!!
Auctions suck for the most part. Even 10 day auctions suck. Try to hold out for Buy It Now as long as you can. List everything as much as you can with Buy It Now. The cheapskates on ebay stay away from those although they like to drool on eye candy for Buy It Now's. You can get really hammered by auctions. PWCC and Probstein really screw it for the smaller seller with their auctions. Their auctions bring down pricing for Buy It NOw's but you just have to wait longer to sell your products at the true value price.
Auctions = PSA 6
chaz
This is what I refer to as the "Chazisim"
I was thinking of giving auctions a PSA 5 but that might have been too harsh... although we have all been down the PSA 5 road!! LOL chaz
What about starting auctions at a starting price you would be willing to sell for or even just below?
If you do this, be prepared to not have many bids or for the item to go unsold. You may as well just list as BIN with a BO option. Some of the best deals I have had have been on items that started at strange auction prices. I believe you will get more eyeballs and more action by starting at $0.99 then by starting at a higher starting price. By starting your auction high, I think you will raise your potential floor slightly by controlling the entry point of bidders, but you will also have less of a ceiling by starting with a higher price vs. $0.99 start, as I think you will get fewer watchers and bidders by selling this route. I don't know why this is the case, but I do believe in this bit of auction bidder psychology. There is probably a reason PWCC and Probstein both start their auctions at $0.99.
Anyway you try and skin it, Auctions still suck. The only way you get true value is with a BIN that goes above the feebay and pigpal fees (What happened to the personal check??? The safer way (Paypal) to pay...what a bunch of crap!! Used personal checks for years and never had a problem!! ). Auctions typically get around 45 - 55% of true value on most items which sucks. Use BIN's plus 7 - 10% for feebay and pigpal and hold out as long as you can. There are 3 reasons why you sell I read and they are the 3 (D's) : Debt, Divorce, and Death. So hold on and get top dollar for your precious cards. You know who is a really good dealer and knows what the hell he is doing.... 707 sportscards (Levi Bleem).... that guy again knows what he is doing. He gets top dollar on most cards because he can hold out. The cheapskates are always complaining that he asks too much for his stuff but you know what? When they need a card, he can hold out till he get's his price or close to it. chaz
I used to do this but stopped because you only have a maximum number of 10 days for someone to see it vs. 30 if you do bin/bo. You have 20 extra days to find that 1 person who wants your item. Plus if you are using the 50 free listings you get, you'll be able to list a lot more as bin/bo once instead of relisting the same item 2 times over (assuming it doesn't sell of course) in that same 30 day window.
When you list with bin/bo, set it to automatically accept offers at what you were going to start your auction at.
Of course, take acceptable offers near your top price and you'll be fine. But avoid auctions at all costs or as a last resort. chaz
Or if you have so much crap you just want to get rid of most of it..... ie my current 100+ Ebay auctions!
Feed the cheapskates the crap with auctions and do BIN's for the good stuff !! chaz
I have very little experience as a seller, but from a buyer's perspective, I average around $1,000 month to month in eBay purchases, and I can tell you that unless I'm looking for something very specific and/or very unique, I will rarely even look at BIN listings, and never, ever mess with a best offer. I will certainly admit to wasting a lot of time each day browsing and scrolling through the auction listings, but, while I'm sure I've missed out on some great deals, I still draw the line with wasting my time interacting with sellers that have too high of an opinion of what they own on all of the BIN and BO listings. For what it's worth, I'm a believer in efficient markets setting the true price.
Once I've won an auction, I also admit that I will then specifically look at that seller's other listings, often making impulse bids/purchases because I see they have something that I hadn't been specifically looking for originally. Those bids/sales would never had been made, at least by/to me, if they first had to draw me in with a BIN on the initial item. I would have kept it movin' and gone right on by all of their stuff.
My suggestion, if you want more eyeballs on all of your items in totality, is to list everything as low starting bid auctions. As mentioned in another post, there's gotta be a reason PWCC, Probstein, Greg Morris, etc all do this, right?... but take this as advice from one of the "cheapskate buyers of crap"!
Disagree. BIN's should be reasonable for what the card sold for in the recent past not an auction price 45% of true value. Granted, there are sellers that ask for outrageous BIN's and they should be overlooked. But if you ask for a reasonable price in your BIN, then you will attract the right buyer for your items and that goes with anything. chaz
LOL....."cheapskate buyers of crap" !!!! chaz
But if you ask for a reasonable price in your BIN, then you will attract the right buyer for your items and that goes with anything. chaz
I will nearly always price my BIN's less than any of the other listings if there are multiples of a particular item. Then when they sit there and don't sell, I cry and stay up late at night and try to figure out how i failed as a human being.
And auctions are not reasonable for the smaller seller. Been there and done that....Auctions suck period. chaz
In a perfect world, all sellers would price their items exactly what they're worth, and buying a card or collectible would be as easy as going to the grocery store. That's just not the case, for the most part, and if an item has many multiples available, I'm just not going to waste my time as a buyer trying to determine which one has priced their BIN most accurately. I'm just not going to fool with it.
I get where you're coming from as a seller, and that's whose advice the OP is asking for, but I'm just telling you my view from a buyer's perspective. I'm not allocating my time or my eyeballs on many multiples of items that are all priced within 5 percent of each other or within range of recent sales prices. You can find those items all day, every day, whenever, and saving just a few dollars here or there isn't worth the effort that most BIN listings require, because you're also factoring in other things like shipping methods and rates, feedback ratings, etc.
Now, as I mentioned, a unique item, a low pop item, something I need as the last item in a set, something very specific, maybe you'll get a look from me on a BIN, but my buying philosophy, as the saying goes, is there are plenty of fish in the sea. I have very little "fear of missing out". There will be another "whatever it is" coming along shortly. But I can't stress to the OP enough that I have purchased a tremendous amount of secondary items from a seller that I never would have even given a look otherwise, if the primary items I was targeting hadn't been listed as a low starting bid auction. More views on more items equals more money, in my opinion.
Coming at it from different viewpoints of seller and buyer, it makes sense that we would disagree on the strategy. I can only tell you that it doesn't even matter what it is they're selling, but if it's listed as BIN, there's a less than 1 percent chance that I will look at it, and an even less chance I'm spending any of my money on it.
I just hope the OP can sort out all of the advice, and good luck to them, however they go about selling their items.
Hey... to each his own.....you are one buyer. Happy Hunting!! chaz
Auctioning dollar cards gets lots of impulse buys because they don't want to pay 3-4 bucks for shipping so they go check the BIN items or the auctions ending in 24 hrs or less of the same seller.
BIN with no auctions for low dollar cards is stupid IMO because you cant get any impulse buys.
Good luck getting that 7.99 you want for that 2013 Larry Fitzgerald player worn card!
I think that is the key there. The large sellers PWCC, etc can afford to start so $0.99 for auctions because they have a large buyer base already looking at their auctions.
When I sell I am always going BIN with an offer. BIN is based on recent sales auction and BIN. And then priced on the lower end of current BIN sales.
I include an offer on all my listings, but it is amazing that so few people actually use the offer option. I would sell for less, but they just click the BIN.
Yes, I would actually sell for less with the offer. I have dealt with enough sellers who don’t intend to sell for less with the offer, they just want the exposure.
Nic
Guides Authored - Graded Card Scanning Guide PDF | History of the PSA Label PDF
I’m one that advocates listing in auction format starting at the equivalent of a reasonable BIN price. I’ve had several end at much more than I expected. I would have lost out if I used BIN. I recently had a few vintage PSA 9s sell for 3x VCP and they were cards that had recent sales history. You just never know when two people are going to decide to aggressively pursue a card at the same time. The 1972 PSA 9 Topps baseball auctions over the past several months are another good example of this phenomenon.
By using this format, you cover all bases. You mitigate the risk of selling the card far below market price and you still leave the top open for aggressive bidders.
Finally, you get the added benefit of having your listings show up in the far less crowded auction listings tab along with Probstein, PWCC and a few other high volume sellers who use auction formats. As a buyer, I usually skip the overpriced and slow moving BIN listings and go right to the auction listing tab, especially when I have limited time to search.
Make sure you have your listings end on a Sunday at 9pm in the year 2016.
How can he do that when we are already in 2018? Has Sweden invented a time machine?
I can see some benefits to this method. Some things you miss are buyers who want it now, not wanting to wait for the auction to close. Reduced listing time (10 day max on auction). Pros to each method.
As a buyer, I search BIN and Auctions equally with my saved searches. Separate searches for each so I can pick out the best prices vs overpriced.
Nic
Guides Authored - Graded Card Scanning Guide PDF | History of the PSA Label PDF