Some statistical questions regarding ebay for you!

mnmcoin

After just closing a bunch of auctions last night (Sunday) from ebay's free listing day, looking at my sales got my questions flowing.

1) What % of auction lots selling do you consider successful. For example I sold 106 lots out of 308 on ebay, and closed down about 10 more that sold off of ebay, so it was really 116 out of 308. That is 37.6%. Hopefully, people think success at ebay is more like baseball vs. school ie batting .300 gets you in the majors vs. .300 gets you a repeat of your classes.

2) What % of $$$ selling do you consider successful. For example I sold about $9000 and didn't sell about $30000 (of course that is my price total, which who knows if that is realistic...which also is the next question.) And again I sold about another $1000 off of ebay so far, so we are at about $10000 sold out of total of $40000. 25%...again hopefully like baseball.

3) This could be considered a philosophy ?, but this is what I am really curious about...sorry if the wording is confusing, I will do my best...this is my thought process...assuming that prices are realistic, fair, justified etc. should all of your lots sell. IE, I sold 106 lots out of 308, all of those 308 lots were priced at fully researched, documented etc. prices, and also I have sold just about all of those coins before at or above those prices. So this leads me to believe that roughly 60% of stuff just isn't getting the exposure, or there just wasn't the target market on ebay the last 10 days, or what? What other explaination is there?

that is a good start, I know there is more in me, but I need to take my boys to school

morris <><

nwcs

I guess my answer is to take a look at it in terms of turnover. How many times do you turn your inventory in a given year? The more turns with a decent margin, the better. And when you see it from that perspective, the % sale per try is important but not as important. I would think 30-40% sales of inventory for a week is very impressive.

tompkins

When I list things on eBay, it is because I want to get rid of them --- usually they are extras or they have been upgraded. So I normally sell very close to 100% of what I list. BUT (and this is a big 'but') I am NOT doing this as a dealer; I am merely trying to get rid of excess coins and I am many times willing to take a small hit to get the coin out of my house.

Your prices generally seem a little strong to me, and, even though I rarely return anything, I am particularly repelled by restocking fees. So between the high prices and the restocking fees I rearely bid on your auctions. I have also found that in the cases where I list things with high prices, I have had the auction close with no bidder; then I relist at a very low price and it actually sells for more than my original listing price. I interpret this to mean that people are more willing to bid higher amounts if someone has bid before them, but they don't want to be the only bidder on a high priced auction.

JUst my thoughts,

Pete

Placid

You had two morgan dates I want but to me they were not very attactive and had fingerprints and the price was high so I passed.
Maybe it was the pictures but for "rainbow" coins they looked like mud.

Here is one. The other looked about the same.

LanLord

A question I would ask is:

Was that a typical 10 day period for you?

I would want to see many more "data" points to see if that .300 batting average is a true representation of how you are doing or just a peculiar few days at the end of the year.

gmarguli

I usually list stuff that I want to get rid of without much concern for the prices I receive and I start the auctions at 1¢ with no reserve. The coins that I put a reserve on or a high starting bid are hard sells. I'd guess that 20%-30% is about average for me.

However, I've found that I can usually sell the item for about the same price with a 1¢ no reserve auction.

crito

I hate free listing day, always seems to come the day after I PAY to list a bunch of stuff. The resulting flood of garbage buries my items and they just don't get any traffic. Even if you have a premium quality item, unless someone is actively SEARCHING on a title keyword, chances of haphazardly running across it are virtually nill. The best weeks I've had were during big coin shows, when all the competition was absent from eBay

airplanenut

It might help to try a few at very low starts with no reserve- see how they end up and decide if eBay is really a valuable asset for you.

Jeremy

Russ

<< <i>1) What % of auction lots selling do you consider successful. >>



100%. If I list it, it means I want to sell it. My last two groups of listings (one of 18 coins, one of 53 coins) all sold.



<< <i>2) What % of $$$ selling do you consider successful. >>



See above.

Morris,

As for your number three, and keep in mind I always check your auctions because you have excellent material, and the following relates only to your modern stuff: Much of your inventory didn't sell simply because you had it priced higher than the current market will bear. It's nothing more complicated than that.

Russ, NCNE

UncleJoe

The % that sells is entirely up to you. By adjusting the starting and/or reserve price you can have anywhere from 0 - 100% sell.

My strategy is quite simple. Most of what I sell starts at the price I paid for the coin. I think I buy well and the price I paid is a reasonable price for the coin.

90+% sells the first time. The second time I sell 100% because I start the auction at face or a dollar amount way below market. The interesting thing is that I average a little more than my first auction price the second time around.

Joe.

relayer

If I listed 308 and sold 116, that would mean there were 192 coins I didn't lose any money on

kranky

I can think of a number of reasons that some items don't sell at prices that the coins have sold for previously.

1. All the people who wanted one via ebay have bought it already.
2. Only one person was willing to pay what you sold the last one for. Since that person won the previous one, the price is now too high.
3. Just because a coin has sold once for a certain price doesn't necessarily indicate that price is the "going rate". The person who bought the last one might have desperately needed it for some reason, and the remaining potential buyers aren't that hot to get the coin.
4. The previous buyer(s) bought the coin and not the holder, and the remaining potential buyers only want a certain holder, which wasn't the one you had for sale.
5. The underbidder who pushed the price up last time isn't interested any more, reducing competition.

And remember, you could have a table at the biggest coin show in the world, selling coins "priced at fully researched, documented etc. prices, and also I have sold just about all of those coins before at or above those prices.", and you won't sell them all.

I once bought on ebay a remote entry keyfob for a Jeep. At the time, there were between 3-8 available every day on ebay. Yet, the prices they sold for ranged from $35 to $60. I kept bidding $40 on different auctions until I got one for that price, which took about a week. Why did someone pay $60 when it was perfectly clear you could get one for much less just by being a little patient? I don't know.

sinin1

the ebay crowd is a fickle crowd - when did auctions close (day of week and time of day(for NY and CA))?

You said you sold $10K but had 40K listed

If you started them at $1 maybe you would have got $20K-60K but why would you want to take the risk?

Nobody likes to sell a $600 coin for $400 - if you start it at $600 it may take 2-5 listing before sold -

If you start it at $1 - it may go for $300-$800 - it all depends on original bids and closing time-

Many buyers will look at something if it has a low price now, bid low to keep on their myebay page or put in their snipwe software. The may come back bidding strong or not at all (depending on price/desire/and whether they already used up their coin money for that period).

So I think YOU should decide what you feel comfortable with and not care about other sellers.

Relisting within 30 days is really easy and listing fee is cancelled if item sells on 2nd try.

Some people list everything to end Sunday afternoon or whatever - for continous listers, I would suggest relisting items so they close on an afternoon/evening during the weekend, if an item doesn't sell and willing to risk a loss, then low start on 3rd listing.

Sorry for no answer, but it depends on you - I have bought some coins on ebay from dealers, and I feel they have used eBay as a loss leader to get a new client to market to with their mail literature and emails.

mbbiker

kranky, i do the same thing you do, if i find somthing i want where there are always multiples of them on e-bay i'll bid what i want on them and at some point will get one. My latest example is a canon g2 camera, they sell for anywere from 400-950 bucks, i kept bidding $425 and got one after doing this for about 2 weeks.

as for why your auctions don't sell, your starting prices are to high, start them at $1.00 and see where they go, that way you will always get what someone is willing to pay, also this has been said before but you will usually get the same or more money when you start it at a buck intead of the price you want. I don't bid on high starting prices because i don't like to be the first bid, but if someone else thinks it's a nice coin then i'm willing to go higher.

BigD5

I see similar results. Mine are a bit better (~10%) but approximately the same. I'll list stuff at set prices for a couple of weeks, and if I still have it kicking around, depending on a few other things, I'll start the coin at $10 (or maybe $50, to keep a BIN number up there for a bit), and let it go. I just did it this week. Had a couple of better Walkers, that wouldn't go for what I thought they should. See what happens with the low start. The other thing, for me, is timing on my local shows. If I can't sell something on Ebay after a couple of weeks, it's a heck of a lot easier for me to sell the stuff to a dealer at the show. Quick, easy (most of the time ) and I'm done with the coin.

Russ, I disagree with this statement: " Much of your inventory didn't sell simply because you had it priced higher than the current market will bear. It's nothing more complicated than that."

I would prefer if it was said that the item was priced higher than the current EBAY market would bear. There is a difference. Ebay prices realized can be factored into the whole market, but they don't "make" the market. Maybe for certain items, but not MOST items.

Collector

Morris,

agree with Kranky and Russ on their comments....an auction is what you are willing to take for a coin, set it at a low opening rate...it will generally bids higher is my experience..if you absolutely cant take a loss on a specific coin...but a reserve on it...you seem to sell in volume and the coins appear to be good quality.....I think your prices are a bit high and more than the market can stand for opening bids right now and for the time of year....meaning right after xmas.....

I tend to sell the coins that I have upgraded and being a small collector and not a dealer..usually start my bids low or at what I paid for the coin...most seem to have appreciated slightly...so I generally break even as a minimum or make a small profit that I turn around and put back into the collection.....

cheers
Paul

JMOORE

Stats for the last 2026 auctions on eBay in the US Coins Category:

ITEMS Category 253: Coins > Coins: US

Number of auctions in category: 2026
Number of auctions resulting in a sale: 1265 (62.44%)

Number of regular auctions: 1966
Regular auctions with sale: 1225 (62.31%)
Number of Dutch auctions: 60
Dutch auctions with sale: 40 (66.67%)
Items sold per Dutch auction: 6.38

Number of reserve auctions: 143
Reserve auctions with sale: 46 (32.17%)
Number of no-reserve auctions: 1883
No-reserve auctions with sale: 1218 (64.68%)

Average number of bids per auction: 5.8

Average high bid: 107.69
Average sale price: 94.36

Total value of all high bids: 168,638.30
Total actual sales in category: 139,645.90

SELLERS Category 253: Coins > Coins: US

Number of sellers in category: 424
Auctions in category per seller: 4.8
Average seller feedback rating: 1358.2
Average total sales per seller: 329.35


I will start an analysis of the last 20,000 auctions before I go to bet tonight and post the results tomorrow.


Jim

JMOORE

Stats for the last 30-Days ~ 9972 eBay Auctions


ITEMS Category 253: Coins > Coins: US

Number of auctions in category: 9972
Number of auctions resulting in a sale: 5585 (56.01%)

Number of regular auctions: 9699
Regular auctions with sale: 5408 (55.76%)
Number of Dutch auctions: 273
Dutch auctions with sale: 177 (64.84%)
Items sold per Dutch auction: 5.42

Number of reserve auctions: 755
Reserve auctions with sale: 280 (37.09%)
Number of no-reserve auctions: 9217
No-reserve auctions with sale: 5304 (57.55%)

Average number of bids per auction: 4.9

Average high bid: 95.84
Average sale price: 72.04

Total value of all high bids: 651237.80
Total actual sales in category: 458650.80

SELLERS Category 253: Coins > Coins: US

Number of sellers in category: 2013
Auctions in category per seller: 5
Average seller feedback rating: 1007.9
Average total sales per seller: 227.84

wayneme

my guess is your loseing the point of a auction to get bidders worked up on each other
by starting higher their lose that thrill that's why they auction
it's a control power thing not a item thing
people are looking for something in a way of fun and power
your not giving them that by starting high
sorry if this upset you but i've seen it so many times by so many people

wayneme

what no flaming me

wayneme

some bud say something please

Russ

<< <i>I would prefer if it was said that the item was priced higher than the current EBAY market would bear. >>



BigD5,

You are, of course, correct that eBay is not the entire market but rather a part of that market. The venue is, however IMO, a very good barometer of the modern market that I referred to in my post. Other than Teletrade (which is not the best pricing indicator because there's too much going on behind the scenes) it's the place where a massive amount of that type of material is moved.

Russ, NCNE

wayneme

i agree

baccaruda

start everything at $1 and i gaurantee you will see a 100% success rate as far as items sold. as a bonus, you'll also find out what the current market value is for 100% of the items.

baccaruda

wayneme,

you're right. when an auction has a high starting bid rather than $1, i automatically assume that the opening price is too high, and move on. It's fun to take part competing for an item knowing you can get a good deal. it's not fun plunking down retail and being the only bidder.

in the items i've sold i've found it's better to start at $1 with no reserve to realize the best auction close.

when someone sees something they want at $1 they'll put it on a watchlist. So your $1 open is pretty valuable as it's attracted many would-be buyers right from the start.

airplanenut

To go along with the idea of the thrill of an auction...

I love the competition in eBay... it's the end of the hunt- auctions just aren't as much fun if you are the lonely bidder.

Jeremy

nwcs

I used to think of ebay in auction terms but now I think of it as a department store where you have some negotiation of prices. When I realized that, it changed the way I approach purchasing items. My favorite thing is to look at newly listed items with BINs and snap up ones I like. Fixed price, easy transaction. Last minute snipes just don't do it for me.

Neil