Ebay reserve auction fee change! Booooooooo
MickeyC
Posts: 153
Hey gang,
Just saw on the ebay's announcement board the new fee structure for Ebay reserve fees. For all of us sellers out there, this is not good.
Mark
Just saw on the ebay's announcement board the new fee structure for Ebay reserve fees. For all of us sellers out there, this is not good.
Mark
0
Comments
This seems to be an attempt to stop offline sales between buyers and a seller who listed an unrealistically high reserve for the purpose of "advertising" the item for sale.
It's simple, really, ... start the auction at what you're willing to sell the item for.
The reserve feature has mostly turned into a vehicle for sellers to sucker naive buyers into overpaying for items.
Time to do away with it completely ...
"How about a little fire Scarecrow ?"
I agree. I have never listed an item with a reserve, although I have been thinking of doing it lately with a partial set of PSA cards - just to see what it would go for. I guess that's why ebay is changing their policy. You can't blame them for that.
Here are a few observations that I have made on reserve price auctions that I've bid on:
1. A good % of sellers have listed their reserve in the item description.
2. I have emailed sellers (through ebay) with questions (not necessarily even about cost) and they either flat out tell me what their reserve is or hint at it.
3. I know the seller (from past transactions or from these message boards) and generally know what their reserve will be (+ or - 5% or so).
Basically, I think the reserve price option is ridiculous (especially from ebay's postition). The new policy may be a minor inconvenience for some sellers (I would have liked to have used it to "test the water" with a few items), but overall, I won't miss it.
Like Wolfbear said, list your items at what you are willing to sell them for.
JEB.
I'd rather just get rid of the games. Let's face it - would you go to a live auction where the auctioneer has an undisclosed reserve on each item...and you don't know what you have to bid to meet it? If you're sitting at the auction, and you bid $100 and no one will bid $110, do you want auctioneer to say "sorry, I can't sell it to you unless you want to pay $150"??
Another good point. Ebay is not really an "auction" service in the true sense of the word. A true auction would not have a "reserve" price or end at a specific time. I like the way some of the other online auctions keep bidding open until no bids have been placed for 5 minutes. This has been discussed before, and I also believe a lot of members here have agreed that a "sealed bid" type of auction would be the best way to go (ebay will never do this because it would eliminate the frequent "emotional" bids that make them a lot of money). But sniping has helped close the gap a bit. As more and more ebay buyers become aware of snipe services, graded card auctions (I don't know about other categories) will end up being closer to a sealed bid format. I'd love to see that - place your high bid up front and live with the results.
JEB.
Now Vargha is close on this one, I know there are plenty of sellers that NEVER and I mean NEVER sell anything , because their reserves are always unrealistic, but there has to be another way to curb this behavior. I used to be able to list and pay final auction fees on a car for about 85 bucks, now we are talking about 160. On a recent car I sold, thats about 15% of the final price, I must be in the wrong business!
Wolfbear is dead wrong. Having a reserve allows me start all my auctions at an opening bid of 100 bucks, now any sensible person knows they aren't buying a 98 Wrangler for that, but it generates interest, and keeps potential buyers watching, and gets the bid count up. How many times do you scan your keyword searches and notice the bid count, gets your interest doesn't it. Well if I list at what I want for the vehicle, most people will look once and move on. Bidding makes people pay more than they originally wanted to, thats what all sellers need. This will turn E Bay motors into the Auto Trader Magazine(well not really, but it could).
And yes, the wise one Vargha also knows I am going to figure a way to pass this cost along to the buyer. Hmmm Processing, documenting, any fee I can add on.
Bad E Bay...Bad!
RobBob
RobBobGolf - you make my point that the reserve feature is merely a marketing ploy.
Sounds like it WAS a bargin, and now eBay is going to charge what it's actually worth.
Maybe Yahoo Auctions provides cheaper rates for reserve auctions ...
"How about a little fire Scarecrow ?"
Also, they don't change the insertion fee for a high priced starting bid. I think the whole idea behind the change is to catch the people who put a high reserve on, and then offer the item off Ebay to the high bidder, thus avoiding Ebay selling fees. On a $5000 dollar item, that is a lot of $$ that Ebay loses to people who sell to highest nonwinning bidder. You can still avoid selling an item under a certain price by starting bidding at the minimum price you will take, but if you list a very high starting price, you won't get to see who all is interested at a lower price.
As far as a large number of fids generating excitement, I don't know about others, but that doesn't affect me at all. If anything, it makes me think there may be a shill involved, or someone who just bids the smallest increment repeatedly to get to the top. I always bid once my highest bid, and usually with a snipe. I suppose on things like cars, it may make some difference. Rather than the number of bids, I sometimes get more excited about high bids, thinking maybe people know something I don't!!
This change will not make any difference if the item sells... The real difference is for people who put high reserves are now going to face a much stiffer penalty than before. What is interesitng is this is the the second time in under a year EBAY has raised the reserve fee (it used to be $1.00) . So they must have figured out that this was costing them big bucks....
Although this will curtail off-the-book transactions it will not stop them . I have 2 (non sports cards ) items up for bid on EBAY currently one at $800 initial bid and one at $1000. I have already received several Emails " If this item does not sell will you accept XXXX? "
I personally liked the reserve auctions, because they create. more suspense and activity on an auction. But I can also live with a high initial bid so this change does not bother me. Besides it takes my gamble from selling a high end item from $5.30 to $3.30.... Thanks EBAY I can now buy 1 or 2 more high priced beers in AC at the national this summer....
I use the reserve most the time when I sell and I don't like the new policy.I feel that the reserve creates more bidding.I have seen items that have drawn my attention just by the number of bids that were there.I think that most people will look at an auction with a high number of bids just out of curiosity.It also seems to sometimes get two bidders going that might not otherwise bid,especially if their"I got to have it"mentality kicks in.
How much do you want to bet that the proportion of auctions ending early goes way up? Just a thought.
Vic
Regards,
Alan
Case in point: I am probably looking to sell or auction off a 1955 Bowman Willie Mays PSA 9 MINT card in the next few weeks. This card has an SMR of $6,000, but will not sell for that. This adds to the frustration for me in deciding the best way to sell this card. I was thinking Ebay -- but I am no longer sure if that is the best option.
MS
If you list your card before March 4th then you will not be affected by eBay's change in reserve listings.
I think it's a bad call on eBay's part...I'd like to know their reasoning behind bumping up the price.
"Items that are scheduled to begin on the eBay.com site after midnight on March 4th will be charged the new prices, regardless of when they were scheduled. "Text - eBay
Carlo
That works great as long as the Mays is the last high $$$ card he wants to ever sell. Mastro and Superior have to be loving life with this news!
I thought you might enjoy it!
RobBob
I still don't think it's that big of a deal. If you want to sell your item for $4500, set the reserve at $4545. The minimum bid increment at this level is $50 anyway. If someone is still interested in what you are selling, you'll more than make up for the reserve fee in less than one bid increment. If you are selling items regularly at this level and can't take a chance on 1% of your profit margin (either way it could go up 1% with another bid), then you need to find a new business.
With that said, I know why these sellers are so opposed to this change (no one has come out and stated it though). If you frequently list items that don't end up selling, you will now take a big hit in ebay fees. I can understand the frustration with this. I think it would be more fair for ebay to charge the 1% fee if the item does sell and charge the original $2 fee (I believe that's what it was) if the item does not sell.
Finally, I would have to disagree with those who say that a high number of bids in an auction attracts more bidders. Personally, if I see an auction with more than a few bids, I generally avoid it unless I'm willing to bid a lot higher.
JEB.