eBay is hard to navigate now!!
Windycity
Posts: 3,524 ✭✭✭✭✭
It seems like every coin dealer is listing all their inventory on eBay at the BIN rate and the listing go on forever... whatever happened to the idea of on-line auctions! It's hard to go to eBay and even begin to search those coins selling in the next hour... the list goes on forever. Am I alone with this view?
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Comments
Russ, NCNE
I agree with Windy City. I am often searching the Bust material, and there are so many at fixed steep prices it leaves a lot of debris blocking the view of the real target.
I also hate all the auction gallery listings where you need to take steps beyond the e-bay process to register or bid.
<< <i>I don't look at BIN'S. I'm there for a real auction, not a coin shop. Stop clogging up the auction lots with this crap. What percent of BIN'S are sold? 2% - 5%. Is it really worth your trouble to photograph and list?
I've got some great 'Buy it Now' deals. A recent example is a guy that was listing American Legacy Collection sets for $150 when they were selling for well over $200. I was not fast enough for that one, someone beat me to it. But I did catch a deal on some 1957 proof sets -- a guy I'd previously bought from before was listing about 10 of them at $24 each. He also listed many similar items at great prices and had a great combined shipping policy. I caught him as he was listing them and I got all 10 of the 1957 proof sets and won about a dozen other items. He'd bought a huge collection and was trying to turn a quick profit -- so his Buy-it-now auctions were NOT full retail.
The key to shopping 'Buy-it-now' auctions is searching the newly listed items. That is where the bargains can be found.
KR
Of course i could have figured out the answer in the time it took me to type this but I just didn't feel like logging in for the 100th time today
<< <i>Can someone tell me how to create an eBay search which will eliminate the BIN only coins. I haven't been able to figure it out. >>
Right below the eBay logo you see three tabs. Click the one that says, "auctions" and you'll avoid the BIN's.
See the tabs here. Yellow background, blue letters, left side of page below the eBay logo
It is eBays' fault! I just have to list something expensive when there is a 10 cent fixed price sale.
<< <i>I was actually meeting with a dealer today that said that he was going to list "thousands" of BIN listings for different stuff with the 10 cent sale, but didn't have the time to put it together. >>
Most of the third-party listing software allows you to set up auctions in advance, and list them all with a press of a button. He should get something like that, and have it at the ready for when the next cheapie day comes along. (Hint: they usually come close to the end of a quarter, when eBay needs to boost its numbers.)
<< <i>BIN's aren't all that bad - check the newest ones and you can sometimes get a deal. >>
Yep, that's what I do. Among others, I once picked off an NGC PR68UCAM 1964 Kennedy for $45 and flipped it for $220. It was from a major dealer, too.
Russ, NCNE
Good job!
I sell duplicate coins and miscellaneous extras on there, most of which are from my own collection. Sometimes I make a slight profit, and sometimes I don't, but I'm not a retail dealer, so my coins are priced less than most. I would say that 80% of my BIN items sell in the first week. It is a safer way for me to sell because when I do "true auction" style, there are always 2-3 random coins in the bunch that sell for a terribly low bid, like 50% below fair retail, completely killing any profit on the other 19 items and usually leaving me in the Red. When you sell 20 coins, making a 5% net profit on 19 of them after all of the stinkin' Paypal fees, and then lose all of it and more on the 20th coin, it makes you wonder why you ever did a true auction in the first place. One can lose his shirt selling even nice coins at True Auction. Example: try putting a nice AU-Unc. common date large cent from the 1850's on there. You'll get 60% of Bid for it after all the fees are taken out. There just isn't enough interest in the common dates to get a good competition going in an auction.
With BIN, I may get stuck with 2-5 unsold coins out of every 20 I try to sell, but the other move along smoothly. I generally re-list the unsold ones at a later date, or sell them to a dealer at wholesale. That is better than auctioning them and losing 70% of my money because there was little interest among the bidders. I only do true auction on coins where I am unsure of the value, like very rare die marriages of Bust coins (could sell for virually anything, but a good price is guaranteed). Other things I will "True Auction" are damaged coins with undetermined value, or "lots" of extremely junky, low grade material where I want to make sure the buyer is happy with the purchase price, and I don't care if I make/lose money on them.
The reason that most of the Buy It Now coins currently listed on ebay are overpriced is simple: the fairly priced ones sell instantly! Try putting a group of PCGS slabbed coins on there priced around Greysheet Ask, and see how long they last. 5 minutes is usually about right! What is left over is the ugly, overpriced coins that nobody wants to buy at Retail.