Selling Strategy: Spelling; Ending Time; Picture v. No Picture; Paypal v. No Paypal
JackWESQ
Posts: 2,133 ✭✭✭
As a seller, I think it is safe to assume that you want to do whatever it takes to obtain the highest final selling/bid price. Now I'm not going to write a dissertation on the subject, but a couple of topics immediately come to mind:
1. Spell the players' name correctly. Sounds easy, but at any given time you'll find auctions for "Mark McGuire" or "Ricky Henderson" or "Mickey Mantel" or "Michael Jorden" and my personal favorite "Payton Manning".
2. Ending Time. Lots of discussion on this topic on the board. I really don't know why, but a lot of auctions seem to end on Thursday and Sunday around 6:00 p.m. PST. But here's a weird auction. 4 Sharp Corners just sold a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle (Not Mantel) PSA 5 for $17,300.00. Here's the link:
1952 Topps Mickey Mantle PSA 5
Oddly, the auction ended this past Monday, 3.26.07 at 7:45 a.m. Is this a "bad" time to end the auction? Probably not. But is this a "good" time to end the auction? Probably not.
3. Picture v. No Picture. As a consumer of goods, when was the last time you purchased something without seeing it, much less touching it? I'm guessing it's been a while. So go with the picture. But here comes the difficult question. Assuming you scan the card (appears to be a safe assumption), how "good" of a scan do you provide? Would it differ if it were a modern card v. a vintage card? How about a PSA 1 v. a PSA 5 or a PSA 10? For a PSA 10, do you provide an absolute crystal clear blazing scan to demonstrate how “GEM MINT” it is? Would you do the same for a PSA 5? And if you do, would you fear that the scan would show “too good” all the imperfections that warrant the PSA 5? Maybe you provide a “less of a good scan” to “hide” some of the imperfections? Because my experience tells me that not all PSA 8s or PSA 5s are created the same.
4. Paypal v. No Paypal. The more payment options you accept, I would imagine the more bids/interest your auction would garner. For example, at the extreme, if you only accepted cash delivered in person at a place of your choosing, I would suspect very few people would bid on your action. (Although, I just purchased an Ipod accessory and the seller, no joke, lived four houses from me). But if you accepted everything under the sun, e.g., Paypal, Credit Card, Cash, Money Order, Personal Checks, Food Stamps and/or Steel (remember that thread?!), I would think there would be little hesitation from others to bid on your auction. But what about no Paypal? Most people, including me, prefer to send payment via Paypal. Payment through Paypal creates a record, “protects” you and is much quicker. But from a seller’s perspective, I’m sure it pains you (if not just a little bit) to pay listing fees, finals values fees and Paypal fees. So convenience, quickness, safety/security aside, I suppose the real question is whether the Paypal fees you avoid by not accepting Paypal is offset by the 1, 2 or 3 less bids/bidders who elect not to bid on your auction because you don’t accept Paypal. Of course, there’s no way to find the “answer” to this question because how can you determine who is NOT bidding on your auction?
Just some thoughts. Opinions, comments and questions are welcomed.
/s/ JackWESQ
1. Spell the players' name correctly. Sounds easy, but at any given time you'll find auctions for "Mark McGuire" or "Ricky Henderson" or "Mickey Mantel" or "Michael Jorden" and my personal favorite "Payton Manning".
2. Ending Time. Lots of discussion on this topic on the board. I really don't know why, but a lot of auctions seem to end on Thursday and Sunday around 6:00 p.m. PST. But here's a weird auction. 4 Sharp Corners just sold a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle (Not Mantel) PSA 5 for $17,300.00. Here's the link:
1952 Topps Mickey Mantle PSA 5
Oddly, the auction ended this past Monday, 3.26.07 at 7:45 a.m. Is this a "bad" time to end the auction? Probably not. But is this a "good" time to end the auction? Probably not.
3. Picture v. No Picture. As a consumer of goods, when was the last time you purchased something without seeing it, much less touching it? I'm guessing it's been a while. So go with the picture. But here comes the difficult question. Assuming you scan the card (appears to be a safe assumption), how "good" of a scan do you provide? Would it differ if it were a modern card v. a vintage card? How about a PSA 1 v. a PSA 5 or a PSA 10? For a PSA 10, do you provide an absolute crystal clear blazing scan to demonstrate how “GEM MINT” it is? Would you do the same for a PSA 5? And if you do, would you fear that the scan would show “too good” all the imperfections that warrant the PSA 5? Maybe you provide a “less of a good scan” to “hide” some of the imperfections? Because my experience tells me that not all PSA 8s or PSA 5s are created the same.
4. Paypal v. No Paypal. The more payment options you accept, I would imagine the more bids/interest your auction would garner. For example, at the extreme, if you only accepted cash delivered in person at a place of your choosing, I would suspect very few people would bid on your action. (Although, I just purchased an Ipod accessory and the seller, no joke, lived four houses from me). But if you accepted everything under the sun, e.g., Paypal, Credit Card, Cash, Money Order, Personal Checks, Food Stamps and/or Steel (remember that thread?!), I would think there would be little hesitation from others to bid on your auction. But what about no Paypal? Most people, including me, prefer to send payment via Paypal. Payment through Paypal creates a record, “protects” you and is much quicker. But from a seller’s perspective, I’m sure it pains you (if not just a little bit) to pay listing fees, finals values fees and Paypal fees. So convenience, quickness, safety/security aside, I suppose the real question is whether the Paypal fees you avoid by not accepting Paypal is offset by the 1, 2 or 3 less bids/bidders who elect not to bid on your auction because you don’t accept Paypal. Of course, there’s no way to find the “answer” to this question because how can you determine who is NOT bidding on your auction?
Just some thoughts. Opinions, comments and questions are welcomed.
/s/ JackWESQ
0
Comments
None of it is rocket surgery. It is really ONLY about answering
the question:
"What content in a listing would be most likely to cause ME to
become the buyer?"
If you do not take Paypal, and there are legit reasons to decide that way, I believe that you are losing $$$.
John
Also shipping charges have to be reasonable, I refuse to purchase from sellers that do not combine shipping. If you charge more than $3 for a single card each subsequent card better not be much more than another .25. I sell my cards for $2 including del. conf. in a bubble envelope.
My opinions:
Paypal is no big deal to me as a buyer. I don't mind mailing a check and I wouldn't hesitate to bid on anyone's auctions on ebay who didn't take paypal. What I don't like are sellers that require only money orders, which to me are a pain to have to go purchase and cost me money as a buyer.
As a seller, I hate paypal fee's but like to immediately receive cash in my account and the ability to ship USPS and purchase postage online. I always love using that shipping system. Saves me lot's of time not having to write out addresses on packages. So you balance out the fee's incurred with the speed of payment and the online click and ship possibilities.
Pictures/scans: I usually won't bid if there's no scan with the item.
Why any seller would still try to list items this way (with no picture) is a mystery to me and it's costing them a lot of money by lack of bidders who feel the same as I do.
Also the size or clarity of the scan is also important. I bid less if I can't clearly see the details of the card I'm bidding on, especially if it's a 7 or an 8. Not much to worry about on 9's and 10's however.
I think the ending time is somewhat important. It depends on what you're selling. All low pop or very high demand cards usually can be ended at anytime and the seller will get great results. On most other items it seems like ending items between 6-10 pm usually is the best. Over the years, I've tried ending listings on every night and I can't really determine which night garners the best results. I use to think Friday or Sat. nights were the worst, but I've changed my mind about this due to some great prices I've received at times on these evening.
The worse time to end items seems to be early morning on weekdays. Although with all the sniping programs in place that might make even this point moot.
I think spelling in the description and or title is important too.
As is reasonable shipping rates that are clearly spelled out in the auction listing.
Posting feedback for all buyers is important too as a seller. Not playing feedback hostage either. As a buyer I won't post feedback for the seller unless it's posted for me first.
Regards,
Rich
<< <i>I hate paypal fee's but like to immediately receive cash in my account and the ability to ship USPS and purchase postage online. I always love using that shipping system. Saves me lot's of time not having to write out addresses on packages. So you balance out the fee's incurred with the speed of payment and the online click and ship possibilities. >>
How much does one value their time? I think 3% is well worth it when you don't have to wait for payments, hoping they don't get lost, then wait again in line at the post office. On top of that, now you can schedule a pickup at your house so you don't even have to go the post office. There's an old cliche, "You can save time or money.. not both." It wouldn't be a cliche if it weren't true.
Justin
NAXCOM
2. Ending time - I would guess ending times between 7-10PM ET would be best to capture most of the country being out of work. But perhaps for high-grade stuff, it's less important.
3. Picture is a must. I can't imagine anyone bids on something without a picture.
4. PayPal - I'm a man of convenience. As a buyer, there have been times I haven't bid on an item because PayPal isn't accepted. Too much hassle/anxiety otherwise.
I have one other topic to add to the discussion - the use of PSA grading terminology to describe the item. For instance, some sellers use words like "great" or "excellent" condition (usually sellers with less than 50 feedback). While excellent is a grading term, they are not using it in that context - they are trying to convey the card is mint. I feel like I have made some great buys from sellers using wrong terminology. I bought a 1973-74 Topps Erving for $4.25 plus $4 shipping that was listed in "excellent condition" by the seller. Looks like a PSA 8 to me - See attached scan.Erving