Losing bidders by not starting at .99?

lightningboy

Do any of you simply look at auctions with a minimum bid of .99, regardless of how valuable the card might be? Just curious if I am losing any potential bidders since I start some auctions with a $9.99 opening bid. For example an Aaron rookie, which i do not have for sale, wuld get bypassed if I started the bidding at $9.99 and someone only searched for cards with a minimum bid lower than that. Thanks, Tom

OcTrAdInG

On the contrary, I appreciate it when sellers open auctions closer to market value. If the auction is for a special, rare item, as much I like getting a deal, I do not want to be bothered with folks who are just looking to hit a homerun or bidding on a friend's item.

With that said, my average purchase is a lot higher than 99 cents. I am sure there are people out there who need to see the low opening bid.

llafoe

Recently I've begun to only look at auctions. It's so much easier... I just did an open search that returned 1,452 items and then selected "Auction" and only have 37 items to view. There are sooooo many multipliers of most items that it's a waste to look at anything other than auctions, you can buy an item via auction much cheaper via AuctionSniper (even if someone "saftey bids" you since you set your own high bid, which in my case is always lower than the lowest Buy It Now) and you don't go wild buying since "Auction" limits your exposure to 2-3% of items listed on eBay.

So to answer your question... as long as you list your items as an "Auction" I will see them regardless of your starting price.

epatmythes

As of this posting... it's my favorite search for the sake of curiousity...

In the Cards category... "PSA 10"

81,107 listings

Now, toggle it to "Auction"

3,308 listings

Less that 5% willing to risk a traditional auction on a GEM MINT card

**Sure, not all of those 81,107 are probably actual PSA 10 cards (due to keyword spamming), but you get the drift!!!

MrNearMint

I don't care about how low/high the opening bid is, as long as it's not above book/smr value.
I usually only start bidding on an item within the last 60 seconds of the auction anyway, so the opening bid is pretty much irrelevant.

jay0791

In general I almost never buy anythung below $10.

.99 or 9.99 is the same to me.

My searches are very specific not based on price.

IMO when i sell and its not often. a (.99 is a good starting price. The only way I wouls ever start at .99 if it was an item that will always sell for way over that.

KbKards

Do any of you simply look at auctions with a minimum bid of .99, regardless of how valuable the card might be? Just curious if I am losing any potential bidders since I start some auctions with a $9.99 opening bid. For example an Aaron rookie, which i do not have for sale, wuld get bypassed if I started the bidding at $9.99 and someone only searched for cards with a minimum bid lower than that. Thanks, Tom

The only time a starting price of .99 or 9.99 would matter to a normal buyer is if it's a low dollar item that normally only sells for .99 to 9.99. On more expensive cards like your Aaron rookie example, if a starting price of .99 or 9.99 matters to anybody then their bid would be meaningless.

digicat

It doesn't matter to me. The price I'm willing to pay for a card isn't determined by the starting bid.

Brick

If I were to list many cards I would worry some may sell for much less than I would be willing to take. Those that start at .99 and are successful have a large following. Your question sounds as if some items receive no bids at all. That is better than selling for .99