I'm here to tell ya (something you may already know)

piecesofme

Like the title says...and I'm sure some will take this as me complaining, but I'm viewing it as enlightment for those who have no clue about selling on eBay.
I'm here to tell ya that if you're going to list something on eBay, and start it at .99 and let it run and not have any of your buddies bid on your item to shill the price up, you are really taking a chance. I just lost my arse doing so on some of the duplicate 3 oz Foster bars I let run starting at .99.

Just a few weeks ago (whatever Spot is doesn't really play into these...at least I thought so) I sold some common ones and they all went for basically what they typically bring...$125-150.
With this latest round of what are considered to be the more common ones of duplicates I had, some only went for $103-115 Maybe Spot does play into these more than I thought?
Take a look at my recent completed listings and please offer some advice. What am I doing wrong to have the same bars go for $20 less than what they did just a few weeks ago? I feel I present them with excellent pictures and descriptions, offer fair shipping prices, offer a return policy...what am I doing wrong? Am I offering too much information, is the description too long?

Any help (that is not mean spirited) would be greatly appreciated.

BAJJERFAN

Some weeks everybody wants them; other weeks hardly anybody does would be my guess. If you presented them both the same way and one brings way more than the other, it wouldn't seem that presentation is an issue.

bronco2078

Why start at 99 cents anyway? Over $100 you pay less fees on a buy now in fact with the recent change to the fees it may have dropped to around $70 . Set up a buy now at what you want and let them run 30 days, if you start at .99 cents you guarantee a sale but other than that what do you gain? I'd rather have a 20% sell through rate at the prices I want than 100% at too low a price.


I would ship to APO/FPO boxes, in fact I ship anywhere but russian federation and italy . I sold a few coins in February to a guy in Vietnam and mailed them in an envelope for 2$ . He left feedback it took 18 days and he never said a word about the length of time it took to get his stuff . I feel like international buyers are the best customers because they often have no way to get the items locally.


Clip the section on return policy and the feedback right out of the listing . Ebay makes you take everything back anyway and the buyers know it . Feedback is meaningless for buyers so just leave them a positive when they pay.

In the past 2 months I have 27 sales and 15 buyers never left feedback or even acknowledged the transaction in any way. I just leave feedback when I print the label and forget all about it. Some buyers are anal about feedback and leaving it at time of payment makes them happy , the rest don't care if you ever leave it.

jmski52

All I can say is that the market will speak to the current conditions. I've always relied on the greed factor in an auction format for bullion. For every instance when the bullion item didn't realize as much as I thought it was worth, there are usually twice as many auctions in which the item realizes a nice premium.

Of course, it does depend on the market at the time of the auction. If you sell into an ugly market, you may get some ugly results. For the bars & stuff that you specialize in, the market tends to be less homogeneous and in my opinion - harder to track or estimate. (The main reason I like the more "standard" items is because I may be a wimp and I prefer more "standard" or predictable results.)

In your case where many of the items are sought by "specialists", I'd say that while timing isn't everything it does matter more than it does for Silver Eagles or AGEs.

PerryHall

Those bars are somewhat esoteric. In other words the demand for those bars at the premium over melt that you are looking for is rather thin. Unless you have at least two bidders that really want them as rare collectible bars, you shouldn't expect them to bring a big premium over melt. Of course you probably already know this.

fivecents

I like to start the price at .01 cent instead of .99 cents. The more bids the better. Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd.

CaptHenway

<< <i>Those bars are somewhat esoteric. In other words the demand for those bars at the premium over melt that you are looking for is rather thin. Unless you have at least two bidders that really want them as rare collectible bars, you shouldn't expect them to bring a big premium over melt. Of course you probably already know this. >>



Agreed. It's a thin market. Too many of essentially the same thing at the ssame time.

derryb

simple solution: start your auction price at your minimum acceptable price or do a buy it now.

Use the fee calculator to look at your best options before you list.

bronco2078

Derry I think that calculator is wrong for fixed price now. I was on ebay looking at the fees for fixed prices and its changed recently. It used to be 12% for the first 50 then 6%. Now I see its 10% on the first 50 and 8% after that its a significant increase .

derryb

<< <i>Derry I think that calculator is wrong for fixed price now. I was on ebay looking at the fees for fixed prices and its changed recently. It used to be 12% for the first 50 then 6%. Now I see its 10% on the first 50 and 8% after that its a significant increase . >>


I just checked the calculator vs. latest fee schedule for BIN ($62.50 for first $1000 plus 2% on amount over $1000) for a $2000 item and both methods result in an $82.50 FVF. Were you looking at the wrong category in the fee schedule?

Ebay fee schedule

Baley

Seems like a lot of trouble and stress to try to make (or risk losing) a few bucks

roadrunner

<< <i>Seems like a lot of trouble and stress to try to make (or risk losing) a few bucks >>



Yeah. Simpler to just buy plain bullion on the dips and pay the typical dealer's spread of 2-5%. Buy from a solid dealer and sell to that solid dealer.
Leave out the ebay marketing headaches of skimming/scamming. The most important thing is buying right. If you don't do that, all the advertising and
gimmicks in the world won't help.

mariner67

<< <i>Seems like a lot of trouble and stress to try to make (or risk losing) a few bucks >>

carew4me

I got caught up in "collectible" bars early in my journey to enlightenment.

Only to later realize that paying high premiums for silver bars with various stamps was
interfering with the big picture so I sold all of it.

gsa1fan

<< <i>

<< <i>Those bars are somewhat esoteric. In other words the demand for those bars at the premium over melt that you are looking for is rather thin. Unless you have at least two bidders that really want them as rare collectible bars, you shouldn't expect them to bring a big premium over melt. Of course you probably already know this. >>



Agreed. It's a thin market. Too many of essentially the same thing at the ssame time. >>



You flooded the market of which I'm guessing is a smaller collector base.

Downtown1974

Sorry Rich. There is a silver lining in this however. Nobody here can ever accuse you of shilling your auctions.

Pokermandude

Agreed, listing at 99c with no reserve can be a good way to lose your shirt.

But I think listing them all at the same time was the bigger mistake. Especially with esoteric silver bars like that. Part of the appeal (and higher premium over spot) is that they are rare and don't come up for sale very often. Listing so many at once people go "oh, common bars, a few bucks over spot should do it. And if not, I'll find another one".

piecesofme

Seems like a lot of trouble and stress to try to make (or risk losing) a few bucks

I totally disagree. $20 in this case amounts to roguhly 21%! Are you willing to just let go of 21% of something of what you know it's worth and not be even a little upset about it???

I do agree it's a niche and I may have flooded the market. There were really only 4-6 bidders for all auctions, so that is probably the case.

As far as 30 day auctions...when I decide to sell something, I don't want to wait 30 days, that's why I'm selling them...because I'd like to have the $ sooner than 30 days and then possibly coming up empty. Just not for me.

I understand and realize the risk in it all, and I appreciate all the helpful advice, I really do. It's all just kind of disconcerting and makes me wonder if one has to jump thru so many hoops just to make a few extra spending money bucks, is it really all even worth doing.

Sorry Rich. There is a silver lining in this however. Nobody here can ever accuse you of shilling your auctions.

LOL, that's a good one. Guess I don't have as many "friends" as I thought I do lol.

bronco2078

If its a thinly traded bar and you listed a bunch at once you may have been competing with yourself as others mentioned. You flooded the market or whatever you want to call it by making too many available. A bidder has no incentive to go nuclear if he can lose and just bid on another one ending 15 minutes later. They could use the early ending listings to practice bidding and come up with a good estimate then just lock in bids on the later ones and win.

If I was selling something like that I'd do a buy now at a high price with a best offer. That way you could have the offers help gauge the value of the item if the offers come quick then raise the price on the next one. . Now that ebay is hiding the best offer price on completed listings you won't have the issue of prejudicing future listings by accepting an offer now and then just to get paid.


Derry , I was looking at the wrong category, the 8% was ebay motors parts. I sell mostly parts and for a long time the coins and parts had the same fee schedule . Parts went up , coins are still at the same price for now I guess.

Pokermandude

<< <i>As far as 30 day auctions...when I decide to sell something, I don't want to wait 30 days, that's why I'm selling them...because I'd like to have the $ sooner than 30 days and then possibly coming up empty. Just not for me. >>



It's a trade off between being able to wait and max out the value, or have a sure sale and get a random amount for it in a true auction.

Personally, I've been leaning more towards fixed price listings lately. I do have six 99c no reserve auctions going now. Two are fairly rare/valuable first in series RCM products. I may very well end up losing some money on them. If I do, I am probably done with 99 cent auctions for anything but low value items. Or items I haven't been able to sell at my desired price over the past 90 days or so.

Baley

Seems like a lot of trouble and stress to try to make (or risk losing) a few bucks

I totally disagree. $20 in this case amounts to roguhly 21%! Are you willing to just let go of 21% of something of what you know it's worth and not be even a little upset about it???

It depends on how many minutes I have to spend on the subject. My time is worth more than a dollar a minute even if I'm enjoying myself, not to mention if I'm not

piecesofme

It depends on how many minutes I have to spend on the subject. My time is worth more than a dollar a minute even if I'm enjoying myself, not to mention if I'm not

Agreed. That's why i'm a little upset because of the time I have invested taking pictures, describing the items...basically creating the aucion...only to have it go for 21% less than what it should've by rights.
I'm not looking for sympathy, I know I took a chance, and this time I came up short on a few. The main reason of this thread is as I said initially. To let those who have no idea what it entails selling on takeachanceBay know what they're up against.

OPA

Sometimes you win or loose. You take your chances in any auction. After all, the item is only worth what some one else is willing to pay for it and not what you think it's worth. Timing and researching the most recent completed auctions, should give you a ball park figure for what the item will sell for.

Wingsrule

Too many of the same item for sale at the same time would be the issue, methinks. I didn't read every post here but that was my first thought when I clicked your link.

piecesofme

Too many of the same item for sale at the same time would be the issue, methinks. I didn't read every post here but that was my first thought when I clicked your link.
yes, that does sem to be the concencus. Yet another lesson learned. It's not the end of the world, just a little frustrating.
Thanks for all the genuine advice folks, I am taking it all to heart.

DoubleEagle59

Piecesofme...one quick question:

Have you ever been self-employed?

By your response regarding your Ebay experience, I would be very confident that your answer would be 'NO' to my question.

Ebay has good and bad results.

You know going into it the amount of work that is necessary, so you really can't complain about that.

What you 'should' get, as you say, doesn't apply, because Ebay results can vary quite a bit.

If you list on Ebay, you're done complaining, as you've got to let the chips fall where they may.

Very similar to being in business for yourself.

As for myself, I've always been self-employed.

You get used to losing money on some deals.

Just as long as you're positive at the end of the year is the main thing.