Probstein Ending Auctions All at Once

psychump

Bugs me. Every minute would be nice. No time to reevaluate bid. All at once I just don't bid like I could. Lose/Lose imo.

70ToppsFanatic

I believe Rick would say that by ending things all at once it forces bidders to submit their best bids up front (since there is no time to re-evaluate).

I prefer having things end 1 minute apart so that I can chase other items if I miss out on my top targets.

It's an interesting discussion into human psychology no doubt.

otwcards

Definitely makes it more of a challenge for those that allocate funds and may wish to target something else if they are outbid other items.

Maurice

<< <i>I believe Rick would say that by ending things all at once it forces bidders to submit their best bids up front (since there is no time to re-evaluate). >>


And I believe it is done this way to save the 10 cents per listing it costs to schedule them.

mesapsa

If I worked for Probstein that would be my very first project would be to deal with auction end times! I have lost quite a few auctions because of this! The longer the exposure the more bids = more $$$$$$ IMO.... But who am I to say.

yankeeno7

I love sniping.

MisterBungle

I love sniping.

+1

~

MinorLeaguer

They are probably using the ebay file upload to list all the auctions as it saves a lot of time. When i liquidated like 2,500 low grade 70's cards a few years ago that would go for like a buck each, it made it a lot less painless and somewhat tolerable by copying and pasting fields and regurgitating the same templates via copy paste to all the records that make up the auctions. Since the file gets uploaded to ebay in mere seconds, the auctions all start and end virtually at once. There is an auction start time and/or end time (I forget) field on the file upload but ebay charges a hefty fee for it of like 50 cents or a dollar or so for each record (auction) for the convenience of using that start time functionality. May make sense to pay the buck or whatever it is for higher-end stuff so you can separate it but for low-end, no way.

augustaman

Also not a big fan of his auctions starting with extremely high starting bids
instead of letting the market decide pricing. He has so may current listings
with this format that I became disinterested and stopped looking at what he
had to offer. I'm sure it resulted in me not finding and placing bids of several
items that normally I would have. Rick, are you listening?

Doublestriker

<< <i>Also not a big fan of his auctions starting with extremely high starting bids
instead of letting the market decide pricing. He has so may current listings
with this format that I became disinterested and stopped looking at what he
had to offer. I'm sure it resulted in me not finding and placing bids of several
items that normally I would have. Rick, are you listening? >>



Probably not ricks decision that is probably the owner of the cards decision.

burke23

Start times are to lump by consignor....guessing that makes it easier on their end. I am also guessing they do schedule because of that, so no money saved.

gameusedhoop

<< <i>And I believe it is done this way to save the 10 cents per listing it costs to schedule them. >>



There is no charge anymore for picking a listing time. I listed 150 items yesterday, starting about 10pm EDT at 1 minute intervals, no charge for any of them and I was done by 2pm. This was one of ebay's recent changes.

Maurice

<< <i>

<< <i>And I believe it is done this way to save the 10 cents per listing it costs to schedule them. >>



There is no charge anymore for picking a listing time. I listed 150 items yesterday, starting about 10pm EDT at 1 minute intervals, no charge for any of them and I was done by 2pm. This was one of ebay's recent changes. >>


Do you have an ebay store?

The first link below is for standard selling fees and shows scheduled listings as being free. I believe that is for non-store subscribers.

The second link is for ebay stores fees and shows scheduled listings as being 10 cents.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/storefees.html

ChiSoxCardboard

Count me among those that wish the end times were staggered. If I've got $300 to spend at any given time, I can't put in more than $300 in bids for any Probstein auctions, just in case I win them all. If he staggered the end times, I would be able to bid much more aggressively on specific items.

3BoyzTrading

Agreed, if I get outbid on an item, I quickly move to the next one...that rush with the limited time....makes me aggressive....

ThoseBackPages

snipe all day

hookem

I just sent a small group of cards that will probably sell for about $2,000 to Rick. I think he will have them tomorrow or Monday and they will probably get listed soon after that starting a $.99.

That said, as a consigner, I would much prefer that they have a staggered start but I expect them to all start at the same time. I have not spoken to Rick about this and won't but I think it would be another benefit to us sellers as well if he did it that way. A few of them are very similar so I can see bidders not going "all in" due to fear of winning more than they budgeted for.

Mapleleaf

<< <i>I just sent a small group of cards that will probably sell for about $2,000 to Rick. I think he will have them tomorrow or Monday and they will probably get listed soon after that starting a $.99.

That said, as a consigner, I would much prefer that they have a staggered start but I expect them to all start at the same time. I have not spoken to Rick about this and won't but I think it would be another benefit to us sellers as well if he did it that way. A few of them are very similar so I can see bidders not going "all in" due to fear of winning more than they budgeted for. >>



As a consignor, you could ask for end times staggered at one minute intervals. Maybe he would charge an extra 10 cents but that would be more than paid back by the return.
I only bid on 2 or 3 items with Probstein at a time because I may them all. While I don't win a lot of things, I have had a couple bargains that were hundreds less than what my bid was.

KbKards

He often has hundreds and sometimes thousands of items closing any one night. Staggered at 1 minute intervals means he could only list 60 items an hour, so about 300-360 during prime auction hours. Running auctions 24 hours a day staggered 1 minute apart means he can only list 1440 items a day. He's not the only person listing auctions on Ebay so his listings will be closing the same time that other sellers have items closing that you might have an interest in. Even if he staggered each individual consignor's listings they will be overlapping with another consignor's listings that you might also have an interest in. If you need to have your cards listed to end staggered on a particular date and time period then maybe you should be listing the cards yourself.

ldferg

<< <i>He often has hundreds and sometimes thousands of items closing any one night. Staggered at 1 minute intervals means he could only list 60 items an hour, so about 300-360 during prime auction hours. Running auctions 24 hours a day staggered 1 minute apart means he can only list 1440 items a day. He's not the only person listing auctions on Ebay so his listings will be closing the same time that other sellers have items closing that you might have an interest in. Even if he staggered each individual consignor's listings they will be overlapping with another consignor's listings that you might also have an interest in. If you need to have your cards listed to end staggered on a particular date and time period then maybe you should be listing the cards yourself. >>



Well said.

jeffcbay

<< <i>maybe you should be listing the cards yourself. >>



There's a novel idea! lol

bobbyw8469

<< <i>There's a novel idea! lol >>



What's the fun in that when only two sellers get all the bids and all the money??

Probstein123

hi guys...

first off, we do stagger times on set breaks .... ( we have some up now running 1 minute apart )

when we stagger , these auctions end earlier in the evening....

last night we had 1600 auctions end from 20 consignors, having each ending staggered would be a bookkeeping nightmare.
we give each consignor their own time slot...

I actually think ending cards at the same time is beneficial for many reasons
1) its a non issue for those that snipe
2) its a non issue for those that bid early and often
3) its an potential issue for the bidder who wants to bid manually in the last 5 seconds...or perhaps, not, what does he do if he wants 3 cards that ends at the same ?
the bidder isn't gonna let them go, he bids EARLY and now thats better for the auction....hence, a non issue

its only a problem on super low end items that the bottom feeders wanna but more to save on reduced shipping...
most of our regular bottom feeders set snipes and they bid on hundreds of auctions sometimes ( hence they have high percentages of activity with us )

have a great weekend guys,
if you wanna ever stagger , call me and we can discuss the variables involved
thanks
rick

psychump

stangrider

Have to be losing a few bids by ending everything at once. In Probsteins case it doesn't really matter anyways.

WinPitcher

<< <i>He often has hundreds and sometimes thousands of items closing any one night. Staggered at 1 minute intervals means he could only list 60 items an hour, so about 300-360 during prime auction hours. Running auctions 24 hours a day staggered 1 minute apart means he can only list 1440 items a day. >>



That's assuming he has only one computer and only one person is listing?

NickM

<< <i>

<< <i>He often has hundreds and sometimes thousands of items closing any one night. Staggered at 1 minute intervals means he could only list 60 items an hour, so about 300-360 during prime auction hours. Running auctions 24 hours a day staggered 1 minute apart means he can only list 1440 items a day. >>



That's assuming he has only one computer and only one person is listing? >>



No. It assumes nothing more than that staggering auctions to end 1 minute apart means you can only have 1 end each minute (or 60 each hour).

Nick

fergie23

By not staggering auctions he costs his consignors money pure and simple. That said consignors are probably making more using probstein than they could listing at $.99 auctions themselves but even with the small sampling that is CU forum members you can see that the all at once approach prevents some folks from bidding. The idea that these are all super low end items chased by bottom feeders is probably a bit insulting to anyone that chimed in here saying his approach forced them not to bid on items.
The bookkeeping 'nightmare' really shouldn't be something a consignor should have to care about.
In the end if you want your auction to run at $0.99 starting bid and to start as soon as your items arrive Probstein is your best bet even with the limitations that come with using him. However allowing each consignor to have staggered end times on their auctions would benefit consignors.

Robb

hookem

<< <i>

<< <i>I just sent a small group of cards that will probably sell for about $2,000 to Rick. I think he will have them tomorrow or Monday and they will probably get listed soon after that starting a $.99.

That said, as a consigner, I would much prefer that they have a staggered start but I expect them to all start at the same time. I have not spoken to Rick about this and won't but I think it would be another benefit to us sellers as well if he did it that way. A few of them are very similar so I can see bidders not going "all in" due to fear of winning more than they budgeted for. >>



As a consignor, you could ask for end times staggered at one minute intervals. Maybe he would charge an extra 10 cents but that would be more than paid back by the return.
I only bid on 2 or 3 items with Probstein at a time because I may them all. While I don't win a lot of things, I have had a couple bargains that were hundreds less than what my bid was. >>




I think you are right but in this case it is not worth the trouble for Rick and my return. I sent one Mantle card that will sell for $1,500+ and then about 5 other cards. From my experience, I get more in return and avoid the hassle of packaging multiple envelops (which is very valuable to me) than if I just listed them on my eBay account. I have over 1,400 positive feebacks and 100% but since I mainly buy I think I get more despite the same ending time.