What's the secret to selling on eBay?

hoardmonster · November 16, 2003 5:51PM

Well I'm not really expecting you to tell me your secrets, but it can't hurt to ask.

I recently bought a lot of 20 of the same date Lincolns all PCGS MS68RD. I wasn't looking to make a lot of money just a few extra bucks to put towards my own collection.

I looked at the completed auctions for the same date, mintmark, grade, and grading company and all of them closed at over $20 each and as high as $29. I payed $14.50 per coin on the lot.

Well I listed four of them for seven day auctions. They closed Sunday night and I took a beating. $14.00, $13.50, $14.25, and $15.50.

If I do better on the future auctions, I may break even or make a few dollars, but as it stands right now, when you take the eBay and paypal fees, I'm losing money.

relayer · November 16, 2003 6:50PM

Welcome to the club

BDP · November 16, 2003 7:05PM

put a reserve on your coins and/or charge a really high shipping rate. buyers generally appreciate the latter!

291fifth · November 16, 2003 7:48PM

The fact that you were able to buy a lot of 20 MS68Reds should answer your question. The pops are going up, up, up and the prices are going down, down, down. There are no bargains in coins. You can try and play the high reserve, high shipping fee game but you will probably find that many of your coins don't sell and that you quickly run up high fees with nothing to show for it.

darktone · November 16, 2003 8:42PM

common coins don't sell to well on ebay as there many to choose from. mike

silvereaglecoins · November 16, 2003 9:23PM

Great idea in theory but the 2001-D Lincoln is way too common in MS68 RED (390 pop).

PCGS No: 3169
Date: 2001-D
Denom: 1C
Variety:
Desig: MSRD
65: 4
66: 41
67: 111
68: 390
69: 19
70: 0

If I were trying to unload these, I would list them at $19.95 to start with "FREE SHIPPING" in the title. It will cost you about $1 to ship (make insurance optional at $1.30). I would also include that there are only "19 finer" in the item description. People LOVE free shipping and tend to bid more than they would otherwise.

Good Luck!

Steve27 · November 16, 2003 9:28PM

I would bet that these are 2003-P coins. There was a period of time when the MS69s were readily available, which drove the price down, causing sellers to stop selling them. However, recently they have started appearing again, which is probably why the MS68s aren't selling very well. You might want to limit how many you list at one time or wait until no MS69s are listed.

hoardmonster · November 16, 2003 9:38PM

Thanks for the advice silvereaglecoins. I think that is a great idea!!!

XpipedreamR · November 16, 2003 11:20PM

The secret is to put L@@K in the title of all your auctions!

CarlWohlforth · November 16, 2003 11:32PM

Some of my secrets include: photos, return policy, lots of good feedback and accepting paypal.

tjkillian · November 16, 2003 11:41PM

Of course offer a return priviledge for any reason, but I think a way to be secessful is to use large, clear pictures of each coin. People like that.

Tom

Placid · November 17, 2003 12:36AM

One of hoardmonster's closed auctions.

You also might want to photograph each coin instead of using a "stock" photo. People might think they are buying a dog coin.

Baley · November 17, 2003 12:36AM

Well I listed four of them for seven day auctions. They closed Sunday night and I took a beating. $14.00, $13.50, $14.25, and $15.50.

You might try having only one auction for the same thing running at the same time, or at least have only one close per day. that way, potential bidders won't have so many to choose from, and if they want one, they will have to bid on the same one, not just switch to another one that is currently bid lower.

mgoodm3 · November 17, 2003 1:36AM

The secret is Whipped cream and plastic wrap. Oh wait, that was something else.

Bubblehead · November 17, 2003 1:49AM

Baley's response is right on!

wondercoin · November 17, 2003 2:29AM

Hoard: I am sorry to hear you are not doing well with the (20) lot of 2001(d) Lincolns in PCGS-MS68RD. I ran an identical coin which closed last night on ebay (#2201934463) at $22.72 bid ($26.22 delivered). The winning bidder paid 55% more delivered than your price per coin. I know I did not have a better picture than you

My guess is it was not wise to have 4 of them running so close in time to each other - in fact, your sales probably influenced my coin only realizing $26.22 delivered. By contrast, the 1999(d) Lincoln in the same grade (around same pop with way more coins in the grade higher) sold for $45.50 delivered last night.

Perhaps offer only -1- coin for the entire next week and see what happens?

Wondercoin

DCAMFranklin · November 17, 2003 4:57AM

<< <i>Perhaps offer only -1- coin for the entire next week and see what happens? >>

Good advice.

coachleonard · November 17, 2003 5:02AM

Start a $15-$20 coin out at $1, you may well get bids of $15-$20. Start the same coin out at $2 or $3, that
coin will END at $2 or $3--- that is, if you get a bid at all. Not to say that there's no chance you'll take a bath starting a coin out at $1 either. And as most people will tell you, friday is a lousy day to end auctions-- but lately, in my experience, monday ain't so hot either!

TayTay · November 17, 2003 5:04AM

I concur, as this happened to me as well. I had a couple of '35 65RD cents close w/in minutes of each other at one time. The first closed at almost fifty bucks, the second at thirty. I haven't made that mistake again...

hoardmonster · November 17, 2003 2:15PM

Thanks everybody for the help!!

I think you guys are right too about not listing so many so close together. Common sense should have told me that, but obviously common sense didn't enter into it.

Geoman · November 17, 2003 2:19PM

Make sure you have great pictures. I am a moderator in anothe coins group, and have been talking and friends with a person on this site for over a year. He recently bought a new digital camera, and has been practicing at taking pictures. Now, he says his sales are generating higher money for the same or similar items. He can noticed a difference, now, with the better pictures, and was shocked that that would make that big of difference. He didn't really have bad pictures before, just the general pictures most people throw up on eBay. So sometimes it can be the little things.

Aethelred · November 17, 2003 2:36PM

Take the money you make from the Lincolns and buy several jars, then write a good ghost story about your "ghost in a jar" and you're set!

Neptune · November 17, 2003 2:41PM

Be sure to use "Buy It Now" option - it is only 5 cents and 1/3 of my sales have been Buy It Now -- When folks are eBayin' and looking for something they want and find it - they are often ready to Buy It NOW!!!
Put the FREE SH in your Item Description.

Also, I noticed you described your 'mint' in parenthesis (d) . . . when people enter item in Search, they don't use the ( ) - so trying listing as: 2001-D, so that it gets picked up in more searches. GL

eminem · November 17, 2003 9:00PM

List everything with no reserve...start at face value....end on a Sunday night!!! Voila!!

itsnotjustme · November 17, 2003 9:19PM

If you elect not to do free shipping, $3.50 is high for a $20 item. Go $1 with optional $1.30 insurance, or just go $2.50 if you insist on insurance.

MICHAELDIXON · November 17, 2003 11:05PM

I originally sent this to hoardmonster in a PM, but thought it might be worth everyone reading.
.
My advice is to only run 1 coin of the same kind at any given time. If you run more than one of the same coin, you a competing with yourself. Have your auctions close at 9 pm PST on Saturday nights. When they close on Friday, Sunday or any other night, you are missing the prime bidding times. Many collectors only browse Ebay on Saturday nights. This I learned the hard way through trial and error. Have a decent photo, they don't have to be great.

What's the secret to selling on eBay?

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