BIN RANT...............................:(

onebamafan · January 4, 2009 4:57AM

This has been bugging me........ Even post cashback, sellers have left or implemented outrageous BIN auctions........i kind of get it if you also use best offer, but most do not. I thought when the cashback live died

, sellers would regroup and get with the program. I have no specific examples to share , but i am sure everyone here has come across many in the last 30-60 days on their own. Seems to me to be a complete waste of time and money to list a BIN 4x what an auction just ended at yesterday. Speaking of a waste of time...........rant over.

Thanks for wasting yours...................

cwazzy · January 4, 2009 5:00AM

I absolutely agree. It seems like 75% of the listings on eBay are BIN w/ outrageous prices. Whatever happened to auctions? It drives me nuts.

Chris

123Slider · January 4, 2009 5:07AM

<< I absolutely agree. It seems like 75% of the listings on eBay are BIN w/ outrageous prices. Whatever happened to auctions? It drives me nuts.

Chris >>

Auctions have been getting killed for the most part, especially high grade commons. Until that changes, BIN is here to stay. As a buyer I'm frustrated. As a seller, I'm done selling stuff for 25-50% what it was 6-8 months ago.

StanTheManMusial · January 4, 2009 5:15AM

I understand the frustration, but it's the owner's right to ask whatever he wants for his card. Although, it does not mean you have to pay his asking price.

In this day and age, a lot of stuff is going for less than normal(due to economic reasons). I guess some sellers would rather sit and wait, rather than to give it away. Who knows, he/she just might find that person who is willing to pay their buy it now asking price.

edit: spell

yankeeno7 · January 4, 2009 5:27AM

I rarely sell on ebay anymore but recently I put up a few auctions, all BIN with best offer option. Did I ask much higher than what the stuff normally sells for? Yup, I sure did. Did I get offers and sales that were MUCH higher than if I had done it auction style? Yup, I sure did. I was really happy with my results.

What I found is that I could also choose who I sold to. If someone came with extremely low feedback or feedback with lots of negs/problems, I could deny the sale and save myself headaches. Good offers with good feedback got the cards. I increased my percentage of successful, pain free transactions.

storm888 · January 4, 2009 5:37AM

"...Who knows, he/she just might find that person who is willing to pay their buy it now asking price. ..."

//////////////////////////////////

A buyer will ALWAYS appear, eventually.

Shelf-space is not a consideration online; like it is in a B&M store.

An item that stays listed for 12/24 months - at 5 or 10 times what I paid for it -
is not costing me any substantial money.

I have no intention of giving stuff away and paying EBAY for the privilege. If it
never sells, my life changes not one iota.

Auctions are dead. That's the one thing JD has gotten right on his disasterous watch.

Eventually, somebody will start a good auction venue and a new run of the "fad"
will begin.

Trying to auction commodity items on EBAY is the same as throwing stuff in the
garbage and tossing cash money into the can with it.

divecchia · January 4, 2009 5:38AM

Yankeeno7, the OP has no problem with your type of auction as you offer a Best Offer option. It's auctions that don't, that he has a problem with.

Donato

yankeeno7 · January 4, 2009 5:41AM

Ahh ok...I just woke so I better read all the details LOL

Bosox1976 · January 4, 2009 5:43AM

I have actually found quite a few BIN's lately -- I think nobody has the patience to sift through all the garbage these days....

nightcrawler · January 4, 2009 5:49AM

<< I guess some sellers would rather sit and wait, rather than to give it away. Who knows, he/she just might find that person who is willing to pay their buy it now asking price. >>

<< //////////////////////////////////

A buyer will ALWAYS appear, eventually. >>

Sad but true

Especially when there are no other hits in the search for months and years.

storm888 · January 4, 2009 5:51AM

"I have actually found quite a few BIN's lately -- I think nobody has the patience to sift through all the garbage these days.... "

///////////////////////////

VERY true.

I even have a gambling game that I play with my associates.
We list an item cheap and bet on whether or not it will sell.
Most of the time it just sits, because nobody wants to wade
through the stuff returned by the search-that-does-not-search.

BestMatch is what killed EBAY. Card-sellers cannot tell it, because
their buyers' searches usually render adequate results. EVERY other
category has been croaked by BestMatch.

otwcards · January 4, 2009 6:02AM

<< I have actually found quite a few BIN's lately -- I think nobody has the patience to sift through all the garbage these days.... >>

The nice thing is having a pretty narrowed scope of what I'm buying. It allows me to be able to sift through pretty much EVERYTHING that is available based upon my criteria search. Sure, there's a lot of deadwood that is sitting in stores at beyond inflated prices, but I do get to see everything.

It's when I go on searches for oddball items and random things to purchase that I'm met with a virtual Wall of China length list of things. Many so far removed from what I'm interested in that the search becomes fruitless.

With regard to some of the BIN (without BO options), I'm guessing they were priced during the MS-Live promo and have not been changed (or are on auto-renew). Sad, as they were already way overpriced given a 30% discount.

PoppaJ · January 4, 2009 6:08AM

We've been using nothing but the FIXED PRICE format to sell our merchandise mainly because it's still 35 cents for 30 days regardless of quantity.

Our prices are a bit inflated, but our 2008 sales have almost doubled our 2007 sales; Dec 2008 tripled Dec 2007 sales.

Many of our December 2008 buyers were gift seekers and novice buyers (based on 0-10 total feedbacks), but they spent big bucks.

There were a few high grade Mantles that we listed that simply were knowingly overpriced and didn't sell, so we just packed them away and will wait for springtime.

Not everyone that sells is doing it out of desperation or because they are using the money to pay bills etc. I think it's this group that you are probably running into a lot.

And, like a few others have already stated, some sellers just don't want to give stuff away!

We don't feel like we're wasting our time at all .... we're just waiting for that special someone that wants what we have at our price.

Personally, I think eBay will eventually nix the auction-style listings altogether and go solely with the fixed-price store-type format.

While I can certainly understand your frustration, I just thought I'd share my perspective.

PoppaJ

tmcsr69 · January 4, 2009 6:24AM

I have found best offers to be a waste of time as to many make unreasonable offers that no one would ever accept. Those experienced with ebay no they can always write the seller and make an offer without a BO button. The high fees ebay is charging for fixed price auctions is also a factor in the higher prices you are seeing. Once you take the listing fee, 12.5% sale fee and then the paypal fees, the sale price has to be high to come out with any profit.

stevek · January 4, 2009 6:29AM

Storm might know better than me, but I think the BIN items can be edited out through advanced search or adjusting the ebay settings somehow in your account...I'm not sure about that.

onebamafan · January 4, 2009 6:44AM

<< I have found best offers to be a waste of time as to many make unreasonable offers that no one would ever accept. Those experienced with ebay no they can always write the seller and make an offer without a BO button. The high fees ebay is charging for fixed price auctions is also a factor in the higher prices you are seeing. Once you take the listing fee, 12.5% sale fee and then the paypal fees, the sale price has to be high to come out with any profit. >>

True, however you can set the BO where it automatically declines low offers...........leaving only you to decide whether your price as been met.

storm888 · January 4, 2009 6:53AM

<< Storm might know better than me, but I think the BIN items can be edited out through advanced search or adjusting the ebay settings somehow in your account...I'm not sure about that. >>

/////////////

You can do that, but under the current dynamics you are not going
to have a whole lot to look at in many categories.

Sellers have bought into the 35-cents/30-day scheme and they like it.
It works pretty well in cards and coins and other categories where the
searchers know what the are doing. It's not good in many other cats.

"PSA Pete Rose" gets pretty good search returns.

"beige belted knit sweater" can = a psychotic nightmare of results.

"ipod parts" often returns a mish-mash of counterfeit ipods and auto parts.

BestMatch simply does NOT work.

The 35-cent/30-day search results are also MUCHO disadvantaged
in BestMatch. Some categories it does not matter; some it means you are
paying for listings that will NEVER be seen.

The logical sorts of BIN + Auction, BIN Only, Auction Only, Time Ending Soonest,
Time Ending Latest, are all good. Everything else is carp; with BM being the cream
of the carp.

storm888 · January 4, 2009 6:57AM

"True, however you can set the BO where it automatically declines low offers...........leaving only you to decide whether your price as been met. "

////////////////////////////////

I use the auto-decline..........

BUT, there is an interesting argument against it.

When a low-ball offer comes in, do not reject it. Let the offer sit
on the list so that other shoppers can see it and wonder if they
are about to lose the item that caught their eye. Should they submit
their own BO? Should they just go ahead and BIN quick before the
current BO is accepted?

I am not arguing for that tactic. Just saying it is interesting.

OAKESY25 · January 4, 2009 7:16AM

storm.. I always do just what you said..
if an offer is too far away to counter..
I let it sit.. basically as advertising that there is a market for the item..

digicat · January 4, 2009 8:21AM

I don't mind seeing a seller put a $5 card up with a $50/OBO, but if they get angry at a $5 offer and write a p-o'ed message to the person who submitted the offer, then they're asking for trouble.

onebamafan · January 4, 2009 10:49AM

<< "True, however you can set the BO where it automatically declines low offers...........leaving only you to decide whether your price as been met. "

////////////////////////////////

I use the auto-decline..........

BUT, there is an interesting argument against it.

When a low-ball offer comes in, do not reject it. Let the offer sit
on the list so that other shoppers can see it and wonder if they
are about to lose the item that caught their eye. Should they submit
their own BO? Should they just go ahead and BIN quick before the
current BO is accepted?

I am not arguing for that tactic. Just saying it is interesting. >>

True.....very true. That is a good tactic IMO.

PowderedH2O · January 4, 2009 11:41AM

I don't have any issue at all with the Buy It Nows. Sure, some idiots want to try to get $100 for a $25 card, but if you do your homework it will sometimes work out the other way around, or at least at a substantial bargain. I bought a nice PSA graded card from someone that posts on this board three nights ago. The SMR has it at $35 in a PSA 6. I bought it postpaid BIN for $20. Nobody else has it lower than $40. I wasn't willing to pay $40. The deals can be had with some hard work.

rlankhaar · January 4, 2009 1:05PM

In the past I've gotten deals on rare/hard to find stuff where the seller puts the BIN at "book value"...when the card usually sells for a lot more than book.

ndleo · January 5, 2009 6:51AM

I've used BIN for all of higher valued cards ($200+) and have had terrific results. Even with the higher fees, I am still able to make a few more bucks than compared to auctions. My only problem is with buyers sending me an email asking for the lowest price or a lowball offer.

I will probably never use auctions again for the stuff I have a few bucks invested in. The risk of selling at a loss is just not worth it.

BIN RANT...............................:(

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