Auctions Suck

[debvor]

Lately my auction activitey has sucked. I have auctions that have anywhere from 50 to 200 view with multiple watchers and no sales. Also, most of the items that are bid on (and that is very few) don't go up but the first bidder wins the auction even with scores of views and multiple watchers. Is Ebay manipulating this? Is there a glitch that no one knows about? Something just isn't right. 

[sherrys-attic]

I have been investigating other selling sites and there are far more than I knew about and they are all growing - I am based in UK and there are two very good sites that specialise in clothes, two - three  in vintage, handmade or unusual items and then there is one big other that is international and favours new items.  As all these companies are all growing it may well be that Ebay is taking the hit. 

[trekker_nx01]

Yes they do suck. There are probably many factors witch another person already talked about.

1 Flooded market. It seems someone else ALWAYS has the same thing for cheaper. Everyone wants cheap as possible witch is a given.

2 Even if your item is fairly rare it may be that the market for that item is not high right now. I fix used bikes and then sell them and bikes that I used to get  50 to 75 dollars 10 years ago I struggle to get $10 bucks for now.

3 Shipping. No one and I mean no one wants to pay shipping but WE cannot afford to give free shipping and pay all the fees and break even. So what do we do we try to charge for shipping witch everyone avoids like the plague.

eBay told me to offer free shipping but told me to add what my cost would be onto my starting price but again everyone can see past that and look for the same thing cheaper. So unless your item is like 1 of a handful in existance you aren't going to have much luck. I just sold all the mission impossible dvds in a custom collection and after fees and shipping I get about $20 Now a few of those dvds came from a blu ray set so I gotta figure a few bucks each thats $9 that leaves $11 for the others that were in a set from the store witch I probably paid $20 for by themselves so I surely didn't come out ahead on the deal.

I try to sell at buy it now for what I want to get plus my shipping and fee costs but don't have much luck.

Another problem witch I believe to be an eBay glitch is the end time of the listings. I swear I was watching an item and checked on the time and it said 3 or 4 hours left to go so I figured I had time to do a few things.  An hour later I got an email sorry you missed out on this item and it had ended with someone else winning it. It should have been live for a couple more hours. So I feel this may be happening to your  50 or so watchers. They thought they had time and it ended due to a timing glitch.

ALSO in closing some of your 50 watchers probably have a very similar or the same item and they are curious how much it will sell for so they know how much to sell it at thus they aren't short changing themselves on a sale.

Or they found it cheaper elsewhere as I stated  above.

Anyway I came here to post on a different matter and saw your post. so I guess I better go do my post now.

[tastesgood]

I agree with you . Ebay does not treat sellers like it used to be. I use to have over 900 items listed,now I have dropped to just under 200. No sales. I list on 7 day auction also,havent had a sale there in over 2 months on any items and the views on my auction items is always 2.  DUH.

[ihavegooddeals4u]

I gave up on the power seller status a long time ago...

[this*old*attic]

Because one can often buy a $20-60 item for $1.87 with free shipping from a Chinese seller.

Cathedral wedding veils, millinery feathers and 18K gold plated jewelry come to mind immediately.

For 99.99% of my shopping needs, I won’t touch a Chinese seller with a ten foot pole. But for a few items I zero right on in.

[mr_lincoln]

@debvor  Has anything improved on your Auction listings since July of last year?  Just curious, I see folks still replying to the thread and thought to ask based on your original post ...

[mypostingid15]

Yes, they want to make it like U BID, so new buyers get the best deals, then they can tell their friends "I got it on ebay for 5 dollars"

[debvor]

There was an uptick during the holidays but that's to be expected. I haven't been listing a lot of new items in auctions so it's hard to tell but even the new items that should be doing well aren't moving in auctions.

[luckythewinner]

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@debvor wrote:

 Also, most of the items that are bid on (and that is very few) don't go up but the first bidder wins the auction even with scores of views and multiple watchers. Is Ebay manipulating this? Is there a glitch that no one knows about? Something just isn't right. 

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If eBay was somehow preventing scores of viewers and multiple watchers from bidding on auctions, I would think buyers would be complaining about that in the Buying community.  

[crzmcma-48lbr]

Yep everyone i do auction i get screwed. NO MORE!
SET PRICE IT IS. DON'T DO IT.

[membersinceaug2001]

I've been doing better with 10-day auctions with a BIN, on all my other accounts.  Just had bidding wars last nite like I haven't seen since the 90's.  Just dumb luck of having the right items at the right time, with not much competition from other sellers.

I got tired of babysitting GTC fixed price listings.

[fashunu4eeuh]

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@crzmcma-48lbr wrote:
Yep everyone i do auction i get screwed. NO MORE!
SET PRICE IT IS. DON'T DO IT.

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Hi, just wanted to encourage you to start a new thread on this subject as this one is from July of last year. Afraid no one will see your new post to the topic. Others may reply to the original poster and overlook your thoughts.

Sorry to hear about your auctions though!

[kh-leslie]

Hi everyone,

Due to the length of time that has passed since this thread began, we have locked it from future replies. If this is still an issue that warrants discussion, don't hesitate to begin a new thread here.

Thanks.