auctions. not a question

[keziak]

Right now I am challenging myself to push auctions hard, as long as I make non-work stuff my priority (gardening and reading mostly, gardening and swimming in the morning before I do any work).

Sales were bonkers last night, including one particularly gratifying bidding war which got sniped.  Fixed price sales good as well. I am working hard on researching prices on ebay, and I am giving people some good deals. As long as I am happy with the price and moving stuff out, I feel like it works. I recently quit Amazon and I am feeling 100% better. 

Anyway, I decided to have faith in myself and upgraded my store even though I am not close to having 1000 fixed price listings. I did the math on whether paying less for auctions would offset the higher store subscription and I think I can make it work. I am going to be listing lots of stuff at auction first, then moving what doesn't sell to the store.

Just throwing it out there if people wonder if auctions work anymore.

[chevymontecarlo88]

I gave up on auctions awhile ago but that is just me. A good friend of mine does the opposite. Lists everything at $9.99 (or more depending on the item) and lets the bidding begin. That being said, he has been doing this for years and has a lot of followers. He does stick to military, vintage clothing along with a few other categories. Most of the time he does well but every week he may lose some funds on an auction or two. He cost averages the losses and at the end of the day, he does extremely well. It's not for me but it still does work for others.

-Good Luck

[dbfolks166mt]

     Auctions are about all I use unless I am setting up a special listing for a buyer who wants several items. I bundle those together usually at a discounted price, adjust the shipping dims and weight, post and send the buyer a link using BIN/IPR. 

     The rest of the time I use auctions more from a time management perspective than anything else. All the auctions start on the same day and end on Sunday so I am pretty much free to do whatever I wish during the rest of the week without having to check my seller hub everyday, possibly have to pack and ship everyday and deliver items to the PO everyday. 

[keziak]

I've liked to use Sunday and Thursday but I am drifting towards more days lately. I am used to having a lot of mail for Amazon and now I don't so I think I can finally improve how quickly I ship orders. I would like that.

[chapeau-noir]

Sure, auctions work and always have...for in-demand, HTF items. It's just that the fad died away years ago so they're back to being more exclusive, which I think is better, actually, for the auction market - makes it more exciting and valuable.

Good deal, @keziak! Keep on keeping on!

[keziak]

I am relieved that the most recent stuff has been paid for. Recently I had 3 go unpaid from the same day. That was an outlier I hope. 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@keziak  Just a suggestion. If you want to build a following for your auctions----which can be the most effective way to sell with auctions---I'd suggest picking one day to run all your auctions, or maybe several days, but with themes: Manga Monday, for example, list ONLY manga auctions...most of your manga buyers probably aren't interested in an a lot of your other titles anyway. That sort of consistency ---every Monday, more manga---is appreciated by buyers. If you have sufficient inventory, I'd try something like that.

[keziak]

That is a brilliant idea. I've been more like a butterfly, dipping into several boxes a day of different things. But  your idea makes good sense. 

[tobaccocardyahoo]

I wouldn't call your results last night bonkers.

Your only effective auctions were related manga auctions. They did great but I am not sure you did better than you could have by fixed pricing them.

The rest of your auctions should have been fixed price.

Think about it.

[redlinear]

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@chevymontecarlo88 wrote:

I gave up on auctions awhile ago but that is just me. A good friend of mine does the opposite. Lists everything at $9.99 (or more depending on the item) and lets the bidding begin. That being said, he has been doing this for years and has a lot of followers. He does stick to military, vintage clothing along with a few other categories. Most of the time he does well but every week he may lose some funds on an auction or two. He cost averages the losses and at the end of the day, he does extremely well. It's not for me but it still does work for others.

-Good Luck

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We used to do that $9.99 thing.   Had to quit 15 years ago

[keziak]

They were for me, can't speak to how much sells in a day for everyone else. 

I understand the point of using Fixed Price but I am at a point where it matters a lot to me to move stuff along. FP listings can sit and sit. So I am going to try to list more things at auction first, see if they sell in 7 days, then if they are worth keeping move them to FP. 

Just one person's approach. Everyone else's mileage may vary.

[chapeau-noir]

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@keziak wrote:

They were for me, can't speak to how much sells in a day for everyone else. 

I understand the point of using Fixed Price but I am at a point where it matters a lot to me to move stuff along. FP listings can sit and sit. So I am going to try to list more things at auction first, see if they sell in 7 days, then if they are worth keeping move them to FP. 

Just one person's approach. Everyone else's mileage may vary.

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I think this is a sound idea - for what you sell (opposed to what I sell which doesn't work with auctions), it can be difficult to gauge interest and pricing because you sell more unusual or niche books. I recall once auctioning a book of outdoor religious debates between two prominent churchmen, held in about 1850. I was shocked at the bidding, with a battle that ended this seemingly obscure book at about $119, but it was of great interest to theologians, the winner being delighted to win it. If I had FP'd it, it would have been for like $25 or something.

[chevymontecarlo88]

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@redlinear wrote:

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@chevymontecarlo88 wrote:

I gave up on auctions awhile ago but that is just me. A good friend of mine does the opposite. Lists everything at $9.99 (or more depending on the item) and lets the bidding begin. That being said, he has been doing this for years and has a lot of followers. He does stick to military, vintage clothing along with a few other categories. Most of the time he does well but every week he may lose some funds on an auction or two. He cost averages the losses and at the end of the day, he does extremely well. It's not for me but it still does work for others.

-Good Luck

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We used to do that $9.99 thing.   Had to quit 15 years ago

He kills it on Military items and most of his losses are from vintage clothing. It works for some but i stay away from auctions for the most part.

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[wastingtime101]

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@keziak wrote:

I am working hard on researching prices on ebay, [...] I recently quit Amazon and I am feeling 100% better. 

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Many times in the past you said you were spread too thin between both venues so you used Amazon as a guide for all your pricing on both venues, which was not helping your eBay sales. Focusing on price research through eBay when listing on eBay is a good change and probably more of a factor in your sales than fixed vs auction format. Nice to hear you're happy with the results.

Just making sure @keziak you're aware of Terapeak (link below) as that's generally a more reliable price research tool than using public-facing sold search results. Sold search results show list price. Full stop. Terapeak shows actual paid price, factoring in offers.

https://www.ebay.com/sh/research

[a_c_green]

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@keziak wrote:

FP listings can sit and sit. So I am going to try to list more things at auction first, see if they sell in 7 days, then if they are worth keeping move them to FP. 

Just one person's approach. Everyone else's mileage may vary.

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I'm mentoring a seller who's using that same approach, as he's got a ton of items to list but no clear idea as to which ones might be higher-value. Thus he uploads each new listing as an auction with a reasonable opening price (covers his expenses, etc.) and lets it run 7 days, with automatic renewal. If the item is still around after the auction period, he knocks off a few bucks and puts it up as Fixed Price from there on. It's a strategy that seems to be going well for him.