eBay

vintageista · ‎08-07-2017

With the new suggested selling prices seems like eBay is aiming to be a 99-cent store! I have unsold listings at every price range and all they suggest is relisting at $.99! STUPID, poor newbie sellers who follow this advice are sure to lose money on almost all sales...how is this helping create a viable selling market? They are only TRAINING buyer's to expect these 99-cent deals, just like they trained buyers to expect free shipping! USPS makes more money on these sales than anyone... are they just shilling for the government now? eBay has become known as the garage sale of the internet over the last several years...now they seem to be aiming even lower!

timemachine777 · ‎08-07-2017

I deal with seeing those dumb tips all the time. If I followed them I would have lost over a couple of thousand so far from items that sold way, way higher than they suggested I reduce my price too. A few items that sold for a 100 or more, were getting tips to relist them below 50.00 BIN. So much of the data being anywhere close to the price I realized.

mistwomandancing · ‎08-07-2017

vintageista wrote:
With the new suggested selling prices seems like eBay is aiming to be a 99-cent store! I have unsold listings at every price range and all they suggest is relisting at $.99! STUPID, poor newbie sellers who follow this advice are sure to lose money on almost all sales...how is this helping create a viable selling market? They are only TRAINING buyer's to expect these 99-cent deals, just like they trained buyers to expect free shipping! USPS makes more money on these sales than anyone... are they just shilling for the government now? eBay has become known as the garage sale of the internet over the last several years...now they seem to be aiming even lower!

Ebay has been thought of as *the garage sale of the internet* since its earliest days. That's a lot of what promoted its soaring to such success so early on. People put at auction so many of their leftover odds and ends, the cleanings of attics and basements, the old collections no longer wanted, the used this and that, that would otherwise end up in a.... garage sale. Frankly, I'd love eBay a whole lot more these days if they were even more strongly that garage sale of the internet and less the marketplace of New Product (that is found wall-to-wall in stores and on sites everywhere).. boring same-old same-old product.

And as to pricing, starting at 99¢ works for some and sinks others. It's up to sellers to have a pretty strong inkling of when to start auctions low, and when they'll end up with a loss if they do! As to newbie sellers losing money if they follow this advice, once again.. some auctions will flourish, regardless of where they start, and other items are lucky to get even bid one. But one thing's for sure... the newbie who starts at 99¢ and has his auctions end too low will be learning one of the most valuable lessions of selling on eBay: Smartest to not start below the least you're willing to sell for.

I do disagree that "they are training buyers to expect 99¢ auctions" as I think buyers are smart enough to know that eBay auctions can and are started at all price points, and certainly disagree with ".....just like they trained buyers to expect free shipping!....." as I don't have buyers ever indicate they expect it. I certainly don't expect it. And I have many buyers who HATE it because they know they often have to pay extra to make up for the buyer who lives the farthest away, who is still being priced into the expense of this 'free shipping'... Maybe it's just me, but I don't run into buyers who have been 'trained' to expect free shipping.

My advice is to just run your business as works best for you. Ebay can certainly make recommendations, but those are just 'bot' recommendations and may or may not be a smart marketing move for any individual seller or individual listing. You're the seller. Make your marketing decisions based on the needs of your business and ignore anything that doesn't work for you.

duchess-at-speakeasy · ‎08-07-2017

There are only 3 standard "selling tips" for unsold items:

Fixed price listing - sells better at auction
Auction listing - sells better at fixed price
Auction listing - relist at $0.99

Sort of like the 3 reasons for retracting a bid. Limited options and no room for nuances.

~~C~~

My Glass Duchess
Quoting Mom: In polite society, "hey" is for horses.

nowthatsjustducky · ‎08-07-2017

Best thing to do is to simply ignore eBay's suggestions, and price they way you feel is best for you.

Since eBay has no skin in the game, has no claim of ownership on your items, and is staffed with PHBs who are clueless about general selling of anything other than the 99 cent Chinese trash, their suggestions are not worth the paper they are printed on, and can safely be disregarded.

If it works, sell it. If it works well, sell it for more. If it doesn't work, quadruple the price and sell it as an antique.

-- Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #80

bubbleman2010 · ‎08-07-2017

Since you're running some 99 centers you're better to just overload the shipping end and start them at a penny and use the GOTCHA sucker selling format...

castlemagicmemories · ‎08-07-2017

New sellers who follow the 99 cent suggestion may do so to their peril and to the peril of their buyers.

If they list auction style and get one bid, and it is nowhere near what they wanted for the item, they may cancel the sale. There are threads all over the BUYING board that attest to this and it erodes buyer satisfaction and trust with ebay and sellers overall. When a buyer sees the item they won relisted at a higher price, they are not happy; they are annoyed and feel betrayed.

If they list and only get one bid and honor the bid, they have lost money and may disavow using ebay at all going forward.

In both cases, they may tell their friends, which sadly does not enhance or encourage selling or buying.

deep-garnet-red · ‎08-07-2017

I wish ebay would go back to being the garage sale of the internet. It was a way cooler site back then.

I do feel sorry for newbies that come on here though. They probably think eBay is giving good advice.

Sometimes I will change a fixed price listing to an auction if the item has been sitting around awhile. The last time I did that I noticed that the default price is now 99 cents. It used to start at whatever I had as the fixed price (if I am remembering correctly).

the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth · ‎08-07-2017

Buyers aren't puppies. They're also not seeing the suggestions to sellers that they offer free shipping and start at 99 cents.

Most buyers are pretty smart. They know free shipping isn't really free. They know if something is priced too low be reasonable there's probably something wrong with it.

It's not buyers leading the race to the bottom, it's other sellers.

castlemagicmemories · ‎08-07-2017

@castlemagicmemories wrote:
New sellers who follow the 99 cent suggestion may do so to their peril and to the peril of their buyers.

If they list auction style and get one bid, and it is nowhere near what they wanted for the item, they may cancel the sale. There are threads all over the BUYING board that attest to this and it erodes buyer satisfaction and trust with ebay and sellers overall. When a buyer sees the item they won relisted at a higher price, they are not happy; they are annoyed and feel betrayed.

If they list and only get one bid and honor the bid, they have lost money and may disavow using ebay at all going forward.

In both cases, they may tell their friends, which sadly does not enhance or encourage selling or buying.

In addition, I think ebay suggests this to generate interest in auction style listings; years ago, you could list things this way and see the price rise due to bidding wars. Not that there are not bidding wars today, but with the influx of sellers and listings, and the advent of hidden listings and search placement, your item may or may not get the exposure that would generate a bidding war at the price, and so the item may ride off into the sunset at 99 cents.

I see a lot of listings where the price is low, and the bid on the listings is just at the list price, IOW no cushion, no additional bids, if they get it, fine; if not, oh well. That was not something you saw a lot of years ago.

How do I know they only bid the opening bid? I am interested in the item and bid and then find that out when my bid kicks in at one bid point above theirs. That is not to say there are not bidders that do bid their max, and actually, maybe the bidder that does not put a cushion on their bid IS bidding their max, since they don't want to bid any higher.

While a super low price MAY generate a bidding war and a very satisfactory end price, there is no guarantee of that happening.

Buyers feel betrayed and annoyed when the seller cancels their sale, and sellers just go on and re-list for more and may lose their selling privileges for this, and neither one helps either party. This weakens the buying and selling pool and ebay.

mam98031 · ‎08-07-2017

The 99 cent suggested selling price for auctions is NOT new and has been around for many years. I do think for awhile they stopped doing it, but brought it back sometime long ago. I rarely see it anymore because I use TL to post my auctions.

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999

vintageista · ‎08-07-2017

I only do the 99-cent stuff when trying to sell stale or out of season merchandise, I DO NOT bump up shipping fees to make up the difference, I think that is very basically dishonest! In fact if eBay's estimated shipping fees are too high, I usually refund the buyer.
Of course I know enough to establish my own prices...I have survived here for 19 years! But I really do think eBay needs a new way of suggesting selling prices or NOT suggest at all! If they want to be really helpful, they have all the info & statistics for more knowledgeable pricing suggestions instead of recommending that everything start at .99 cents on the new Seller Hub!

vintageista · ‎08-07-2017

"It's not buyers leading the race to the bottom, it's other sellers."

Couldn't agree more, but why eBay encourages it is beyond me!

luckythewinner · ‎08-07-2017

@vintageista wrote:
eBay has become known as the garage sale of the internet over the last several years

eBay has been known as the garage sale of the internet since the day it was started.

mam98031 · ‎08-07-2017

@luckythewinner wrote:
@vintageista wrote:
eBay has become known as the garage sale of the internet over the last several years
eBay has been known as the garage sale of the internet since the day it was started.

That was by design, not accident.

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999