Auctions Needed???
Summary: mon949 initiated a discussion on whether auctions are still a viable strategy to drive buyers to eBay stores. Many participants agreed that auctions are generally less effective today, with most buyers preferring immediate purchase options. dhbookds and kensgiftshop noted that auctions still work for rare or high-demand items. bonanza125 shared that fixed-price listings tend to be more profitable. Participants discussed how auctions might still be useful for certain collectibles or as a way to test new inventory, but overall, the consensus showed a shift towards fixed-price listings due to changes in buyer behavior and market dynamics.
I have been on eBay since 2002. Years ago, sellers would set up auctions in order to drive buyers to their store. This does not seem to work nowadays.
What are your thoughts on this? Do you still do this or does it even matter?
Thank you!
luckythewinner
·2 weeks agoSorry, I never bought that argument.
IMHO an auction listings drives a buyer just to that auction listing.
And IMHO most items on eBay are poorly suited to the auction format.
christworks
·2 weeks agoMy thoughts? It is 2026 and unless you like leaving money on the table, auctions are a waste for 97% of items. That's probably too generous.
If you don't know what it is worth, and it has low supply/high demand, then maybe an auction should be considered. The last item I auctioned was two years ago.
squinkercat59
·2 weeks agoI still do auctions, on vintage and/or collectible items. I don't really sell any run of the mill merchandise. Sometimes the auctions bring far more than I imagined. If something doesn't sell on auction, I will put in in my eBay store at a buy it now price, but on unusual items it's worth putting in an auction first.
broto_64
·2 weeks agoOnly high demand items, electronics, certain collectibles, that sort of stuff will sell through auction. Everything else is BIN.
iamthecrosseyedcow
·3 weeks agoAs others have stated, I find auctions very useful for rare or high demand items.
I also believe that, for me at least, auctions work as "free advertising" for my fixed price store items. I never list an item more than once at auction (unless I'm not paying attention to what I'm doing....). If an item doesn't sell at auction, I simply tweak itt a bit to make it look new and put it up at fixed price, which I can do very quickkly.
I can't quantify how often my "advertising auctions" work for that purpose, but I do with some frequency acquire return buyers after visiting and/or purchasing an auction.
Additionally, auctions can help me relatively quickly decide whether or not a new type or category of items might be a good or bad addition to my current inventory mix.
Caveats: I personally love auctions and eBay doesn't feed my family.
reallynicestamps
·2 weeks agoOccasionally DH insists on using Auction for some item he deems "special" and we do get more Views on those than on FP items.
But they don't sell.
Then I relist with a higher price and enable Best Offer. For the same cost, I get 30 days of visibility and automatic monthly renewal.
I am in a slow moving category of course.
tobaccocardyahoo
·3 weeks agoAuctions still work for some items. Predicting which items is beyond my skill level, and I have been selling online for decades.
It is very much trial and error, with my experience and judgement being limited to deciding whether it is succeeding or not.
I have sold individual cards from some series which have brought as much as 100 times what they brought in the 1980's or 90's. Even set some Terapeak records for the cards.
When I had many auctions which were actually demonstrated buyer competition, my sales increased overall, my visits improved over many of my listings, and my store gained followers. These effects were higher than the active auction listing activity.
Unfortunately, I cannot maintain a constant level of auctions which draw enough competition.
reallynicestamps
·3 weeks agoOutside of "collectibles" , auctions seem to be pretty well dead.
To the point where free listings for auctions are few, while Fixed Price listing promotions are rife.
My Basic Store has 1000 listings with the subscription plus a promotional 10,000 more of which only 250 are auction.
nyr134
·3 weeks agoDepends on the items…
I sell hard-to-find-anymore paper items (programs, booklets, catalogs, etc.) where collectors or sentimentalists will occasionally ‘fight’ over them. And since these items have been sitting around for 50 or 100 years, they usually are willing to wait one more week to acquire it. Plus, they are often hard to price for the initial listing.
mon949
OP3 weeks agoThank you all for the replies. I agree with the consensus that this generation want their items NOW!
onefootflipper
·3 weeks agoAuction is the wrong choice for nearly every item ever posted on ebay, and has been for years. Very few buyers even look at auctions anymore.
If your item is so rare and in demand that it would create an actual news event in the community related to the item then it is appropriate for auction. If this is not the case then auction is the wrong choice.
lacemaker3
·3 weeks ago · Edited@mon949 , that only worked when fixed-price items were restricted to "store format" listings only, which had lower insertion fees than normal auction listings (and all listings had insertion fees then, no free insertions, or only rarely), and "store format" listings were not included in search results at all. So the only way to get any visibility for them was to entice buyers into your store to view your other listings.
It has been more than 15 years since fixed-price listings were made available to all sellers (not just store owners) and they were included in all search results just like auctions were. Probably closer to 20 years.
So no, you definitely do not need to run auctions in order to drive traffic to your store now.
There are other situations, especially for specific high-demand items that are likely to attract multiple bidders, where auctions can be a good idea.
But, you don't need to run auctions to drive traffic to your store. It doesn't work that way any more.
bonanza125
·3 weeks agoI have done away with auctions. It really does matter actually buyers want now and willing to pay extra to not deal with auctions. Also as a seller I make more with fixed priced listings over auctions. As far as the use of auctions I think sellers who don't care what the auction ends for and they just want to get rid of the item then then use that. If a seller wants a certain price for an item they will just fixed price list it.
kensgiftshop
·3 weeks agoNow days, buyers want their items yesterday and don't want to wait for an auction to end to see if they win or not.
Some items still do good with auctions, but not as good as they used to.
mozartbach1971
·3 weeks agoIf they want it immediately they can do an ending soonest search for auctions.
dhbookds
·3 weeks agoI think general consensus is that auctions only work for low volume availability , highly sought after items... i.e. a rare Lego set.....
Better to increase the number of listings and be sure pricing is competitive...
Clothing is tough.......
mon949
OP2 weeks agoYes, clothing is tough! I totally agree.