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I've come to the conclusion a lot of people don't actually want to sell things.
Besides buying and selling I also collect many things.
So many people aren't actually interested in selling things.
Allow me to explain. The auction format is best for either two cases. Either you are not sure of the item's value, or you wish to start things low to get rid of it. Traditional in-person auctions operate on this principal, the bid is lowered until someone wants it. eBay used to have this feature, called "dutch auctions", but got rid of it in 2009.
So what do I see on the auction format 99% of the time?
Items with a starting bid of their retail price. This is totally nonsensical. If you look the item up and see 3 exact items selling (completed listings) for $200, $210 and $215, why waste 5-10 days listing it at auction with a starting bid of $199.99 when you could just list it for $199.99 buy it now and be done with it?
Two different sellers of an item I was interested in, started an item at say $199.99. Both items didn't get a bid on them. So what do both sellers do?
Relist the item at fixed price, but with a HIGHER price. If no one bid $200, what makes you think someone is going to pay you $350? These are not slow moving items I collect, a lot of what I buy is very popular and sells quickly (when priced within reason).
Or they list it in auction for $199.99, and then the same price when it doesn't sell. Again and again. Gee, here's an idea, maybe lower the price $20 and it will possibly get a bid? I watched an item a seller relisted for the same, completely overpriced starting bid for 14 **bleep** months. I messaged them twice asking if they would consider relisting a bit lower, no reply.
So that leads me to the conclusion that a lot of these sellers must be old antique dealers, used to items sitting in a dimly lit booth for months on end. 90% of what I list is gone within 30 days. A fast nickel beats a slow dime. That's more money in my pocket to buy more inventory. You can talk to some of these sellers who complain they aren't making money, yet have upwards of 10,000 items listed. Well if you are sitting on inventory for upwards of 2-3 years, no wonder you have no money to buy more inventory.
In that case, they aren't even sellers. They are hoarders who happen to have an eBay store.
Look up completed listings, find a low average and list it for that. That's all I do, and my inventory moves. The real estate market runs off "comps". Homes move quickly when they are priced at what the market will bear. No different in listing items on eBay.
Getting back to the premise of my point, so much of what I collect, is years of very slow buying because 1-2 sellers will have an item priced within past sold prices, and a half dozen or more will want 50%-100% or more of that. It...never..sells.
Worse yet is when they have best offer. Ok, fixed price of $199.99, I offer $180 or $185. More than fair. They come back with $198.99. What? Why even bother having b/o if you are going to knock a whole dollar off a $200 item.
kh-shakhib
·2 years agoHi everyone,
Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.
Thank you for understanding.
ou8124u13
·2 years agoOk what i see and seen is people post an item like a 1962 D circulated Lincoln cent,for $500 and they'll do a few of them and then they'll fake sell it, not everybody looks at how many bids were bid, repost the same item for half price so people think they're getting a deal and buy it.And there doing this alot, I collect coins if you want to know what a coins really worth,go to P.C.G.S Web site will tell you what a coins really worth believe me I've disappointed myself many times thinking a coin I had waz worth a lot more than what it was really worth. In conclusion I think eBay is getting taken over by a bunch of scammers and it sucks because now I'm forced to go somewhere else.
ou8124u13
·2 years agoOh and yes a 1962 D Lincoln cent the circulated it's worth $8,000 to $10,000, but circulated $1 to $10 if it's nice.