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My items are barely getting any bids. Is there something that I'm doing wrong?
I currently have two items up for auction: one is a PS4 Slim, which is complete with a controller, HDMI cable, power cable, and charger, and the other is a Power Rangers Ninja Storm Thunder Morpher. I promoted both of them when I put them up, but I'm barely getting more than 1, if not, any bids for either of them. Is there something that I might be doing wrong? What can I do to fix this?
29 comments
kh-jean
·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 HERE if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.
Thank you for understanding.
annadryl
·3 years agoYou could definitely use more and better pics in the listing. Use up as many as possible. Include close-up shots of the back and sides and any details like the serial number and any faults. Clean the thing up, at least dust it off. With a lot of competitive listings you have to have a product that looks nicer. Good luck~
anjofak
·3 years agoLol, last year's auction gross for us on here was over 17k, buyitnow just over 3k...
Still at 0.6 conversation rate, other auction sites 98% listed to sold rate and a week of net better than a year of gross here , basically its not you its them.
Something works great they fix it and it's broken on to the next function to defect..
onefootflipper2
·3 years agoI would never sell a modern era console on ebay unless that was my specialty. Extremely high risk and you will be lucky to end up with more than $10-15 more after fees than you would get just selling it locally.
I sell 10,000 items a year and have not run a single auction since 2012. Auction is almost never the correct choice and even when it is you can STILL just start the item really high as BIN and drop the price over time.
bryo_3145
·3 years agoDon't forget to vote! God bless America.
**selling**stuff**
·3 years agoebay auctions are dead.. I havent ran an auction style listing for over 15 years.. Buy it now is the way to go.. Why wait...
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·3 years agoI'd went fixed price on both, PS/4's are not by any means a rarity. I've saw them as low as $100 on FB Marketplace with games included. Most the folks seem sell em' are unto the PS/5 no longer pay any attention to the PS/4 and are selling it all to buy new games for the PS/5. With any of the console machines from the PS/3 / 360 forward the consoles and 95% of the games are worth dirt in comparison to what the buyer has laid out over the years buying the machines and games. That's just the reality and likely it's only going to get worse.
niho-3959
OP3 years agoI understand that people nowadays are into the PS5. I have one myself. Still, I would like to hope that someone might be interested in buying my PS4.
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·3 years agoAs was eluded to some of these items are targets for scammers, PS/4, PS/5, XB One being on the list. They'll buy it, pay, get it, say it doesn't work and then it becomes a he said/she said and likely you'll lose the money albeit you never know...
Its better to have a longer established account, in my opinion ya' then price it higher and await an offer from a buyer who's a good established feedback and been here for years. But that's just me, others might say differently. There's a whole lot of "Gamers" who don't exactly function in norm mindsets, I know, I was part owner in a game store many moons back and also was a developer for EA, Atari, Sierra and others name a few. We'd actually put a seal and an inconspicuous mark on systems due to people bringing them back and saying, "Doesn't work" and presto, no seal or mark... Some would say they took the seal off but were unaware of the mark.
Here at eBay that simply doesn't matter, if we still had the place and put sealed and marks all over a system odds are a scammer take advantage and little we could do. It's a different environment than retail.
But in any event, best of luck and hope it goes well for you.
toysaver
·3 years agoThis is the now generation. Twenty years ago people were willing to wait a week for the auction to end and another week to get the item. Now they want to buy it today and get in a few days.
chapeau-noir
·3 years agoMost things aren't really something people want to be bidding on, they just want to purchase it the old time way and get it shipped, and be done with it - I don't blame them, auctions were mostly a fad that died out a long time ago.
toysaver
·3 years agoI forgot to add the extra 2 weeks if a Money Order was involved.
chapeau-noir
·3 years agoOh yeah, and hoping that check didn't bounce.
coolections
·3 years agoSell at fixed price immediate payment required. There are just too many of those for buyers to choose from. You won't get any bidding wars for those items because you already have them priced everyone else has for BIN.
ckimodog
·3 years ago@niho-3959
Lots of those items on Ebay. You being a new seller a lot could go wrong with selling that here on ebay, as those types of items are scam magnets. You got 5 days left on the auction. Most may bid at the end.
Honestly, I don't recommend that new sellers need to use an auction style listing. You are more likely to get sport bidders, non-paying and scam attempts. A buy it now price with immediate payment required checked off and don't use the best off feature. That way a more serious buyer may purchase it.
Here are some red flags to watch out for.
1. Buyer asks for your email address, Paypal address
2. Buyer sends you a phone number to text/call him/her
3. Buyer asks you to buy gift cards to go with the order
4. Buyer asks you to send the item to a different address after paying
5. Buyer wants you to send the item overnight/express and will pay you a lot extra to do this
6. Buyers says that they cannot pay through the eBay website and sends you a link to click on so that the payment will go through
7. Buyer offers more for your item than the price you have it listed for
8. Buyers tell you they're in the military and want to send it to another address as a gift
Please keep your eyes wide for these types of scammers. They're everywhere.
Good luck and Happy Selling
niho-3959
OP3 years agoYeah. I'm new. I've only been a seller for a few weeks and only sold one item. Just a while back, someone got the winning bid, which was the only bid, on my PR Ninja Storm Thunder Morpher but didn't pay, and that really irritated me. Plus, it's also irritating when someone bids at the last minute because that happened when I sold one of my earlier items, but at least they paid. Sometimes, I get a lot of views and watchers, but we all know that views and watchers don't always Also, I was advised by my dad, who sells stuff on eBay himself in his spare time, to put my items up for auction because he claimed that if I put them up for auction and let people bid on them, I'd probably get more for them. I can't switch off the bidding option for my items, but I guess I could end the listings and relist them to buy it now.
ckimodog
·3 years ago@niho-3959
Thanks for your reply. Dad is right, somethings are worthy of an auction, however sneakers are every where on Ebay and the scammers are out there in droves ready to try to steal your money and the shoes.
You can end the listing and relist, that's your choice, but unless something is really unique and hard to come by, I would use the BIN. That way you'll get paid for your sales.
What ever you decide, I wish you good luck and good sales in the future.
soh.maryl
·3 years agoJust curious, did your dad tell you that, when a buyer does not pay, you need to cancel, using BUYER DID NOT PAY as your reason on day #5?
niho-3959
OP3 years agoNot exactly. I contacted a rep from eBay about this matter a few days after the auction ended and he was the one who told me that I should cancel my order since the buyer wasn't paying up anytime soon and that the buyer would be penalized for not paying. So, I canceled the order.
soh.maryl
·3 years agoPLEASE do a little more reading about how eBay selling works.
ALL you needed to do when the buyer had not paid by day #4 was cancel on day #5, using "buyer did not pay" as the reason.
Frankly, if you rely on CS for help, sooner or later, you will get the wrong answer and it will cost you. That has been the experience of quite a few sellers here.
femmefan1946
·3 years agoPlus, it's also irritating when someone bids at the last minute because that happened when I sold one of my earlier items, but at least they paid.
He may even have bid earlier with a sniping service which lays the bid at the last nano-second. Snipers are pretty good about paying unlike nibble bidders.
But, yeah, the days of the auction is gone except for a few collectibles.
EBay pushes auctions on newbies because that is their brand and experienced sellers don't bother with them,going instead with Fixed Price and with Immediate Payment Required if they are in a high value/ high fraud category.
The seller gets 30 days visibility and immediate relisting if it doesn't sell.
You can set a Promoted Listing fee at any level you want (over 2%) and it will only be charged if the item sells.
FP buyers tend to pay promptly. Auction bidders are ten times more likely not to pay.
The 21st century buyer wants Instant Gratification.
That means Fixed Price, no waiting to learn they lost.
Free Shipping--- DON'T PANIC- Free Shipping means your shipping cost is a part of the asking price-- and means the customer knows their entire cost before buying.
Fast shipping. - Personally I don't like offering multiple shipping options, but you can offer a slow, cheap, tracked option and a faster, more expensive, tracked option. If you do , rather than Free Shipping, you could use Calculated Shipping which tells the buyer his cost for shipping upfront.
Or use the faster shipping in your calculations for FreeShipping.
And remember No Returns does not mean No Refunds, but you can demand the return of a disputed item before refunding even with a No Returns policy.
chapeau-noir
·3 years ago<<The 21st century buyer wants Instant Gratification.
That means Fixed Price, no waiting to learn they lost.>>
I know lol - the 'instant gratification' thing does always crack me up - for a short number of years during the early days of internet sales auctions were a fad, unlike the previous millennia when if someone wanted something, they paid for it and got it and that was it - save for certain items that were of value to auction. Now we're back to pay and purchase as always, save for certain items that are of value to auction, but hey! We demand iNstAnt grAtifICaTion! 😂
soh.maryl
·3 years agoWhy would it irritate a seller if a buyer bid at the last minute?
joliztoyco
·3 years agoBecause his starting price was too low. He was probably hoping for more and the last second bidder was the ONLY bidder. Another reason to use BIN with a price you're happy to sell it for. Or if you insist on using the auction format, always start it at a price you're willing to let it go for.
We both know this. But maybe some of this is soaking in as he reads all our posts... 🙂
dirtcrasher
·3 years agoDid you file a "non paying bidder" with Ebay on that person?? Always do.
I personally seem to find that when there are allot of watchers that it's people thinking the price is too high and they are wondering if you will be able to sell it for that much. I feel that way because many items that I find overpriced (in the markets that I know the average value of fairly well), lots of people watch, but the item doesn't sell, and that watch list continues to grow. Of course some people also watch because the item is super rare and they want to see what it grabs for a selling price as well. But, for me it seems that people (and often it's sellers with the same item) will watch the higher priced item just to see if the market is ready to raise for them to raise their price.
connorsvilleschool
·2 years agoBuyer offers more for your item than it's listed for? I guess that did happen once on an auction. I Start at $18 and immediately get an offer of $750 It was a reasonable offer and I did accept it. I can't seem to get bids for auctions either and will have to go with a high buy it now and accept offers or give up to Liveauction or invaluable. I just had an ended auction at a fraction of what I should have gotten, Still feeling a little shocked. those snipe bidders never did snipe.
Unavailable member
·2 years agoOld thread from 2023.
iart
·3 years agoSome things take awhile to sell. Especially in highly competitive areas.
But also...
Be really careful of scammers! They look for newer sellers. Always communicate through the ebay system. Do not go to email, texts or calls. Get all paid messages through ebay. Anyone asking you to buy gift cards or offering a lot more than asking price is a scammer.
krazzykats
·3 years agoYou have to wait until the right buyer comes along. As far as suggestions, I'd dust/clean the console and controller better. It looks like a layer of dust on them.
Presentation is everything!