Question for you Rockstars
I had a great week last week and I was getting my confidence back.
However-right now, I have 12 unpaid items in my backlog. All of them are auctions.
In your experience, is it better to list as BIN only?
As a buyer on eBay, I enjoy the bidding process a lot, the rush of waiting until there's 30 seconds left and outbidding someone, but as a seller, I'm pretty frustrated.
What works for you "rockstars?" Share your wisdom.....
Thanks!
Amy
30 comments
luckythewinner
·3 years agoI haven't run more than a dozen auctions in the last decade (unless free auction listings was all I had to use).
As a buyer, I hate the anti-rush of waiting a week to see whether I won an item, and long ago gave up on hanging around at the end of auctions just to get outbid and lose.
pennysdream
·3 years agoGood Morning!!
I am not a Rockstar, but this is my thoughts.
I run both auctions and BIN. For me, the dollars are about the same.
I added a block for bidders with non-payments. That helped a lot.
Also, I really don't worry about the payment process. The item sits in limbo until it either times out or gets paid for. Until it is paid for it is still mine. It's great if the buyer who isn't going to pay cancels. However, that really is rare for me.
Over the summer I have had two non-paying bidders. One told me he wasn't going to pay before he even won the bid but did not want to cancel. (Made no sense)
mam98031
·3 years agoAuctions work well in some categories and not so much in others. You need to decide if you are doing a good enough business in the auctions to keep doing them. 12 is a lot of non payers, but you do a pretty good volume of sales.
I only run GTC [good till cancelled] listings as auctions don't work well for me anymore. Buyers tend to want what I sell now and they don't want to wait for an auction to end. But again, you need to look at your own business and if you are making money on auctions, then continue on.
I would encourage you to have your Site Preferences for Buyer Requirements set to the strictest possible for non paying buyers. That would be 2 strikes in the past 12 months.
Then when you have these non payers, if no money arrives in 96 hours and one minute from their winning bid, file the Cancellation using the reasons of Non Paying Buyer. That gets them an unpaid strike on their account.
If they have done this to someone else or do it again after this, they will be blocked from bidding or buying from you and many other sellers. But we all need to be filing these cancellations when appropriate and make sure our Buyer requirements are set properly too.
If the buyer tries to bid on a seller that has their requirements set, the buyer will get a message on their screen that tells them they can not purchase from this seller.
coloradospaul
OP3 years agoThank you so much for your great reply, and the screenshots are really helpful!!!!
fashunu4eeuh
·3 years agoHi Amy!
I mainly use fixed price listings with Immediate Payment Required, without Best Offer as it voids the IPR setting. Auctions and Best Offer both have the risk of non-payers.
Auctions i reserve for scarce in-demand goods, or special one of a kind items. Depending on demand, i usually start auctions at the lowest price i’d be happy with if just one bid comes in. Bidding wars are rarer these days so starting an auction at 99 cents is one more risk added onto an already risky environment (online sales).
Are you using your Buyer Requirements to block serial non-payers from having access to your listings? Below is the link to the Help pages on how to set that up if you haven't already. Waiting the 4 days for a winner to remit and then canceling for “Buyer didn’t pay†on day 5 gives the deadbeat a non-paying strike that prevents them from accessing thousands of savvy sellers’ listings who have their Buyer Requirements set at the strictest levels.
Best of luck to you and wish you much continued success.
https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/creating-managing-listings/setting-buyer-requirements?id=4152
coloradospaul
OP3 years agoThank you so much for all of that advice! I'm going to triple check everything today.
anjofak
·3 years agoYtd auction sales 24k vs bin 3k..hmmm
Just keep block listing the no response bidders.
anjofak
·3 years agoAlso might want to check your listings for duplications..noticed a couple shirt lists up twice ..
But yeah always check with your failed to pay some might be sitting thinking they had or some sort of technical issue occurring.
coloradospaul
OP3 years agoThanks so much for that, doing it now!
chapeau-noir
·3 years agoMost of what you are selling would do better fixed price/immediate payment required. You can always run things on auction then convert them to fixed price after one run if they don't sell, but for heaven's sake, stop the .99 starts or you'll lose your shirt. I'm sorry eBay is *still* suggesting that out-dated strategy.
evry1nositswindy
·3 years agoI use both auctions and buy it now listings. I don't really stress much about non payers. I give them a strike after 4 days, block, and move on. I start my auctions at the lowest price I would be happy with, never the eBay 99¢ ploy. Why they suggest that I will never know.
ten_o_nine
·3 years agoYes, listing as BIN with immediate payment required is much better than auctions in most categories right now, and I am no "rockstar"
coloradospaul
OP3 years agoNo, according to eBay you are a "Guide"
tobaccocardyahoo
·3 years agoI use auctions in two situations
Items which turn slowly when priced for retail which I am willing to sell at a wholesale price to some other seller. I start at a price I think leaves room for another seller with more patience.
Items which I know are good but do not know how good. I start at a price which provides me with significant margin and is within the reach of a collector, and hope there is more than one bid. Sometimes I have a real auction with multiple bidders and get more than I would have listed for at BIN.
Ebay claims to have made changes which require the bidders provide payment method to bid. I actually had one auction where the payment occurred about 2 minutes after closing that might have been one of those.
Most of Ebay is BIN because this is not the old days when people spent many hours each week shopping on Ebay, or had a subscription to a sniping service.
rileydone
·3 years agoPretty much agree with dbfolks166mt as I also run mostly auctions. Also, 7 day auctions starting on Sundays, leaving me more time to make greeting cards (for the auctions) during the week and babysit the grandkids.
This works for me because of the type of items that I sell. Very few cancellations or non-paying buyers.
Figure out what works the best for you and happy selling!
susanb1872
·3 years agoIf you decide to keep with the auction format, I would recommend not using a starting bid of 99 cents. I can see that you sold some at that price so I can't see how you are able to make money at 99 cents. I use BIN with IPR and have only used auctions for rare or high demand items.
dbfolks166mt
·3 years agoI use the auction format almost exclusively for a couple of reasons the first of which is time management. I start my auctions on Sunday and they all run for 7 days. I set the starting bid at the price I would use if I was doing a BIN and do not use OBO. Once the listings are up I am free through the week to do whatever I want and not have to worry about eBay. I can go fishing, camping or hiking for a couple of days, fly or drive to visit family and all those other fun things in life without having to worry about something selling and having to pack it up and ship it and disrupt my agenda.
I can also skip listing for a week or more without having to worry about putting things on hold or going on vacation mode. I did this back in January/February when I took an extended travel vacation and do it every year around the Christmas holidays through the new year simply because I prefer to relax and enjoy the holidays. I don't have that ability on some of the other sites I list on and have to make other adjustments.
I get a few non-payers but very few cancelation requests or returns. A lot of items only get one bid but I have had instances where a bidding war broke out between two bidders and the item sold for far more than the buyers could have purchased the same item for from a BIN listing from another seller.
I used to source items from online auction sites other than eBay but that is becoming more difficult as there often is a bidding frenzy that takes place on an item and pushes the selling price 2-3 times more than it could be obtained for on any number of ecommerce sites.
I am not sure if I sell more or less than I would if I used a BIN format but I really don't care I do this more from a hobby type perspective to give me something to do than I do as a means to make a living. I don't worry about a lot of the things I see sellers posing about on this forum like slow or no sales, impressions, views.............. I don't stress myself out over what eBay is doing or any of the other forums/venues that I use for that matter.
stainlessenginecovers
·3 years agoAuctions are matinee movies at the theatre for .99c
Auctions are gasoline at .90c per gallon
Auctions are newspapers actually still existing
Auctions are Pizza-Pizza at Little Ceasars
Auctions are Coke Bottles getting .10c at the local liquor store
In other words... Auctions are FAR OVER and those that expect a payment for them are obviously seeing that Auctions are nothing but a Video Game for the bored.
BIN IMR is the ONLY way to sell here.
dbfolks166mt
·3 years agoAuctions are matinee movies at the theatre for .99c
Auctions are gasoline at .90c per gallon
Auctions are newspapers actually still existing
Auctions are Pizza-Pizza at Little Ceasars
Auctions are Coke Bottles getting .10c at the local liquor store
In other words... Auctions are FAR OVER and those that expect a payment for them are obviously seeing that Auctions are nothing but a Video Game for the bored.
BIN IMR is the ONLY way to sell here.
Maybe here, although they are still the #1 ranked online auction site. I am fine with people that think auctions are dead here. I do fine with the auction format. Elsewhere
Auctions are Christie's
Auctions are GSA
Auctions are COPART
Auctions are GunBroker
Auctions are Sotheby's to include RM Sotheby's
Auctions are Heritage
Auctions are Bonhams
Auctions are Rasmus
The list is endless and keeps growing. I have purchased as well as sold on several of these venues.
coloradospaul
OP3 years agoNow I feel really old 🙂
mtgraves7984
·3 years agoHowever-right now, I have 12 unpaid items in my backlog.
@coloradospaul
I do BIN with Immediate Payment required, and I'd recommend it to you.
You didn't ask... but I hope that you're cancelling those 12 orders citing 'Buyer didn't pay' (if they still haven't) at 96 hours past the Auctions' end times and would recommend that you set that feature to automatic. That's the best way to keep deadbeats away from the most sellers who have the UI block enabled... another feature that I'd recommend you enable. Good luck, however you proceed.
coloradospaul
OP3 years agoYes, they are being canceled 96 hours after non payment. Thank you for the reminder!
vintagecraze50
·3 years agoAuctions may not bring in your best price on an item. PEOPLE LOOKING TO FLIP ITEMS are more interested in auctions so for that reason I never do auctions. Also, the non payers are getting so bad on here that Ebay has started to require them to enter their credit card info ready to go if they win the item, and not allowing them to bid if they do not provide this info.
**selling**stuff**
·3 years agoIve been on ebay nearly 22 years and have never ran an auction listing. My mom does, and i see she takes so many losses, whats the point.. Auctions died a long time ago on ebay.. I think BIN is the only way to sell things on ebay. if its not selling lower the price.. Why list a 100 dollar item and take a chance on it selling for 20 bucks, I certainly wouldnt take that chance. I have plenty of success with BIN only, there is absolutely no reason to run auctions, you couldnt pay me to. My view on this, you are free to take the advice or not.
byrd69er
·3 years agoWhen I had a large quantity of a certain valuable vacuum tube, I used to list them at low starting prices for auctions. It was entertainment for me to watch where final bid landed. It worked out well. People battled over the low priced tubes and they most often landed at a higher selling price than I would have put a BIN on.....and I had my fun.
reallynicestamps
·3 years agoI dunno what eBay calls me, but I firmly believe that Fixed Price listings are more likely to sell (eventually) if only because they are visible for longer.
Thirty days and automatic renewal versus seven days.
And you can add Immediate Payment Required to Fixed Price listings.
You can add Best Offer to FP- but again there is a higher percentage of Unsolds with those. But it is a sort of Auction for those who like to haggle.
You can put parameters on BO to automatically accept or reject BO, without any labour. The refusal seems to be polite enough that hagglers will reoffer.
As a buyer on eBay, I enjoy the bidding process a lot, the rush of waiting until there's 30 seconds left and outbidding someone,
You are one of a dying breed.
Most buyers today are in it for Immediate Gratification.
Which is why AZ is working on next day or sooner delivery. Smart move but impossible for eBay sellers.
Over 85% of listings are Fixed Price and a fair sample of Auctions have a Buy It Now option.
Auctions are eBay's brand.
I'm not sure any other generalist site is still doing auctions. Maybe eBid, but there the bidder pays to bid whether he wins or loses.
So eBay encourages the newbie and the returnee to post Auctions. They attract bargain hunters.
But they don't make sellers money.
BTW- you have set up your Seller Preferences/Buyer Requirements to automatically Block bidders with Strikes for Unpaid Items, right? And you have been waiting the 96 hours for your automatic Cancellation of unpaid transactions, so that the deadbeats get a Strike?
coloradospaul
OP3 years agoyou have set up your Seller Preferences/Buyer Requirements to automatically Block bidders with Strikes for Unpaid Items, right? And you have been waiting the 96 hours for your automatic Cancellation of unpaid transactions, so that the deadbeats get a Strike?
I do now, I didn't before. Thank you for that reminder.
m60driver
·3 years agoMost of your auctions would be much, much better off being BIN listings. I only do auctions when there are no comps available. And your items, well it is relatively easy to do a comp search.
kensgiftshop
·3 years agoAs a seller, I only do BIN so buyer don't have to wait to get their orders.
As a buyer, I don't do auctions.
When I find something I need, I want to buy it then and not have to wait a week to see if I win the auction or not.
One thing bad about auctions, by the time the auction is over, the buyer has probably already found another item and bought it and not have to worry if they win your auction or not.
inhawaii
·3 years agoSame here.