Should I Have Set My Minimum Auction Bid Higher, Or Is It Okay To Let It Grow From $.01 ?
So, I created a 10-day auction listing for a sports card that is worth about $80.00, with an initial bid at $.01, but I'm thinking I should have made the initial bid about half of what I'd like to get for the item, around $70.00. I can't go back in and change it, because I already have two bids, making the current auction up to only $1.25. But, I have 11 watchers and five days left. So, I'm hoping that eventually, as the it gets closer to Tuesday, they'll start bidding up to around the price that I think it's worth.
Should I be worried or am I just being impatient?
Thanks for any advice! 🙂
36 comments
meme6253
·2 years agoVery Risky, because it could actually sell for a very low price, If your willing to accept that?
luckythewinner
·2 years agoIf you list at 99 cents, there is a chance it will sell for 99 cents.
What matters is what other people think it is worth, not what you think it is worth.
If demand is low, bargain hunters will be out hoping to get it cheap.
broto_64
·2 years agoSetting a high starting price is always a bad strategy, IF your item is one that garners attention then you will attract more bidders with a low starting bid... And if your item is one that doesn't garner much attention you'd be better off setting it as "Buy It Now" (BIN).
Auctions involve risk, do not set up an item for auction if you're not willing to let it go for whatever the winning bid may be, even if the winning bid turns out to be far below what you would like to see. But it may get more than what it is worth too, most often auctionable items that garner attention will end up selling for about what they would've sold for anyway but auctions are definitely more exciting than BIN sales.
Also an auction sale has an end date, your item either will be sold by that day or not but with BIN sales you may end up waiting a long time for a sale. Pros and cons to each method, auctions may attract buyers to look at your other items as well, especially if it ends up as an exciting auction (with lots of people).
tdl_collectibles
·2 years agoLooks like he got around $21.00 for it. I think that's fine for a Gallo card. He's not someone that a ton of collectors are after and he probably made a collector happy.
skylinecardvault
OP2 years agoYeah. If they are a Rangers fan, or a Gallo fan, like I'm a Mariners fan, I'm glad that they were able to win the auction for $20.50. It was a fun experience and I'm happy for them. 🙂
gurlcat
·2 years agoGot a notification about the auction ending. Guess nobody has to tell you, coulda been a lot better but coulda been a lot worse. Hope you're not too disappointed. I bet your buyer is stoked!
skylinecardvault
OP2 years agoYeah. I had fun watching the countdown. I congratulated the buyer and thanked them for the sale. Like I said, I pulled it from a pack. So, nothing lost here. Just like the other non-Mariner cards that I own, I take care of them and store them carefully, but they really hold no sentimental or emotional value to me. However, If they are a Rangers or Gallo fan, like I'm a Mariners fan, they just got a nice deal and I hope they enjoy the card.
Thanks for all of the advice. It helped me to understand the Ebay selling process more. I appreciate it. 🙂
aeparts1
·2 years agoWill you be upset if the auction ends at $5.00???
skylinecardvault
OP2 years agoI'll feel sorry for the person who could have owned the item for six dollars. 😉
gurlcat
·2 years agoOne of your watchers is me now. 😠I'm rootin' for ya.
I don't know anything about trading cards, least of all sports, but from what you said about this card I don't think this will end so ugly. Disappointing maybe, but not disastrous. And the bids not reaching the card's real value won't be because of your low starting bid but because of the mere 7 days for people to find it.
The next time you want to sell something you believe to be of high value, especially a rarity, consider trying what I call a "reverse auction." What you do is list the item with a BIN price that is a good bit higher than you think it's worth, have 'make offer' TURNED OFF, then watch your views and watchers numbers, to make decisions moving forward. If you start getting "lots" of views and watchers "fast" (which I know is a relative term, and I wish I could be more specific but it's something you'll get a feel for if you keep selling in the same category for a while) ... hold on at least a few days, see if someone will find that price acceptable. If someone ignores your 'make offer' choice and writes to make an offer, either ignore them or reply that the listing is new and you may lower the price over time. You don't owe them any explanation beyond that.
If you get a slow accumulation of views and few or no watchers, go ahead and drop the price by 10% or so right away -it must be priced too high for people to even take a look, and looking doesn't make them want to keep looking. (In that screenshot I shared yesterday, I'm doing a reverse auction with that top item, and I'm about to drop it because I clearly have it way overpriced).
Going back to the first scenario, fast view/watcher growth, if you start to notice the growth slowing, go ahead and drop the price by 5% or so. -Your watchers will get a notification that you did so, unless they have opted not to receive those.
Continue on this path of gradual price lowering until someone 'breaks' and buys! The alternate version of this is sending out offers to watchers and/or allowing buyers to make offers, totally fine if you want to do that, but just keep in mind an accepted offer either way means they have 4 business days to pay, and if they don't pay at all you'll have to start all over again.
Oh and by the way, don't be afraid to start with an utterly bonkers high price, because if the item's REALLY desirable and REALLY rare, like once-in-a-lifetime chance to own it, how much someone might pay can shock you. -Last month when I got my hands on this pin, I knew it was worth a pretty crazy amount for an old chunk of lead and glass, but apparently even my wildest imagination wasn't high enough. I posted it late at night and in about 45 minutes the 4th or 5th viewer bought it. So clearly I had it very underpriced.
rockyroadtradingpost
·2 years agoWhat a great sale! Congrats.
gurlcat
·2 years agoThanks that was more than double the best sale I ever had before, and not likely to ever be repeated, or not anytime soon anyway. I just happened to spy that pin amidst the photos of a "junk drawer lot" of various old items, happened to know what it was, and the seller happened to have no clue. Craziest of all, there was only 7 minutes left on that auction when I found it, and I had to do some googling to make sure I was seeing what I thought I saw, and just baaaarely placed my winning bid in time. So yeah, totally fluke opportunity.
And the thing with making such a huge sale is, it can mess with your perspective afterward. Like now it feels almost pointless to list things that will fetch "only" a hundred bucks or something. I need to get over that quickly, because smaller sales are really my bread and butter.
brightlightbookseller
·2 years agoWe, and many others, will always set an auction starting price at the minimum we'd accept for an item (and don't use the "Reserve Price", which it doesn't sound like you did, but is just a good way to cost yourself extra money for no good reason). Starting at a penny is asking to lose money. You seem like you'll probably do ok this time, but you may not, and just keep that in mind for the future.
One quick note since other people have done this: don't cancel the sale if it doesn't reach the price you want. That's a quick way to end up not being able to sell here at all if you do that often, certainly, and there's no way to know exactly how many times you can do it before eBay slams down the hammer (though you can check your Seller Metrics to see how many before you'd be rated Below Standard).
Not saying you would do that, just a recommendation in case you considered it (and for others who may see this post).
skylinecardvault
OP2 years agoI wouldn't cancel the auction. I'm better than that. 🙂
mountainmommie
·2 years agoWhy would you ever go less exclusive on a valuable item? Are you Christie's for sport cards?
Your strategy isn't logical. Now you need a small pool of people who are willing to fight over your item -- in the next few days of late spring/early summer when eBay has historically low margins.
It's likely the people who would normally be interested in this item (competitive people) you lose respect of. This was either 1) under thought or 2) manipulative.
Good luck.
simba6
·2 years agoSome sellers do that to attract bidders to their items. There is always the risk it could sell for a very low price. Are the dice hot ?
soh.maryl
·2 years agoYou seem ok with starting your listing at one cent, so I assume you are pretty confident that you will get more than one bid.
Am no longer in the selling game, but I would never ever have started any auction for any item at a price that would be less than I would be satisfied with if I got only one bid.
If you did enough research to believe it's worth at least $70, what's the strategy of starting at one cent?
skylinecardvault
OP2 years agoHonestly, I haven't sold much on eBay. I knew what I was hoping to get, but was unsure about which strategy would attract the most bidders. So, rather than choose the one that would potentially exclude people, I chose the one that would be less exclusive, but I've had doubts that was the right move.
This conversation, and the input from the community, has helped to alleviate some of those doubts. I'm not as worried as I was before. 🙂
Thank you for you reply! Very appreciated! 🙂
gurlcat
·2 years agoJust curious, did you apply the Promoted Listings Express offered to you when you created the listing? It really works to get more visibility (therefore bids) on auctions. It's usually only $1.49 - $2.99 and it's not too late to apply it; you can do it at any time, although there's no discount for waiting, lol.
I don't recommend it for ALL auctions, mind you. The thing is, you pay the fee up-front and there's no refund if you don't get any bids, so I only recommend it for highly desirable items with a low starting bid, which is exactly what you have here.
Oh by the way, don't be discouraged by the tiny bid increments you're seeing so far. Those people aren't battling in earnest yet; they just put in bids to receive notifications/reminders, and to find easily find the auction whenever they want to check the progress on it.
12345jamesstamps
·2 years agoI totally agree with you on promoting a listing whether auction or buy it now...I listed something and promoted it high and it sold in 6 hours.
Because seller doesn't have a lot of auctions or buy it now I think your suggestion is great.
gurlcat
·2 years agoI don't believe PLE works quite as well as it did a year or so ago when I first started using it, but I suspect that's because it has just gotten more popular among sellers in my category, so there are more of us in the lotto for each promoted space, ha. But I still find it totally worthwhile, I mean it's SO cheap.
skylinecardvault
OP2 years agoI did get the Promoted Listings Express option. Thank you for asking because I do have a question about that.
I've placed a few more listings in the last few days. I'm trying to sell off some other baseball cards that I've accumulated, in order to concentrate my collection on Seattle Mariners cards strictly, my favorite team.
So, I listed team lots for the Cubs, Red Sox, Blue Jays and Brewers so far, each with the Promoted Listings Express option. Afterwards, I found the "See ad report" feature on the eBay mobile app and checked it out, to see how that option worked.
I've noticed that my Cubs team lot has been promoted 183 times, my Red Sox team lot has been promoted 95 times, my Brewers team lot has been promoted 32 times and my Blue Jays team lot has only been promoted 7 times, although I listed them all within hours of each other.
So, I thought maybe it was the way the algorithm was reading the Cubs listing, as opposed to the wording I used in the other team lots. I changed the wording to the other lots to be the same as the Cubs lot and included a team logo that I had only included in the Cubs lot. Yet, there is still a significant difference in the number of promotions/ads that are being generated for each listing.
That was a wordy reply, but I'm curious if you might have any insight into why that is so. Just curious.
Thank you for your reply!
gurlcat
·2 years agoSo, looking at your listings I see those lots are PLS (Promoted Listing Standard) because they are Buy It Now as opposed to auctions. Did you apply the same % ad rate to all of them? There are so many things that can affect the algorithm, and it changes for every buyer browsing the listings, every time they do a search, or even go from page 1 to page 2 of their search results -it all reshuffles each time. Using the same wording might even out the promotion placements of the different team lots over time, but it could just as easily be a matter of saturation, like maybe the Blue Jays have many more sellers using promotion than they do for Cubs. Does that make sense?
I think I recall @luckythewinner having a good grasp on how promotion works. Lucky you have anything to add?
albertabrightalberta
·2 years ago@skylinecardvault
Just to be sure you understand, not saying this will happen but even if the card doesn't get another bid, you're obligated to sell it at whatever the high bid price is. You get this, right?
Personally, I'd never start an auction at $.01.
skylinecardvault
OP2 years agoI understand.
I have a feeling that it's rare enough that bidders will compete up to a price around what I think it's worth. And, by starting low, I'll have more bidders involved in the competition for it, which might make it go higher.
Or, that won't happen. lol
Either way, what is meant to be, is meant to be. I didn't purchase it. I pulled it from a pack. So, it's all profit really.
ten_o_nine
·2 years agoIt really depends on the item, I started hundreds of my silver coin auctions at 1 penny and they brought more than I was hoping.
I would not start a candlestick auction for a penny.
umccars
·2 years agoGood Luck!
12345jamesstamps
·2 years agoA few pointers from when I did auctions.
I would have done a 7 day auction...with 10 days some watchers will forget about it.
The corners of the card are OK...not excellent...I would not use that word. Card collectors are real picky.
Keep an eye on your bidders every day...especially the last day...check their "retractions" and if they have "feedback" and eBay ID new or old and what country.
You are allowed to block a bidder(s) in your auctions.
As a new seller...you really got to be careful. No returns does not mean no returns...so if someone wants to return it let them. Otherwise, there are those wanting a refund and can keep card if you don't let them do a return and eBay steps in.
And if you haven't sold anything in 30 days...funds from the sale will usually be on hold for 30 days...but you must mail it out when you are suppose to.
I would not re-list for the opening bid. .01 auctions get the best attention...plus bidders will look at items for sale as well as your auction.
Good luck.
skylinecardvault
OP2 years agoThank you!
I understand your point about the condition and pickiness of card collectors. When I Googled the grading standards, the AI found a site that described "excellent" as follows:
"An excellent card, or ENM card, is a card that is similar to a 6.5 ENM+ card, but has 90/10 centering on the front, and may have 3 or 4 corners showing slight wear, some surface wear, or light scratches."
So, knowing that the term "slight wear" is subjective, and to be completely forthright, it was important to me that I include close-ups of the corners, so the bidders have the opportunity to make the determination for themselves. There's only ten printed and this may be the bidders' only shot at owning this item. So, I'm thinking that'll factor in to how picky they want to be about the term "slight wear".
I think your suggestion about a seven day listing is great. I'll definitely go that route in the future. And, thank you for the advice on returns. I hope I've been transparent enough that there will be no requests for returns.
Thanks again for your advice. Very appreciated. 🙂
Edit: Oh! I just found this eBay resource that includes a definition of "excellent" as being a card that has "moderate corner wear with multiple dinged corners". I think that covers this card. 🙂 https://pages.ebay.com/cardconditions/
golfingaddict
·2 years agoHave you researched the card prior to listing? Does it actually sell for $80 or is that a value collector's have put on the item?
It's very risky to list an item at such a low price unless you have evidence that it will have a great run and bid up to a value you are willing to accept.
There really is not much you can do now, as it is listed and has bids.
skylinecardvault
OP2 years agoWell, this card is rare, in that only ten have been printed with the player's autograph.
I've found an instance where the other version, without the autograph and a twenty-five print run, has sold for $30.00, two years ago, and there's a current listing asking $37.00 for that version.
So, I'm thinking that, with my version of the card being more than twice as rare and autographed, it should be worth about $80.00.
I hope the eleven watchers feel the same. I'm comforted by the the fact that there is interest in it, with five days left still. Maybe that's a sign that I'll get the bidding that I'm hoping for.
Like you said, not much I can do now. lol
Thanks for your reply. 🙂
jellybean922
·2 years agoI would never list an item for anything less than the minimum amount I want. Of course, if the money you make at eBay is of no real concern, I could see someone doing so for the "sport" of bidding.
skylinecardvault
OP2 years agoThe buyer was able to win the auction, and the autographed card, for $20.50. It was a fun experience and I'm happy for them. 🙂
gurlcat
·2 years agoMight want to pick one of this thread's replies as 'Best Answer' so people cruising the thread titles will know this one isn't still waiting for advice. 😉
ten_o_nine
·2 years agoit's great that you have 11 watchers and five days left, which indicates interest in the item. Initializing the bid at $0.01 was a good strategy to attract early bidders and create momentum. While starting at $70 would have been closer to your desired price, it might have deterred some potential bidders.
Since the current bid is only $1.25, it's likely that bidders are waiting to place their bids closer to the auction's end, a common phenomenon known as "sniping."
Be patient and let the auction play out. With five days left, it's likely that bidding will intensify as the deadline approaches. the goal is to let the market determine the item's value.
skylinecardvault
OP2 years agoThank you for your reply!
That is comforting.
I have read that posting a listing with a minimum bid that is too high does turn people off. So, maybe I did something right, as you suggested. I think I'm just anxious and not thinking positively. lol
As you said, the market shall decide. I've done some research and I really think the market value is somewhere around $80.00. I guess we'll see if my research is right! 🙂
Thanks again for your reply!