Selling Comics on eBay

[tafltablut]

Selling Comics on eBay

I’ve been selling my comic collection on eBay for a year. Overall, it’s been great, and I’ve sold several hundred collector comic books to satisfied Buyers, doing my best to be fair and keeping my 100% positive Feedback. eBay help articles and helpdesk people have answered a lot of my questions. But I have a more universal question for other Sellers out there about the psychology of Buyers. I doubt anyone will reply to this post but nobody I know IRL has any interest in talking about this stuff so, here goes.

Here’s an example of what sometimes happens with my auctions…Let’s say I’m listing a comic book for $40 at auction with $35 reserve. I might set the starting bid at 99¢ to get things rolling. So, after 8 days of active listing on a 10-day auction I have 12 bids and the highest bid is $2.15. What are the Buyers thinking? I assume they always are hoping to get the lowest price – that seems obvious – and I completely understand that thinking and I think that’s normal. But my question is in regard to another aspect.

I do the best I can assessing the value of the comics I sell setting my prices based on other similar eBay sales and online collectors’ resources - then I discount the estimated values to make them a better deal

BUT (and this is the BIG BUT of my rant here) If, for example I was selling comics at a comic convention and I had a table full of comics with prices on them and let’s say one of them is the before mentioned $40 comic. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY IN THE ENTIRE COMIC BOOK OR REGULAR WORLD would walk up to my table and say, “I’ll give you $2.15 for it.”

In reality, the comic in question on eBay will probably not sell at the reserve price and I’ll have to relist it and it WILL sell for less than I think it’s worth – ok, I can live with that – it’s only worth as much as someone will pay for it is an old and true trope – but also, I add to it sometimes on any given day it’s worth less than that.

I want to know why there is such a big difference between in-person and anonymous-online Buyer/Seller interaction. It makes no sense to me. Are they being disrespectful and rude by undervaluing my product, as it would seem if they exhibited the same behavior IRL? Can you imagine walking up to a rug Seller in a market in India or somewhere where you are expected to haggle prices, with a $40 price tag on the rug and saying, “I’ll give you $2.15 for it.”? You wouldn’t, no one would - you wouldn’t start with $2.15. You’d say, $25 maybe or $30.

So, to my Bidders out there who might just be 9-year-olds playing with their parents’ laptops and randomly placing meaningless prank bids, “No, I will not sell you my $40 comic book for $2.15. And to my serious/normal person Bidders who eventually buy my comics and help me pay my bills, thank you very much and I’m sorry you have to wade through dozens of ridiculous bids less than 10% of the value of the items to get to the final prices. I wish I could meet all of you at a comic con somewhere. Cheers!

[argon38]

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@tafltablut wrote:

That explains many of the weirdly illogical micro-bids I get but there is some other aspect I think, that has to do with people feeling so safe in their anonymity that regular modes of respective geniality and social norms of good manners in general are lost in the wind and meaningless when they're online. Many people online have fun being rude and mean to each other - it's not news. But, I don't like it and I don't do it.

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I think you are taking it all way too personally. If you invite people to start bidding at 99 cents, then getting bids at that level really isn't an indication that people are "having fun being rude and mean" or losing "social norms of good manners." Low bids may be disappointing for you financially, but you should consider it solely from a business perspective. Imagining motives and assigning malicious intentions to unknown bidders is fantasy land. Avoid that sort of speculation, it's unhealthy. Focus on getting the sales.

[bimm_corp]

@tafltablut 

> “I’ll give you $2.15 for it.”

I feel that most of the lowball offers I receive are coming from dealers trying to make a score buying cheap and turning the books over for a quick buck. Many of my collections get multiple watchers but never any bids, so I suspect the watchers are mostly dealers checking prices. I have even received off-eBay offers via text.

My auctions run with the minimum I will accept as first bid and no reserve,. I have best offers active with parameters set to parse out the lowballers. Works for me.   

[stainlessenginecovers]

Starting a bid at .99c for an item you have a $35 reserve on, is playing a game in todays standards. 

Reserves are completely outdated. As others have stated, either start the bid at the lowest you will take (no reserve) or a Buy It Now. People want 'instant in the 2020's, and are not interested in waiting. 

The psychology of buyers and why do they bid $2.15 on an item with a start of .99c and a 'reserve' is a simple way to 'watch it' and see what it sells for at the end of the auction. 

[tafltablut]

Thanks, that's what I'm doing from now on.

[tafltablut]

Yes, I was overreacting - not taking it personally. Thanks for reading my rant and taking the time for your thoughtful comment. Starting bidding at 99¢ with a reserve was absolutely a bad idea. Bottom line, my experiment with reserves is over - at least for this type of item. I'm now in agreement with bimm_corp's analysis in previous comment and will be listing with no reserves and a different approach on my listing titles.

Meanwhile, people's anonymous online behavior does vary greatly from in-person interaction, no speculation required for that analysis.

[bimm_corp]

@tafltablut 

>Thanks, that's what I'm doing from now on.

Thanks for your kind words regarding my analysis.

A word about shipping. You mentioned previously that you make a conscious effort to pack you items well to insure safe delivery. I notice you ship using ground services. I would encourage you to upgrade to an expedited service like Priority Mail, which I use exclusively when shipping comic books.

Yes, it's more expensive, but I factor the extra cost into my item prices. The main benefit may not be immediately apparent, but all that's needed to give you a bad day is one finicky and possibly dishonest customer making an INR claim because eBay moved the estimated delivery date to an unrealistic point when the item gets it's first scan.  There are many examples on these boards of sellers losing both payment and item in this way.

[maxine*j]

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@tafltablut wrote:

Thanks, I'm trying to understand using reserves...   so based on your comment I'll probably go back to using no reserves.

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@tafltablut   You're welcome.  We enjoy helping one another here.   I hope you'll stick around, or at least visit occasionally, because people absolutely new to comics-collecting and comics-selling will show up and you'll have good advice for them.

=

[melda58]

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@maxine*j wrote:

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@melda58 wrote:

I honestly don't see the point of putting a high reserve (to achieve the item's presumed value)  on an auction item and then starting bidding at 99 cents.   

I do see the point of starting at 99 cents with no reserve for an item that is in demand and there is a very good chance of people bidding against one another.  

Rita

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True, but you really have to know your onions because of the risk of the auction getting only one bid, which is not unknown even with normally high-demand items.

=

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Absolutely -  and I am too risk-averse to ever to that for any item that should go for more than $5.00.

Rita

[litwack2006]

Very interesting reading your comments.  I too am very confused about selling my comics on ebay.  These comics were purchase by me (yes I am embarrassed) and bought them as an investment when I was in my 40's or maybe older. I've never opened one of them, don't have interest?  spent money on bags and boards carefully boxed them up so they could remain perfect to be able to sell them when my husband & I retired.  I put all of them on ebay's  Paynow at 50% discount once and didn't sell a one???? I just couldn't understand that.  I know you don't need to give another seller any info on how to do something and for them to be able to sell a comic and then lose another sell to others but your two cents would be appreciated. I am thinking of trying an auction for the first time.  I've never sold that way because I guess I am lazy and don't want to have to daily check what's going on with the bids like I must check daily with my text, emails, phone calls etc.  I do work a good 8 hrs. almost 7 days a week and in truth just selling our life's collections of things. Well I've gone on too long but any comments would be appreciated. Nancy

[worldcoinauctions]

I've been selling here for quite a while and found that reserves don't really work well. If I need a certain minimum amount (and who does not) I start my auctions at that amount. Most of my sales are actually fixed price. I don't accept offers anymore either, about a year ago I rolled my prices down a bit and removed the "allow offers" setting, I don't even respond to messages asking for a lower price. It has worked pretty well.

[femmefan1946]

Let’s say I’m listing a comic book for $40 at auction with $35 reserve.

Buyers hate Reserves.
Many will not bid in a Reserve auction.

Since you know what your price is, start the auction a $35.

You won't miss the cheapskates.

In reality, the comic in question on eBay will probably not sell at the reserve price and I’ll have to relist it

Yep.

I might set the starting bid at 99¢ to get things rolling.

You don't know what the maximum bid of the high bidder is. It is the underbidder that sets the high bid. The underbidder is only bidding $2.00, the high bidder may have a $50 bid, for all you know.

So, after 8 days of active listing on a 10-day auction I have 12 bids and the highest bid is $2.15.

Most bids arrive in the last few seconds of the auction.

Auctions make up less than 15% of transactions on eBay.

Buyers dislike Reserves.

Buyers dislike waiting seven days (never mind 10!) to learn they were outbid in the last nanosecond by a sniper.

Auctions are more likely to end up with Unpaid Item claims because buyers moved on days earlier and forgot they had bid or found another item they preferred.

I'd suggest switching to Fixed Price and having your books visible for 30 days, then if they go unsold , relisting automatically.

You can add Immediate Payment Required if you have a problem with Unpaid sales.

But if you love Auctions and get a thrill selling that way:

You can add Best Offer if you like the idea of auctions without the bother. The trick with BO is that you will get lower haggling offers.

But

You can set parameters for Acceptable/Not Acceptable

For example you list your book at $40 with Best Offer and set $35 as an Acceptable BO, but $25 as Not Acceptable.

A customer offers $20.He gets a polite letter fromeBay automatically you don't even see the offer, tellinghim to try again.

He Offers $30 and you are notified. You can decide to accept (perhaps thebook has been listed for months) and he pays $30.

Or you decide to hold out and counter offer at $37.

He counter offers $36.82 and is Accepted. You are told to ship.

[emerald1830]

Old thread...

Starting a new one would be better for you..

[kh-ornesh]

Hi 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.