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I've been on eBay since the beginning. It was fun watching people bid up your item. Today it's just a waste of time. I don't think I've had a bid in over 5 years. I now run auctions for 10 days. if someone wants something they just wait until the end and make the opening bid and win it. It seems to me that eBay would make more money and use fewer resources by giving us 250 or 500 buy-it-now listings for 10 days than auctions. I would sell more items faster, they would make money faster I would list more items.  Nowadays I hardly get any views let alone sales. 

give me 500 free buy it now's a month and let's make some money. just my 2cents 

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@mrmalibu wrote:

 It seems to me that eBay would make more money and use fewer resources by giving us 250 or 500 buy-it-now listings for 10 days than auctions.


They give you 250 free insertions per month and nothing restricts them to auction format. Why not switch to fixed price listings if auctions aren't working out for you?

 

Auctions only work when there's high demand. When items have low demand and/or a fixed value, auctions aren't effective. People don't want to wait a week+ to see if they win when they can buy it now from another seller.

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This reply is going to be harsh and I don't like being that way but if you want honesty here it is. 
I'm not expert enough on most of your items to comment but on the jewelry pieces I have to say your starting bids are insanely high, far higher than the highest you could expect bidding to go, especially for what the pieces are and how vaguely and/or incorrectly they are described and shown. 

For example, Charm Bracelet Vintage Rare ($179 starting), maybe LOOKS old but it's a 70's era India 'tourist' piece, not precious metal and in not-great condition, might sell for $10 as a Buy It Now, but even that cheap it would likely sit a long time before someone finds it, under such a vague title. 

The flower brooch ($35 start) -where did you get that number?  I'm sorry but it's not very old nor remarkable and has no maker's mark (the only thing that might give a bland flower brooch some value).   Also if you search 'vintage flower brooch' you will see there are 80,000 results which is bad enough as far as visibility goes, but yours is not even among those 80k because you spelled it 'broach.' 

As for the 2 supposed Australian fire opal necklaces ($855 and $1295 start), what makes you think those are real opal, let alone Australian fire opal? Even if they are, the stuff isn't THAT valuable, not even close.   Also the vast majority of supposed sterling chains marked 'Italy' are actually silver-painted and made in China, unfortunately.  And any time you want to sell a jewelry piece, if it does have some value, you must photograph the backs, especially if there's a mark (and it must be a clear, focused photograph to see that). 


Speaking of that, the 'Neckless Green Stones and Pearls Vintage Jewellery' ($65 start) .....okay ....... first, it's 'necklace', also all blurry photos, no photos of the back, no clasp closeups, and even if this was a popular vintage designer like Trifari or Coro, it wouldn't sell for $65, maybe $25 at the most.  The green stones are just glued-in, not prong-set, so could pop off very easily, in fact I think this is a 1990's 'retro' necklace rather than real vintage. 

If your level of familiarity with the other categories of items you have is similar to your jewelry, you likely have everything under-researched and over-priced for starting bids.  Again I hate to be harsh but didn't you think there might be a reason you haven't had a bid on anything in FIVE YEARS????  

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@mrmalibu wrote:

I don't think I've had a bid in over 5 years. I now run auctions for 10 days. if someone wants something they just wait until the end and make the opening bid and win it.


Selling something at a last minute opening bid price is still getting a bid.

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Why don’t you just use the free 250 BINs that eBay offers?  Looks like you aren’t using any of them.  Even if you converted all of your auctions, you would have plenty more for additional listings.

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There used to be an extra charge for ten day auctions. Not anymore? Never used them myself.

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I don't think I've had a bid in over 5 years.

if someone wants something they just wait until the end and make the opening bid and win it

 

So you actually do get bids.

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You should end all your listings and relist every one of them to BIN. Ebay lets you have 250 a month for free. You are wasting your time with the high opening prices you have on your auctions. Maybe google about how auctions are supposed to work ? In brief, they start with a low opening bid, have a high demand, and the buyers raise the price.

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@rudy2828 wrote:

There used to be an extra charge for ten day auctions. Not anymore? ....


A few years ago, eBay dropped the surcharge for 10-day duration, and replaced it with a $1 fee for choosing a duration of 1 or 3 days.

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@mrmalibu wrote: .... if someone wants something they just wait until the end and make the opening bid and win it. It seems to me that eBay would make more money and use fewer resources by giving us 250 or 500 buy-it-now listings for 10 days than auctions.... 

As noted in other posts, you DO get 250 free insertions per month which can be used for fixed price listings.

 

Placing a bid at the final moments of the auction is a good bidding strategy, which outwits any potential competition who might reactively bid against you.  And if there's just one bid on an auction, it will end at the opening bid price no matter how high a bidder's full proxy bid might be.

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If all you are getting is a rash of single bidders buying items at the opening price, then that suggests that that item may have been better off as a fixed-price listing. Why not drop auctions in favor of Buy It Now?

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@rudy2828 wrote:

There used to be an extra charge for ten day auctions. Not anymore? Never used them myself.


No. Now eBay loves long auctions, because that extra charge is now applied when you do a 3 day auction.

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3 out of 188 auctions ended with a bidder.  At auction format 95% should sell at end. Sure wish people would understand what an auction is prior to starting one. Looks like the OP is not going to take any advice.

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