Epic Fail!

[jerrythecrazyguy]

If this happens tomorrow night, it will be the second time I've experienced this phenonemon!  Most auctions I list here on eBay start at just 1 cent free shipping so that guarentees a sale, right?  Let's put it this way, nothing is 100%!  If I do not get a bid on this pair of cuff links from a mattress store (promotional item I guess) by the time it ends tonight, that will be the second time a penny free shipping auction of mine goes into the "unsold" section.  I just wanted to post this out since I think this is a weird phenonemon!

[lovefindingtreasures2]

That's what I do now on my accounts. I mostly do BIN with free shipping and make an offer. A few auctions on items I know will do well in auction format. eBay's even prides itself now on announcing that 80% of their items are NEW with Free shipping and guaranteed returns.

It's been clear that is what eBay wants for itself, new items, free shipping. When their marketing is pushing 80% new items with free shipping, you know that is what eBay is promoting to the buyers. The used and auction listings I imagine go to the bottom of eBay list of show and tell. They don't show them as often so we can't tell if they will do well or not.

Living dangerously on eBay is selling used stuff and doing auctions! I always feel like I won the lottery or something when a used item or auction does well, hence the reason I run so few of those anymore. It is no longer a site for used items, it is mini amazonian.

[ted_200]

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@lovefindingtreasures2 wrote:
I used to do the same thing and always got a nice sale from 1c auctions and free shipping. Not currently. I ran some and they either closed with no sales or sold for like .39c. It is clear the buyers are not seeing our auctions. Makes it a little scary to post an auction right now. I stopped doing 1c and 99c and put them at a low price but at least one where I might break even.

Auctions are useless if eBay is not showing them to a lot of buyers. Playing Russian Roulette starting them off cheap, and it isn't really much of an auction if you start it out at the price you hope to get. This is something with eBay, as I am seeing the same results.

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1¢ and 99¢ auctions are great, and work just fine, if there are people out there who really want the stuff, and they're looking on eBay for auctions.  Not so sure about free promotional cuff links though...

The problem is that eBay has undermined the auction format in most categories to the point no one is looking to bid auctions in most categories.  Most categories have few auctions, and the ones that are there have a start price that is basically full retail, so there's just no point.  Once everyone gives up, then a 99¢ start item (that's worth a lot more, and has real demand in the real world) might well sell for 99¢.  That happens to sellers a couple of times, they too give up on the 99¢ start auction, and then you don't have an auction platform at all anymore, you just have some auction style format listings available for retail Fixed Price with a 7 day wait time.  Pointless. 

Low start auctions still work for what I sell, there are still people looking.  But as a buyer of same, I can tell you, even in my category, worthwhile listings with a low start price are getting pretty scarce, and eBay is getting closer to the tipping point where they'll have destroyed the format even in that category. 

The primary reason auctions fell out of favor on eBay isn't some "it's a fad, it's history" thing, it is because of eBay.  Sellers are afraid of selling something too cheap, and with the listing fee structure now fixed to "free listings", it costs nothing to not sell stuff, so sellers price high and just wait it out, they can list it for the next 5 years and pay nothing to not sell it. 

[yuzuha]

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@mikeystoyz wrote:

I put a bunch of things up for auction and followed the why dont you lower the price by x a few times and they didnt sell.  The last time they didnt sell I said the heck with it and doubled all the prices.  I have had a couple of sales that way.  People are weird.

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I don't think it's that weird... personally, if I see something for a price that seems too good to be true, my instinct is to pass it up because I assume there's probably something wrong with it.  I will, however, buy something that's listed at a price that's reasonable for that particular item.

[dougsue123b]

So did I lol, you trying to run me up?

[emerald40]

For me it just proves that  some items are not sellable at any cost.

And unfortunately alot of it is clogging the ebay categories.

[ted_200]

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@emerald40 wrote:

For me it just proves that  some items are not sellable at any cost.

And unfortunately alot of it is clogging the ebay categories.

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I used to sell Indian Jewelry (not the kind from India!) here at 99¢ auction.  It almost always brought acceptable, if not top dollar, prices.  And sometimes it would bring way more than I'd have ever considered as the ask price on a BIN.   I was perfectly happy with it.

Then, a couple of things happened.  One, they've got some bigger sellers in that category who do not like people depressing prices and diverting buyers away from their over-priced listings, so those folks would report listings citing bogus imaginary violations, and those folks apparently had the ear of eBay T&S who would act on them.  That was a minor hassle.  Two, a whole bunch of mass-produced (and not by Native Americans) jewelry sellers showed up and flooded the category with pedestrian pieces they were asking top dollar for.  Three, a whole bunch of Asian junk sellers showed up and listed in the category with a boat load of keyword spam, and the category was just huge in listing quantity.  Then eBay went with "Free" listings, and virtually all of the auctions that were really auctions became fixed price listings pretending to be auctions.

There's a lot of demand for Indian Jewelry still, but not offered at auction on eBay... buyers just have to scroll through too much other "stuff" to find the few auctions that remained, and once nice rings started selling for $5, most of those listings disappeared too.  There are still big resellers who use 99¢ auctions somewhat effectively (get decent money, and sell a lot of stuff), but most of their bidders access those listings from their Saved Sellers, not by searching, or browsing auctions, because that's just a waste of time now.

[emerald40]

The fine jewelry categories are a mess.

I was so happy to see the June 1st 2016, I believe, update to the diamond categories.

Problem is ebay did not enforce them.

I am in a category full of moissanite, CZ, and enhanced diamonds, where the worst offenders are drop shippers who have multiple accounts where they flood the categories with sub par quality diamonds.

[rixstuff]

In alot of cases it isnt about not being shown but about not being looked for.  Your stuff does come up in a search but until a buyer clicks and opens your link, it wont show a a view.  For all you know, 100 people a day are seeing one of your items in a search but are just choosing someone else's.

[rixstuff]

Best offer works great for me. I use it here and on another site.  At least here I dont see the really stupid lowballs because of autodecline.  (10-30% not stupid; $10 offer on a $120 item, stupid).  I do manage to sell about 2/3 of my stuff with best offers.  It is about negotiating a price, not giving it away though.