eBay

sakic92710 · ‎09-12-2020

Seldom do I post auctions here but now it will be 'never again.' 7 day auction for an item without any competition. About 170 views / 10 watchers. 4 lousy bids. Barely doubled from my opening bid. I won't waste my time. Buy it now or offer. That is, until MP comes my way. Glad it has been a slow process in doing so. 🙂 Stay safe.

sakic92710 · ‎09-12-2020

Really? I saw a Commodore computer, cassette player & other device sell for $1000 US. No market?

3eyedfishcatcher · ‎09-12-2020

When I pulled up the description page for the sold item eBay showed me several buy now listings for the same item all about 20 dollars plus shipping. IO am not saying there are not collectors for this item but as it was just a single accessory for the computer system 1000 dollars is very unlikely for this item. I image there are floppy drives that could have been used instead of the cassette tape system that were faster and more reliable. If the seller wanted more they should have listed it as a buy now item and waited for the right buyer. Just because a auction can go higher in price than a fixed price there is no guarantee. You have to have a item that multiple people want and are willing to pay more than the other person.

ladyindecadence · ‎09-12-2020

When ebay was new, I and many other collectors I know would search ebay a couple times a day to see what new items had been listed in the categories we collect. This would also involve watching multiple items and keeping track of ending times and dates so we could bid at the last minute. As time went on and ebay introduced the BIN option more of the better items started being listed BIN with much higher asking prices, which meant that the urgency to check ebay every day to see what is new and might be had at a bargain has gone.

southern*sweet*tea · ‎09-12-2020

I gave up auctions a long time ago. Now when I run auctions it's for stuff that I've had listed for a long time and I just want GONE, and usually it doesn't sell anyway lol

With some of the stuff I sell, there are no comparable sold listings to check. Some stuff I can't even find on Google, so I have to wing it.

Set a higher fixed price with best offer. Yes, it may sit for a while, but you'd be surprised at how many people will just pay the full price BIN instead of making an offer.

The easier you are to offend the easier you are to control.

We seem to be getting closer and closer to a situation where nobody is responsible for what they did but we are all responsible for what somebody else did. - Thomas Sowell

coolections · ‎09-13-2020

@sakic92710 wrote:
It didn't sell for $43.50. Try 20.50.

I thought I had advised you in the past that buyers add both item price and shipping when making a bid. Yours was $43.50.

7606dennis · ‎09-13-2020

@sakic92710 wrote:
Really? I saw a Commodore computer, cassette player & other device sell for $1000 US. No market?

Interesting! Perhaps the seller of that particular one simply lucked into a sale by having what that particular buyer wanted at the time. When it comes to the results of auction sales it is usually better to take an average selling price than to pick out the high sale.

"It is an intelligent man that is aware of his own ignorance."

sakic92710 · ‎09-14-2020

lol Really don't care - shipping means $0 to me or a loss.

reallynicestamps · ‎09-14-2020

EBay hasn't been an auction site for years.

About 85% of transactions are Fixed Price and most Auctions have either a Best Offer (which if accepted ends the auction) or Buy It Now (which if used ends the auction) in play.

And most of the Unpaid Item Disputes we see here are from Auctions. I suspect the customer did not realize the listing was an auction, since so few sites (none?) are auctions these days, and when she didn't win immediately, moved on and bought elsewhere.

Fixed Price gives the seller 30 days exposure for the same price as a 7-10 day auction with a better chance of being paid, especially with the Immediate Payment Required option.

luckythewinner · ‎09-14-2020

@sakic92710 wrote:
7 day auction for an item without any competition.

And without any demand, apparently 🙂

But seriously ...

The "novelty" of online auctions died out a decade ago. The says of putting up any old item and having wide-eyed newbies bid it up are long gone.

These days, the only items suitable for auction are the ones with strong demand that far exceeds the supply.

I collect music memorabilia, and I actually have trouble winning auctions these days and I cannot afford the high prices.

But I think that is because I am generally bidding on truly rare items that a handful of opther collectors covet as much as me.

reallynicestamps · ‎09-15-2020

We're seeing the same on philatelic listings.

We both bid in philatelic auctions and have our own auction house, and demand for the "right" material is strong .For example this:

Lot 8 Canada #3Pi 12d Queen Victoria Plate Proof in Black, with Vertical SPECIMEN Overprint in Carmine, on India paper, a lovely example of this popular Pence proof, very fine. Unitrade CV$2,500, currently opening to an advance bidder at $900.

The auction is not until September 22-23 and most lots have already bids.

We've been having a hard time buying postage at our preferred prices too. Auction houses are doing will even with large ($10K and up) of mint stamps for commercial use.