I refuse to drop my prices anymore

[dr_wick]

Ebay wants me to drop prices again on several of my items. I refuse to do so, for if I lower prices, I will lose money. I have already cut them to the bone. While ebay buyers have the right to buy or not buy any item, I will not sell at a loss. It would be more cost efficient for me to keep the items listed at the prices I have them at, or transfer them to auction houses where the clientele are seemingly more willing to pay a fair price for extremely rare and historical items. This is not a criticism of any ebay buyer, but Ladies and Gentlemen (and ebay), sellers cannot sell at losses. If they do, ebay will collapse. I appreciate all ebay buyers, as they keep ebay going; and that helps everyone: buyers, sellers and ebay. Thank you.

[dhbookds]

ebay has no idea what you paid for the item.......so no idea at what price you would be selling at a loss....

A suggestion that you drop prices, is just that..........a suggestion......  you certainly don't have to do agree to do it......

[dbfolks166mt]

     I have gotten those suggestions on occasion and basically ignore them. Always remember eBay, in most cases, makes little or nothing if your item does not sell. While this may appear to be a useful suggestion to the seller to help their products sell the sole purpose behind eBay's suggestion is to get your item to sell so they earn revenues. 

[luckythewinner]

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@dr_wick wrote:

Ebay wants me to drop prices again on several of my items. I refuse to do so, for if I lower prices, I will lose money. I have already cut them to the bone. While ebay buyers have the right to buy or not buy any item, I will not sell at a loss.

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"eBay" does not want you to do anything.

An algorithm that eBay wrote happened to send you an automated recommendation.

IMHO a recommendation about pricing from a robot is not something I need to pay attention to.

[farmalljr]

You are free to choose your selling price. I suggestion is just that. 

However, keep something in mind. What YOU pay for something has nothing to do with what it's market value IS. The market value is determined by what someone else is willing to pay you. It may be more, the same, or less than what other similar items are selling for.  And, you have to factor in DEMAND for an item. Not everything listed has a lot of demand. Your "historical" item may have very few and infrequent buyers searching for it. 

You as the seller, have to figure out what to pay for inventory, how to sell it (meaning which platform is best, and how best to present the item for sale), and you should have an idea how long it will take to sell it. 

eBay make nothing on your item until it sells. It's n their interest as well as yours, to make SUGGESTIONS. But in the end, it's up to YOU the seller, to know your items and how they sell. A failure on your part to understand that is not the fault of anyone but ourselves. ANYONE who has sold much, has made mistakes. However much capitol you have tied up into that item is forever tied up, until you sell it. Sometimes that has to happen at a loss, in order to get some/most/little of that capitol back so you can invest in other inventory that will MAKE you money. 

This is how reselling/retail works. If you can't get along with that, and think EVERY sale has to be a homerun, then you either need to get out of reselling or get much better at it and never buy a dud. 

My suggestion would be, since you know another avenue to sell the item that is profitable, according to you, sell it elsewhere. Why are you here complaining? End your listing and sell it elsewhere and make your money. Don't buy that item again to sell on eBay now that you know it doesn't sell well. 

[portkoop-0]

Ebay will not collapse if sellers sell at a loss, those sellers will if they continue to do so but ebay would only collapse if there were no buyers, apparently there is never a shortage of sellers.

[uncseniorsportsfan]

Agreed.

Also ebay's bots are not know for comparing apples to apples - a lot of time they are comparing apples to oranges with their suggestions.    Since I usually research items on ebay before listing - I already know what any competition is charging as well as any condition differences. 

[coolections]

Asking $100 to $400 for military pins sounds like very high asking price. If no one is buying them and you refuse to lower your prices maybe you are paying too much for resell ? Don't pay as much attention to Ebay's suggestions, but instead do your own research and list according to what buyers are actually willing to pay. When an item sits for months without a sell the Ebay bots figure your asking too much.

[oaklandmaryland]

First thing to learn is NEVER LISTEN TO EBAY SUGGESTIONS. Ebay loves buyers only and quick sales. I have found buyers think items with too low price have something wrong with them. When I raise my prices after awhile they seem to sell. Good luck

[southern*sweet*tea]

You're selling collectibles. Your target audience in the overall scope of Ebay is very, very small. You have long tail items that can take a very long time to sell. That's not even considering you're selling British/African medals to a US only audience since you don't ship internationally. That in and of itself is going to lower your viewer base considerably.

Having said that, STOP lowering your prices. Keep them or raise them, then add best offer.  You'd be surprised at how much will sell at full asking price. Also,  be prepared to wait a long time.

I sell niche paper items and it's the same way. You just have to wait for the right person to come along. It can take a day or a couple of years, but they eventually come along and buy.

[philsumm]

First thing to learn is NEVER LISTEN TO EBAY SUGGESTIONS

That bears repeating....

[maros9416]

My two cents is that you're focused on the wrong point. eBay wants you to drop the price, which indicates that they are sitting with no interest for a long time. I think the best solution is to re-do the listing.  Take stellar photos of the medals, and add international shipping + best offer as the other poster suggested...This listing is suffering from lack of visibility from the poor photos.

[dr_wick]

To everyone: thank you VERY much for your comments and suggestions. I have added international shipping, and will re-evaluate each listing. I appreciate your responses!

[farmalljr]

This is pretty good advice. I too sell a mix of items, and some are long tail. I too sell internationally, but with that, I am pretty careful about what I will ship. 

I DO NOT use GSP anymore, as it chases away more international sales, then it catches. I've found most of my international buyers will not buy anything shipped GSP because of handling issues or the exorbitant prices of it. So that leaves me to use other means of shipping or eBay international. Neither option protects you from "not received" claims. I have shipped internationally quite a bit, and most times the tracking never shows as "delivered". So in short, not willing to eat refunds on higher dollar items. 

Something to keep in mind, for anyone ready to sell internationally. If you aren't using GSP, you will have less "protections" as a seller. But I would agree, most items offered internationally (especially collectables) sell better. 

[candd205]

I know you didn't ask, but can I offer you a couple of tips? In the titles, take out words no one is searching for (larger, small, full-size) take out the dashes and extra spaces. Add in words someone might be searching for, such as Queen Elizabeth II. I saw a rooster on one, and a shield and arrows on another. You never know what might get someone's attention. Use all the space you can in the title. Use clean, clear, closer pictures with good lighting. Edit the photo before you post the listing, so it is essentially a close-up.

I agree with the others. Don't use eBay's suggested price. They don't know the value of what you have.