It is lost on me!

[sakic92710]

It is lost on me how a low quality antique item can get 10 bids & sell for almost $100 but, my much better, similar item can't even get a $120 bid.  ??  Really frustrating some times!  Good luck to all.  Cheers!

[orangehound]

Perhaps it is that you started the initial bid price too high ... or it is the shipping cost from Canada ... or that you don't do international (other than US) ... or that you don't accept returns.

[ted_200]

Because the low start price and Auction format gets the attention of bidders who are shopping to get deals, not pay full retail.  If you get enough of them interested, you might get more than full retail.  But they'll scroll right on by the one listed at full retail, or anywhere near it.  Deals don't come by everyday, people will be ready for one they see.  Stuff offered at fixed price retail is everywhere, all the time, there is no urgency to buy it today.  Or tomorrow.  Or ever. 

I put low start auctions on my Watch List all the time - even things I'm not looking for, maybe even something I don't even want much.  If it gets anywhere near full retail, I'll delete it.  If it is cheap enough at the end, I'll bid on it.  I usually won't win it, but my bid sure helps out the seller.   Sellers NEED those underbidders.

eBay has done everything they can think of to knock off auctions and drive away auction buyers.  Yet in some categories, antiques being one of them, they will not go away.  It's a shame eBay doesn't undertand them... as a buyer, and as seller, both, I much prefer Auctions.  I want to buy cheap, and sell this week.  I don't want to pay full retail, and I don't want to wait a year or two to get something sold. 

[reallynicestamps]

Or the buyer saw the other one first and lept before he lost it.

[reallynicestamps]

as a buyer, and as seller, both, I much prefer Auctions.  I want to buy cheap, and sell this week. @ted_200

Are you saying that you like auctions because they get so few bids that you are paying 'wholesale' and are then able to sell at 'retail' perhaps even with an apparent discount?

For another seller, that might be a good reason not to use Auctions. For her, it's leaving money on the table.

Still, the  auctioneer set her opening bid and we should assume she would accept whatever she got with a smile.

We're all grownups here, eh?

[ebbyisme]

If it is the one I found in eBay history there are a lot of reasons, and differences.

1. starting bid

2. Location

3. When sold, totally different time frames. The other sold in April yours was listed in June, for many a very slow time of year.

4. Totally different titles.

5. Out of country seller who doesn't take returns - some buyers won't touch that even with eBay's MBG

6. To me it is showing 19 day estimated delivery.

7. Combination of factors - out of country, less than perfect feedback, relatively long delivery time, no returns - those combined will put up warning signs for some nervous buyers, even if unwarranted.

[ted_200]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

as a buyer, and as seller, both, I much prefer Auctions.  I want to buy cheap, and sell this week. @ted_200

Are you saying that you like auctions because they get so few bids that you are paying 'wholesale' and are then able to sell at 'retail' perhaps even with an apparent discount?

For another seller, that might be a good reason not to use Auctions. For her, it's leaving money on the table.

Still, the  auctioneer set her opening bid and we should assume she would accept whatever she got with a smile.

We're all grownups here, eh?

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I'm saying I like auctions for polar opposite reasons depending on which hat I'm wearing, and I like... enjoy even... both.  When I'm the winner, it is generally going to be the case that the seller is unhappy with their auction result - or at least they should be - often they don't know they should, I think.  Most of the auctions I win are bad listings.  Bad listings are unforgiving if you run low start auctions.  

When I'm the seller, and it goes badly, I'm obviously not pleased - yet I have messaged buyers and congratulated them on getting something at a ridiculous price.  And I mean it.  It's good for eBay auctions in general, no one likes to play a game where the same side wins every single time.  And it's good for me too, that buyer will look at my stuff religiously for weeks hoping to get another bargain.  They might, or they might not, but I need their bids either way, that's what helps prevent too many more auctions from ending badly. 

Assuming you get enough of the interested universe to look at your auction, it should never be leaving any money on the table regardless of start price.  That was all of eBay prior to Best Match, a billion Free Listings, and Cassini.   But if the platform has marginalized auctions to the point you only have one serious interested bidder looking at you auction, you're toast.  That is most of eBay today, outside select antiques and collectibles.

For me, as a seller, if I ran auctions all with a "reasonable" start price, I'd have half unsold listings, and the half that sold would not bring as much money.  I'd rather suffer a loser every now and then, but get everything sold and get the most out of the good ones.  Obviously, if the bidders dry up, so do the calculations behind that plan. 

Some of my sales are below wholesale, most below retail, although a suprising number are beyond retail.  I buy mostly in the real world, usually way below wholesale.  I'm a collector, I might buy a better one for myself at near retail, and liquidate my old one that was bought way below wholesale. 

[fashunu4eeuh]

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@sakic92710 wrote:

It is lost on me how a low quality antique item can get 10 bids & sell for almost $100 but, my much better, similar item can't even get a $120 bid.  ??  Really frustrating some times!  Good luck to all.  Cheers!

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Was just looking at your relist of the antique phone to see if I could contribute to the discussion and noticed a policy violation. Sellers cannot say they will accept payment via mail. This once was allowed but it was changed. It is also troublesome as it could be misconstrued as a willingness to take the sale off eBay. (Ebay has been crazed over anything that even remotely hints at an off-eBay transaction.) Here is the info and link to the Accepted Payments policy:

"Not allowed

• Sending cash through the mail
• Sending cash or money orders through instant, point-to-point cash transfer services (that aren't banks) such as Western Union or MoneyGram
• Mailing checks or money orders (except for items in categories specifically permitted)..."

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/payment-policies/accepted-payments-policy?id=4269

But to answer your question on why your item didn't do as well as another similar item, it is difficult to say. It could be placement issues, the other listing may be higher in Search. The only advice i can offer would be to follow some of eBay's Best Practices to improve your Search placement and make your listing more buyer-friendly . That would be things like having a 30 day return policy, one-day shipping, free shipping and returns, etc. You may not be able to adopt all best practices but you might experiment to see if sales improve.

Also, on the phone listing there are no Item Specifics beyond Condition. Your IS are very important for SEO. eBay takes the facts from IS and titles and uses them to index a listing, and assign search location. It is said the info found in the description is not used for indexing. So important details should be included in the title, the Item Specifics as well as the description. It may seem redundant but each field has its purpose in the big picture. A final note, it is said that search engines don't like all caps in the titles. To improve your listings chance of being picked up by Google or Bing, avoid using all caps and special characters in your titles.

Good luck to you as you move forward.

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[siayan]

The old saying, "it takes 2 people to make an auction" applies here. It is psychological. I had a item and when I priced it one sold for $600. I listed mine for $450 for a quick sale, not. I finally pulled it after 6 months and kept getting low ball offers. 

P.S. most of my auctions don't get those 2 people. 

[hawkwind5454]

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@ted_200 wrote:

Because the low start price and Auction format gets the attention of bidders who are shopping to get deals, not pay full retail.  

Just a side bar, rhetorical question here....  But are there NO buyers from the "good ol' days of ebay", who [would] purchase an item because they REALLY want/need/like it, and price be d*mned??

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[ersatz_sobriquet]

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@siayan wrote:

The old saying, "it takes 2 people to make an auction" applies here. It is psychological. I had a item and when I priced it one sold for $600. I listed mine for $450 for a quick sale, not. I finally pulled it after 6 months and kept getting low ball offers. 

P.S. most of my auctions don't get those 2 people. 

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And sometimes it is just jousting. Buyers who get in a cat fight on ebay auctions don't always pay, it becomes a sport of who will bid higher and "win". That seller may never have received that $600, or maybe they did, hard to know without asking the seller. You would think the buyer who lost that auction would snatch yours up in a hurry unless...something went very wrong on the auction sale. 

[dubiousgain]

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@hawkwind5454 wrote:

Just a side bar, rhetorical question here....  But are there NO buyers from the "good ol' days of ebay", who [would] purchase an item because they REALLY want/need/like it, and price be d*mned??

Wow....That was a pleasant memory flash-back.  You're referring back to when en masse ebay sellers sold the unique, rare, and interesting items.  Now, ebay is just a big  WallyWorld....where price is king!

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[goodluckselling]

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@sakic92710 wrote:

It is lost on me how a low quality antique item can get 10 bids & sell for almost $100 but, my much better, similar item can't even get a $120 bid.  ??  Really frustrating some times!  Good luck to all.  Cheers!

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Some sellers do there own marketing and bring in potential buyers via blogs, social media, email marketing, etc and these potential buyers usually just click a link that brings them right to the listing page for the item, so the buyers might never see any other similar items.

You can do the same thing.

Good Luck Selling!

[ted_200]

Just a side bar, rhetorical question here....  But are there NO buyers from the "good ol' days of ebay", who [would] purchase an item because they REALLY want/need/like it, and price be d*mned??

There are, I suspect.  But you wouldn't know it unless there were two of them, because the underbidder - not the winner - sets the price on an auction. 

Some of this is eBay, they have marginalized auctions, many people who buy auctions have given up.  I don't spend 1/10 the time looking at auction listings (and that's ALL I'll look at) that I once did, there are just way too many with a high start price that will never get any bids to wade through, and very few sellers are willing to risk a desireable item on a low-start auction now. 

Today, if that person you described comes to eBay to look for "IT", it's probably a fixed price listing or a high start price auction, and they buy it or bid and win it for the start price. 

Part of it has nothing to do with auctions.  Two decades of eBay selling has driven a lot of objects out of hiding and into the marketplace, and there's an over-supply, and pricing has settled back to reality now.  You don't have to pay "good ol' days" prices to win it or buy it, and most of the "I'll pay ANYTHING to get this" items on people's want lists have already been acquired. 

[ted_200]

On the item in question, the winner might have bid $300.  But if the underbidder (say a dealer, looking for a wholesale bargain) bid $97.50, the winner gets it for $100. 

Just like in the real world auction, most bidders didn't come to get that one item at any price.  They buy/bid like I do... whether they want it depends on the current bid level.  I don't even look at Fixed Price listings on eBay, if the Auction format were to go away, I'd stop buying here (and selling here) entirely.  So if your $120 item was listed Fixed Price, I never saw it.  If it was an auction, and the start price was high and it had no bids, I scrolled right past it.