My items are barely getting any bids. Is there something that I'm doing wrong?

[niho-3959]

I currently have two items up for auction: one is a PS4 Slim, which is complete with a controller, HDMI cable, power cable, and charger, and the other is a Power Rangers Ninja Storm Thunder Morpher. I promoted both of them when I put them up, but I'm barely getting more than 1, if not, any bids for either of them. Is there something that I might be doing wrong? What can I do to fix this?

[chapeau-noir]

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@toysaver wrote:

I forgot to add the extra 2 weeks if a Money Order was involved.  

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Oh yeah, and hoping that check didn't bounce.  

[**selling**stuff**]

ebay auctions are dead.. I havent ran an auction style listing for over 15 years.. Buy it now is the way to go.. Why wait...

[bryo_3145]

Don't forget to vote! God bless America.

[onefootflipper]

I would never sell a modern era console on ebay unless that was my specialty. Extremely high risk and you will be lucky to end up with more than $10-15 more after fees than you would get just selling it locally. 

I sell 10,000 items a year and have not run a single auction since 2012. Auction is almost never the correct choice and even when it is you can STILL just start the item really high as BIN and drop the price over time.

[femmefan1946]

Plus, it's also irritating when someone bids at the last minute because that happened when I sold one of my earlier items, but at least they paid.

He may even have bid earlier with  a sniping service which lays the bid at the last nano-second. Snipers are pretty good about paying unlike nibble bidders.

But, yeah, the days of the auction is gone except for a few collectibles.

EBay pushes auctions on newbies because that is their brand and experienced sellers don't bother with them,going instead with Fixed Price and with Immediate Payment Required if they are in a high value/ high fraud category.

The seller gets 30 days visibility and immediate  relisting if it doesn't sell.

You can set a Promoted Listing fee at any level you want (over 2%) and it will only be charged if the item sells.

FP buyers tend to pay promptly. Auction bidders are ten times more likely not to pay.

The 21st century buyer wants Instant Gratification. 

That means Fixed Price, no waiting to learn they lost.

Free Shipping--- DON'T PANIC- Free Shipping means your shipping cost is a part of the asking price-- and means the customer knows their entire cost before buying.

Fast shipping. - Personally I don't like offering multiple shipping options, but you can offer a slow, cheap, tracked option and a faster, more expensive, tracked option. If you do , rather than Free Shipping, you could use Calculated Shipping which tells the buyer his cost for shipping upfront.

Or use the faster shipping in your calculations for FreeShipping.

And remember No Returns does not mean No Refunds, but you can demand the return of a disputed item before refunding even with  a No Returns policy.

[chapeau-noir]

<<The 21st century buyer wants Instant Gratification. 

That means Fixed Price, no waiting to learn they lost.>>

I know lol - the 'instant gratification' thing does always crack me up - for a short number of years during the early days of internet sales auctions were a fad, unlike the previous millennia when if someone wanted something, they paid for it and got it and that was it - save for certain items that were of value to auction. Now we're back to pay and purchase as always, save for certain items that are of value to auction, but hey! We demand iNstAnt grAtifICaTion!  😂

[soh.maryl]

Why would it irritate a seller if a buyer bid at the last minute?  

[soh.maryl]

PLEASE do a little more reading about how eBay selling works.

ALL you needed to do when the buyer had not paid by day #4 was cancel on day #5, using "buyer did not pay" as the reason.  

Frankly, if you rely on CS for help, sooner or later, you will get the wrong answer and it will cost you. That has been the experience of quite a few sellers here.  

[anjofak]

Lol, last year's auction gross for us on here was over 17k, buyitnow just over 3k... 

Still at 0.6 conversation rate, other auction sites 98% listed to sold rate and a week of net better than a year of gross here , basically its not you its them.

Something works great they fix it and it's broken on to the next function to defect..

[annadryl]

You could definitely use more and better pics in the listing. Use up as many as possible. Include close-up shots of the back and sides and any details like the serial number and any faults. Clean the thing up, at least dust it off. With a lot of competitive listings you have to have a product that looks nicer. Good luck~

[dirtcrasher]

Did you file a "non paying bidder" with Ebay on that person?? Always do.

I personally seem to find that when there are allot of watchers that it's people thinking the price is too high and they are wondering if you will be able to sell it for that much. I feel that way because many items that I find overpriced (in the markets that I know the average value of fairly well), lots of people watch, but the item doesn't sell, and that watch list continues to grow. Of course some people also watch because the item is super rare and they want to see what it grabs for a selling price as well. But, for me it seems that people (and often it's sellers with the same item) will watch the higher priced item just to see if the market is ready to raise for them to raise their price.

[joliztoyco]

Because his starting price was too low. He was probably hoping for more and the last second bidder was the ONLY bidder. Another reason to use BIN with a price you're happy to sell it for. Or if you insist on using the auction format, always start it at a price you're willing to let it go for.
We both know this. But maybe some of this is soaking in as he reads all our posts... 🙂

[connorsvilleschool]

Buyer offers more for your item than it's listed for?  I guess that did happen once on an auction.  I Start at $18 and immediately get an offer of $750  It was a reasonable offer and I did accept it.  I can't seem to get bids for auctions either and will have to go with a high buy it now and accept offers or give up to Liveauction or invaluable.  I just had an ended auction at a fraction of what I should have gotten,  Still feeling a little shocked. those snipe bidders never did snipe.

[ebooksdiva]

Old thread from 2023. 

[kh-jean]

Hi everyone,



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Thank you for understanding.