Need help with setting up Lots

[rytel71]

Good evening

I have multiple listings I want to create but I don't know if eBay is set up to do what I want and I'm hoping the community can help. Here's a good example scenario:

I have 30 brand new laptop bags.  I'd like to offer them to buyers at $40 ea or as a lot for $870 (OBO). 

I first tried to set this up as two variations in the listing but eBay showed I had 31 items for sale - the 30 individual bags plus the 1 lot of 30.  Now I'm thinking I should set this up as a listing of 30 bags and then check the "sell as a lot" option.  But assuming that's the proper use of the "Lot" setting, that brings up three questions:

1)  Is there any way to offer the discounted price/or best offer option just for the lot of 30 bags? When I check the "lot" checkbox, the only prompt I see is for how many items are in the lot.  

2) I'm offering free shipping on all of these bags but there are other listings where I'd need to charge freight for the entire lot but can handle free shipping for the individual items.  Is that possible?

3) What happens to the lot if I sell an individual bag if the lot is all 30 bags? Does the "lot" option disappear or is there a way to reduce the price by the number of items sold individually? 

Sorry for all the questions but I appreciate any guidance anyone can offer. Thanks!

Ray

PS.  If the above is possible, I have a more complex version of the above where I have 164 cam buckles that I'd like to sell in packs of 6, 12, 24 or the entire lot of 164. Is it possible to have different size lots plus the all-in?  If I cannot, could I at least do two lot sizes - 6 each or all 164?

[rfmtm]

You can't put the whole lot up along with small quantities, as selling either doesn't automatically cancel the others out.

For the 30 items, I'd list them as a fixed price quantity of thirty single items, and then use the discount option for 2, 3, or 4 or more (very bottom of the listing form).  I'd also add the Best Offer option so someone wanting all or what's left can open negotiations with you.

For the 164 items, I'd list them as a fixed price lot of 6, quantity of 27 lots, and again use the discount options for 2 (lots), 3 (lots), or 4(lots) or more.  Also adding the Best Offer option so someone can offer to buy a larger amount at discount you can negotiate for.

Both of the above will keep the quantity available correct through out the sale.

[rytel71]

Thank you!  That makes sense... I just hadn't taken it all the way to offering the quantity discount to see that OBO was an option there (all I could see was an all-or-nothing applied to the entire listing).  I'll see if I cannot set them up like this in a bit.

[wastingtime101]

As mentioned, what you'd like to do is not possible. You can list 30 singles and you can list a lot of 30, but you'd need 60 bags in order to do that.

If these are all the same exact bag, then some good options include:

• Setting up a multi-quantity listing for a single bag and use some sort of promotional discount. You have an eBay store so you have your choice of setting up order discounts (dollar or percentage off multiple quantities), or you can use volume discounts like another poster suggested.
• Setting up a multi-quantity listing for a certain quantity of your bags, then listing the rest of the bags in lots. Like: 20 single bags in one listing, a lot of 5 in another listing (with a quantity of 2 lots available).

Just be careful because once you get into lots of large bags like that, you're looking at large boxes that face dimensional rate charges. Unless your per item price is very low, a lot of buyers aren't looking to spend that much on shipping. The deal has to be worth it for them. As enticing it is to get rid of the lot in one go, you're better off trying to accomplish that locally with a pickup option - but on eBay you'll more than likely do better selling singles.

[gjs_16]

Yeah I would just offer discounts for quantities more than 2/3/4...

Because otherwise ONE individual bag sells and then your lot (30) is no good...

[rytel71]

Unfortunately, I think @gjs_16 and @wastingtime101 , you are both right which and you're reinforcing the issues I was seeing earlier this week as I was looking to pull this off. I just don't see a way to do what we're wanting even with rfmtm's suggestion.

As for selling all 30 at one go, our expectation is that we'll end up selling them in small quantities... but we also had a hope that we might get lucky and a company would need to purchase a number of these laptop bags. If so, we were willing to offer them at a pretty good discount so we're just shipping a single - albeit large - crate.

So, back to a listing of 30.