eBay

sin-n-dex · ‎06-04-2019

OK, so the collectibles market is drying up as older people die, leave things to their kids who don't want them, then their kids take them to my store, and I've got a glut of things I can't sell to anyone.

I'd like to try the promoted listings, what are your thoughts?

First question, does the promotion fee only apply if sold via a promotion, or is that an increased FVF I'm accruing?

My thoughts are this... say I have a coin worth $100. If I can't sell it, that might become $90. If I do a promoted listing (which may be 5%... for coins it varies from 3% to 11% pending on the item, that's the trending percentage for ads), then I pay about $5 to get someone to give me $100.

Basically I'm trying the promoted listings feature instead of reducing prices or running a sale (I've done lots and lots of sales... none of this stuff works if you don't have interested buyers).

I've sent offers to everyone on the list of items that are available to send an offer... turned out to get 7 sales out of the lot (valued at around $200). I made sure to offer a better deal than my usual sale, three buyers purchased on Friday night, and last night someone put a watch on a bunch of tokens and I sent offers, and they bought four of them.

How long before the item is eligible for this feature again? 15 days? What worries me is I don't want to be spamming my customers with offers to buy my items if they're just looking and not seriously interested. So I feel that even when you're able to do this again to those listings, maybe it's wise not to do them very frequently. Annoying customers doesn't usually result in better sales.

C.

sin-n-dex · ‎06-08-2019

@points13 wrote:
Sounds like a good start. Yep another positive is getting them in your store to buy other items. Which often as in your case do not sell with the promoted fee. I offer a discount on multiple items also to encourage this.

You make a good point about already being high in search and not needing to promote. I have checked some of my items on fairly specific searches and found both on the first page. But on less specific searches my regular listings are much farther down.

The other thing I wonder if a buyer would select a sponsored listing over other regular listings viewing it as a listing that has more credibility and likely a better, safer outcome. We know any seller can do this but how many buyers do.

Hope it keeps working for you.

It's been quiet since my last post, but Fridays and Saturdays are normally the case, and with some great weather in my area, my fellow Canadian token collectors are off fishing and camping this weekend.

For whether a buyer would click promoted or not... when I search (like a search engine) and I see a few promoted sites off the bat, if the sites are not what I want, I wouldn't click on them. So I presume if a buyer is looking for German coins and mine comes up, they won't look at it if it's not what they're looking for. For sites that I search for (simply because I don't have a big directory of favourites), I often will not click the ad, but the site listing below the ad because ads cost companies money. I do find there is often a lack of relevancy in doing searches...

C.

luckythewinner · ‎06-08-2019

@sin-n-dex wrote:
OK, so the collectibles market is drying up as older people die

I disagree - The collectibles market is not drying up. But the market for unwanted collectibles certainly is.

People collect what they relate to - and people under 50 just do not really relate to coins, stamps, carnival glass, salt and pepper shakers and hummels.

But stuff like 60s and 70s vinyl records, concert posters, action figures and superhero toys, gas and oil signs (thanks to American Pickers) , etc. are doing gangbusters.