Relisting at a higher price an effective strategy?

[lynnscollectiblesnstuff]

times it works other times it dont.

[zeussdad]

Curious what the theory is? I thought the conventional wisdom was to relist at a lower price.

[18704d]

On rare items, price can be an indication of value.

If it's priced too low, some may feel there's a reason why....

that it may be very low quality.

Lynn

[michael_atw]

I don't believe the price change has much to do with it.  I find that sometimes, ending and then relisting something a day or two later creates demand if there were watchers.  Some folks might mistakenly believe it was sold -then when it is relisted, they seize on it.  

I often have people asking me, "Did ___ sell?"  Of course it did:  The price was fair and the inventory for vintage rare items is small.  People love to sit and wait.  It's really funny.  

I think that psychological aspect is what is important.  "Create scarcity".   Like the first responder said, increasing price works sometimes, sometimes it doesn't.   That indicates that's likely not the factor that created the sale. 

I find when i have a few of some thing, if I list them they often sit if they are not high-demand.  But then, one will sell and the other couple quickly follow.  The first one created scarcity and set a value. 

[zamo-zuan]

Relisting will always be based on the initial traffic you receive with the new listing. This will determine how much momentum the listing has. You can even relist at the same price and with a bit of luck (or bad luck) it will be placed differently.

Lower prices tend to give a bit more momentum, higher prices tend to lose momentum. So typically the best placement is the result of giving more attention to listings. Relist if underperforming, adjust based on competition and interest, reassess regularly.

[ebbyisme]

As with most things on eBay, what works for one seller doesn't always work for another.... items sold, price, category, customers.... and many more factors.... will affect your results.

For me.... I always try to change something (actually multiple somethings) when I repost an item with sell similar. Sometimes I lower the price, sometimes I raise the price... along with title, description, pictures, etc. I think (for my items) the important part is to improve visibility, not the price of an item a dollar or two in either direction.

Now if I have something that has a lot of competition (exact same items listed) I will try to list at the lowest price... but I try to avoid listing stuff like that. I would imagine if you list an item and there are 500 exact same items listed and you raise the price above other seller's items, your success will be much lower then if you are listing in a population of 5 or 10, or an EOOAK or a OOAK....

[castlemagicmemories]

Would you buy something you looked at and passed up at a lower price if the price was raised?

IMO I think most would pass it by.

[the_fancy_fox]

---

@castlemagicmemories wrote:

Would you buy something you looked at and passed up at a lower price if the price was raised?

IMO I think most would pass it by.

---

Something  I do is first time out it’s listed with buyer pays shipping, second time price gets raised and shipping is included, next time out the price starts dropping.  Lastly it get moved to another venue and gets clearanced out.

[zamo-zuan]

Honestly, I think it's important to not overthink it in most cases.

If you are selling a very specific product that represents your entire brand, thenit becomes important to worry about the psychology behind buying.

But in most general cases, this overcomplicates things.

EBay's search engine does not care about psychology. It cares about statistics. The biggest statistical weights will almost always be views/click through/conversion rate, compared to other sellers.

This is the reason the underperfomring listing - analysis tool, shows you that your sales rank is directly based on these statistics.

Of course things like price and free returns give a boost, because they can give some more impressions. But it's not strictly about the impression itself, but the activity after the impressions. Impressions are just the first step that lead to your click through rate. If you get that impression, the % of users that show interest and look at your listing, and furthermore buy it, will tell eBay "This listing is better than other listings!".

You could just the same item at the same price for the 3rd time, but it just so happens when your getting your initial "new listing boost", 10 more people click it, and 2 of them buy it.

Suddenly, you have a large amount of momentum, and are appearing higher on the first page... which leads to more impressions, and more clicks, and so on.

Now if we take this situation, we can look in to the psychology of it. "Why did these 2 people buy it???". But unless, as mentioned earlier, your branding a very specific product... it's not really worth the time.

The important thing, is 2 people DID click it, your listing now has good visibility and momentum.

Since it's statistic based, if you find you are relisting over and over and just not getting clicks, then you can try doing things to make it more appealing. Lower price, try to make the image a bit better, add some promotions, and so on.

But statistics are based on percentages, which is somewhat based on your "luck" you have with posting.

The best thing to do is just constantly reassess, and if you don't have that momentum, adjust & relist, give it a few tries to see if it's really a problem with your listing, or just bad luck... and repeat.

[emerald40]

Might work for the casual buyer who needs something, comes on ebay, and does not know you raised the price.

For those of us who search daily, are very familiar with our chosen categories, and may even have you in our watched list, that is a sure way to get on our blocked seller list.

[emerald40]

Not sure about used one of a kind items, but with new common items people have all kinds of apps to know what the price should be.

New items - unless it is some hot Christmas toy your kids want, most know that on ebay wait 10 minutes for the site to index and another will most likely pop up.

[richard1rst]

---

@zeussdad wrote:

Curious what the theory is? I thought the conventional wisdom was to relist at a lower price.

---

In my sales and marketing class the professor told us about a store that tried an experiment.

They took 2 pairs of shoes that were identical and put them in the showroom window. The showed one pair with a price, and then the other pair with a price about 10% higher.

They then put a sign between the pairs that reads, in effect:

These 2 pairs of shoes are identical. We are just not sure what is a fair price. Please let us know which price you want to pay.

They then did a Q&A with each buyer and found that the people paying the higher price just assumed that there MUST be something wrong with the cheaper pair. Otherwise why were they cheaper. So they paid the higher price.

Truth be told, the professor never named the store. So I have no way of knowing whether the story is true or just made up for the purpose of making a point. But it is an interesting theory.

Have you ever shied away from something because the price was “too cheap” and therefore questionable?

[baantiques]

Yes.

I've had numerous things that were languishing that sold with prices 2x-3x higher 

[emerald40]

---

@richard1rst wrote:

---

@zeussdad wrote:

Curious what the theory is? I thought the conventional wisdom was to relist at a lower price.

---

In my sales and marketing class the professor told us about a store that tried an experiment.

They took 2 pairs of shoes that were identical and put them in the showroom window. The showed one pair with a price, and then the other pair with a price about 10% higher.

They then put a sign between the pairs that reads, in effect:

These 2 pairs of shoes are identical. We are just not sure what is a fair price. Please let us know which price you want to pay.

They then did a Q&A with each buyer and found that the people paying the higher price just assumed that there MUST be something wrong with the cheaper pair. Otherwise why were they cheaper. So they paid the higher price.

Truth be told, the professor never named the store. So I have no way of knowing whether the story is true or just made up for the purpose of making a point. But it is an interesting theory.

Have you ever shied away from something because the price was “too cheap” and therefore questionable?

---

In person, no.  On the Internet, I check to see if there is a problem.  I look at feedback.  I check completeds to see if this item has been repeatedly returned.  I read description and look at photos carefully.  I ask questions.

And if everything checks out I wil buy it because if it has been mis described, I can file SNAD.

I can only speak to myself, but no I would not buy a more expensive item thinking it is priced higher because it must be perfect.  I see crazy prices here all the time.  It is because some sellers are greedy and others do not know better. But usually the quality is no better than the cheaper one.