This is so weird

[steve_stuff]

In 2016 we opened an account just to sell a 100,000 'one of each' record collection, along with another 20, 30 thousand 45rpm branded company sleeve with multiples of most. The last new listing was written in early 2018, so those sleeves and the leftover records have been relisted over and over since then. Most were switched to BIN a few years ago. The sleeves still sell but have slowed down to maybe six, seven a month. The account sells on avg 10? things a month.

Now the fun part.

Three weeks ago when setting up relists for the 'let's see what happens' of it, I raised the price a buck or three on all - and sales have gone up. Seventeen sleeves and even four records. A record that has sat there for $10 BIN was changed back to a $12 auction and got three bidders.

Go figure.

[nobody*s_perfect]

Many potential buyers sort their search results based on "Newly listed."  Changing the format from fixed price to auction will be considered a new listing, whereas when fixed price listings roll over they are still sorted according to their original listing date.

[soh.maryl]

Exactly! I shop religiously for doll clothing patterns because, unless there is a sale, new ones at the fabric store are at least over $10.  Always click on "newly listed" because some folks have them in their stash (although my collection is probably larger than most).  

[tobaccocardyahoo]

I certainly could be wrong, but I would assume that the sleeves sell to collectors or sellers who wish to upgrade the state of their LPs. It is easy to envision wide divergence in monthly sales of these sleeves.

It could be coincidence.

As for the auction results, I have found that the entire process is now totally idiosyncratic since there are few buyers with the patience to deal with it,. Unless there is strong motivation to have the item they ignore auctions.

[itsjustasprain]

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@tobaccocardyahoo wrote:

As for the auction results, I have found that the entire process is now totally idiosyncratic since there are few buyers with the patience to deal with it,. Unless there is strong motivation to have the item they ignore auctions.

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I guess that would include me then. I find that auctions of stuff I want will have a lower opening price than someone else selling the same thing as a Buyitnow. I put the item on my watchlist. Ebay sends me a heads-up reminder 24 hours before the end of the auction. I set an alarm on my phone for 5 minutes before the auction ends. At the appointed time I swoop in and usually win the auction for a good price.

I would say that this probably works better for niche items than for things that should be Buyitnow in the first place like mass market popular items. Auctions in those cases can get mucked up with sport bidders and too many snipers at the end who may not pay if the price went higher than they were hoping for.

In my selling account I am careful to choose between things I will sell at Fixed Price (things that will take a while to find a buyer anyway) and things I will sell at auction (things that buyers are aggressively looking for).

[steve_stuff]

OP adding info

No store, just the 250 a month deal. All BINs are ended early and rescheduled when they make it back around.

So to 'nobody' - understand the auction being counted as new as it is new and no roll over.

To 'soh' - we have no idea what "some folks have them in their stash" means.

To tobacco - change LP to 45 and you're correct. As to auctions, if ours is the only one [it was] and you want it then you bid. If you don't because you would have to 'wait' another few days,  then you really don't want it. Myself, after waiting years for a CD to show up on any site, let along ebay, you can bet I bidded, I bidded until I won.

[coolections]

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@steve_stuff wrote:

Three weeks ago when setting up relists for the 'let's see what happens' of it, I raised the price a buck or three on all - and sales have gone up. Seventeen sleeves and even four records. A record that has sat there for $10 BIN was changed back to a $12 auction and got three bidders.

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It has ALWAYS been that way. You probably just never realized it until now. Most buyers never want to keep seeing the same things over and over again. The search newly listed. Many have saved searches and they get notified when a new item from their saved list shows up. I have had many items sell within one to three hours of listing it.

[inhawaii]

I guess i'm weird.

In over 20 years I have never ever searched for a newly listed item.

As long as it's what i'm looking for at  the price I want, I don't care if it was listed an hour ago or last year. 

[coolections]

@inhawaii   Correct if you are buying a pair of shorts or a toaster or something common. For collectors they are searching for things that rarely come up. Most times when they do the items are worn out stuff belonging in the garbage or overpriced. Serious collectors are always searching newly listed as many things are not readily available. Records are one of those things. Strange the OP says he has 100,000 records but only 3 listed.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@coolections wrote: .... Strange the OP says he has 100,000 records but only 3 listed.

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He had 100,000 in 2016.

[chapeau-noir]

I search newly listed for certain types of items - I don't want to see the same old stuff that has been relisted over and over and over, and depending on how deep a category is, I might never see something buried on the 45th page. It's why refreshing and re-launching a listing is important if one is in a crowded category.

So I can totally see why the OP had this good result. It's just taking a little trouble to rejig a listing.

Once I had a bunch of listings that hadn't sold for over a year.  I took the group of items, rephoto'd them, rejigged the listings and launched them. Most of them sold. Given that I sell in the super-saturated ("Nobody should list there it's too crowded!!!!!") clothing section, it's easy to see items getting lost in any number of searches, including lowest, highest and ending soonest.

[inhawaii]

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@coolections wrote:

@inhawaii   Correct if you are buying a pair of shorts or a toaster or something common. For collectors they are searching for things that rarely come up. Most times when they do the items are worn out stuff belonging in the garbage or overpriced. Serious collectors are always searching newly listed as many things are not readily available. Records are one of those things. Strange the OP says he has 100,000 records but only 3 listed.

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That makes sense.

I never thought of that.

[chapeau-noir]

I'm still grappling with the idea of having 130,000 records. 🤤

But yeah, relisting since 2018 is going to result in a lot of dead listings.  I see some stuff on here so old it has date stamps on the photos (old date stamps) in fuzzy red. It also can lead to listings being dropped from the site altogether, so there may be some lost listings on inventory that can be redone and sold.

[byrd69er]

If something didn't sell after 30 or 60 days (sometimes sooner) I would raise the price. More often than not, the item sold soon after the price increase.  Never fear raising prices. You can't raise it after it's sold.

[itsjustasprain]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

I search newly listed for certain types of items - I don't want to see the same old stuff that has been relisted over and over and over, and depending on how deep a category is, I might never see something buried on the 45th page. It's why refreshing and re-launching a listing is important if one is in a crowded category.

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Yes. Over in my selling account I no longer Relist an item that has gone stale. I do a Sell Similar instead so it goes in as a fresh listing and will be seen by people looking for Newest listing first.

Obviously if you have a Fixed price listing then that is going to auto-renew every 30 days - but unless you end the current one and launch a new 'sell similar' then that listing will continue to show (and be sorted by) its original listing date - whenever that was. If your listing has been up for 3 months or more - it is not getting seen by most anyone.

Here is where things really get silly: if you relist an AUCTION that did not get any bids last time - the relist goes in showing the date of its FIRST appearance. Not the date you most recently relisted it. Even if you let 4-6 weeks go by before relisting it (which I preferred to do as there is no point in immediately relisting in front of the same audience that didnt want it the first time) - it displays as if the auction had been running since last June instead of last Tuesday. I assume it sorts chronologically the same way.

To my mind that is the wrong way to do it - if you are launching a time-sensitive thing like an auction then it deserves placement as a new listing when it starts - but I am not going to waste time and oxygen trying to get Ebay to change it. Instead I just do a Sell Similar if I want to relist something - either BIN or auction - and that gets the fresh looks I want.