lack of multiple bids

[keziak]

I start a lot of things at auction first (mostly book and media lots). There is a real trend lately of them selling with just the minimum bid which is the lowest of what I want (not 99 cents!). You may say, then why not just list for free at Fixed Price? It's because my space for boxes of stuff in my store is extremely limited. I have to think carefully about what to keep. 

For those using auctions are you finding similar results?

[evry1nositswindy]

I looked at your listings, expecting to see that you don't have a store.  But you do have a store.  I have a store as well and cannot list book for auction without incurring a fee.  I can only list them for 'free' with BIN.  Are you paying for auctions?  I have disagreed with this for so long.  Books in the antiquarian/collectible category should be allowed to have auctions at no cost.  

Yes, I am seeing that mostly one bid takes my items as well, with a few that have had multiple bids.

Edit:  do you have any books by Richard Matheson?  I'd be glad to buy them if I don't already have them!

[keziak]

We seem to have similar approaches. I rarely add Best Offer at first. With unsolds I ponder relist or relist w/ BO or put in store FB w/ BO or get rid of it. If only there was a rigorous science to this but no. I like hearing how other sellers make such decisions.

[yuzuha]

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@pburn wrote:

If I want a book or a puzzle or a whatnot, I'd prefer to buy it right now. I just don't think auctions are all that attractive anymore for run-of-the-mill listings. Rare or one-of-a-kind items, or items for which there's a lot of buyer competition may bring successful results at auction for a seller, but not much else.

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Agreed, honestly. The last auctions I've bid on were for fairly hard-to-find collectibles where I was willing to wait a week because those things don't come up for sale that often. But for things that I could purchase Buy It Now at any point in time? Nah.

[mr_lincoln]

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@evry1nositswindy wrote:

I looked at your listings, expecting to see that you don't have a store.  But you do have a store.  I have a store as well and cannot list book for auction without incurring a fee.  I can only list them for 'free' with BIN.  Are you paying for auctions?  I have disagreed with this for so long.  Books in the antiquarian/collectible category should be allowed to have auctions at no cost.  

Yes, I am seeing that mostly one bid takes my items as well, with a few that have had multiple bids.

Edit:  do you have any books by Richard Matheson?  I'd be glad to buy them if I don't already have them!

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@evry1nositswindy   Yes, Store owners have to pay an Insertion fee when listings books Auction style.

[mr_lincoln]

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@keziak wrote:

We seem to have similar approaches. I rarely add Best Offer at first. With unsolds I ponder relist or relist w/ BO or put in store FB w/ BO or get rid of it. If only there was a rigorous science to this but no. I like hearing how other sellers make such decisions.

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@keziak   For me it tends to be the higher value or rare items that I put on Auction ... most of what I have listed is fixed price.  I do have one category that I use with the Auction format just to avoid having to pack the items when it is inconvenient.  That's cast iron ... Once I have those listings synced they will end the same day of the week ... they take a little more time to pack since they are heavy and need extra packing or more accurately a custom sized box.  If I get a bid on one of those I can do some pre-packing ahead of time before the Auction ends.

Sometimes, based on when I want an item to end, I will switch it from Auction to Fixed price for a day then End it and Relist as an auction.

Over time you will learn some sweet spots for the items you sell ...

Mr. L

[keziak]

Except in rare cases I list single books in the store. I have more room for those and books are a hard sell at auction . My auctions are book and media lots, a little more unique. Sometimes I move them to the store and they sell but too often they languish and I remove them for no interest.

[soh.maryl]

By "corporate", assume you mean the owner of the storage facility?

And you still don't see the need to have an attorney involved in this? 

[katzrul15]

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@mr_lincoln wrote:

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@evry1nositswindy wrote:

I looked at your listings, expecting to see that you don't have a store.  But you do have a store.  I have a store as well and cannot list book for auction without incurring a fee.  I can only list them for 'free' with BIN.  Are you paying for auctions?  I have disagreed with this for so long.  Books in the antiquarian/collectible category should be allowed to have auctions at no cost.  

Yes, I am seeing that mostly one bid takes my items as well, with a few that have had multiple bids.

Edit:  do you have any books by Richard Matheson?  I'd be glad to buy them if I don't already have them!

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@evry1nositswindy   Yes, Store owners have to pay an Insertion fee when listings books Auction style.

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It is one of the reasons I do not do many auctions...........just list them at FP, etc.  I too wish they would incorporate books/media into the free auction listings.

[chapeau-noir]

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@keziak wrote:

I ac tually have not tried using a BIN. If I re-list an auction I will usually add Best Ofer. 

I know that many folks prefer fixed price. I do! but there seems to be a principle that an auction says "7 days or gone" whereas Fixed Price says "whenever". 

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Fixed price says:  "Buy or someone else will."

[creativecrisis]

I quit running auctions several years ago, but still sometimes buy at auction. One of my favorite sellers here does auctions only, and I've noticed it's much easier to win than it used to be. He always had multiple bidders in the past, and that's definitely no longer true. On my last round of purchases, I was the only bidder on all but one of the auctions. I do still run into plenty of active bidders on auctions for rare and hard-to-find items.

[chapeau-noir]

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@creativecrisis wrote:

I quit running auctions several years ago, but still sometimes buy at auction. One of my favorite sellers here does auctions only, and I've noticed it's much easier to win than it used to be. He always had multiple bidders in the past, and that's definitely no longer true. On my last round of purchases, I was the only bidder on all but one of the auctions. I do still run into plenty of active bidders on auctions for rare and hard-to-find items.

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Oh man, that's true.  If I even bother to bid on an auction, I'm often the only one.  I see these auctions being relisted time after time after time.  Seven days doesn't really mean a whole lot unless the item is in demand.

The OP is smart to be listing lots in these auctions. Because, dumbest book auction ever - the three volume set of Cross's History of Henry Fielding...each volume auctioned off separately.  Yes, three different auctions, one volume each.  If the seller had simply slapped a price on the set they would have gotten $50, at least.  As it was, I won each of the books for about $7 if I recall. Bargain for me, but honestly, who breaks up a set of books and auctions off a SINGLE ONE?  Chances are most people will not be looking for a missing volume of Cross's History of Henry Fielding.   I had to hang around those stupid listings like a cook around a pot of soup until they were over.

[yuzuha]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

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Fixed price says:  "Buy or someone else will."

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Yep. Many is the time I've had an item sell only to get a message from another buyer asking me if I had any more available.

[yuzuha]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

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Fixed price says:  "Buy or someone else will."

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Yep. Many is the time I've sold something only to get a message from another buyer asking me if I had any more for sale.

[pburn]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

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The OP is smart to be listing lots in these auctions. Because, dumbest book auction ever - the three volume set of Cross's History of Henry Fielding...each volume auctioned off separately.  Yes, three different auctions, one volume each.  If the seller had simply slapped a price on the set they would have gotten $50, at least.  As it was, I won each of the books for about $7 if I recall. Bargain for me, but honestly, who breaks up a set of books and auctions off a SINGLE ONE?  Chances are most people will not be looking for a missing volume of Cross's History of Henry Fielding.   I had to hang around those stupid listings like a cook around a pot of soup until they were over.

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As I recall, I didn't even make it through The History of Tom Jones, which is only one volume. I opted for the BBC production instead, since I really struggle with 18th century lit . . .

I should probably put that one back on my reading list for this year.

Is this post off topic?

[chapeau-noir]

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@pburn wrote:

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

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The OP is smart to be listing lots in these auctions. Because, dumbest book auction ever - the three volume set of Cross's History of Henry Fielding...each volume auctioned off separately.  Yes, three different auctions, one volume each.  If the seller had simply slapped a price on the set they would have gotten $50, at least.  As it was, I won each of the books for about $7 if I recall. Bargain for me, but honestly, who breaks up a set of books and auctions off a SINGLE ONE?  Chances are most people will not be looking for a missing volume of Cross's History of Henry Fielding.   I had to hang around those stupid listings like a cook around a pot of soup until they were over.

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As I recall, I didn't even make it through The History of Tom Jones, which is only one volume. I opted for the BBC production instead, since I really struggle with 18th century lit . . .

I should probably put that one back on my reading list for this year.

Is this post off topic?

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The History of Tom Jones is Fielding's book with lots of cheeky commentary between chapters that's more of interest to the 18th century student than the general reader, which is why it bogs down.  I recommend the excellent abridged audiobook version read by Edward Fox - once you get down to Fielding's actual fiction writing, he's very funny and moves along at a real clip and Edward Fox does a great job.  I have that somewhere around here and have been meaning to sell it as I transferred to a MP3 to sell the discs.

Wilbur Cross is an easier read, though Martin Battestin's book is better IMHO - Cross tends to clean up the man a little too much - Henry Fielding was a wild sort lol.

Funny thing - the audiobook I got was on three separate discs each with its own jewel case.  I only got TWO in a listing that was, yes, here.  I hunted around and finally found the THIRD part in a separate listing on Amazon.