question for auction sellers

[keziak]

I wonder what is your strategy when you have an auction that ends with no bids and few or no views. Do you mostly relist them one or more times? Put them in your store at Fixed Price? Add Best Offer or BIN or drop the price? Get rid of it?

I do various things like that except that I don't put a BIN price on an auction.  I don't have a hard and fast rule or system though. With all the options it's not always cut and dry what to do.  Sometimes my emotions take over, like frustration or pique. 

[chapeau-noir]

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@onefootflippers wrote:

There are so few competent full time sellers that use auction format with any sort of frequency that I would not expect any actual good answers. Try watching some youtube reseller videos, full time professional sellers just don't use auction format. You really only see it from brand new sellers, part timers who never changed since 1998 and people who are using auction format because they refuse to pay for an ebay store.

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Thanks loads, dude. You're no better than the rest of us, so enough of that.

[ekmadonna]

MAGGIE MEREDITH Nantucket Island Cat, Chanel Perfume Martini Basket Painting-$2,409.00 yesterday. One lot out of 29, total sales approximately just under 13,000. for one day. 

[toomuchstuffagain35]

Wow, Baccarat sure has come down in price.

I might start looking again lol

[dbfolks166mt]

To address comments from others. Live auction companies and companies that are auctioning things on ebay for other people are a different animal entirely.

     Not really. A number of those companies operate similar to the way eBay operates with regards to auctions. They provide a portal/interface between the seller and the buyer and never actually handle the item. While they have seller fees many also split the fees between the seller and the buyer with the buyer paying a xx% buyer premium on top of the price the item sells for. The item is picked up by the buyer, from the seller, or is shipped by the seller to the buyer. Pretty much the same as it works on eBay.

     I will agree consignment auction houses where the auction company handles everything pertaining to the sale of the item including logistics, are a different animal entirely. I sell a number of firearms through consignment auction houses that have FFL and do the paperwork and shipping of the firearms in accordance with federal and individual state laws. 

As for people not wanting to pay for an ebay store I was misremembering thinking that people without a store got a certain number of free auction insertions per month, I was mistaken.

     Yep, I don't have a store and I get my 250 free listings per month and on occasion eBay provides additional free listings although I have not needed any of those in quite some time. 

[keziak]

I don't relist everything as BIN due to shortage of storage here. Ideally it will get a bid or few and I can move it out. 

[onefootflippers]

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@ekmadonna wrote:

MAGGIE MEREDITH Nantucket Island Cat, Chanel Perfume Martini Basket Painting-$2,409.00 yesterday. One lot out of 29, total sales approximately just under 13,000. for one day. 

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That is auction worthy stuff. 2.99 stamps and the stuff I sell, not so much.

Also, auction houses are generally selling items belonging to other people, they want the churn, not the maximum dollar which could take a year.

[onefootflippers]

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@ekmadonna wrote:

There are HUGE antique dealers on here that use auctions ONLY! 99 cent -9.99 starting bid ALWAYS. And they rake in well over 50,000 a week here some over 100,000, week after week year after year. Your statements are a head scratcher??

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That isn't most people. Those people are often selling other people's merchandise and are not showing up in these forums asking for advice. 

The original poster is largely auctioning media, not antiques.

[turtles-trading-post]

You have run 2100 auctions in the last 3 months and of those only  147 sold and of those only 7 got more than one bid. I just don't see that as being more effective than just listing fixed price. However I don't sell stamps so maybe I am missing something. 

I run 250 auctions a month. You must be counting the extra 8 week cycles through the system.  And you aren't seeing  those that sell at the BIN price.   I usually have a BIN on all my auctions.

I run the auctions  for a couple reasons.  I usually have 500 in progress at any given time.  That's 500 items that rerun themselves as new every week!  And it's a calling card to my store, to attract new  regular customers.  I have regulars who order often, some every week.

Run your analysis on NYSTAMPS  or CKSTAMPS.  They are the dealers who are killing it with auctions. NY has 16,000 followers and CK has over 10,000.   

I follow these two companies and a few others that more closely sell what I sell.   I retired at the end of last year and was doing $1000 a month.  Since then I have added some goals... such as selling sets instead of singles to increase my sale per unit.  I've got it up to over $1500 a month now as a part time gig for hobby money.  I doubled my followers from around 100 to near 200 over the past year.

[ekmadonna]

They are Professional Antiques Dealers also. Much of the stuff listed is their own.

[onefootflippers]

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@turtles-trading-post wrote:

You have run 2100 auctions in the last 3 months and of those only  147 sold and of those only 7 got more than one bid. I just don't see that as being more effective than just listing fixed price. However I don't sell stamps so maybe I am missing something. 

I run 250 auctions a month. You must be counting the extra 8 week cycles through the system.  And you aren't seeing  those that sell at the BIN price.   I usually have a BIN on all my auctions.

I run the auctions  for a couple reasons.  I usually have 500 in progress at any given time.  That's 500 items that rerun themselves as new every week!  And it's a calling card to my store, to attract new  regular customers.  I have regulars who order often, some every week.

Run your analysis on NYSTAMPS  or CKSTAMPS.  They are the dealers who are killing it with auctions. NY has 16,000 followers and CK has over 10,000.   

I follow these two companies and a few others that more closely sell what I sell.   I retired at the end of last year and was doing $1000 a month.  Since then I have added some goals... such as selling sets instead of singles to increase my sale per unit.  I've got it up to over $1500 a month now as a part time gig for hobby money.  I doubled my followers from around 100 to near 200 over the past year.

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I used the completed items links for my stats. However your extra information does indeed change my opinion a bit. I did not realize that auctions purchased "buy it now" didn't show up as "auctions" when viewing results. That changes the numbers.

I am happy to hear you are doing well.  You might want to also do a reality check on the number of stock you actually own versus the number you sell each month to make sure you are not sitting on a supply that will outlast you by 100 years. I used to be a card seller and this was very common among card sellers. If that ends up being the case then you might want to indeed unload some large lots just to get the total inventory down.

[keziak]

I am impressed by how  many auction listings you are apparently writing a week/month. I am  hopelessly unable to boost my ebay listing like that. I have an Amazon business too and a lot of mail. 

On the other hand, I am tired of self-recrimination. I do what I can, and even then I work 7 days a week as I bet most of us do. Can't do much more. Plus this is the year I am resolved to actually tend my extensive gardens. My strategy will be to get in my swim 5-6am then another hour in the yard when I get home, weather permitting (this will be interesting with Daylights Saving Time and back to late sunrises for a while). Anyway, if I allow myself to do any work the jig is up, I can't seem to make the time for anything else later in the day save an occasional run to the grocery store. 

[turtles-trading-post]

You might want to also do a reality check on the number of stock you actually own versus the number you sell each month to make sure you are not sitting on a supply that will outlast you by 100 years. I used to be a card seller and this was very common among card sellers. If that ends up being the case then you might want to indeed unload some large lots just to get the total inventory down.

The 5200 items I have currently listing are a tiny portion of my overall inventory!  As with cards, they take up very little space.  A stamp dealer's inventory is much like a  B&M or show dealer.  Someone has a want list and asks for a certain list of cards.  You need to have them.  If you don't, they go to another dealer.

The first day covers go in  photo boxes the size of a shoe box, that hold about 500 pieces.  My inventory is in 20 of these right now, with room for growth.  So it's not a lot of space.

The US Postal Service has issued over 6,000 stamps over the years.  Add in that several different companies created the envelopes for first day covers, my stock doesn't even cover the years adequately.  Some of my SKUs have inventory of 2 to 20 pieces in each listing.  There's an economy  to being able to sell 10 pieces without touching the listing.  

The other bonus is I spend very little time sourcing.  I don't go to thrift stores or flea markets.  I'm  known in the hobby so my inventory is fed to me by larger dealers and collectors.  Dealers will contact me with an offer  of "this is more your market than mine" stock.  This year so far I've bought 10,000 first day covers that will sell for $1.29 to $9.99 each for ten cents a unit.  Both were 5000 piece lots.  I also had someone sell me a 2000 piece collection of commemorative pictorial cancels at a nickel a cover.  I list those for $1.99 each.

So no supply woes, inventory costs near nothing.  

I am impressed by how  many auction listings you are apparently writing a week/month. I am  hopelessly unable to boost my ebay listing like that.

Thank you!  Part of the business model is I sell all similar items.  My listings take maybe a minute each.  One line of text:

"TurtlesTradingPost- Walt Disney- Mickey Mouse 1968 #1355 FDC Artcraft Cachet"

(Branding)                        (Item Description)            (Year / Catalog number/ FDC) (Envelope Brand)

That line then gets copied down to the Full Description,  the rest of that is boiler plate terms etc.  All done as a Sell Similar, I never start a listing from scratch, I always start with a current listing (I don't save templates or drafts).  As such many listings are simply...  Change photo, change a few words of text, copy that down to the description, check price... send!