time frame for "lots" at Fixed Price

[keziak]

Probably way too general a question but do you operate with a time frame for keeping what you list at Fixed Price? The reason I ask is because I've always been heavily into auctions but they aren't panning out recently. I don't have much space for boxing up bulky "lots" and storing them while they are listed.  When I look at similar lots under Sold history I wonder how long those had been listed.  Of course as a rule they sell for higher prices than auctions except once in a while auctions get bid up. Seems like not so often these days.

[stainlessenginecovers]

I think the world in general has no patience for auctions (10 to 1?) not to mention, if I want something I don't want to 'guess' if I'm going to 'win' it 2,3,5 days from now and then if buyer isn't a regular peruser on ebay, life gets busy and may forget to 'check' if I won. 

I've been doing BIN/IPR since 2011, and do about 1800 sales a year. 

The other 'good' thing about a BIN, is it stays and after a month you can see how many 'watchers' there are and you can send 'offers' (I recommend NOT allowing 'counter offers' or 'automating') and you know that someone may have been watching it but was 'on the fence' about pulling the trigger. 

Also, you can lower the price each month until it sells. 

[brightlightbookseller]

We list almost everything at fixed price.  We generally plan on keeping things for a year, but recently purging older items has taken a back seat to other priorities so we have stuff that's been up significantly longer.  We just end up lowering the price after a while until we reach out minimum acceptable price.  I would definitely agree that most customers are unwilling to bid on auctions and wait to see if they win, they generally want to just click and buy or make an offer (which we only enable after an item has been up for a while).  If you don't have much space, then of course you're going to want to reduce the time you have listed (we currently have a lot of space, though we're getting more and more items so we may have to prioritize purging older items again), but how long will be a judgment call only you can make.  I think you'll find most things will sell much faster at a fixed price than they would at auction.

[keziak]

Until recently I would have said - and I did - that in my experience things sold faster at auction. Sold a great many auctions. My better stuff may be gone a nd that may explain slower auction sales. 

I didn't think about monitoring views and/or adjusting prices or at least researching them way more often than I've done with stuff in my store. Those are good tips and I say thanks. 

If I really tried I could maybe clean out one area of the room I use for unlisted inventory and auctions to make room to stack boxes. I admit it - I barely know what's back there! That is very bad.  I'm just always so busy-busy with other tasks. 

[12345jamesstamps]

I either lower price of 'fixed price or promote it higher...I might do the latter from now on.

My items are rather lower than other sellers so I assume some sellers list their items very high promoted just to make a buck.

I would do 5 day auctions...not 7 days...buyers forget or lose interest that long.

I stopped doing auctions altogether...Buyers took forever to pay and then I had to re-list the items again if they didn't pay up.

That 'didn't recognize payments' kinda scares me with automatic buyer payments now.

[dbfolks166mt]

     It probably depends a lot on what you are selling and why you use the auction format in the first place. I use the auction format almost exclusively for time management reasons but I am not a huge seller and I do not depend on eBay for my income. 

     For a lot of what you are selling the BIN/IPR option may work out better if you are not concerned about potentially having to handle orders every day of the week. 

[lakefor94]

As far as timeframe for keeping fixed price listings out there,  it all depends on storage space available.

I sold a lot this morning that was out there 7 years.

I recently started purging some of the space takers as in taking to the scrap yard and finding the trash can.

I was getting a little tight on storage space. Sitting at about 85% capacity now. 

Actually running some auctions now on some slooow movers. Low price.

If they don't sell after 3-4 times thru, they will be heading to the scrap yard. Had not run an auction since about 2017.

[keziak]

I would say that my main concern is moving stuff out. But lately  my success at auction has been underwhelming. FP sales do not make up for the loss of auction sales. If the problem is lack of items with significant demand then maybe just putting the stuff in the store won't help either.  I did recently purge quite a lot that I gave up on before even trying to list. It's sad to feel like I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel but sources of decent inventory have really dried up around here, even when going farther afield. 

[sin-n-dex]

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@keziak wrote:

Probably way too general a question but do you operate with a time frame for keeping what you list at Fixed Price? The reason I ask is because I've always been heavily into auctions but they aren't panning out recently. I don't have much space for boxing up bulky "lots" and storing them while they are listed.  When I look at similar lots under Sold history I wonder how long those had been listed.  Of course as a rule they sell for higher prices than auctions except once in a while auctions get bid up. Seems like not so often these days.

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There's a way to download your inventory, it will show you when stuff was listed.

I have items from 2018 and 2019 listed (maybe a few hundred items in total). There are odd items listed in my store that will sit for a while until the right buyer comes along.

Realistically I don't want things sitting for more than a few years, but most of my items don't take up that much room.

C.

[keziak]

Book lots take up considerable space. 

Someone clued me as to how to sort my listings by start date which I really appreciated.  I removed a number of the older listings.  Probably all I'm really pondering is whether to give stuff as much as a year, maybe more like 9 months, then out. 

[chapeau-noir]

For my books - lots and singles, I give two fall/winter seasons then out. So looking at about 18 months. I've sold almost all of my lots - they trickled out over a period of about a year.

[dbfolks166mt]

I would say that my main concern is moving stuff out. But lately  my success at auction has been underwhelming. FP sales do not make up for the loss of auction sales. If the problem is lack of items with significant demand then maybe just putting the stuff in the store won't help either.  I did recently purge quite a lot that I gave up on before even trying to list. It's sad to feel like I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel but sources of decent inventory have really dried up around here, even when going farther afield. 

    You have a lot of books listed which is an item I have always had difficulty moving on eBay so that may be part of the issue. Try diversifying a bit more or bundling some of your books into larger lots based on a particular subject. 

     As far as sourcing you are in Manassas Virginia which is not that far from me. Ironically one of my biggest sourcing venues is/are all the online auctions in the Washington Metropolitan Area. I have purchased some lot items that I have broken up into single items and realized a rather significant return on. There are also a HUGE number of estate and garage sales in the area, 28 this weekend that are < 30 miles from me,  that present prime sourcing venues. I usually frequent the estate sales on the last day which is generally Sunday when items are marked 50+% off. I have found several nice items by doing that.