Ebay pricing

[MargeB]

Apologies in advance: this is a corker. But there has to be some system to work from :-)
When you list a medium value item on ebay (say it's really worth �200), do you put it on at �30 and hope to start a fight that will ramp it up to �250, or do you list it at �200 and wait for the buyer who really wants it?
Remember that many items of medium value are listed as 'Featured Items' which cost about �13 a go to list.
Ta.

[dodgyshirt]

As a seller, I always decide the absolute minimum price that I am prepared to sell the item at and use that as its starting price. Then I either get what I want (or more) or it does not sell. Having said that, I have never failed to sell an item at a price that suited me.
As a buyer, and I am sure that there are a great majority of people with the same outlook, I bypass all the featured items in any category and start from the items finishing soonest and work my way through the next few days worth of offerings.
IMost of the serious bidding takes place in the last few minutes anyway and any listings in excess of 3 days simply delay the sale of an item in my opinion.

[MargeB]

!!!!!!!!!!!! You bypass the Featured Items??? Is this because you feel you're not going to get a bargain since they get so much exposure? I have to fork out a fortune for those Featureds, but after what you've said.....

[vicars]

I think you get better prices when things are lower to start with as you get more bidders interested but at the end of the dau the early bidders rarely win and pack up quickly so it is usually luck - the best tip is to finish the auction in the evening (after the soaps have finished) and perhaps on Sunday so people are still in - no point finishing in the afternoon. If you dont want to sell below say �200 put a reserve on, and yes, I also avoid featured items and go for time ending instead.

[stevie21]

I agree with all of the above - I skip past the Featured items immediately. Too many things on ebay aren't being sold by individuals and are obviously on there by companies looking for a new sales outlet.
To drum up interest and catch people's attention I'd generally have a low start price.
"No reserve" seems to be a common selling point that others employ although if you'd be distraught at receiving less than �200 for an item and don't want to risk it you could start off with a low bid to attract the buyers and have a reserve in place.
Good luck.

[MargeB]

Reserve seems a bit 'catch 22' in some cases. You put it on, and actually when you're selling it, ebay warns you that 'reserve priced items tend (wait for it) to end with (c) 14pc lower final selling prices'!!!!!!!!! I can only guess at how this works, but you may be putting some cold water over that first fight when you discourage buyers, because they think 'when I put in my bid, I am not probably still not going to be in the running for this item." Furthermore, ebay used to charge you a fee for this which was refunded when reserve was met, now they still leave a reserve price fee on no matter what!
It's hard to work out. I know there are certain items, where ebay have achieved their (probable) goal, of having almost all substantial items being sold as 'featured': modern self-representing art. You just don't have a chance without 'featured': a buyer has to scroll through 4 pages.

[MargeB]

In a pickle, you should try selling, it's fun! And you get negative feedback left for you! (Just because the kidneys 'weren't the size the buyer expected')
What about 'buy it now'? To all intents and purposes it's a bid-up auction like anything else, but it doesn't seem to have gone to plan for ebay. Something about the big fat price sitting there just seems to distract people, and they pass them by.

[dodgyshirt]

I think the major drawback of `buy-it-now' is the fact that this option disappears as soon as a bid is placed.
Regarding feedback, my selling is 100% positive yet my overall rating is 98% purely because of malicious retaliatory feedback left by 4 sellers who objected to me complaining about the goods not meeting the description i.e. a CNR modem sold as a PCI modem, cheap glassware sold as Swarovski etc.and this despite the fact that I always pay within minutes of an auction ending.
It has now reached a point that I am unwilling to leave poor feedback any longer for fear of reducing my rating any further.
Ebay are unwilling to cancel such feedback even in one case where the seller wrote that I was a sucker.

[MargeB]

So, TECHNICALLY, if I bought something reaaally expensive on ebay, and the guy turned out to be a conman, with 100 percent positive feedback, I could sue ebay, for misrepresenting their site? This would be on the grounds that ebay suggest I read his feedback, a good indicator of his standing, when they know fine well that lots of buyers like you (and me) don't leave negative feedback where appropriate, for fear of retaliation. The situation scares me somewhat. Sooo many rely on it, and it is so flawed. All I really rely on now is how the seller seems to have handled the disputes arising.

[dodgyshirt]

I got caught by one seller who had deliberately set out to build up a smallish but perfect 100% feedback rating and then placed auctions over a period of only one week for some highly priced,hard to get hold of pieces of computer equipment, which did not in fact exist, which would have totalled about �2500 and were all set to achieve that until I blew the Whistle on him.
To cut a long story short, everyone involved who had paid any money to him managed to get reimbursed by various means in the end, but it proved that even a faultless rating cannot necessarily be relied upon.