Selling on eBay question

[RossMAN]

I plan on buying 5 Kodak DC3200 digital cameras for $59.99 each with no rebate hassles from Circuit City B&M's.

I just registered for eBay and won 2 "buy it now" auctions last Thursday, so I'm an eBay virgin and have never sold anything. So therefore I have zero feedback

Considering completed eBay auctions are going for around $122 that's a 100% profit of at least $60!

So what can I do to ensure that these 5 digicams I'm selling will sell and for at least $120?

Please give me some pointers ... thanks!

 

[yellowperil]

I would set the Buy It Now at $120 and the starting bid at $110 or $115. I personally wouldn't bother with reserves. Also if you have no feedback a lot of people won't take their chances, so you should definitely include a picture.

 

[Jzero]

I dunno, but I know I'm going to Circuit City tomorrow...

 

[RossMAN]

<< I would set the Buy It Now at $120 and the starting bid at $110 or $115. I personally wouldn't bother with reserves. Also if you have no feedback a lot of people won't take their chances, so you should definitely include a picture. >>



Excellent advice, thank you. What's the minimum number of (good) feedbacks you need in order for eBay buyers to trust you?

I'll definitely include a real picture of the digicam so people know what they're getting.

I've heard quite a few PayPal horror stories, should I accept everything but PayPal (such as check and money order)?

 

[Hossenfeffer]

A clean, well-put together item description tends to make me feel better about a particular auction. If I had more than 30 minutes before I head to Florida I'd pass on some more tips. DOH.

A low initial bid (and hence, lower listing fee) will likely grab more interested parties which generally adds to the chance of a bidding war --> inflated price. The other side to this is that you may be more likely to get a deadbeat bidder (in my opinion).

I'm a big fan of Buy It Now. Setting a higher initial bid with a reasonable Buy It Now can make for a quick turnaround and allow those folks that like what they see to just finish the deal right then and there.

I don't know statistics on how much boldface or highlights on your listing gets it read. If the profit margin were going to be higher, I'd say list it as "featured" which pops it up to the top of searches (gives a much greater number of page hits). I'd keep it simple, add a few pictures for a buck or two. If you're initial listing fee is low, you may want to list them in two categories to increase the amount of folks looking at the auction.

I've used Paypal in around 150 or so transactions (probably 75 auctions or so) and have never had a problem. Common-sense rules. Make sure folks ask questions -before- they bid. Could also ask that folks have a mininum # of feedback (or must contact you) before bidding (for your protection).

Ugh, brainstorming some more, but I gotta get to the airport! Ah, the humanity!

 

[yellowperil]

<< What's the minimum number of (good) feedbacks you need in order for eBay buyers to trust you? >>


I never had a problem selling stuff, but I got more bids on the things I was selling after 10-20 good feedbacks (I think you get your first star after 10 positives).



<< I've heard quite a few PayPal horror stories, should I accept everything but PayPal (such as check and money order)? >>


I would accept PayPal because it is so widely used. The seller protection is not so great but I haven't had any problems (yet). I would also definitely get an account with eBay Payments.

 

[Murphyrulez]

Hey, I have 300+ positive feedbacks. Why don't I subcontract the auctions for you? You can pay me a small percentage of the final fee (less than 5%) and I will conduct the auctions and you can ship them...

PM me...

 

[psteng19]

I've been selling/buying on ebay for the past 4 years in about 100 transactions. It's my primary source of income... I'm a poor student

Some tips that I follow (in the order that they came to mind):

1. On popular items, start them at $0.01. Like others have already said, that will generate more views and bids, which is a good thing, because when they get outbidded, they'll bid again, etc.
You can also list it as BuyItNow, but rarely would anyone BIN because they would most likely bid a low price. And ebay charges a nickel for BIN. Regardless, I generally notice that items sell higher than my BIN price (I keep my BIN price reasonable).

2. On not so popular items, start it at the price you're willing to sell it at, if not a couple bucks less. Obviously explanation why.

3. Don't bother with a reserve price on petty items or popular items. Reserve WILL be met (again, unless you have ridiculously high expectations). i think it costs $1 for setting a reserve.

4. Do a search on COMPLETED ITEMS to see what the end price is of similar items. That way, you know what to expect, and what to set a BIN price as.

5. Generally, I advertise free shipping if the item is bought BIN or past a certain price. It gives buyers a price to shoot for.

6. ALWAYS post a picture (shows condition of item, and that you actually have it). And always copyright identify it. So many people have plagarized my works... 1 person stole my entire description and pics in one of my current auctions - would appreciate any ideas on payback :|
he's linking the pic off my webspace, what a moron
I'm looking for the pic of the obese chick sitting in her backyard sipping on a drink

7. Take some time to prepare your layout with HTML. It looks a lot more professional than a sloppy paragraph thrown together. And save it as a template for future use.

8. Start auctions at times to accomodate all times zones. T-R 11PM EST works for me.

Feedback is hard to come by. I think I have about 30 overdue feedbacks that I never received.
When I started, I bought a bunch of little items from big sellers to build up my feedback.
I think about 20 is enough to generate trust to bidders.
Obviously this depends on the value of the item you're selling.
It'll be harder to sell expensive items when you're new, but it's very possible (majority of bidders seem very gullible and not consumer educated).

Hope this helps.

 

[burnedout]

I just registered for eBay and won 2 "buy it now" auctions last Thursday, so I'm an eBay virgin and have never sold anything. So therefore I have zero feedback

Wow RossMAN. From what I remember of you on the Hot Deals forum over the past couple of years, I would have thought you were a ferengi exemplar and even owned stock in eBay itself!

Just kidding

Our feedback, since 1996, is 973 with one negative and five neutrals, two of which were converted during the change-over. I was wheelin' and dealin' while still in the Army too.

Follow psteng19's comments and you can't go wrong. Most importantly, take care of the people who trust you with their money and get the goods out to them in a timely manner. Priority Mail is fast and largely reliable.

 

[manly]

Everybody has their own opinions, but I don't really agree with some of the others here.

I'd say a seller is in good shape with roughly 10 positive feedbacks. Of course, the more the better, but once you have 10, the quality of your listing and feedback speaks for itself.

Because eBay has fraud insurance, people are quite trusting of the eBay marketplace. Contrast this to Anandtech For Sale forum, where newbie sellers are expected to ship first. With eBay auctions, the buyer always pays first. I'm not saying what's better, just how it is.

First off, yellowperil's advice has two problems. A) Buyers generally won't get involved in auctions with high opening bids. B) A high opening bid means higher fees. I don't recommend this strategy at all. However, if nobody bids on the auction, then you can relist it for free, so it's not a total loss. It does make sure you get close to the selling price you want.

Secondly, PayPal is fine. Make sure you ship only to a confirmed address. If you want PayPal fraud protection, you'll need a premiere account, but I'm not sure this is worth it (PayPal isn't known for actually providing customer service). A premiere account is required for receiving credit card payments, but the fees will add up quickly. If you plan on regularly selling on eBay (as a hobby), I'd suggest keeping one personal and one premiere account. Buyers get a little confused with this strategy though. PayPal has its problems, but 99% of users don't have any horror stories.

As far as listing items at 1 cent, this is neither good nor bad. I definitely believe in bidding "action" but if you start off a premium item at a penny, it just results in a lot of meaningless early bidding. Also remember that most of the action in an auction is in the last 24 hours. So don't be discouraged if the first several days look bleak. As a general rule, I like the opening bid to be about 1/3 of my target selling price, although I will go lower to reduce listing fees.

Although I don't like reserve auctions, I am using them a bit more recently because they "pin" the Buy it Now option. If you don't set a reserve, any bid will remove the BIN option.

Finally, take all this advice and carefully scrutinize the fees page for both eBay and PayPal. You'll come to see that fees are your main enemy. The eBay marketplace is very healthy (eBay is a de facto monopoly), but the fees really add up quickly. psteng19 does have some good pointers to follow.

Note I'm not saying my advice is better than anyone elses; just some differing opinions based on experience. Good luck.

 

[Sluggo]

I always set the starting bid at $1.00 or so, just to keep insertion fees low. Since they started charging for BIN, I quit using it. Even if you have a good BIN price, someone will almost always place the lowest possible bid and ruin that, unless you have a reserve price (which raises the insertion fee even more.)

I bid on a few items, and sold some small insignificant stuff to get a little feedback before I attempted to sell anything.

I only accept USPS Money Order & Paypal, and state in my auctions that I will only ship to confirmed paypal addresses, no exceptions.

A recent auction of mine of course a high dollar item, and no feedback on the buyer, probably wind up with a relist on this one. He is at least answering e-mails.

I also quit wasting time posting a lot of specs and stuff on the description, a quick description, a link to specs and a pic.

Feel free to PM if you have any specific questions

EDIT Watch out for the bottom falling out of prices on ebay, it seems to react pretty quickly to market changes. In other words, dont count on the cams bringing that much money, they could just bring $80 or so since that is the current price on the CC website. Buy with ebayers you never, ever nkow what will happen.

 

[LukFilm]

I always start my auctions at $9.95 because it's still very low, yet it prevents ridiculous bids such as 50 cents, $1 or $2. This always annoys me, so to prevent those ridiculous bids, I at least eliminate some of them by starting at $9.95 which has the same insertion fees as $0.01 price. Also, if you have a VERY expensive item to sell, I don't recommend starting at $0.01 because that makes people question the quality of the item even if there's nothing wrong with it and they DO NOT bid on it. For items over $1,000, I always start it at the price that I want to get and set Buy It Now for $50 more. Most of the time, people Buy It Now for such items.

 

[RossMAN]

Since eBay is already flooded with these digicams and more will likely appear by the end of the week.

If I were to wait, how long would you guys recommend waiting?

 

[burnedout]

Since eBay is already flooded with these digicams and more will likely appear by the end of the week.

If I were to wait, how long would you guys recommend waiting?

Sometimes I've posted immediately. Other times I've waited up to 2 weeks. I know this sounds somewhat ridiculous, but in my opinion, the "Anand Effect" has an impact on prices. Particularly with supply and demand the way it is.

Personally, I've had the best results holding off for a bit. Another strategy you can use is Buy It Now.

 

[yellowperil]

The reason I would put a high starting bid is (in my experience), if you set it at $1 invariably someone will bid a low bid rather than using Buy It Now, which takes Buy It Now off your auction page (unless you set a reserve, which isn't as popular with bidders). From then on you have no control really on getting at least (in this case $120) a minimum closing bid. I used to start my auctions at $1 because it would usually inflate the price towards the end, but if you have no feedback it might hurt you. If the starting bid is close to the Buy It Now price people are more likely to buy it, especially if they don't want to wait for auctions to close.

 

[MrBond]

You're right about ebay being flooded with these cameras in a couple weeks. My advice is just to set the reserve at 100 and settle for a $40 profit. Don't get greedy, or it won't sell. I bought a couple sodimm's back on amazon.com about two years ago when they were $70 for 128mb (a very very good price at the time). Like two weeks before I actually had them in my possession, a 128mb sodimm was going for $150-175 on ebay with 4-5 people selling them. When my shippment came in, the number of auctions went up to 30-60, with ending prices somewhere around $110.

Don't worry about low feedback. I'd rather buy from someone with under 20 feedback (all positive of course) because I know I'm not going to be swept under the rug by a mass seller. Answer emails quickly that you get , it goes a long way toward helping people trust you.

 

[Doggiedog]

Can you even activate Buy It Now without any feedback? I tried to do it once but it wouldn't let me since I didn't have enough feedback.

 

[yellowperil]

<< Can you even activate Buy It Now without any feedback? I tried to do it once but it wouldn't let me since I didn't have enough feedback. >>


Oops! I forgot about that, you need 10 feedbacks to use Buy It Now.

Please disregard my previous posts

 

[RossMAN]

<<

<< Can you even activate Buy It Now without any feedback? I tried to do it once but it wouldn't let me since I didn't have enough feedback. >>


Oops! I forgot about that, you need 10 feedbacks to use Buy It Now.

Please disregard my previous posts >>



That sucks but thanks for letting me know.

Is that minimum of 10 feedbacks from selling or total (buying and selling)?

 

[badluck]

Don't think that you are going to make as much profit as you anticpate. After the price of those cameras has been posted everywhere, the prices are going to drop quickly. Also, I think I saw seller: Kodak.auctions (or something like that) selling them for $90 a piece. They had 100 for sale. And, they have a listing at the top of the page which attracts the most amount of hits. Some people don't want to wait for the auction to end and might use your Buy It Now, but if you set it for more than $100, you have already out-priced yourself.

I would buy 5 of them, sell them for $90-$95 and get out quickly b4 the market becomes even more swamped than it already is....

Also, 2-3 days ago there were 150 or so listed - today 268 - this camera will be selling for $80-$85 in a few days.....too many sellers, not enough demand = low market price

Oh, charge $15 in shipping to make $$ on that - it's the eBay way -

Can't you list your item, Buy It Now, if you go and get verified through eBay???? If you can't use Buy It Now, you are going to have a hard time getting over $90 for these cameras (listing it at say, $1). Once you list it and have to wait another 3 days, you will be dealing with a market that is even more swamped. I wouldn't wait 2 weeks for these cameras to come down in price. The price on these will not fluctuate and every web seller will be trying to unload inventory as the prices are dropping like flies....