Selling on Ebay - Am I doing something wrong here?

[STK]

<a href=http://cgi.aol.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3046781740>Why no bids?</a>

Admittedly, I haven't done any research on how much used games go for, but I would have expected at least one $40 bid for 8 of them.

[EagleFan]

No history for you makes people a little leary, plus wait it out a bit, bids usually don't show up until a little closer to the end of your auction. People figure why did early just to be overbid.

[wbonnell]

I usually do a little research on the average closing price of the item I want to auction (if information available). Then I list it with a "Buy It Now" price of the average, and voila, it sells within a day or two every time.

[Mustang]

More than likely, no feedback with a recently created user ID. That might stop me.

Plus, I might have split them up into 2 groups and separated the sports from the others.

[STK]

Thanks.

It seems like hauling them into a local Gamestop would be less hassle.

I just raised the price.

[Philliesfan980]

The picture should help though. Even though you have no feedback, I'd still buy from someone that has a picture of something (I know you can fake it and all, but why). I'm under the impression that *MOST* people on there are honest and really want to make a fair deal.

[GrantDawg]

Why would you raise the price? I would lower the start price and set a reserve at what your comfortable selling at. Lower prices brings in more interest.

[sianews]

I hate ebay. I've tried to sell 4 or 5 things before and not only do I not get a single bid, I'm lucky to get a singe VIEW. This with extra for bold italics, and the other extras. I'll never go back there.

[STK]

Originally posted by GrantDawg
Why would you raise the price? I would lower the start price and set a reserve at what your comfortable selling at. Lower prices brings in more interest.

because I don't see any clear fees for setting a reserve price.

[GrantDawg]

Originally posted by STK
because I don't see any clear fees for setting a reserve price.

It is like 3% of the price. Not much.

[Philliesfan980]

What pisses me off is how e-Bay owns PayPal. I'm telling you, if you're going to invest in a tech company anytime soon, put some money on e-Bay. I'd say at this point, most of the sales are done with paypal, because nobody wants to wait that long to get their stuff shipped, and its no cost to the buyer, only to the seller. When everything is said and done on ebay, with a paypal transaction, e-Bay sees about 10% of the selling price.

[GrantDawg]

Originally posted by Philliesfan980
What pisses me off is how e-Bay owns PayPal. I'm telling you, if you're going to invest in a tech company anytime soon, put some money on e-Bay. I'd say at this point, most of the sales are done with paypal, because nobody wants to wait that long to get their stuff shipped, and its no cost to the buyer, only to the seller. When everything is said and done on ebay, with a paypal transaction, e-Bay sees about 10% of the selling price.

But, if you get a Pay-Pal debit card and pay your fees with it, you get 1.5% back. Big money :)

[Philliesfan980]

Originally posted by GrantDawg
But, if you get a Pay-Pal debit card and pay your fees with it, you get 1.5% back. Big money :)

You wanna talk about big money? Go to INGDirect. 2% on their money market fund.

Now thats big time. I remember when I used to get 6.5% on my ING Moneymarket back in 98-99. Then again, to mortgage a house , you'd have to pay 9.75%.

[sterlingice]

I do a decent amount of ebay'ing- mostly looking, but some occasional buying to help fill out my vintage game collection, so I'll throw out my limited "expertise". BTW, the picture makes a big deal- I've seen stuff go for half its value due to no picture just because people don't trust that the person has the item. It's all psychological.

Here are the flags this throws up in my mind:

1. Sports game values sink like a rock. Sure, you may be willing to pay $50 to get new rosters at the start of every new year without much play, but no one wants to pay $50 for half year old rosters.
2. The 0 feedback makes me a bit leary, to say the least.
3. $10 is high shipping for something you can pack up in a priority mail box with bubble wrap for under $5 and people take this into account when adding up costs. Then again, I'd be even more leary if you didn't have any price.

Lastly, you have to look how it's packaged. I took a cursory glance at what those games go for and, of those games, only Halo, World Series 2k3, and EA MVP Baseball 2003 routinely goes for more than $20 and just barely. Why pay "full price" ($20+$20+$20+$15+$15+$7+$7+$7=~$100; and right now the bidding is at $85 including shipping) for the games when it's unlikely a person wants the exact 8 games you had? Maybe I could care less about hockey or skating. Then I'm paying for an NHL or THPS game which will just sit on my shelf collecting dust. The only person this lot will appeal to is someone who just got a system because, face it, if you have an XBox, it's likely you have Halo, and that's ~$25 of the value of the auction. To put it another way, let's say you already have Halo: you're paying $85 for $80 worth of games. No one is wanting to pay extra money for the hassle of trading in Halo for a game at your local store. Remeber, when setting up an auction, you have to think like the buyer and not as a seller.

SI

[GrantDawg]

Well, since he has that bid at $75 dollars and that was above what his reserve was, I think he is doing just fine. :)

[sterlingice]

Originally posted by GrantDawg
Well, since he has that bid at $75 dollars and that was above what his reserve was, I think he is doing just fine. :)

Definately- tho most people put a reserve at the bare minimum they want to sell at so he probably wants more (who among us doesn't want more cash :D ).

My post was more or less pointers for future sales and random observations, using this auction as a case study.

SI

[Balldog]

Usually game bundles are hard to sell.

[STK]

The "Buy It Now" option(thanks wbonnell) worked so well, I started another auction for Battlefield 1942 & BF1942 Road to Rome.

I probably have enough used games to quit my day job.