0.99 E-Bay Auctions

I have often seen some very expensive coins listed on E-Bay starting at 0.99. Has anyone of you ever taken a hit for this low-ball price? Better yet, has anyone of you won the bid for 0.99 ?

Dave

 

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I usually lose out pretty good doing auctions like this when I am selling. I also win good ones like this, but never for that cheap. I either sell as BIN or auction starting at my lowest acceptable price. They usually sell for my lowest acceptable price. I have been burned enough not to do $0.99 auctions.

 

I tend to feel that starting auctions with .99¢ tends to yield more bids, helps to guarantee the item sells but doesn't necessarily net exceptional results, but that items will be bid up to what they are worth provided you listed them properly and imaged them correctly. There seems some psychological resistance of bidders to bid on an item for near what its worth if the seller starts it at or just back of that range. I'm sure some people just want things for as cheap and next to nothing as possible and refuse to bid on listings starting over a certain amount. I'm sure others just think auctions should start at such a minimal bid because they like bidding and participating whether they can win or not. The same issues seems to impact whether you charge a shipping fee or offer it for free. People just don't want to pay for what things are worth, but when they want to sell, want the world for their stuff. Just some thoughts.

 

As an eBay buyer, I always try to respect the fact that shipping costs actual money. As a seller, I hate that eBay pushes buyers to offer "free" shipping (not free to me!) and HATE that eBay takes a slice of the amount collected for shipping (if collected.)

Trust me, it's not off-topic because...if I know an item will cost a certain amount to ship, and I need to at least break even, that eliminates my starting any auction at .99 unless I am 100% sure it will sell for enough to cover me.

(I started my auctions this week at a minimum of $15 each...if I had started them at .99, I'd have tons of bids...but at $1.04. I'd rather just not even bother with lowball bids.)

 

I don't care what an auction starts at if it's something I want but if it starts at $.01 or $.99 I might bid even if I don't want it and sometimes I get a bargain sometimes I pay what I think it's worth but I never pay more than I want to so the starting price only influences me on coins I think might be cheap but wouldn't mind having at a low price. JMHO

 

starting at $.99 and free shipping its ok on premium coins other then this you lose every time..

 

I don't know if eBay takes a slice of the shipping (if you charge for it), but they do push for free shipping and then they take a slice of the increased sale price (increased to cover shipping of course). For that reason, along with attracting more sales simply cause the phrase "free shipping" gets more people to buy is why eBay pushes it. Obvious, I know.

I know some shoppers bitch about sellers high shipping cost, but I don't have a problem with it since the seller is basically doing to eBay what eBay is trying to do to him/her... shave commission in their favor. From a buyers perspective it shouldn't matter what the shipping costs are as long as the overall price is fair. Who cares how the item and shipping cost are split.

For the record, I always offer "free shipping". I do so because there is an option to narrow search to only items with free shipping and there isn't an option the other way around. I also believe it could be the tie-breaker should a buyer be undecided between my listing and someone else's listing. It tends to display good faith. Some buyers feel like a seller might be trying to squeeze more money out of them when they see shipping charge. It also simplifies trying to calculate profit margins should you sell multiple items and offer reduced shipping on additional items - although one could make an argument that promoting shipping discounts could increase sales - who knows.

Getting back to eBay. I use them and they have many great advantages, but man they are sneaky about fees. I don't know if I've ever seen a corporation as large as they are nickel and dime so much. In some cases you could say it's downright unethical. For example, their automatic relisting feature where they claimed you could have your listing automatically renewed up to 3 times for free. What they wouldn't tell you is that the free upgrades they gave you when you initially created the listing could be charged upon automatic renewal (should the promotion no longer be in effect). I believe they have since changed the wording to include 'may be subject to fees', or something to that effect, since I'm sure many people bitched about it.

Now going back to the topic of 99 cent listings. I think it is only beneficial when 1) the item is a very popular item 2) you are a very established/popular seller. If the listing does not get many looks because the item is not popular or you're not popular then you can expect it to sell for under value more often than value and over value combined. The catch 22 is that to become popular you have to list starting at 99 cents. Or spend money advertising. The net effect is the same though: money out of pocket.

 

eBay takes a little from the shipping charge since sellers started charging 99 cents for an item and $50 to ship. Didn't take them long to figure it out.

 

I did not know they changed it since I have never charged shipping. I guess that explains why I no longer see $10 items with $20 shipping

 

It's brilliant, really. When I used to see someone with a $50 shipping charge, or someone that refused to combine shipping on items that would obviously combine into a small package, I just didn't buy that item. Which, from eBay's POV, means no sale and no commission. So, instead of making rules prohibiting abuse of the shipping and handling charge, take a fee off the top. Less work, more money. Sellers have no other really viable options, so they can complain all they want, but they will grin and bear it in the end.

 

I have plucked some coins worth 5x, 10x, 20x there worth on ebay. I will admit, it hasn;t happened in a bit, and is definitely getting more scarce. Usually more unknown rarities (not for example, a 1916-D Mercury) or bullion waaaaay under spot.

 

Between 1998 and 2011 I sold over 40,000 ebay items with a 99c start. Almost invariably they fetched a good price and sometimes a remarkably large price. Now and again a trivial price but I had devoted buyers who usually hoovered these up, and I was happy that a regular buyer got an occasional bargain because it kept them coming back.

There was no secret to this success, I just offered items that were worth buying (which is why I had such huge piles of mediocre stuff when I stopped ebay selling) and which were usually unique on ebay, or at least, in a category where everything found a ready buyer such as good coins and medals, as on topic examples.

The key is in the buying, you do not buy piles of mediocre stuff, you just buy the good stuff and if it comes with a pile of junk, that's not factored into the bid price, it comes free or it does not come at all.

Comments above by krispy are very pertinent. The low start bid meant the world and his dog would get a few bids in quite quickly, and by the time the bid level was what I'd call reasonable, the item had maybe 20 bids. A moment's thought would show the rational that most of these bids were trivial, but irrationally, it created the impression that there were a mob of people after the item and for people who were serious buyers, they were more liable to up their final bids to beat off this imagined competition. Hence bidding wars were more of less self generating.

Low starts for run of the mill stuff, often badly illustrated and with poor listings that deterred good buyers will not hack it any more, but for good items, well presented, and with minimal or no deterrents to buyers they should work as well as ever.

Good ways to drive away buyers are blocking international sales, using the GSP, not offering a comprehensive returns policy (this need cost nothing if you never get any returns by getting it right in the first place) and having any other terms and conditions of a hostile nature. Needless to say, the poor pictures and illiterate and inadequate descriptions that many sellers seem to be satisfied with are also big no-nos.

In short, low starts will work as well as the competence of the seller will allow.

PS. All that junk that was not good enough for ebay provided a ready stream of cash at flea markets after I stopped ebay selling, and taking a second look at it provided quite a lot of really good items I had simply missed first time around, I found a $1000 Bulgarian coin in a box of a few foreign coins a first look had missed because it did not look like anything special, and only recently I fished a $400 18 carat gold necklace out of a bunch of costume jewellery that I had stashed away as next to worthless rubbish.

 

This is all very interesting, but, I wonder if anyone has specifics, such as a 1909 S-VDB going for a low ball price, or a 1916-D Mercury going for 0.99 ? I have never seen a coin of this caliber being presented. But actually who would have the guts to post a high valued coin on auction for 0.99 ?

Dave

 

Why not sift through completed auctions and see what you turn up. Let us know what you find.

 

I've followed some auctions and usually the big ticket items go for what they are worth. i saw a svdb 66 rd sell for somewhere around 11-13.

 

The one time I did win a auction for a 1$$ the dealer said he will not sell the coin...

 

That certainly happens but there should have been detectable signs of assholiness in the listing or the seller's feedback to warn you. There should be now anyway if you left an appropriate comment

 

I sometimes will bid on a cheap starting price just so the auction will be first up on my screen. When it gets closer to ending if I think I can get it for a decent price I'll bid again. It bothers me when someone puts up a reserve on an item and no matter how much you bid, if no one bids against you, it never makes reserve. I finally gave up on a coin that I wanted a couple months ago for this reason. The auction ended without meeting reserve and when it relisted I bid again. Second time around it never got as high as the first and even less the third. Seems I wasn't the only one that lost interest.

 

Without an established base that follows your listings, it is very dangerous to run $0.99 no reserve auction listings. When I first created my store, I tried this approach with some coins valued under $100. I took a bath. When I see this approach on E-Bay, I just assume there is shill bidding taking place.

I changed my selling model to BIN or Best Offer. I list the coin at full retail and give the buyer ample room to negotiate a fair price for both parties.