Ebay Bidding Question

Once I a while I list coins on ebay with a starting bid of $0.99 and a BIN price that is still a sweet deal. I have noticed almost every time I do that, I get a $0.99 cent bid from someone pretty quickly. It cancels out the BIN feature when they do that. I can tell the bidder has no real intention of seriously bidding on the coin since they usually get outbid by someone else for a small amount over their bid. Do some people bid like this just to take away the BIN option in hopes the bidding will end below the BIN price? Do some do it just to mess with people's auction since they aren't seriously bidding? I really wish Ebay would allow bids on a coin while keeping the BIN price intact until the bidding reaches the BIN price. That way if someone is willing to pay the full price and others arwnt, they can still get it.

 

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Have you posed that question to eBay? Maybe they will change their policy.

Chris

 

No I haven't. I doubt my one single voice would make any difference. I know there is a place on their policy page where they explain that it is the way it is. I just wish you could have two options at once.

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I doubt there is any reason a bidder is trying to get your BIN removed. It's more likely they are just entering a bid in hopes of winning it for a very small amount (it happens). Also, you really don't know what the bidder entered in for their bid. Since they are the first bidder, it will only go to .99 until someone else bids.

Simple, just set a reserve price or start the opening bid at a higher amount..

 

People bid 99c because they are hoping for a bargain or they want to track the auction. They don't expect to win, just like you don't expect your item to sell for 99c even though you set that as the minimum bid.

If they allowed a BIN after bids have been placed, that would be the equivalent to cancelling everyone's bids and ending the auction early.

 

You can tell what their max bid is whenever they get outbid by someone else. Usually the first bid on any of my coins is always by someone who only bid $0.99 and never raises their price. I wonder what kind of luck they have building this way getting coins for $0.99 when they are worth a lot more than that. I don't use reserves because I don't like to bid on auctions with reserves. I think it scares people away. I have seen many coins up for auction where nobody will bid on it when they see a reserve on the auction

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But if someone is willing to pay full price up front shouldn't that be allowed over the people who want to pay less?

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That's the risk you take starting at $.99.

 

You won't ever know until you try. eBay's policies have undergone many changes over the years, and most of them have been due to user feedback. For all you know, there may be countless others who have voiced the same opinion as you.

Chris

 

Not in an auction environment...
What if the bidding goes twice as much as the BIN? Would you expect the winner of the auction to only have to pay whatever the BIN was? Would you return the difference? lol

 

Yes. People see reserve auctions and usually don't bother unless they absolutely HAVE to have it. Let me ask you this... Have a 99 cent bid ever killed the BIN option and then it sells higher than your original BIN?

 

No but if the bidding reaches the Buy It Now price then that person could be the winner. You as a seller take the risk that it could have been at higher but you lost out the difference. It's always a risk and reward game. If you choose to list it that way then you know that it can't go higher than your Buy It Now price. If you want to see how high it can go then you just put it on pure auction. I haven't sold enough on Ebay to really have strong opinions one way or another but I am just thinking about ways I wish I could list items on eBay.

 

I know some auctions the BIN will stay even if there are bids. For example, starting bid is $.99 and the buy it now is $300, the buy it now will stay there until the bids reach a certain amount. I've seen coins like that all the time. Don't know what the % has to be for the BIN to be removed.

I usually bid early so my phone will remind me when an item is ending. I don't want to bid too much early as I want to try and win the coin for as little as possible.

 

I know there is some percentage where this works, but usually only on higher priced coins. I dont have higher priced coins. Why not just add it to your watch list instead of bidding small?

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It'll alert me twice when I bid on something. Once at 15 minutes left, another at 5 minutes left.

Watched items I only get one 15 minute reminder.

 

I think a BIN option will remain until a reserve price is met. If there is no reserve price, then the BIN option goes away as soon as the first bid is placed.

Without the reserve price, then the bidding would never go above the BIN price if it remained an option until bidding exceeded the BIN price. Let's say you have a $0.99 start and a BIN of $30. Once the bidding goes up to $29, why would anyone put a bid for $30 when they could still BIN for $30? Or, what if the bidding was at $29.25, why bid $30.25 when you could BIN for $30? I suspect that's why the BIN option disappears after the first bid is placed on an auction without a reserve price.

As for cancelling out people's bid with a BIN. Why not? It's not like the bidders didn't know BIN was an option from the start. It's like a "best offer" situation. You list your bike for sale on a bulletin board for $200 OBO and if a few people offer less than $200 and someone comes along and offers $200 - Sold! Too bad for the people who offered less than $200.

 

I place small bids ALL the time to track the coins better. I get more updates and reminders when I am actually participating in an auction versus just leaving it in my watch list.

I only do this when I am REALLY interested in the coin though and dont want to forget it. Plus then I can easily track what happened to it from my Did Not Win menu again versus trying to scroll through pages of watched coins that keep getting relisted.

Its just another way to skin that same old cat in my opinion.

 

Sometimes, just for fun, I search for very generic terms like "look", "one", "1", "the", "a", "lot", etc. Then I filter the results to $0.99 or less and free shipping. I've won a few poorly listed items for $0.99 that way.

This is just something I do for fun on FeeBay. I keep my most successful search techniques secret.

 

You can never tell with most bidders on Ebay. But I agree with you on your observation. My suggestion would be to start the auction for
price minimum you are willing to sell it at. This way if it sells it will not be no less than you offer price. And you still make your money. Ebay is not a very good place to sell at .99 cent start if your item is not a hot list item or something many will feast on so to speck. You must compete with millions of people so your listings and titles must pop! This could also play a huge part in .99 cent auctions taking off or selling for better realized prices. The more see your post, the greater the outcome in selling better. Ebay rules change daily. And you must keep up with those changes.

Also you can reserve it and the buyer has to bid up to the your reserve price to be able to purchase. But Ebay do charge fees for reserve auctions depending on the amount in reserve (a cruel shame ) When you see low ball bidding activity you should take note to put them on your block list to maintain a better outcome on your auctions in the future. Ebay is over ran with shill bidding, frauds, garage sale rejected items and gauged over priced items that sell for far to much in my opinion. You are a success because of honesty, loyalty, and offering fair market prices. I encourage you to keep p the good work and stay on top of the trends. You will do better. I am cheering you on.

 

Never block a bidder for this reason.