Ebay problems

Discussion in 'Coin Chat' started by Obone, May 16, 2020.

  1. Obone

    Obone Well-Known Member

    Its a very frustrating feeling when you're watching your lots go and they're simply not getting anywhere close to what you've expected. On ebay, I see some guys do so well with raw foreign coins, wondering why that is? Is it just because they go through much more stuff?
    Some of my lots just went for pennies on the dollar IMO.
     
    YoloBagels and Inspector43 like this.
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  3. baseball21

    baseball21 Well-Known Member

    There's a simple fix to that, do BIN listings or set the minimum bid at the lowest you would accept.
     
  4. Obone

    Obone Well-Known Member

    I've started to do that. Thing is, when I insert listings as BIN, most stuff I got almost no view on. Not sure why that is...
     
  5. ddddd

    ddddd Member

    It depends on a number of factors.
    ~Big sellers who have developed a following do better
    ~Timing matters (auctions ending early in the morning usually don't do well)
    ~Quality of items...for most sellers, if it is a generic item then expect it to go less than similarly available buy-it-now listings
    ~If it's raw, a lot of people will be more hesitant (even for the cheaper items more people are starting to think it needs to be slabbed-even if that thinking isn't justified)

    If you want to still do auctions, try starting them at your minimum acceptable price (it might not work, but it also might...and this way you won't see items going for low bids).
     
    Muzyck and philologus_1 like this.
  6. baseball21

    baseball21 Well-Known Member

    Depends what it is, but eBay does play games with who can see what and what is shown in searches. Promoted and big sellers get priority as an example. If really no one is seeing it for long periods of time might be time to reconsider pricing if it's not an obscure item.
     
  7. JickyD

    JickyD Active Member

    No doubt that some buyers will pay more from the big sellers over smaller people. Kind of like the way people will over pay for coins from the Shopping Channel.
     
    Robert Ransom likes this.
  8. Obone

    Obone Well-Known Member

    Thats definitely true. I've had items with over 200 views, 20 watch go for half of what a similarly graded piece went for just a week ago
     
  9. Robert Ransom

    Robert Ransom Well-Known Member

    I have adopted pricing my items by setting a minimum auction starting price then relisting the item two or three more times at the same price. If it sells, great, if it doesn't, I resubmit a few months later. I seem to have better luck with auctions than straight listings where there could be hundreds of listings ahead of mine.
     
  10. Jeffjay

    Jeffjay Well-Known Member

    Bottom line is that EBay is a weird thing. I've bought and sold there for years and constantly shake my head at what I see going on with auctions and buy it now.
     
    Derrick Combs and Obone like this.
  11. Santinidollar

    Santinidollar Supporter! Supporter

    I’ve done a small bit of selling on eBay and had satisfactory results with make an offer.
     
  12. Hiddendragon

    Hiddendragon World coin collector

    I sell all raw foreign coins on eBay. It's a weird thing. Once in awhile you'll get one that will go for way more than it should, but that's offset by the ones that go for less than you think they should. And yes, you'll see other people selling worse coins for more money. It doesn't make sense. I almost always use buy it now unless I don't really know what something might be worth. I think sellers like buy it now better. I can't tell you how many times I'll list coins at auction and they don't sell, then I relist at buy it now at the same price and within a day or two they're all gone. You'll also learn though that some countries' coins are hot and some are cold. No matter what the price guide says, it might not reflect the actual market.
     
    Hookman likes this.
  13. Hiddendragon

    Hiddendragon World coin collector

    I mean to say buyers like buy it now better.
     
  14. muhfff

    muhfff Well-Known Member

    One reason I can imagine why the coins go cheap is not selling them outside US.
    When I browse world coins, there is more than often "Does not ship to ..." or "May not ship to ..." in the shipping information. It means, that I can't buy it, because seller wont ship it to me.
    And this is usually seller's loss, because most people collecting for example German coins live in Germany, people collecting Italian coins living in Italy and so on. Basically, if the coins are not sold to those who are most interested, the prices will be lower.
    In extreme cases the price difference can be quite significant. I can remember one medal sold for 35 dollars BIN (no international shipping), which found its way outside US later and was sold with over 2000 euros.
     
  15. baseball21

    baseball21 Well-Known Member

    Agreed especially since eBay has forced 5 day minimums for auctions. 3 days seemed to be the perfect length of people not losing interest and still finding it.

    But that said the majority of buyers do seem to prefer the BIN as they don't want to wait for the auction end and many buy more during an eBay bucks promotion which they can't do waiting for auctions.
     
  16. baseball21

    baseball21 Well-Known Member

    Most countries the risk of shipping for a US seller is much more than it's worth especially for high value coins such as South America, Italy, Africa, Middle East and so on.

    However, it is a bit foolish for sellers to not at least use the eBay global shipping program as all you have to do is mail the coin to Kentucky and then eBay covers it if something goes wrong. It's up to buyers if they want to pay the fees, but there really isn't a downside for sellers. Can also do a hybrid version where you ship to places like Canada, Australia, Germany, England or whatever you want and then everywhere else is the global program.
     
  17. KSorbo

    KSorbo Well-Known Member

    The only time I truly felt I got ripped selling at auction was on a certified U.K. jubilee sixpence. It was listed for sale in the US only and went for less than half of TMV. I’ve always come out fine on US coins.
     
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