I buy world coins out of dealer's junk bins and I resell the ones that I don't need for my collection on eBay. For most of them I have a set low price that I sell them for as buy it now, but I put aside the better coins until I have a group of them to sell as an auction. So a few months ago I did one of these auction sales and it went really well. People were bidding days ahead of time, often with multiple bids, and many listings had several watchers. Many of the coins had multiple bidders, and just about everything that got a bid sold for a decent amount more than I asked for it. Fast forward to today (Sunday) when I had another auction ending. I just had a feeling this one was going to be a dud. First of all, my buy it now sales have been slow all week. While there might not seem to be a connection, I've noticed that I sell in bunches and then have slow periods. I have a theory that eBay does something to display my listings more prominently sometimes and then not do so at other times. And I've been watching my listings, and a few had one bid as the week went on, but none had multiple bids, even into the day the auctions ended. When they finally ended, I did sell a bunch, but every single auction except for one only had the one bid, and several coins that were priced to sell in my opinion got no bids. Even though several listings had watchers, they didn't bid. Here's a great example. Both these coins are 1915 Mexican 1 centavos, Zapata versions. This is a key date and the book value in XF is $30. The first one pictured here was sold at my first auction. It has been cleaned, has damage, and I admit didn't have the best photo because I was still trying to figure out my new scanner. Yet this got 13 bids and sold for $21.56. Coin number two is a much better version of the same coin. Better condition, not cleaned, no damage besides normal wear. I started this listing at $15 and got one watcher and no bids. How does this make any sense? Why do the auctions do great one time and bomb the next?
All it takes for a good auction is two people who really want the item. If one or both find what they're after or lose interest, well....
Reminds me of what one poster in the Bullion Forum said about the fluctuations in the price of gold being unpredictable unlike the stock market...
It could simply be that multiple people were looking for that Mexican coin at the time of your first auction and now they all have acquired an example, given up, or just were not looking. There might also be something in the ebay formula where they promoted your listings the first time but didn't this time. Personally, I have also noticed reduced ebay sales (nothing sold in a few weeks now). Maybe it's just a slow September?
There is probably many factors in where E-Bay displays your item. Your items could be trending so E-Bay pushes those listings to the front of the page. Two days later another item may be trending and you don't have one of those items for sale. E-Bay's software evaluates all sorts of shopping data to come up with where a seller's item appears in searches. You can increase your visibility with more listings.
Along the same lines I have two accounts wherein I sell the same basic coins, and one account sells about 5 times as many coins as the other one. I know eBay is doing something to make this happen, but I don't know what.
Interesting perspective. The first coin really didn't look nice at all. I was afraid the buyer was going to return it.
Not to change the subject, but what is the difference between the Zapata issue and the regular issue? Chris
Ebay has done this to me too. I have been selling things since about 5 years ago. Seems like there are small periods of time through the year when less buyers are looking at my items or maybe those certain buyers in the market for the items have already acquired the item when I listed it... Multiple factors. But I do have a new theory nowadays that most ebayers actually prefer the Buy It Now function rather than worrying about being overbid on items. Things like their own schedules, work times or even sleep times could have a significant effect on successfully receiving bids. 2-5 years ago I'd always receive a bid shortly after listing something.. however now it is about maybe a 20-40% rate of actually getting a bid within a week on items I list. Not to go too off topic (this isn't about a coin) there was a video game that we had in the house for years, sealed brand new. Some of that exact one sold for between $140-$170 in plastic wrapping, we started the bid on our game for $120. It sat for 2 weeks. No sale. Days later someone listed the same game sealed for $159.99 Buy It Now (while our listing is STILL UP!), and sold almost immediately. At the time we thought there was no excuse why ours did not sell. Just something to think about.
The Zapata issue is smaller. You can't tell which is which from a picture so you need the seller to know what they have.
Regular issue is 20 mm with a mintage of 2,277,000 and the Zapata is a one year only at 16 mm and 179,000 mintage.
For a lot of items I think buy it now makes sense because I agree that people want it when they want it. And most of the special listing promotions eBay sends are for buy it now, so they obviously want to encourage people to list that way. I list most of my coins that way now. But you want to sell things at auction that you're not sure what price you'll get for them. Theoretically those get more attention because people are hoping to get a deal. Still, there's definitely things going on behind the scenes that determine how many people see your listings, and I feel like if you're not a top seller then you're at a disadvantage.
Ebay is an odds game. What are the odds that a given buyer will see your coin and buy it? On a given week in September maybe that buyer will be sick with the flu, have to take his kid to college, or attend a funeral in another state. Result: No sale. The next week after your listing expired, he is back and looking to buy the coin. Result: He buys it from someone else. Multiply this by 1000 possible buyers. Result: You can't predict when a coin (or something else) will sell. Ebay's job is to put eyes on your item, thousands of eyes. Have they done their job? Probably because they are still in business. Have they done their job for your item? In light of the circumstances I mentioned above, probably...
