I feel I might be listing my coins short of their value, has anyone else sold their coins on ebay? example: did I post this one for too little ? Sorry, links to your own auction are only permitted in the Auction Listings Forum, after you have made at least 10 non-selling posts. I had also posted my dime rolls and started at a penny one has risen to a wopping $2.00 while another is up to .11 the last one is still at a .01 oh my god what if thats all I get out of them. these are silver dime rolls . I'm starting to get worried that I made a mistake with selling coins on ebay
I don't have access to ebay at work. What are the shipping charges? I am just curious, as this is an ongoing pet peeve of mine. As for the price of the rolls, these are auctions. If you start the price too high, you risk scaring away people. If you start it too low, you risk selling it for below market value. This is what auctions are all about. If you are not comfortablee with this, then you should sell at a fixed price through another venue. As for the postage cost, I am dying to know what you listed. Any bidder who has a brain will look at what they are willing to pay in total for an item, then deduct the postage, and then the result will be their high bid. Too many sellers (and even some bidders) ignore postage costs and expect bidders to bid to a fair price in the auction and THEN pay postage on top. This is rediculous. For most bidders, every dime that a seller overcharges in postage is a dime they will not bid for the item itself. My favorite example of a bad seller are ones who force you to use premium servioces. For example, I have bought items that the seller would only ship by Priority Mail for $4 or so. He could have shipped for 60 cents if he had been flexible. Had he shipped for 60 cents, that is 3.40 more that I would have been willing to bid on the item itself, but because he insisted on PM I lowered my bid by that 3.40. That extra money wenrt to the Post OPffice, not the seller. I can usually tell when a seller on eBay is not also a buyer. Their terms are usually unreasonable. My adviose to anyone selling on ebay is to do some small buying first (or at least carefully monitor some auctions). They will learn what buyers want and expect, and that will make them a better seller.
undercats, I've done about 1300 hundred deals on ebay. Your shipping is hurting your bid. I bid on these but took into consideration the shipping amount verse the melt value of the 90% coins. So there both right your putting money into the pocket of the U.S. postal service. You can mail a roll of dimes in a padded envelope first class for about $3.00 bucks. Why would anyone send something of value parcel post its just a few cents cheaper than Priority or First class and the packages are thrown around like baseballs on a playground...........................Well maybe not that bad but they get tossed around pretty bad. I'm selling lots of a thousand wheats and the lots weighs about 7 LBS each. I ship those out flat rate Priority box at $7.70 anywhere in the nation. That hurts my bids but it is as cheap as I can ship that much weight, but I also combine lots to save my customers shipping. *I'm sending off two lots in one box today, thats 14lbs for $7.70 the guy knew by me combining shipping he could bid another $5 or $6 bucks and still come out ahead. Hope this helps you rethink your shipping policy. and if I bid to win these will you combine them into say that flat rate priority box. I'd bid more that way. bluesmanmoney
I suspect that you have just started selling coins after getting a lot of experience selling other things. Coins are much different from many other things successfully sold on EBay. There is a very large pool of knowledgeable buyers, who won't bid unless they get clear photographs and complete accurate descriptions. Serious collectors are very aware of postage costs, and avoid sellers whose charges appear to be a backdoor to more profit, or at least reduce their bids as JBK points out. Many coins have no particular numismatic value, and are basically worth their instrinsic metal value, but Many other coins have little or no instrinsic value, but potentially huge numismatic value. If you aren't knowledgeable about the particular coin(s) you are offering you will either overprice them and get no bids, or underprice them and leave significant value on the table. Most collectors specialize, and a bunch of coins that aren't even identified as to country of origin are not likely to attract their bids. Considering the weight of your item - a whole box of unidentified coins in 2x2s -, perhaps your S/H isn't "grossly" excessive, but usually coins can be shipped by first class mail at much less cost than the minimum parcel post, UPS or Fedex charge. As far as 1¢ starting bids go, there are many successful sellers who start all their auctions there, including the ones for valuable gold coins or true rarities that sell for thousands of dollars. But, they attract knowledgeable buyers by providing multiple clear pictures, detailed descriptions, and in most cases having first established their reputation as sellers of high quality coins. Please forgive my bluntness, but you did ask.
I have sold a couple of fine grade 1931s Lincoln cents on ebay and was satisfied at the sales price. When I post something I always post it at the very least I could take. Good quality coins with good pictures will usually bring close to market, especially the key dates. Coarse we all know that the reason people are drawn to auctions is to "get a good buy". The reason most sell at auction is because they don't have a retail outlet and can usually get more from an auction than they can from a dealer who has to be able to have a markup.
