A Question For you Ebay Sellers.

[diggummup]

What is the most people you have had "watching" an item and then have it not get a single bid? For me it's 6. I got a couple things ending tonight, one is a cookie jar with 9 watchers and not a bid yet, so we'll see in another hour or so.

[Customx_12]

I once had 12 but no bids. It wasn't a very rare item so I think most of the watchers were people that had one of their own they were considering selling and wanted to see how much it would go for. I've had 9-10 before with no bids until the last 5 minutes. People are afraid to "spotlight" the item by bidding and drawing attention to it early on.

[diggummup]

Well it didn't sell. It's a hard to find Cookie jar, and that particular one only shows up once every couple years or so from my research. One sold for $65.00 in 1998 and recently one sold for well over $100.00 several months back so, whatever. I relisted it for $10 less. I paid less than $5 for it so I can't complain, as long as i'm making a large profit percentage, it's all good.

[Charmin]

Probably 6 watchers or so without a bid for me...Wouldn't it be nice if ebay had an option of "are you watching this item as a buyer or as a seller?" and split the two up. Then we could see who was watching what and why!
I think the most watchers I've ever had on an item was like 27 and only 3 or 4 people ending up bidding on the item. So, I kinda figure that a majority of those watchers was someone who was thinking of selling the same item as mine.

[creeper71]

Well it didn't sell. It's a hard to find Cookie jar, and that particular one only shows up once every couple years or so from my research. One sold for $65.00 in 1998 and recently one sold for well over $100.00 several months back so, whatever. I relisted it for $10 less. I paid less than $5 for it so I can't complain, as long as i'm making a large profit percentage, it's all good.

what is the cookie jar an who made it?

[krazyace]

What is the most people you have had "watching" an item and then have it not get a single bid? For me it's 6. I got a couple things ending tonight, one is a cookie jar with 9 watchers and not a bid yet, so we'll see in another hour or so.

Holidays are bad days to end auctions, they may have been busy and forgot about it.

[hombre_de_plata_flaco]

Probably 6 or 7.

[diggummup]

Well it didn't sell. It's a hard to find Cookie jar, and that particular one only shows up once every couple years or so from my research. One sold for $65.00 in 1998 and recently one sold for well over $100.00 several months back so, whatever. I relisted it for $10 less. I paid less than $5 for it so I can't complain, as long as i'm making a large profit percentage, it's all good.

what is the cookie jar an who made it?

It's a Schnauzer cookie jar made by California Originals.

Holidays are bad days to end auctions, they may have been busy and forgot about it.

That's true, I didn't even think about that. Memorial day is not a day that I actually "celebrate", in the form that so many do. It's more like a somber day of rememberance for me.

[goverton]

people that are watching with no bids on auction
1. watchers just curious as to how much an item may go for so
they can list theirs on ebay according to amount sold for.
2. or they may be waiting for first bid and at end of auction bid a
low amount to steal an item.

[SEANO]

Nine!

[SCdigger]

I had a Swiss made mechanical stopwatch that quickly went to just over $20...bidding stopped, but view count and watchers soared...over 70 views and a 16+ watchers...I KNEW at auction's close there was going to be some sniping and that final price would jump...it didn't...final sale price was $24.49. That was fine, I made plenty on it, but thought it should have at least doubled that...and with all the watchers, I figured that some of those had some late interest in it.

GT

[diggummup]

I had a Swiss made mechanical stopwatch that quickly went to just over $20...bidding stopped, but view count and watchers soared...over 70 views and a 16+ watchers...I KNEW at auction's close there was going to be some sniping and that final price would jump...it didn't...final sale price was $24.49. That was fine, I made plenty on it, but thought it should have at least doubled that...and with all the watchers, I figured that some of those had some late interest in it.

GT

I had the same thing happen with a metal detector and a juicer, the same week. Each had over 70 watchers (most ever) and several hundred views a piece, and they did end up selling well, but nothing spectacular at the end as far as sniping goes. The best item I listed when it came to sniping was a Sterling Gucci bracelet that I found with my detector down in the Keys. It went from a $30 something to over $200 in the last 30 seconds. I was hooting and hollering all over the house. LOL

[JD-GA]

Not sure why so many folks list their items high. List the sucker low and either let it ride or if you get skeered end it early and dont sell. The idea on ebay is to get a small group of people bidding. Get their competitiveness ramped up and let them out bid each other and over pay.

A good example--- I had a new in box mens hot lather shaving system. It was $90 brand new and I picked it up at a yard sale for $2. The others like it listed on Ebay were BUY IT NOW for 89.00 or the cheap ones were $49.99 plus $30 shipping yada yada. Those never received a bid and those sellers had 1000s of feedback compared to my few dozen feedback. I listed mine on a 5 day sell ending on the weekend for a starting bid of .99c and the shipping was $4.95 flat rate. It had 7 watchers on day one with no bids, day 2 I had 13 watchers and 3 bidders, by day 5 I had 34 watchers and 16 unique bidders and the lather machine sold for $110. The machines that started with high bids never even sold and they were better deals than mine. My buyer could have gotten the same thing at many stores for less than mine, with a warranty.

If you arent getting bids...........give them a reason to bid..........because it takes common sense to stop bidding and many do not have ample supply of it.

[jerseyben]

Not sure why so many folks list their items high. List the sucker low and either let it ride or if you get skeered end it early and dont sell. The idea on ebay is to get a small group of people bidding. Get their competitiveness ramped up and let them out bid each other and over pay.

A good example--- I had a new in box mens hot lather shaving system. It was $90 brand new and I picked it up at a yard sale for $2. The others like it listed on Ebay were BUY IT NOW for 89.00 or the cheap ones were $49.99 plus $30 shipping yada yada. Those never received a bid and those sellers had 1000s of feedback compared to my few dozen feedback. I listed mine on a 5 day sell ending on the weekend for a starting bid of .99c and the shipping was $4.95 flat rate. It had 7 watchers on day one with no bids, day 2 I had 13 watchers and 3 bidders, by day 5 I had 34 watchers and 16 unique bidders and the lather machine sold for $110. The machines that started with high bids never even sold and they were better deals than mine. My buyer could have gotten the same thing at many stores for less than mine, with a warranty.

If you arent getting bids...........give them a reason to bid..........because it takes common sense to stop bidding and many do not have ample supply of it.

You can end an auction early and not sell an item? Please explain.

[diggummup]

You can end an auction early and not sell an item? Please explain.

Go to your selling page and on the right hand side in the column that says "Sell Similar" and beneath that "more actions", well click on more actions and you'll see "end item", click that and go from there. You'll see options for the reason your ending the auction, like this-


Select a reason for ending your listing early. The reason will appear on the Closed Item page.

The item is no longer available for sale.
There was an error in the listing.
There was an error in the starting price or reserve amount.
The item was lost or broken.

Pick one and voilà.

[SCdigger]

I had a Swiss made mechanical stopwatch that quickly went to just over $20...bidding stopped, but view count and watchers soared...over 70 views and a 16+ watchers...I KNEW at auction's close there was going to be some sniping and that final price would jump...it didn't...final sale price was $24.49. That was fine, I made plenty on it, but thought it should have at least doubled that...and with all the watchers, I figured that some of those had some late interest in it.

GT

I had the same thing happen with a metal detector and a juicer, the same week. Each had over 70 watchers (most ever) and several hundred views a piece, and they did end up selling well, but nothing spectacular at the end as far as sniping goes. The best item I listed when it came to sniping was a Sterling Gucci bracelet that I found with my detector down in the Keys. It went from a $30 something to over $200 in the last 30 seconds. I was hooting and hollering all over the house. LOL

The sniping bids are actually pretty exciting...if they happen...had some silver dollars that were sitting on about $75 with a few seconds to go...I refreshed the page...bam! $159 closing bid. Had 32 Xbox games just sat on about $20...same thing, refreshed at the end, bam! $51.

[goverton]

I found the easiest way to buy on ebay......BID the MOST you would pay and then don't worry about it.
I have gotten several items that way because "Snipers" did not bid enough to out bid me and I did not have to pay
the highest price I bidded this way.

[cyberdan]

I have gotten several items that way because "Snipers" did not bid enough to out bid me and I did not have to pay the highest price I bidded this way.

Don't you just hate snipers?
That is the only way I bid. I have even been known to snipe/bid 99¢ on an item that starts at 99¢. I don't want to bid early and give other people the idea on bidding on it also. If I win fine, if I don't, no big deal, another auction will be by tomorrow. I have never gotten into a bidding war and don't plan to. If someone wants to overpay I will let them.

[Customx_12]

I have gotten several items that way because "Snipers" did not bid enough to out bid me and I did not have to pay the highest price I bidded this way.

Don't you just hate snipers?
That is the only way I bid. I have even been known to snipe/bid 99¢ on an item that starts at 99¢. I don't want to bid early and give other people the idea on bidding on it also. If I win fine, if I don't, no big deal, another auction will be by tomorrow. I have never gotten into a bidding war and don't plan to. If someone wants to overpay I will let them.

I'm not sure what you're buying but if other people aren't paying $.99 for it, perhaps you too are overpaying.

[heartslayer2001]

I had put a book up for auction , had 24 watchers, book did not sell. i kinda quit ebayin, just for the fact that it really gets expensive to ship items and ebays thought process on it does not work for me. I sold a book to a buyer in california, i figured i could ship it to him for 5.00 economy shipping, well ebay says , no you can't, you need to ship for 4.00 so i lost on the shipping it costs , 6.38 to ship it economy. I did sell a few things , but then had one guy, who i did not think could read, give me a bad feedback, i tried for 1 1/2 weeks to get ahold of this person to make it right and nothing, ebay did nothing. Problem was he did not read the description of the book i sold. said in feedback, wasn't as described. Boy i tell you that got me so mad, i quit ebay. When they (ebay) only cares about the buyer and not the seller its sad. The descrption plus the pics showed all the damage , explanation was right on and this person gives bad fb, for abook he paid 2.99 for and it costs me 4.00 to ship. tee'd me off. ebay su_ks.