What is your minimum amount for listing on ebay?

[clovis97]

Just out of curiosity:

What is your thresh hold for listing on ebay?

I've met people that will list 99 cent Buy It Now items (with actual shipping costs). I've met others that will not list anything on ebay for less than $99. I have a relative that won't list an item unless they can clear at least $200 in profit.

I've been all over the board, but as a rule, I don't list anything for less than 6.99, but I really don't like to list for less than $10.

I run the risk of being called a rookie, but I've had great success selling by piecing out stuff in the $10-$20 range, but these are generally easy items to list, and I have a quantity to sell. I recently bought some hard to find magazines at an estate sale. My relative, who also sells on ebay, called them "trash, and not worth listing". I bought 20 issues for $10, and sold every last one of them for $14.99 each, for a gross total of $299. It took us less than 2 hours to list these magazines.

What is your listing philosophy?

 

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[Beans]

I never start an auction at 99 cents, got burned once and will not do it again. One of biggest thing I consider is does the cost of shipping cost more then the Item I want to sell. $10 for shipping a $5 dollar item is not worth it. I only work in a couple of areas so I know what price I should ask that is fair to both me and the buyer. Like you most of my items are in lower range, but it adds up if you don't let the cost of postage eat away at your profits.

 

[diggummup]

I will list gold for .99 and let the market decide. I don't list anything for less than I want minimum for it. I try not to sell anything under $20 myself, but occasionally it happens. Time is my problem. It really depends on the item and the amount of time it will take to photograph, write a description and most importantly pack and ship it. Small items that I can throw in a small padded mailer and list quickly with a short description wouldn't be a problem. For me it's all about time, something I don't have much free of lately. I have several hundred small easy to list/ship items that would sell for between $5-$20 but I don't have the time to list them. I haven't even been able to have a garage sale to get rid of any of my low dollar stuff. Something I planned on having this month, not gonna happen.

 

[Iron Patch]

You name it, and I probably do it. I sell a ton all starting at 0.99, sometimes do higher starts, also do fixed price, and some times BINs with best offer. I have no problem if something sells for 0.99 because it doesn't happen too often, and almost never for something that's worth quite a bit more. I have a pretty basic system.... I sell hundreds of lower priced items per month as a base. With the money from that I buy more of it, in addition to some higher priced stuff that goes on as fixed price. With enough fixed price that too is a revenue stream, and when I have both rolling I can really go crazy on the buying, and that is when I seem to really see a good profit. It is usually a week or two later (after my buying frenzy for however long it lasts) when I have to regroup do I see where all the money is.

 

[GibH]

I try to list everything for the minimun I will take, but will list something starting at $.99 when I know there will be interest. I've gotten burned in the past too, but most things do sell for what they are worth or even higher. I wish I was knowledgable enough to only sell items I'd make $99-$200 profit on.

 

[Iron Patch]

I wish I was knowledgable enough to only sell items I'd make $99-$200 profit on.

I doubt there's many people doing that on a regular basis without having a substantial amount of money into it. And even if you do have the money tied up,obviously what you sell is valued in the hundreds, and usually stuff that expensive doesn't fly off the shelf. I could probably hit that % if I stuck to something like Spanish gold coins, but I'd probably have 10-20k into it by the time a few sold. I would like to work my way up to being able to do that but only if it can be supported with sales and not credit upon credit.

 

[cheese]

If I can't make a simple listing in a few minutes and clear $5, I usually pass. Exceptions would be where I maybe can get a lot of the same item and then sell them for less than $5 profit each, but use the same listing over and over. Sometimes I will do a .99 listing if it is a stale item. I recently had a little tensor lamp that was on BIN for $50 and no-one bought it for months. There were a lot of views and watchers though, so I sent it to auction for .99 and it sold for more than the BIN price that it was listed at for months prior. I have gotten "burned" a time or two, but only for a little, and they key is to make a lot more than you lose. Nobody is going to have a 100% success rate at making a profit on every item. Not if they do a lot of buying and selling.

 

[2ndisbest]

If I can't make a simple listing in a few minutes and clear $5, I usually pass. Exceptions would be where I maybe can get a lot of the same item and then sell them for less than $5 profit each, but use the same listing over and over. Sometimes I will do a .99 listing if it is a stale item. I recently had a little tensor lamp that was on BIN for $50 and no-one bought it for months. There were a lot of views and watchers though, so I sent it to auction for .99 and it sold for more than the BIN price that it was listed at for months prior. I have gotten "burned" a time or two, but only for a little, and they key is to make a lot more than you lose. Nobody is going to have a 100% success rate at making a profit on every item. Not if they do a lot of buying and selling.

I had two identical dishes I was trying to sell. I had only one listed at a buy it now price for three months with no takers. So I did it up for .99 cents and it sold for more than the buy it now price. So the next week I listed the second dish for .99 cents and it sold for half of what the first dish sold for.

Ebay can be a strange place. I try and figure it out, but it just hurts me head.

 

[Iron Patch]

I had two identical dishes I was trying to sell. I had only one listed at a buy it now price for three months with no takers. So I did it up for .99 cents and it sold for more than the buy it now price. So the next week I listed the second dish for .99 cents and it sold for half of what the first dish sold for.

Ebay can be a strange place. I try and figure it out, but it just hurts me head.

I've literally had something like that happen at least 100 times. A lot of sellers don't realize that it's sometimes better to let the bidders decide the value because they might estimate it to be much higher. The problem is you need two, which is why I like doing very high fixed price with best offer because then you only need one. Yesterday I sold something I had about $50 into, and when I listed it I thought.... is anyone going to pay me much over that, but it didn't stop me from putting it on for $195 and best offer and yesterday I got offered $130. There's a lot of people who would have listed it at maybe $95 as that's a fair profit, but if you don't try you'll never know, and the worse thing that happens is you drop the price. If buyers think you believe in a high price they just might too, but as you said it can also work the other way and an auction gets no momentum and falls flat. There's definitely no substitute for having a very good feel for the market for what you sell, otherwise you'll be guessing a lot which means sometimes you'll win and sometimes you lose.

 

[Baltimore]

My basic philosophy is make my money back. I try not to gamble on things, which makes for less money loss. The 99 cent thing has been super hit or miss for me, I've made a good profit but I've also lost more than I would have liked to. I've definitely learned not to play with the 99 cent idea if the item is not very hot.

 

[jerseyben]

The 99 cent option is usually a losing strategy for beginners or infrequent sellers with low feedback ratings. (Unless it is a rare item that doesn't hit the market often).

 

[jerseyben]

I will list gold for .99 and let the market decide. I don't list anything for less than I want minimum for it. I try not to sell anything under $20 myself, but occasionally it happens. Time is my problem. It really depends on the item and the amount of time it will take to photograph, write a description and most importantly pack and ship it. Small items that I can throw in a small padded mailer and list quickly with a short description wouldn't be a problem. For me it's all about time, something I don't have much free of lately. I have several hundred small easy to list/ship items that would sell for between $5-$20 but I don't have the time to list them. I haven't even been able to have a garage sale to get rid of any of my low dollar stuff. Something I planned on having this month, not gonna happen.

This basically sums up my opinion as well. $20 minimum and I only sell stuff that is easy to ship. I refuse to list anything that is too challenging or too fragile to ship. Time is money!

 

[dieselram94]

I will list at any price....that being said I always try to make at least a small profit on the shipping. I almost never sell a item that is hard to ship and I refuse to sell outside of the U.S. I start my auctions based on a gut feeling, and have done very well for the most part. I have even seen items on ebay and got the seller to place a buy it now price that I suggested, buy the item (really cheap) and turn right around and relist it and place a much higher buy it now price. Has worked every time!

 

[jerseyben]

I will list at any price....that being said I always try to make at least a small profit on the shipping. I almost never sell a item that is hard to ship and I refuse to sell outside of the U.S. I start my auctions based on a gut feeling, and have done very well for the most part. I have even seen items on ebay and got the seller to place a buy it now price that I suggested, buy the item (really cheap) and turn right around and relist it and place a much higher buy it now price. Has worked every time!

Diesel, I have had success by offering "free shipping" on BINs. I just add the price of shipping and fees into the total price. Works well, sometimes.

 

[dieselram94]

Diesel, I have had success by offering "free shipping" on BINs. I just add the price of shipping and fees into the total price. Works well, sometimes.

Jersey, I like that idea. I think I will try that with my next auction.

 

[northwoods]

The mags were a good find. I don't list anything unless I think I am going to make at least $5 profit on it. It's not worth my time for less than that. I may start the auction at .99 to save money on listing fees, if I know by looking at completed listings that similar items always end in a certain ballpark. Say, there are 20 completed listings for a certain collectible that all end between $15-20, I would have no problem listing the item at .99, as the item will end in the same $15-20 by auction end. I think if started the same item at $15, a certain percentage of the auctions would end without a bid. You would eventually sell it, but you may have to relist. Iam steering away from eBay. People don't like auctions as much anymore. I list on Amazon for most items, or Etsy for vintage items.

 

[Iron Patch]

The mags were a good find. I don't list anything unless I think I am going to make at least $5 profit on it. It's not worth my time for less than that. I may start the auction at .99 to save money on listing fees, if I know by looking at completed listings that similar items always end in a certain ballpark. Say, there are 20 completed listings for a certain collectible that all end between $15-20, I would have no problem listing the item at .99, as the item will end in the same $15-20 by auction end. I think if started the same item at $15, a certain percentage of the auctions would end without a bid. You would eventually sell it, but you may have to relist. Iam steering away from eBay. People don't like auctions as much anymore. I list on Amazon for most items, or Etsy for vintage items.

Much more a case for what you're selling than people not liking auctions anymore. In fact, many more people now list at fixed price, or higher starts, so when you run an auction for a desirable item starting at 0.99 you will definitely have lots of interest. Everyone out there seems to be looking for a deal so really don't understand how anyone could think people are more interested in paying a set price than bidding.

 

[dieselram94]

I have to agree auctions are as hot as ever...

 

[Iron Patch]

I have to agree auctions are as hot as ever...

As a very steady buyer I can say that is definitely my experience at the moment. The competition can be fierce, but when you squeeze out a few deals it's nice knowing it's going to be solid on the selling end as well.