eBay Listings...When Do You Throw in the Towel?...Ever?

[bethnbijoux]

Okay, so I am new to eBay and I would like to get your opinion. I also don't have tons of patience so your advice will help me become a better seller!

At what point do you decide your listing is a dud? Do you just continue to relist something UNTIL it finally sells? Do you have a set schedule for reducing the price of your items? Or maybe you pull something (like a Christmas item that didn't sell) and you just hold it and relist it next Christmas?

Thanks in advance for chiming in! All of you have already helped me so much!

 

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[calisdad]

Have you checked the 'completed listings' tab to see if your expectations are realistic? Sometimes free shipping helps move things along.

 

[bethnbijoux]

Have you checked the 'completed listings' tab to see if your expectations are realistic? Sometimes free shipping helps move things along.

I've been playing around with that... I have tried listing an item first for the price I WANT to get plus buyer pays shipping (for a 7 day listing). Then if it doesn't sell, I try listing it with free shipping and/or a lower price. Some items I have listed at .99 cents just to move product out the door.

I am still trying to find my "niche," but also getting the feel for running things in a business-like manner.

 

[Iron Patch]

That I think is one of those problems that's strangely harder to deal with selling on a low level compared to a high one.... and maybe because there's more time to think about each item. My ebay runs much the same as a real store... I sell the usual stuff week to week, some of the slow moving stuff, and the other slow moving stuff just sits there. And like a regular store at some point I'll just do a sale and clear out all the dead stuff, and probably break even on it, but is good to have the cash and see it gone. All that said, my plans for the future is to keep building so I may drop the price but I'll probably stick to my guns on almost everything to make at least a small profit, even on the worst items. If you have enough to sell it's very beneficial to have a store because you can tie up things and wait, and do it for a very low fee per month.

 

[GrizLeeBear]

It really depends on what you are selling. A used laptop is just that. A roll of silver dimes is a different animal. Are other items of the type you are selling getting bids? To get bids I always find three things to be important. You must include pictures. They need to be in focus and reasonably show the condition of the item. The write up must be complete and well written. Your deal must be fair and reasonable. Look for items similar to yours that have bids and see what they are doing different. I list it once. If it does not sell I reduce price once. If it still does not sell I either list it for one cent to get the bidding going, or if I do not want to dump it, I set it aside for a month and then try again. Sometimes it is just timing. When I go to list it again I search to see what the competition is. If there are ten just like yours for sale, wait another week.

 

[clovis97]

Yes, I agree that it depends on the item that you are selling.

What is it, or what type of product is it that are you having a hard time selling?

 

[jerseyben]

I have thrown in the towel on a few items in the past. Those items either got donated or thrown in the trash. Lessons learned (the hard way).

 

[apush]

You never know what people want and when they will want it--or better yet, when they will be viewing ebay. Last week I had a pair of jeans up for $19.97 plus shipping. Paid $1.00 for the jeans. No takers. Then, I listed them at $9.97 plus shipping and ended up with a bid of 24.00. You just never know.
apush

 

[bethnbijoux]

You all are so helpful! Thanks for sharing your words of advice!!

Clovis97, I was just wondering in general, not on any specific item. I guess it kind of makes me crazy because sometimes it seems like there is no rhyme or reason to what sells and what doesn't

 

[diggummup]

You never know what people want and when they will want it--or better yet, when they will be viewing ebay. Last week I had a pair of jeans up for $19.97 plus shipping. Paid $1.00 for the jeans. No takers. Then, I listed them at $9.97 plus shipping and ended up with a bid of 24.00. You just never know.
apush

I've done the same many times. Item won't sell at auction. List BIN and it sells for a higher price than the original auction start price, go figure. Some people just don't like to wait. That being said, I do a "clean up" once or twice a year and get rid of alot of extra low dollar stuff at my own garage sale, what doesn't sell, gets donated.

 

[jerseyben]

I've done the same many times. Item won't sell at auction. List BIN and it sells for a higher price than the original auction start price, go figure. Some people just don't like to wait. That being said, I do a "clean up" once or twice a year and get rid of alot of extra low dollar stuff at my own garage sale, what doesn't sell, gets donated.

Diggum, please let us know when you have your annual clean up sale. Pics and stories, please. I really enjoyed reading about last year's sale and I'm sure everyone else did as well. Thanks!

 

[Dan]

Try grouping 'dud' items with something related.. sometimes a 'collection' sells better.

 

[Iron Patch]

You all are so helpful! Thanks for sharing your words of advice!!

Clovis97, I was just wondering in general, not on any specific item. I guess it kind of makes me crazy because sometimes it seems like there is no rhyme or reason to what sells and what doesn't

Believe me, a person can drive them self crazy trying to repeat a pattern on ebay. I've literally spent hours deciding how best to do things, and even though I did come out with a basic format combining auctions and fixed price listing, I learned by far the biggest factor in being successful, at least for me, is being very busy. That might seem like an obvious statement but there's a certain momentum that comes with that, and the more stuff that goes through your hands, the more pleasant surprises you'll probably get. Now all that is assuming you have the experience to do it, because that is like the site is to detecting, and the act of selling the item more comparable to hearing the beep and digging the hole. The problem for many who detect is paying way too much attention to what detector, but never open a book or look at an old map to research a site. Unfortunately experience in flipping is not quite that easy, and is what everyone lacks to some degree because no one knows everything about everything... but if you know a little about a lot, that can take you a long way, and is the point to where I got myself now. Given I've now spent over a decade doing this I sort of feel like I should be an expert in something, which I am not not, but have often thought about putting the time in to get there because I do have the avenues to do it. But the more I think about it, the more I feel it doesn't matter, because even if I expand my knowledge about one item I don't really think it would make me much more money compared to the time it would take to do it. With that said, I think in this business an expert in being crafty might actually be what helps people the most, and even though the big boys with the deep pockets will step on you here and there, as they do to me, if you stick your nose in many fights you'll come out the winner plenty of times. Now does this post prove a point, or teach a lesson, probably not, but it was something to do while drinking my first coffee of the day.

 

[jerseyben]

Believe me, a person can drive them self crazy trying to repeat a pattern on ebay. I've literally spent hours deciding how best to do things, and even though I did come out with a basic format combining auctions and fixed price listing, I learned by far the biggest factor in being successful, at least for me, is being very busy. That might seem like an obvious statement but there's a certain momentum that comes with that, and the more stuff that goes through your hands, the more pleasant surprises you'll probably get. Now all that is assuming you have the experience to do it, because that is like the site is to detecting, and the act of selling the item more comparable to hearing the beep and digging the hole. The problem for many who detect is paying way too much attention to what detector, but never open a book or look at an old map to research a site. Unfortunately experience in flipping is not quite that easy, and is what everyone lacks to some degree because no one knows everything about everything... but if you know a little about a lot, that can take you a long way, and is the point to where I got myself now. Given I've now spent over a decade doing this I sort of feel like I should be an expert in something, which I am not not, but have often thought about putting the time in to get there because I do have the avenues to do it. But the more I think about it, the more I feel it doesn't matter, because even if I expand my knowledge about one item I don't really think it would make me much more money compared to the time it would take to do it. With that said, I think in this business an expert in being crafty might actually be what helps people the most, and even though the big boys with the deep pockets will step on you here and there, as they do to me, if you stick your nose in many fights you'll come out the winner plenty of times. Now does this post prove a point, or teach a lesson, probably not, but it was something to do while drinking my first coffee of the day.

You don't even consider yourself to be an expert in coins?

 

[Iron Patch]

You don't even consider yourself to be an expert in coins?

Heck no. I know the basics, and from years of doing it I have a pretty good sense of what things sell for, but I'm definitely not an expert. I do know experts for several of the different types of things I sell and I'm a long way from being there. But you have to realize that getting to that level really isn't much different than school because it just takes time with lots of reading & studying. But as long as a person can interpret information and reference material correctly it can take you a long way. Let's say me vs an expert on CT coppers, 1787, the year with over 300 varieties. I can pretty much always ID one as long as the detail is decent and it's easy to compare, but this can take some time and last week I spent over an hour to figure one out. But the expert would have recognized right away where in the list it would be, and would have had an ID in probably a minute. Now does that really matter, no, because it's just time. But what does count is the experts are usually pretty involved in buying the coins, and can very accurately value them and know what to spend. Luckily with CTs there's a ton of sales to google so that helps someone like me, but it's not always that easy. Plus prices really change and what happened 5 years ago can be very different now, for better or for worse and an old sale you have to take with a grain of salt. So there is a big advantage to being an expert, and not surprisingly the ones I do know have pretty deep pockets for the stuff so when you see they have interest there's really no point in going after that item. In other words there's no point in beating the same guys you plan to sell to. It's funny because it's a total love hate relationship... they kill some deals for me buying, but once I have the item they can be my favorite people in the world.

 

[dejapooh]

You never know what people want and when they will want it--or better yet, when they will be viewing ebay. Last week I had a pair of jeans up for $19.97 plus shipping. Paid $1.00 for the jeans. No takers. Then, I listed them at $9.97 plus shipping and ended up with a bid of 24.00. You just never know.
apush

Not unusual at all. I get a lot of watchers, as soon as I get a bid, the bids start rolling in. Its the first bid that is the hardest.

In general what I do is list things at about 80% of what I expect they will go for. If there are no bids, but a lot of watchers, I will lower the price 10% and try again. That usually gets a bid. If there are few watchers, I lower the start to $.99 and get it out the door. Move product... That's my motto.

 

[dejapooh]

You don't even consider yourself to be an expert in coins?

As soon as you consider yourself an expert, the trouble begins...

 

[2ndisbest]

Not unusual at all. I get a lot of watchers, as soon as I get a bid, the bids start rolling in. Its the first bid that is the hardest.

In general what I do is list things at about 80% of what I expect they will go for. If there are no bids, but a lot of watchers, I will lower the price 10% and try again. That usually gets a bid. If there are few watchers, I lower the start to $.99 and get it out the door. Move product... That's my motto.

I am not saying you are wrong but I do have a counter story.

I bought a lot of flatware and it was real obscure stuff. Like I saw 1 fork for sale on ebay 2 years ago during a google search. Anyway I listed the lot for 49.99 at least 6-7 times before a lady bought it who was ecstatic. She said she had been looking for the pattern for 25 years. Sometimes there is only one buyer for an item. And dropping it down to .99 cents to get it out the door isn't the correct move. Every item and situation is different.

 

[cyberdan]

remember you get 50 free listings a month. If you have not used up those 50 close to the end just go back and relist the duds. I just sold an Amish farmer cast iron bank i think it was on its 4th listing. I just save the duds and relist to make use of the free 50.