starting auctions cheap .99 cents

[leadnugget]

5 of my items 2 weeks ago did not sell. i might have had them priced to high,
or so i thought.
i got a bit crazy, (could have been the beer) relisted all 5 of them them at .99 cents with the same shipping cost.
they all sold and one of them for 3 times the buy it now price i had on it last time.
the rest for very near what i was starting them at the week before.
it was all very cheap old items i picked up total for $3.10.
sold them all for 81 bucks.
i did the math, if they all sold at the starting price 2 weeks ago it would have been 89 bucks.
so the question is should i try for a high price the first week and then go for .99 cents the next.
or start off the bidding wars right off the bat at .99 cents?
i know it could depend on the items, and cost but the views/watchers and bids I'm getting makes me think this maybe the way to go.

 

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[Citiboy289]

I agree with you I always do much better starting my offerings at .99 --- You pick up the action very quickly and have lot of Watchers --- As a matter of fact I knew a person who had many items on GunBroker with all with opening bids that were rather high - He went for weeks never sold a thing, He dropped his opening bids to like $10.00 ( the items were in the 400 - 500 range ) and the stuff took off, infact when the auctions closed it looked like he sold about 80% of his stuff well beyond the original auctions opening bid--- I just think that you want as many people as possible Playing , If the open is too high people pass it by------- If it starts at .99 --- More people jump in and get the blood flowing --- I think the high opening bid sacres most folks off

 

[Iron Patch]

I think there's is some psychology involved, that when a buyer see's someone eis interested it's makes that person interested too. But after many years of doing both it pretty much comes down to a case by case basis for each item because sometimes starting low works, and other times it doesn't. One other thing I've learned, and have stopped doing much of, is adding a buy it now. I find when I do, rarely does anyone click it, and essentially what I have done is shown my min. and max. price, and took what might have been a higher price in their opinion, away. It's much better to let the bidder decide because some of them just naturally bid high, and others are down right crazy. I'm actually a bit of both, so I know others like me are out there, and I have seen it with bids on my own stuff. What works best for ebay is to have a basic blue print to follow, but never decide one way or the other is the right way to do all your sales because in 2 weeks time you'll be scratching your head thinking everything has changed. I tend to list quite a bit at a time all ending on the same day and most times it feels like a bar that's really rockin, but I've had a few nights here and there that felt like the bar that had 10 people and no one was sticking around... and these nights could even happen one after the other! It's just how it goes, and it's very difficult to predict. But I have my regular ways of doing things and for the most part it works, but I will always do some .99 starts, some higher starts, and some fixed prices.

 

[jerseyben]

I think there's is some psychology involved, that when a buyer see's someone eis interested it's makes that person interested too. But after many years of doing both it pretty much comes down to a case by case basis for each item because sometimes starting low works, and other times it doesn't. One other thing I've learned, and have stopped doing much of, is adding a buy it now. I find when I do, rarely does anyone click it, and essentially what I have done is shown my min. and max. price, and took what might have been a higher price in their opinion, away. It's much better to let the bidder decide because some of them just naturally bid high, and others are down right crazy. I'm actually a bit of both, so I know others like me are out there, and I have seen it with bids on my own stuff. What works best for ebay is to have a basic blue print to follow, but never decide one way or the other is the right way to do all your sales because in 2 weeks time you'll be scratching your head thinking everything has changed. I tend to list quite a bit at a time all ending on the same day and most times it feels like a bar that's really rockin, but I've had a few nights here and there that felt like the bar that had 10 people and no one was sticking around... and these nights could even happen one after the other! It's just how it goes, and it's very difficult to predict. But I have my regular ways of doing things and for the most part it works, but I will always do some .99 starts, some higher starts, and some fixed prices.

I understand what you mean about min/max price. I almost exclusively do this with my auctions and I don't mind if my stuff sells at the "min" price. Sometimes (less than 50% of the time) I sell my stuff at my max price so it all evens out.

 

[Iron Patch]

I understand what you mean about min/max price. I almost exclusively do this with my auctions and I don't mind if my stuff sells at the "min" price. Sometimes (less than 50% of the time) I sell my stuff at my max price so it all evens out.

When I list that way I too didn't mind if it sold at the min., but what I'm saying is by having the buy it now many buyers take it for granted that is the value, and when I dropped the buy it now they were much more likely to bid a lot higher. It's like giving your items a price cap that no one will go over and I think in many cases it costs you better sales, at least for me it does.