topic Re: Everything for Nothing Mentality in Selling

Everything for Nothing Mentality

pictologist — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 01:19:59 GMT

It never ceases to amaze me the extent of the '99c' mentality of buyers on ebay. It seems that even if one has quality items, genuine appraised items, bulk lot of items starting off at a very reasonable price, buyers are of the fixed mentality that they are entitled to a 99c start off auction. I have observed this mentality over a number of years and it seems to have grown. It's also interesting to note that so called potential buyers will 'watch' your item/s , obviously to let the seller know that they are interested in what they have for sale, but at the same time do not actually place a bid. The message that they are actually conveying is; we are interested in what you have, but are not interested/prepared or expect to pay your price. Fair enough, that is their prerogative. What they are hoping is that the seller will then relist their items for less, much less hopefully, in fact get it down to 99c and then they will place a bid.

It's not worth the time, energy or cost to relist to satisfy the 99c mentality masses. I would prefer to donate my goods to either a charity organisation or place in the general household trash for landfill, but I will never list items that are worth it for 99c.

Happy bidding all on your 99c items.

Re: Everything for Nothing Mentality

foxette-in-sox — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 01:25:00 GMT

If a seller WANTS to list at 99c & only get one bid,I'm happy to bid.No one is forcing a gun at the sellers head.

Not sure where you're coming from re your rant or where you're leading to-perhaps you could clarify ie have you been stung as a seller falling for the 99c start price or do you feel guilty as a buyer winning an item for 99c ?

Re: Everything for Nothing Mentality

janeababe — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 01:45:20 GMT

Well, for my 99c mentality, here is my 10c worth of advice!

CALM DOWN!

sheesh..... talk about a lot of hot air!

What does it matter to you if other sellers list at 99c or not! No-one is asking you to do the same, and if your items are worth more than 99c, then LIST them accordingly!

Let me tell you a little story about me a few years ago. I had a 30ft caravan for sale. It was old, but in good nick and onsite near Terrigal beach! I loved it, but i lived 6hrs away, and the site rent was an added cost I could no longer afford. I listed it on here for $8k. It ran its auction, heaps and heaps of watchers, not one bid!

hmmm, i thought, perhaps i will try again, as i had a lot of watches. So i relisted it again at auction for $8k. No bids.

I left it for a 2 weeks.

I decided to relist it again, but this time i upped the price to 10k. my thinking was, watchers who are interested in my item, will see my price (knowing it prob wouldnt sell) then when i relist next time, they wil see i have knocked off $2k when i relist immediately for $8k (my original price!) This tactic might draw more buyers, i thought.
Guess what, i had a bidding war with a $10k start and it sold for $12,200. :^O

Go Figure!

Its not the amount of people who watch your item, its the amount of people who WANT your item, during that particular listing time! I watch items all the time, doesnt mean i want to buy them today....

Personally, I would NEVER list anything at 99c. But i have watched 99c items go for as much as $200 - $300. They are the lucky ones, this rarely happens.

Moral to this story is: Its your stuff. price it accordingly for what you want to get for it. When the right person comes along, they will pay you the money. You just need to be a little patient. 🙂

Re: Everything for Nothing Mentality

Anonymous — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 01:55:01 GMT

People WATCH for a variety of reasons. It does not guarantee a bid.

Re: Everything for Nothing Mentality

thecatspjs — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 02:04:28 GMT

I love 99c and low start auctions.

As a buyer I have picked up some fantastic bargains 😄

As a seller I use them as loss leaders to increase traffic to my listings - I am happy if they do or don't sell at $1 as I am not expecting anymore than listing price.

Bonus is I get incredibly mixed outcomes from my $1 auctions, with several regularly selling for more than I had listed at buy-it-now. Some of the auctions are fun to watch too -gotta love the nibble bidders :-x and I am particularly partial to bidding wars :-x:-x

Re: Everything for Nothing Mentality

phorum_junkie* — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 02:33:54 GMT

Over three hundred bucks for three pairs of second hand boots and an unenforceable stipulation that Paypal is not offered? Also listing items that could easily be posted as pick up only?

Even at 99c starts I think you may struggle to sell anything :^O

Re: Everything for Nothing Mentality

joz*garage — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 05:10:20 GMT

other sellers may watch your item if theyve got a similar item in stock or the same thing.. to see if yours gets any results or not, then they can make a decision whether to blow any time with listing theirs.

Re: Everything for Nothing Mentality

patchoo78 — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 05:45:03 GMT

Re: Everything for Nothing Mentality

wardy079 — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 06:48:04 GMT

And you have to allow paypal.....I wouldn't buy if I can't pay paypal

And personally I think you will have more chance off selling those boots individually.

i watch items all the time.....cause I'm nosey, want to see if I should sell a similar item or because I haven't decided who to buy with yet.

if you don't want people to watch.... Then maybe don't use ebay

As for 99cent auctions, I would never list door 99cents, not worth my time and effort, but I will surely bid on them if the item is something I want

Re: Everything for Nothing Mentality

willynfantasticals — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 07:04:13 GMT

I watch items all the time. Has nothing to do with them being .99.

About four years ago, I bought two items for a total of $60.00. Recently I saw a similar item that was sold for a lot more than I paid. Not being sentimentally attached to the items, I decided to sell mine. Received a total of $145.00. If I hadn't been watching the item I was, I wouldn't have decided to sell my items.

Instead of accusing people of wanting something for nothing, look at other reasons why people may watch items.

Re: Everything for Nothing Mentality

wardy079 — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 08:46:01 GMT

How do you search for 99 cent items these days?

Haven't looked in years.... But this has spiked my interest

Re: Everything for Nothing Mentality

thecatspjs — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 08:53:59 GMT

Select the category you are interested in and search button, then select tab auctions only, and then select from the sort by menu: price lowest first

Re: Everything for Nothing Mentality

the_great_she_elephant — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 08:59:03 GMT

Guess what, I had a bidding war with a $10k start and it sold for $12,200.

Go Figure!

Maybe a couple of watchers who were hoping the starting price would go down panicked when they saw it had gone up.:^O

Re: Everything for Nothing Mentality

greywolf271 — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 23:13:26 GMT

Don't know what you're whinging about. If you don't want to use a "99c" start, don't do it. If someone whinges to you, DELETE. If someone starts bullying you, bully them back, threaten them. Threaten them with a lawsuite. Grow a thick skin. In other words, Grow Up.

Re: Everything for Nothing Mentality

imaginary_product — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 11:37:12 GMT

I think you are being extremely unrealistic about how much your items are worth.

Re: Everything for Nothing Mentality

nonny_muss — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 12:13:32 GMT

I think OP is entitled to their opinion. Without being called a whinger or being told to grow up. Sheesh.

Re: Everything for Nothing Mentality

zenremix777 — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 14:06:21 GMT

If a seller WANTS to list at 99c & only get one bid,I'm happy to bid.No one is forcing a gun at the sellers head.

Not sure where you're coming from re your rant or where you're leading to-perhaps you could clarify ie have you been stung as a seller falling for the 99c start price or do you feel guilty as a buyer winning an item for 99c ?

I think OP is saying that, as a seller, they get some people asking them to lower their start price to 0.99c and it's peeved them off a little. It seems they also have alot of watchers that don't necessarily translate into bidders and that may peeve them off too.

I can definitely relate to the watcher thing. It's for that reason (of not confusing watchers with bidders) that I use Selling Manager with the Watchers tab unchecked. I just see the Views tab and that satisfies me. If an item sells, I may go to My eBay All Selling and check the watchers but it's no big deal. I'm more concerned with the bidders and views. I've also done the op shop thing too. Some things are just easier to give away for free than sell, especially if they're just taking up space. Feels good to unload a bunch of stuff at once and also give to the less fortunate.

Re: Everything for Nothing Mentality

monstersinthedungeon — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 22:47:38 GMT

If you have genuine, quality antiques, I don't know that ebay is the place to sell them if you want top dollar.

I have been selling and buying on ebay under different IDs for over 10 years, and in my opinion over the past few years ebay has become a knock-down bargain basement as far as pricing goes.

Recently I had an item that didn't even come close to reserve on ebay despite being listed twice, I listed it on Gumtree and it sold within the day for full asking price - I wish I had had more, I could have sold it four times over via Gumtree.

However, I do have to agree that your price expectations on some of your items (e.g., the boots) are unrealistic via any venue.