topic Re: I cannot understand buyers, never will. in Selling

I cannot understand buyers, never will.

shoppingbag* — Sat, 05 May 2018 03:14:23 GMT

Maybe there is someone wiser than me who could explain something to me. I list a doll for $45 then someone else lists the same doll for $100, I mark mine as used only because the seals on the box have been removed allowing the lid to be opened, and I am not the original owner. Theirs the same, they call theirs "brand new" Their feedback not nearly as good as mine, their star ratings down, they have a neutral. Their postage higher. Their's sells, but while I have plenty of lookers, no sale as yet. This is not the first time this has happened. Don't buyers check the other listings for the same item, or is it that the seller in this case used the word RARE and I did not, and NEW which I would not if seals are removed. It doesn't come down to others having a better description, in this case, there really is none to speak of. Same thing a while back, mine priced at $50 plenty of photos, another at $60 with one blurry photo, my postage cheaper, theirs sells, mine hung around, ended up selling it for $40, retail sticker still on the box $70. I really cannot understand this at all. If anyone out there has any clue, please enlighten me.

Re: I cannot understand buyers, never will.

*tippy*toes* — Sat, 05 May 2018 03:37:57 GMT

If yours is listed cheaper and "used" and the other was dearer and "new", it could come down to the buyer thinking there is something wrong with yours as you are selling it under half price from the other. You have to remember, majority of buyers don't read the description. They look at the title and photos and that's pretty much it.

Re: I cannot understand buyers, never will.

kopenhagen5 — Sat, 05 May 2018 03:51:52 GMT

Good point tippy.

SB, try listing at a dearer price.

Many have said on the boards here they have sold more of a product when raising the price.

Re: I cannot understand buyers, never will.

shoppingbag* — Sat, 05 May 2018 03:56:41 GMT

Thank you for your reply, the other doll was listed AFTER I listed mine. This I do not understand either. I look at sold prices before listing and try to make my prices fair, if not a little cheaper, but not much, to someone else. I do not want to deceive on listings, so try to be as honest as possible, rather than have someone complain that the seals were missing, and eBay's description of "new" is like it would be straight out of the factory, which is impossible with vintage items, which are still new (never used) but old in age, if you know what I mean. Some doll collectors are incredibly pickie, and can be very fussy about the boxes, expect perfection, which they never were in the first place. However, I do value your advice which I will keep in mind. Many thanks.

Re: I cannot understand buyers, never will.

digital*ghost — Sat, 05 May 2018 04:01:40 GMT

I was going to say the same as tippy - it's likely people saw both, and wondered why you valued yours less than half the price of the other seller. People will actually believe the value placed on something, and that price differences mean condition or quality differences, even in a private market.

It might sound strange, but if they read both descriptions and saw no flaws disclosed or pictured, that might actually increase the doubt, as they'll start to wonder if there is undisclosed problems, i.e. there must be a reason why yours is only worth $45, and conversely there must be a reason why the other one is worth $100

Sometimes it's just timing, too - i.e. the first one sells to someone who believes the value, really wants the item etc, while everyone else is interested but not as much. The first time I ever listed items on eBay, I listed something that I had bought really cheap, never ever used, but saw a bidding war on the previous week and get a really good price. Back in those days, 99c auctions were all the rage, and I confidently listed my gear, all starting at 99c, and waited for the war(s) to begin, and the prices to skyrocket...

Well, mine got 1 bid, and I underestimated postage so I lost pretty hard on that one. I'm guessing the person who lost the bid on the last one probably spotted mine and thanked their lucky stars their one and only competing bidder already got theirs.

Re: I cannot understand buyers, never will.

twyngwyn — Sat, 05 May 2018 05:01:52 GMT

they listed theirs in Collectables - Limited Editions
You listed yours in Dolls....

Maybe it makes it seem more precious??

...And they went to AUCTION

Re: I cannot understand buyers, never will.

eol-products — Sat, 05 May 2018 05:44:46 GMT

I used to work for someone who needed a wheel flare on their car painted. One shop quoted $150 the other $300, they went with the dearer as the other one seemed to cheap.

Probably half the buyers shop this way the other half want a heavily reduced price.

Ebays solution was to have best offer. Sell long enough and you realise it sells for full ask after receiving a large number of low ball offers.

Re: I cannot understand buyers, never will.

imastawka — Sat, 05 May 2018 06:18:54 GMT

Can I be the devil's advocate here?

I have studiously compared both images.

Yours looks like it may have been 'played' with. The head is the wrong angle, and

the hair top knot is slightly askew.

It also looks like yours was just pushed back into the box and the dress/shawl not arranged properly.

I also would say that the other listing had a better photo.

Your listings seems pale and washed out. Might be worth experimenting with photoshop, or some programme to get some depth to your photos.

Or maybe a better camera. The detail is just not there.

Yours Theirs

I also wouldn't direct buyers to the sold listing either.

If you can gently re-arrage it, then you should be able to put the price up.

Sorry, but.........

Re: I cannot understand buyers, never will.

shoppingbag* — Sat, 05 May 2018 07:06:23 GMT

I am quite sure it was never removed or played with, these dolls all vary and many come with hair as mine and posed differently in the box. The other doll I sold cheap had 12 photos, the other seller had one very blurry photo and much higher postage and sold for more than mine. I keep seeing this sort of thing, not just on my listings, but other peoples. I am not being prejudiced when I say that given the choice between these two dolls, I would definitely buy the one for $45 if I were a buyer, as I know how much they can vary from doll to doll, but at the end of the day, it is the same product.

Re: I cannot understand buyers, never will.

imastawka — Sat, 05 May 2018 07:18:36 GMT

I said it looks like it may have been played with.

It's all in perception when listing/looking at collectable items.

I'm not a doll collector, but to me the $100 one looks like better value, is all.

Anyhoo, you asked....I answered.

Re: I cannot understand buyers, never will.

gutterpunkz05 — Sat, 05 May 2018 08:11:45 GMT

Not sure if you can list as, "New/Unused" in your categories, could also include in the Condition area Boxed/Unsealed Etc.

Re: I cannot understand buyers, never will.

countessalmirena — Sat, 05 May 2018 08:56:15 GMT

shoppingbag*, I agree that the condition "NEW" is often a deciding factor in this sort of item.

There are definitely items where, if one listing states "new" and another states "used", I will purchase the new item. Many buyers will tick the "new" condition search box and not even bother looking at an item that is used.

Hmm... looking at those two different photos, I agree with the points that imastawka made. The photograph on the right looks as if it is of an untouched item, neatly arranged as if it had just come out of the little Barbie factory. Your photo does have the benefit of showing the hair more brightly (as their photo has the head somewhat in shadow), but overall, yours is a softer-edged photo not showing as much detail, and it does look as though the Barbie has ventured forth from her box - a bit like the fairy tale of the Twelve Dancing Princesses. She's sneaked out while no one was looking, and danced the night away, and crept back to the box, hair somewhat askew and gossamer stole awry.

Barbies Gone Bad - you can always tell.

(More seriously, shoppingbag*, I think you have listed it for too low a price. If you can smarten up the Barbie, rearrange her stole etc., and take some cleaner, more detailed photos, there's no reason why you shouldn't see a nice $100 sale on that.)

Re: I cannot understand buyers, never will.

chameleon54 — Sat, 05 May 2018 11:19:24 GMT

One thing no-one has mentioned is the way cassini ( ebays search engine ) ranks items in buyer searches. If the other seller has a higher sell through rate, Cassini will give that seller much higher placement in searches.

On some occasions, ebay may not even show your item to potential buyers. This is all acknowledged in ebays terms and conditions which every seller agrees too when selling on the site.

One of my opposition sells many of the the same items as me. He runs his business differently to mine in that he only sells popular items, but at a much lower average profit margin to my items. The reason his profit margin is smaller is that he pays high prices initially for popular stock items, maybe marking up by 100%. I sell a lot of less popular items with perhaps 500% mark up.

Because the opposition only sells popular items, his sell through rate is much higher than mine. If we both have the same item listed at a similar price, his will always sell before mine due to his higher ranking in Cassini. Often he sells the same item at a more expensive price than mine is listed for. I believe my items are often not even shown to potential buyers as my sell through rate is lower.

Very few things are ever straight forward on ebay. If you spend too much time worrying about what others are doing or your ebay rankings in searches, it will send you mad !!!

Re: I cannot understand buyers, never will.

springyzone — Sat, 05 May 2018 22:32:09 GMT

I'm sort of answering shopping bag here but with reference to stawka.

Stawka's right, it comes down to perception.

Sometimes when things sell, you can't even be sure the buyers have read through the whole ad or just based their purchase on titles and photos but I think any serious collector would be more inclined to read an ad through.

I'm not a collector but sometimes I admit to looking at some ads where I'm really trying to second guess just what condition something is in. New/unopened is always going to be more reassuring to a serious collector than anything marked used. When sellers say something is in 'as new' used condition etc, sorry, but I don't always believe them, I wonder if maybe it is a bit more used than they admit to. That's when doubts can creep in and I look at the photos carefully and base it on that.

Having said that, there is no way i think you should list an item as brand new etc if it isn't.

I'd relist as used but start by saying you only listed that way as the seals have been broken but it is unused.

The serious buyer, reading the other description, would have looked closely at the photos and decided the other item really did look in pristine condition, whereas with yours, they weren't quite so sure. They thought the other was was a little bit newer condition, that is all. So you have to make yours look equal.

Plus maybe try the extra category as someone else suggested. You might get some collectors who just browse the category and never saw your ad.

Re: I cannot understand buyers, never will.

eol-products — Sun, 06 May 2018 01:45:50 GMT

Not hard to check the back of the doll to see if the ties that hold it in have been tampered with.

Damage from stickers being removed can devalue the item.

A safe bet is always to add from adult collector and never played with only displayed in box.

Also use google images to make sure yours presents the same as the majority.

Re: I cannot understand buyers, never will.

zanadoo_56 — Tue, 08 May 2018 05:37:04 GMT

I read all the descriptions and look at all the photos (I collect Barbie outfits and occasionally dolls though I prefer the vintage style) and I've looked at your listings.

Some of the initial photos could be better. I think they need more 'punch'. I've found some Barbie doll sellers have a standard background (or more) that they use which contrasts with boxes, loose dolls etc which are shown in a standard size so they all stand out better. Also, if you can open up a box and tidy the doll position or outfit or whatever I think it would help a lot. I also think it is better to leave out any fuzzy photos.

Sadly I think some buyers are sucked in by the word RARE. Nothing is sillier than seeing 8 listings for the same doll and they are all described as Rare. I don't care if an item is new or NRFB as I debox my purchases anyway, but I guess if it's been bought for display as is, persumably stating whether it is new or not matters. So does showing the doll at its best advantage.

Your prices are really good. I don't understand why anyone would choose a more expensive option, unless I guess, the doll is not be deboxed or they made a snap decision based on one photo.