topic Re: Auctions only ever receive one bid now in Selling

Auctions only ever receive one bid now

chameleon54 — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 21:44:13 GMT

I just scrolled down my auction results from the last lot of ebay freebies. I had 17 sales in a row that sold to one starting bid. I had a couple of items in particular that would have attracted strong competition twelve months ago and didnt even sell this time around. I try to base decisions on real tangible facts and statistics and have to say this one is a bit of a worry.

Re: Auctions only ever receive one bid now

kzb888 — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 22:01:05 GMT

I agree with you 100%,and also BIN listings don't sell either,99c listings aren't selling so there is no hope that higher starting listings will even sell,hell most of mine don't even get a view anymore.

Re: Auctions only ever receive one bid now

horizon1907 — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 22:03:18 GMT

Yes, chameleon, I think lots would agree with you. You read lots about the same thing here. From what I gather, some folk don't like Auctions & prefer BIN. IMO, the whole ebay platform & market has dramically changed. Yet having said that, some still list items, dozens at a time at 99c and the items sell for many hundreds of $$$ ( go figure ) I personally would never start an Auction at 99c & hope you get lots of bids. It just depends on so many factors. Yes, ebay has changed dramatically in all areas. Some not for the better, I'm afraid to say.

Re: Auctions only ever receive one bid now

chameleon54 — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 22:08:55 GMT

@horizon1907 wrote:
some still list items, dozens at a time at 99c and the items sell for many hundreds of $$$ ( go figure ) I personally would never start an Auction at 99c & hope you get lots of bids. It just depends on so many factors. Yes, ebay has changed dramatically in all areas. Some not for the better, I'm afraid to say.

I do occasionally look at the bidding patterns of some of the 99 cent start auctions that sell for hundreds of dollars and quite often see suspected shill bidding. I have reported a couple of very clear examples over the years and no action has ever been taken, so dont bother now.

Re: Auctions only ever receive one bid now

phorum_junkie* — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 22:09:39 GMT

Just checked and since the beginning of November 60% of my items had multiple bids and a few went for ridiculously high prices, they could have bought the same or very similar from my store account for about the same price.

Re: Auctions only ever receive one bid now

horizon1907 — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 22:15:41 GMT

Some folk say they dont Auctions at all. They don't want to wait or they have to have it now etc. As for the dodgy bids part, YES, I agree and ebay seem to like it. 😞 All too obvious. Just depends.

Re: Auctions only ever receive one bid now

aps1080 — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 22:20:29 GMT

I honestly can't understand the 0.99 listing for some items.

I have purcahsed quite a few things for 0.99 cents in the last 3 months which were worth more than that.

At the same time, the following week the same items I purchased for $6. So you have to wonder.

On top of that, they list the same item for buy it now for $15 and get sales ?????!!!!!!!!

The marketplace has changed because so many other options or places to buy things - In the last few weeks just on here I have learnt about Etsy, Facebook trading and a few others and then of course you have Gumtree which is free and of course businesses own web sites.

Ebay does not have a monopoly any more, items listed on ebay do not even come up at the top of Google searches or at least are

part of a pack, not like in the past.

Re: Auctions only ever receive one bid now

character_parties_aus — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 22:34:48 GMT

I've got a solution on the auctions. If they don't work for you don't do them. There is lots of things wrong with ebay but no point in moaning about eBay if the auctions do not work for you. There will be a reason why such as good BIN options or products offered elsewhere outside of eBay attracting sellers or no demand for the product anymore. Simply change your approach to selling or what you sell to get better results.

I do agree that buyers seem a little warped in their approach I used to do auctions and frequently they went for more than the same at BIN I had listed. I am not sure if it is the buyers not looking or eBay and their use of best match to generate fees or both.

Re: Auctions only ever receive one bid now

dotm2004 — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 22:38:02 GMT

Exactly the same with me 😞

I list for 10 days and usually sell the item to the first bidder, whether it's put on the first day or the last minute. At least we have the advantage now of 3 time free re-listings ... my sales are down, but I DO find that sometimes items sell the second time around.

I don't think it's you 'chameleon54' .... it appears to be a sign of the times on eBay, I've tried free postage ... made no difference at all. I'm not able to do Buy It Now ...

I'd love to hear from anyway who's found a way to attract more bids ??

Re: Auctions only ever receive one bid now

horizon1907 — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 22:38:39 GMT

🙂 so many variables.

Re: Auctions only ever receive one bid now

chameleon54 — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 23:06:05 GMT

@character_parties_aus wrote:
I've got a solution on the auctions. If they don't work for you don't do them. There is lots of things wrong with ebay but no point in moaning about eBay if the auctions do not work for you. There will be a reason why such as good BIN options or products offered elsewhere outside of eBay attracting sellers or no demand for the product anymore. Simply change your approach to selling or what you sell to get better results.

I do agree that buyers seem a little warped in their approach I used to do auctions and frequently they went for more than the same at BIN I had listed. I am not sure if it is the buyers not looking or eBay and their use of best match to generate fees or both.

The items I sell at auction are a mixture of general home stuff and one offs ( often the only ones of their type listed on ebay ) so best match would not be the answer for these. This is reflected in my buyers with around 60% of my last lot of auctions going to overseas customers ( all at the starting bid ) . I have two stores and My BINS are still selling reasonably well and the businesses ticking along OK.

I have a private account which I just use the 40 monthly freebies on, along with any of the special 150 freebie offers I find links to on the forums. This account would be very similar to most non- proffesional ebayers so gives an interesting insight into what is happening at this level. Most non proffesional sellers are also buyers. Spending the money from their private sales, back with the bigger stores. If their auctions are not doing well, they have less to spend with larger businesses.

Just thought it was an interesting observation worth sharing.

Re: Auctions only ever receive one bid now

sueken4812 — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 23:07:27 GMT

I think it's more a case of they aren't being seen. I've given up doing them, as with these rolling blackouts, you can't guarantee that they will be 'switched' on at ending time. In the past I had them turning over with multiple views, and bids, and others lucky to get 1 click. Tried ending at different times, days etc. gave up in the end. It was just giving ebay $1.50 for nothing. They used to be good advertising, but not any more.

Re: Auctions only ever receive one bid now

aps1080 — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 23:17:23 GMT

Ironically, I sold some DVD's the other day - a complete set of Breaking Bag (Aussie version, 6 DVD set).

these had been watched once so were used.

You can buy a NEW, sealed set for $85 delivered yet my set went for $107 with the second bidder at $105

and the third bidder at $52. However MAJOR hiccup, the top bidder had made a mistake so I cancelled the sale.

A 2nd chance offer for $105 wasn't taken up which was a pity.

Anyway, relisted the DVD's and they went for $64 + $11.80 postage (I adjusted it down from $14.95).

I thought they would sell for about $50 - $55.

So you never know what goes through buyers minds.

Re: Auctions only ever receive one bid now

billexploited — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 23:20:34 GMT

Interesting ever since I tried to advoate for quicksales I've had not one single sale. But on gumtree i've had 2 sales! So something must be working.

Re: Auctions only ever receive one bid now

chameleon54 — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 23:32:20 GMT

Thats a bit scary !

Re: Auctions only ever receive one bid now

clarry100 — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 23:42:29 GMT

We operate 3x non-store selling IDs where we only utilise the 40x free listings each month, and if they happen to hand out free 150 then those as well.

I would estimate that we are getting about 15% that actually receive a bid, and its rare that we see multiple bidders. We send out 2nd chance offer if that does happen but they rarely sell when we do.

Of the 15% that do end up in a sale its probably around 25% of those who never pay/communicate and end up in a closed UPI case.

So all up auctions seem very unsuccessfull for us. And this is why we NEVER pay for an auction listing to be inserted.

So out of 120 auction listings each month possibly 12-15 end up in a proper sale we actually mail out. Pretty poor performance really.

Then again any sale is a sale I guess, so long as we don't have to try to recover lost insertions fees as that would never happen.

At the moment our 2x store IDs with all BIN style listings are seeing quite a strong pre-Xmas surge. Perhaps slightly down on the same period last year.

Re: Auctions only ever receive one bid now

character_parties_aus — Wed, 26 Nov 2014 00:09:33 GMT

It is interesting but certainly doesnt look like they are worth the effort for you. Sign of the times then!

Re: Auctions only ever receive one bid now

i-love-my-sheep — Wed, 26 Nov 2014 09:06:56 GMT

Most of my auctions only sell with 1 bid, so I start with the lowest price I'm willing to accept. Every now and then I'll get a bit of a bidding war and they are usually low feedback buyers. It doesn't happen often though.

As for the 99c auctions that always do well, I think for that to happen, you need to move to Beijing. All the ones I notice that always do well with lots of bids and high finish prices are all Chinese sellers or sellers of Chinese origin. One example that springs to mind. I'm selling off some of my ammonite fossils and most sell with 1 bid. A seller in the US of Chinese origin can have exactly the same thing that can sell for $500+. It's very rare they don't sell an item.

Chinese sellers are the same. Same ammonites that I've got, they sell for a small fortune, I'm lucky to get pageviews, let alone a sale.

Re: Auctions only ever receive one bid now

collect247 — Wed, 26 Nov 2014 09:10:21 GMT

Are you sure that it's maybe 500 yen and not $500???

Re: Auctions only ever receive one bid now

cq_tech — Wed, 26 Nov 2014 09:27:42 GMT

Chinese currency is the yuan, not the yen, which is Japanese.