Auctions only ever receive one bid now

[chameleon54]

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.

[chameleon54]

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@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.

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           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.

[sueken4812]

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.

[aps1080]

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.

[billexploited]

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.

[chameleon54]

Thats a bit scary !

[clarry100]

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.

[character_parties_aus]

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

[i-love-my-sheep]

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.

[collect247]

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

[cq_tech]

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