BIN verse AUCTION SALES

[nuthinbutposters13]

I have one account for auctions (so I can take advantage of the 40 free listing each month, and one account for BIN products, with a Store so I get 200 free listings.

A few differences I have noticed is, number of views/watches and bids on Auctions, compared to number of views/watches and sales on BIN is massive. I did a test and put the same item up, one as auction, one as BIN. Auction item got 36 views, 7 watches, 6 bids, and sold for $8.80. The BIN one got 11 views, 2 watches, and went unsold (at $7.95).

Another difference was, after doing some trials, when item is listed at 99 cents, it gets far more views/watches, and bids, and tends to go for a higher price, compared to listing it say $9.95. This happened on a regular basis in my trials.

I guess my question, or my conclusion, is, eBay are giving us better "best match" positions, when things are listed as an auction, rather than a BIN price, and even better "best match" positions, when they are listed at a smaller start price.

What do others think ? Could be a possibility ?

If so, why the hell charge $1.50 per auction listing once you have used your 40 free ones. Wouldnt it be better to charge less than BIN price, to encourage people to use auction format ? 

[dotm2004]

I couldn't agree more.   Since Christmas (as saless have been very slow), I have tried BIN, (I usually sell auction) and no sales or interest at all.   

Although my sales are down, I find .... yesterday for example .....  I had 5 items which sold for double the listed auction price as each had a couple of bidders.   I wouldn't have got as much if I'd listed them BIN.

I am hoping things will slowly improve now   🙂

[joethenuts]

HI I have done auctions and bins for 4 years  and i have found auctions go up and down like a yoyo , i once had the same product go on auction for 30 weeks  you would asume by the end the price would be a lot smaller   but not the case  the lowest was $4  to a high of $43  and every week completly different  and at  times even though i always state r.r.p    they sometimes sell for more  than r.r.p

its strange . sometomes the auctions are way  way out exsample  product thinking should go for $60  goes for $140   also things that should go for $30 sells for  $1.25  its amazing

[saarzi]

I think its the nature of an Auction website.  Ebay is known as an AUCTION site, people come here in general for the auctions.

BIN probably puts buyers off - with an auction they have the perception that they can get the item for cheaper (even though they might not).   People also like to play - auctions are fun, whereas BIN ends the buzz of being on Ebay quickly.

I think it also depends on the type of items you sell - some will do better in auctions than others. 

I used to use auctions and found the my items always went much cheaper with them - they do better in general with BIN. They take a little while longer to sell, but they still sell at the price I want.

[joethenuts]

excelent post 100%

my children years ago used to turn on there laptops every tuesday and friday at 7.15 to my site for my weekly aprox 10 auctions every 3 minutes and watch the last 20 seconds rush ,and see who got the closest to the last bids price

[i-love-my-sheep]

I have all auctions, but they all have a BIN option. I figure it's the best of both worlds. I'd say 25% of sales are BIN, the rest are auctions, mostly with 1 bid. Due to that, I always start at the minimum price I'm happy to accept. I did try 99c auctions, but everything was selling for 99c, so it was a big fail.

[chameleon54]

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@nuthinbutposters13 wrote:

I have one account for auctions (so I can take advantage of the 40 free listing each month, and one account for BIN products, with a Store so I get 200 free listings.

A few differences I have noticed is, number of views/watches and bids on Auctions, compared to number of views/watches and sales on BIN is massive. I did a test and put the same item up, one as auction, one as BIN. Auction item got 36 views, 7 watches, 6 bids, and sold for $8.80. The BIN one got 11 views, 2 watches, and went unsold (at $7.95).

I guess my question, or my conclusion, is, eBay are giving us better "best match" positions, when things are listed as an auction, rather than a BIN price, and even better "best match" positions, when they are listed at a smaller start price.

What do others think ? Could be a possibility ?

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I accidently listed an item at auction for $49.95 start on one account, which was also listed as a BIN at $45 in my store. ( same item ). You guesed it, it sold at auction, one bid for $49.95.

I believe the auction items do get higher rankings at times through their cycle and there is some people who select auction only ( I do this ) when searching for products. One reason to do this is a catagory may have 10,000 BINs but only 500 auctions. It is much more managable for searching for general items of interest and you might just find a bargain at auction, but most BIN'S are fully priced by dealers.

[digital*ghost]

Conversely, I no longer list any items as auctions because they get no activity at all for me. I consistently found that when I did list items at auction, usually at a start price less than half the store BIN price, I'd sell several of the BIN item and no one would bid on the auction. Even when I only had one of something, I could almost guarantee that if I listed something that had been hanging around for a while as an auction, it would remain unsold, but as soon as I relisted it at a BIN, it would sell within a week. (For most stuff, anyway - I did have a couple of cursed clothing items at one stage 😮 ). 

Go figure. 

[lane-ends]

Auctions will always rotate to top of list for a short duration. If your start price is low they wiill get views/watcher, that doesn't always convert to sales. If you have a store you can list all year for price of an auction run.

The price you can get at BIN depends on how quick you want to turn it over, and also if you have to wait for right buyer to turn up.eg like it and be the right fit/size.

Unsold high fee auctions have to be paid for from sales of those that do sell

[davewil1964]

A fairly significant proportion of my recent sales were listed for over 12 months at BIN. I couldn't have afforded to list auctions.