Most stuff on eBay doesn't sell

[kustomizer99]

When I look through completed auctions in various categories (both on the USA and Australian sites), it appears that only about 5% of all listings ever sell. This means that 95% of the time, people are wasting their time and effort lisiting their items.

Any categories people know of where sales are healthier than what I've been seeing?

[kustomizer99]

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@digital*ghost wrote:

It is difficult to gauge the relative success or health of sales / categories with so many that are listed as GTC BINs. I know you have stated previously that no experienced comics seller will list silver age comics as BINs, but when you said that I went and had a look - of around 2600 listings for silver age comics that came up on a standard search, under 250 were auctions.

I didn't look very closely at the remaining 2300-odd, but I'm sure they weren't all GTC, so some of those would end with/without sales, but the majority (if not all) of them would be single quantity listings, so they probably wouldn't show in completed listings until sold.

I say probably because some listings have started to appear in completed when previously they wouldn't. For example, a multiple quantity GTC listing will now appear in completed listings if only one sells but the listing remains active.

But I would say the general statement "most stuff on eBay doesn't sell..." is generally true to a point, particularly if your time-frame is only over the two weeks shown in completed. (That is, most stuff on eBay doesn't sell within any two week period).

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Were many of those BIN Silver Age comics unsold? That's what I typically find. There are certainly a lot of unexperienced sellers listing old comics at high BIN prices, especially in the USA. I really think the only way to stimulate good sales in that category is with auctions.

Another factor is that sellers on the US site can get thousands of free listings ( I was recently offered 2,000 mysefl), so they're likely to throw everything up there to see how if goes.

[digital*ghost]

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@kustomizer99 wrote:

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Were many of those BIN Silver Age comics unsold? 

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Well, yes - all current, active BIN listings are unsold. 

I didn't look at how long they've been listed for, or try to research how many times they've been relisted or anything, as at the time I was more interested in the auction:BIN ratio. 

As I've mentioned before, I'm no comic afficiando, bought a few select series but never sold any, so I can't offer any insight or advice for that particular market. I can only suggest you consider whether the patterns you are noticing are a reflection on eBay, or a reflection on the comic market itself. (Or a combination of both, of course). The decisions you make about how to (hopefully successfully) market your items, IMHO, would need to be based on those two key things.

For example, is the comic market very active with bidding wars and high prices achieved in places other than eBay? 

Are eBay buyers any different to enthusiasts on dedicated sites? What ratio of BIN to auctions in general result in a successful sale, and how does it affect end prices... - You would need to compare the total time listed to know, I think. (eg a 7-day auction listed 10 times before selling vs the same comic listed for several months GTC. 10 auction relists might actually make people start to think no one wants it and ultimately devalue it in the eyes of the market, but does the same comic listed as a GTC BIN for two months create the same impression?) And so on. 

[*crikey*mate*]

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@kustomizer99 wrote:

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@crikey*mate wrote:

could those statistics be a combination of the categories that you are searching and the abundance of free listing offers?

i.e. those two categories would have a lot of lower grade items that some sellers would not usually list if they had to pay or use their allotted 40 for, but with the multitude of free listings they just list everything "just in case".

Because once you have done the initial listing (and lets be honest, a listing for this sort of thing doesn't take that long to start with) if it doesn't sell the first time, it only takes a few seconds to relist every month/free promotion.

For example, someone might have thousands of comic books or second hand books or kids clothes in varying conditions, if they thought they may only get one or two dollars for them (the ones not in very good condition), they may not want to pay or use their alloted 40/80 whatever (save those for the things they are confident will get a return) but if it's free and given out like candy at holloween (as they are atm)- what's there to lose?

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I see what you're saying, but even with the free listings I take each one seriously and hope it works for me. In fact, I pretty much only use the 40 free listings these days -- when those are used up I wait unti lthe next month and start again. I'm certainly not selling on eBay for a living (thankfully!) but just trying to make a few bucks here and there without taking a loss on anything.

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I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply that YOU didn't take your listings seriously, but there are people who do use those free listings as described, and until earlier today, it never occurred to me that the resultant flood would adversly affect the regular listings (another thread) and I'll own up here, I daresay that some of those comic books you have seen as unsold were probably mine.

I have a collection of comic books dating back to the 50's. I have one collection in mint condition, stored correctly and never read,(retirement plan, not for sale LOL) and then the ones which have been read and were never really intended for collection per se, just read and eventually tossed into a box. Now some of these are in really good nick, especially the ones I got when I was old enough to look after my things and before I got children of my own LOL, and some are shockers, might be bent/creased/coffee cup rings/phone messages scribbled on them, but still, because of what they are, not worthless.

Now, for a lot of the latter, I'm happy to let them go for between $1.50 and $3.00, so guess what I've been doing whenever I get those 100 free listings (cos I often sell more if I list more which sounds obvious, but I generally only get two or three buyers per session and they will buy a few to fill gaps in their collection or to capitalize on the combined post (I can post 4 for the same cost as 1). But if I've only got 40 listings, I save those for the ones where I hope to get a higher price, like you do, cos, unless I sell a few at a time of the cheapies, it's kinda more effort to send them than the couple of dollars I get is worth iykwim.

[kustomizer99]

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@digital*ghost wrote:

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For example, is the comic market very active with bidding wars and high prices achieved in places other than eBay? 

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Most of the really high end ($100,000+ issues) are not on eBay but either on speciality sites or at in-person acutions. An issue of a comic I used to have (Avengers #4) recently went for $120,000!

But for everything else, eBay is the main place to find old comics. Must be millions of them on here, with the majority being clutter. As I mentioned in another thread though, the market for Silver Age Marvels is incredible, with prices achieved at well above what the guides say.

[kustomizer99]

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@crikey*mate wrote:

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I have a collection of comic books dating back to the 50's. I have one collection in mint condition, stored correctly and never read,(retirement plan, not for sale LOL)

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Sounds awesome! And very intruiging.... good plan, better than gold!

[*crikey*mate*]

yes, I was very lucky, I have somehow also ended up with one of my older brother's collections as well (that's how come they go back so far)  (which is why my mum started a collection for me I guess, as she was already buying them 2 each (one to read, one to keep) and then did the same for me when I came along and I just never stopped LOL

[the_billycan]

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@thecatspjs wrote:

out of every 1000 items for sale, my experience is that at least 95% of those items will sell within a year, with around half (though variable within a shorter timeframe) selling within 3 months.

I may have to relist items several times, change price - up & down, refresh listing details and photos, but generally if there is demand for the goods, the item is well described and has clear photos, and the price is right  =  sales.  

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 Yes, but of every 100 item listings, how many sell? For every hundred of my listings, I sell about 5. The other 95 get relisted with 5 additional items and of those 5 or 6 sell (not necessarily the 5 that were not previously listed). All in all, if it weren't for free listings and even though what i sell has value, I would have to either keep them or dispose of them in the garbage.

[thecatspjs]

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@the_billycan wrote:

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@thecatspjs wrote:

out of every 1000 items for sale, my experience is that at least 95% of those items will sell within a year, with around half (though variable within a shorter timeframe) selling within 3 months.

I may have to relist items several times, change price - up & down, refresh listing details and photos, but generally if there is demand for the goods, the item is well described and has clear photos, and the price is right  =  sales.  

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 Yes, but of every 100 item listings, how many sell? For every hundred of my listings, I sell about 5. The other 95 get relisted with 5 additional items and of those 5 or 6 sell (not necessarily the 5 that were not previously listed). All in all, if it weren't for free listings and even though what i sell has value, I would have to either keep them or dispose of them in the garbage.

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Lots of variables within 100 item listings, including format and duration, but off the top of my head I would guesstimate that around 20 out of 100 listings sell first go on this ID - sometimes lots more, some times a little less. 

[davewil1964]

I find I end roughly half of my listings when they have been here for 12 months. ie I sell about half over a 12 month period. So that's, presumably, a 50% sell-through. Or 4% on a monthly basis. 

Which are the apples and which the oranges?