eBay selling method comparison

[savem0ney811]

For security purposes I will not use my primary ebay id on the discussion board.

As a 2 year seller, I noticed that people are more likely to buy a certain item from a listing with an existing selling history than a listing with fewer transactions. For example, if I already decided to buy an headphone, after the search result displayed in front of me once I type in the keywords, assuming the price between different listings are very similar, Im more likely to click on the advertisement with “xxx sold” under the title than others with “xx sold” or no such line at all(probably due to less than 10 existing transactions)

So what I did was just create such listing with high volume selling record in the first place and start doing real business afterwards. I only tried this method on a part of my listings so that I can compare the effectiveness. According to my selling record, once the listing evolved from “0-10 sold” to “400 sold”, the selling speed can increase 4-5 times instantly compare to their previous selling speed when I made no change at all, plus the speed will grow even faster with the selling record booming. My point is that there is a distinctive difference between creating popularity and doing nothing.

I admit that what I did seems a bit “unorthodox”, but given big players like futu online are also manipulating the system to lure as many customers as possible, I have to do something to take a cut from their share. So far this type of action didn’t raise any flag in ebay system so I guess legitimacy is not a problem, for now. Any advice is appreciated.

[kopenhagen5]

OP probably won't be back as this ID was NARU'd today.

Pretty sure a NARU account can't post in community.

[gec2002]

While seller feedback is important, I do think that there is an impact from the number of items sold.  I have a few items that have large numbers sold and these seemed to have gained a momentum of there own.  Possibly due be ranking in best match.

Thinking about how to achieve this, and I don't know if this would work as I have never tried it. 

List a BIN item at a very cheap price (Say a $5 item at $1) once you sell enough say 50 reword your listing with the expensive item and you have 50 sales to its name.  Someone checking FB could tell you changed it but it would take some checking.  The EAN may be an issue but I can think of ways around it.

[fr2243]

Funny thing about over 50% sold...

Actually slogans like "over XX% sold" literally means NOTHING after I finally realized what the figure actually represents. I used to think "over 50% sold" means "among all the selling history in this listing, more than 50% transactions were finalized.(buyer paid, item shipped, feedback received or no return request involved after 60 days which makes the transaction cancelled etc.)" until I overheard from an ebay cs rep that "the percentage is just 'the quantity of the remaining stock' divides 'the total quantity of sold+ remainning stock'."

For example, if a listing has sold 100 items already. The remaining quantity(stock level) will directly link to the "percentage of SOLD slogan". If I put "100" quantity in the listing, the slogan will display "50% sold". If I changed the quantity from 100 to 1, the slogan will display "more than 99% sold"....

[digital*ghost]

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@gec2002 wrote:

Thinking about how to achieve this, and I don't know if this would work as I have never tried it. 

List a BIN item at a very cheap price (Say a $5 item at $1) once you sell enough say 50 reword your listing with the expensive item and you have 50 sales to its name.  Someone checking FB could tell you changed it but it would take some checking.  The EAN may be an issue but I can think of ways around it.

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I've actually seen listings that have employed this strategy, it's easy to spot (for a little while, at least) if you can look at the sales history and see that the item was previously selling for $1

Occasionally the previous sales history on an item can't be viewed, and as soon as the newer version has 100+ sales, the older price can't be seen, either way, but as you mention a quick search of the item number via FB would tell the whole story. 

[digital*ghost]

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@fr2243 wrote:

Funny thing about over 50% sold...

Actually slogans like "over XX% sold" literally means NOTHING

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They're actually really misleading, IMHO, at least on listings that are continually restocked.

I have listings that have a few hundred items available across a few variations, and I always keep a healthy amount of each variation in stock, but the listings are a couple of years old and have sold hundreds in that time, one even has over 1k sales, so it will always say things like almost gone, 99% sold etc. 

I wish I could at least choose from a selection of available "spruiks" eBay wants to put there. 

[shoppingbag*]

I must admit I am hesitant to buy from someone with a feedback of (1) which is an item I just looked at a while ago.  I would buy from someone else, even if it cost me more. However, if you seller had a higher feedback score and they were selling their very first item, I would probably judge them on the feedback they had received as a buyer.  OK I know that buyers can only receive positive feedback, but there is feedback and then there is "glowing feedback" and this what I would look for.  As for buying from someone with a huge feedback score, this makes no difference to me, as long as they have a few very positive feedbacks, I feel I can trust (or chance) that they are a decent human being who will do the right thing. Personally, I feel that manipulating the system is just dishonest, and this dishonestly will flow through to other areas of the transactions.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

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@shoppingbag* wrote:

I must admit I am hesitant to buy from someone with a feedback of (1) which is an item I just looked at a while ago.  I would buy from someone else, even if it cost me more. However, if you seller had a higher feedback score and they were selling their very first item, I would probably judge them on the feedback they had received as a buyer.  OK I know that buyers can only receive positive feedback, but there is feedback and then there is "glowing feedback" and this what I would look for.  As for buying from someone with a huge feedback score, this makes no difference to me, as long as they have a few very positive feedbacks, I feel I can trust (or chance) that they are a decent human being who will do the right thing. Personally, I feel that manipulating the system is just dishonest, and this dishonestly will flow through to other areas of the transactions.

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the feedback I look at for new sellers who have mostly been buyers is the feedback they have left for their sellers.  This, to me, is a much better indication of who the member is than feedback received from sellers . . . . . . which is generic in a lot of cases nowadays, especially from big sellers.

Feedback for me from a seller saying “excellent eBayer, fast payment, highly recommended” doesn’t mean much to me UNLESS I am a repeat customer or I know the seller . . . . . . in which case I know it is genuine feedback and not auto-feedback left in batches.

If you wish to test this you can.  All you need to do is find a “glowing feedback” that has been left by a seller and then look at the feedback that seller leaves for their buyers.  If it looks like this it is what I call generic

Now don’t anyone get me wrong, I have no problem with sellers leaving generic feedback in batches (once a month).

I just don’t see glowing feedback for a buyer who is now selling as a good indicator of that new seller as a member.

[chameleon54]

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@gec2002 wrote:

While seller feedback is important, I do think that there is an impact from the number of items sold.  I have a few items that have large numbers sold and these seemed to have gained a momentum of there own.  Possibly due be ranking in best match.

Thinking about how to achieve this, and I don't know if this would work as I have never tried it. 

List a BIN item at a very cheap price (Say a $5 item at $1) once you sell enough say 50 reword your listing with the expensive item and you have 50 sales to its name.  Someone checking FB could tell you changed it but it would take some checking.  The EAN may be an issue but I can think of ways around it.

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I suspect the best match ranking is highly influenced by number of sales an item has and this has a huge impact on sales. I have a couple of specialised items that are always in first or second place in searches. They have been listed for several years, have thousands of views and sold 100+. The fact that they are the one of the first things to come up in searches has to help sales.

The other interesting thing is that these products establish themselves in other non - ebay related ways over time which help drive sales. If you do a simple google search for the products mentioned above its amazing where links to the listings end up. In google searches, they come up close to the top ( or at times first item ) in google images and google text. This has to help drive sales. They also appear in specialist forums on the topic, with links to the ebay listing.

I had a bit of a problem some years ago and did extensive searches of my items, trying to track down where the problem was coming from. Links to my items where in unusual places all around the world. I sell a lot of specialised items of interest to collectors and a lot of the listings appeared in club forums and information / newsletter pages, particularly in the U.K and U.S.A, but also in Japan and middle eastern countries. They had photos, taken from my listings as examples of products and where discussing the merits or otherwise of the item in general. ( not specifically my item )

This ability for people to share links for long established ebay products has to have a positive influence on sales, compared to a simple seven day listing and is an important, but often overlooked reason for keeping these established listings going at all cost.