Auctions are a maximum of 10 days, so 40 days tops with the free relists. Auctions work for me, but I know they would be a disaster for a lot of other categories and a complete waste of time (and money if you have a store). Ebay just needs to stay the hell out and let sellers be, because most actually know what they're doing.

I did look at putting all my items as BIN's at one point, but when I looked at similar items that other sellers had, for similar prices, I am selling a fair bit more than a lot of them are. I don't generally keep an eye on what others are doing, but I have made comparison checks in the past, just for curiosity.

Hahahaha, *if* it sells for 99 cents!!! /itm/162074826259

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@*tippy*toes* wrote:

Auctions are a maximum of 10 days, so 40 days tops with the free relists. Auctions work for me, but I know they would be a disaster for a lot of other categories and a complete waste of time (and money if you have a store). Ebay just needs to stay the hell out and let sellers be, because most actually know what they're doing.

 

I did look at putting all my items as BIN's at one point, but when I looked at similar items that other sellers had, for similar prices, I am selling a fair bit more than a lot of them are. I don't generally keep an eye on what others are doing, but I have made comparison checks in the past, just for curiosity.

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I still use auctions several times a month in my stores. I sometimes come across very rare items that are highly sought after but rarely come up for sale on ebay, or anywhere else. These items are usually valued in the $80-$300 range. I start my auctions at the price I would list them as BINS ( fairly high ).  Around 60% of the items sell, with most going for the opening bid, but occasionally they make $50-$100 more than the starting price.

It might cost me $3.50 to auction a $250 item, but as the item sells at the end of the 5 day auction period, I receive a quick sale of a valuable item, which can be important if the item came in a bulk stock purchase that I have just outlayed a lot of money for. I also believe it drives more traffic to my store. A bit like window dressing a shop with the best items in the front window of the store.

I believe auctions are treated more favourably by ebay in search results and can still be a useful tool for stores in some circumstances. 

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@chameleon54 wrote:

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I still use auctions several times a month in my stores. I sometimes come across very rare items that are highly sought after but rarely come up for sale on ebay, or anywhere else. These items are usually valued in the $80-$300 range. I start my auctions at the price I would list them as BINS ( fairly high ).  Around 60% of the items sell, with most going for the opening bid, but occasionally they make $50-$100 more than the starting price.

 

It might cost me $3.50 to auction a $250 item, but as the item sells at the end of the 5 day auction period, I receive a quick sale of a valuable item, which can be important if the item came in a bulk stock purchase that I have just outlayed a lot of money for. I also believe it drives more traffic to my store. A bit like window dressing a shop with the best items in the front window of the store.

 

I believe auctions are treated more favourably by ebay in search results and can still be a useful tool for stores in some circumstances. 

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Often when I buy stock, I will buy it by the pallet load. There may be two or three very rare items and one hundred mundane, bread and butter items. I will pay the seller of the pallet load of stock, the value of the three rare items, which can be $600-$800. I then auction these for a quick sale. The rest of the items dont owe me anything and this provides me with stock at 100% profit to sell on an ongoing basis. Using this method I have built up a shipping container load of stock and can sell for months without having to buy in anything new .

Auctions play a valuable role in turning over the high value items quickly, meaning I have large levels of stock in storage without having any capital tied up.