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@casbit33 wrote:

I ran 28 auctions in the last few days. Only 3 sales, all at the starting bid. Listed the items as BINS once auctions had finished and sold 2 more immediately. All up it was a fairly disappointing result, as these should have been red hot sellers.

 

My regular store sales are still going very well, but I suspect buyers are becoming very shy about discretionary spending, which could account for the disappointing auction results.

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when you did the auctions did you add the buy-it-now option.

I find quite a few people are using that option.

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No I have never used it, but you may well be right. The couple of items that had 5 & 7 watchers, may have sold with a BIN option. ( and who knows, some of the others as well ) I might give it a try next time.

The biggest problem with specialist items is I dont always know exactly what they are worth. If there have not been any of that exact specification sold or even viewable in a general google search, they are worth whatever two people are willing to pay. I still occasionally get bidding wars on items with them selling for two or three times the starting price. This is getting rarer all the time though.

The tools where all different with minor changes that seemed to make a big difference. All of the ones that sold looked identical to others, except that they had a groove that holds things, where the others where smooth. 

With a question from a buyer, I did also learn something I had sort of known, but hadnt quite clicked to. During WW1, many of the items issued to soldiers had one or two upward pointing arrows, stamped alongside the manufacturers name. Something to look out for when looking at items that may be of interest to military collectors.