Ebay: Are you brave enough?

garry71

garry71

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Garry
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I've been watching a Nikon on ebay. A few minutes ago it was at 70 quid with an hour to go, now it's jumped to £107 so it looks like it's on the way to getting the usual sort of price for a D50.

I've never sold on auction, always buy it now as I'm too chicken to risk something going for a really low price.

I have to admire people who are brave enough to risk getting a fair price from an auction. Has anyone had a nerve wracking time watching the bids on their items?
 
Its always research, research previous items which have sold and what are selling at.

Ultimately it's down to guts yes, but if you are selling an item which has sold well previous you're more than likely to get a decent price.

Personally i always start my auctions at the minimum i would take after paypal's ridiculous charges and ebay's final fee valuation based on what similar items have sold for previously.

Anything extra is then a bonus.

But one time, at band camp.. i sold a 2008 macbook pro unibody, i started it at something silly like £350 to gather interest as it only only on for a day auction. luckily it rose too 800+ in the last 5 minutes.
 
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I normally start at a price just below what I would be happy with. Say item worth £100 start at £90 to get interest but it is a case of knowing what sells and what doesn't.

Not sure I could start at 99p though like some do.
 
WP-UK said:
I normally start at a price just below what I would be happy with.
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Ditto. Either that or have a reserve price. Though most of the stuff I flog on there I just want to get rid of, so quite often start at 99p.
 
WP-UK said:
I normally start at a price just below what I would be happy with. Say item worth £100 start at £90 to get interest but it is a case of knowing what sells and what doesn't.

Not sure I could start at 99p though like some do.
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Foesn't work as well. People are much less inclined to bid on an item with a high start price, even if it's still a much lower price than it would usually sell for.

Another good tip is list it to end on a Sunday, you will typically receive a much higher price for a Sunday end item than a monday morning one.

As mentioned research is key, check what similar ietms sell for, you will generally receive a similar sum regardless what your start price is. (Excepting what I already said about close to expected price)
 
I brought my Canon 300D for £150 a few years back now. But as said do your research and what not. Also check out the persons feedback score to see what people have said about the seller.

But its a hit and miss with ebay at times.
 
My Nikon 105mm VR is on there with no reserve and 99p starting. Im pretty confident it'll reach what I want. It ends on Sunday afternoon, has loads of clear pictures of the lens and pictures taken with it, has a good description and Im a Ebay top rated powerseller with over 670 100% feedback.


If it doesnt, I might cry.
 
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TCR4x4 said:
My Nikon 105mm VR is on there with no reserve and 99p starting. Im pretty confident it'll reach what I want.


If it doesnt, I might cry.
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I know that feeling. I've got a dress on eBay at the moment, due to finish at 10. BNWT worth £170 and currently sitting at £21 :'( I'd have kept it if I'd known that was all it'd sell for ...
 
Alan Clogwyn said:
doesn't work as well. People are much less inclined to bid on an item with a high start price, even if it's still a much lower price than it would usually sell for.
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yeah ive picked up some bargains where people have started at say £100 and they get no interest whasoever so with 24hrs or less to go they start dropping the price, and unless its peak time theres still not much interest and i get in there for like £10 or something ridiculous

wheras if they'd started at 99p it would probably have bid up to far more organically.

mind you that said If i get it stupidly low i'll normally give them a few quid extra when i pick it up rather than taking the p. (for instance the otherday i got a 30E for 99p, but i gave the guy a £20 to be fair - then he threw in a load of unexposed velvia and provia, so a win win allround)
 
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in answer to the original question....... yes.
 
I've started to notice that its all a bit of a phycological game to tempt people to buy! And that makes it quite dangerous.!
 
I don't sell much on ebay now because of the fees but when I did I always sold at 99p no reserve, I usually got more than I was expecting but 10% FVF + 4% paypal is a killer now.

Pro lenses always make top money if they're in good condition, any kind of fault even dust can reduce that and even though you can shoot a car through a wire fence and make the fence invisible a lens with a small scratch can go for 60% of what a mint one will.
 
Just set a reserve. Or buy it now with best offer, thats the best option if you want a set price for your item
 
Setting a reserve makes the fees redicluous. I started to list my 105 with a reserve of £350 and the fee was £15 near enough. Without reserve it was less than £1.
 
I almost always use buy it now as I'd rather get something sold at the going rate than wait around and hope it gets bidded on, but if something is popular I do sometimes go with an auction as I've seen quite a lot of stuff go extremely close to the new price (presumably people get caught up in the competition element). I used to put best offer on my buy it nows but it was almost always silly offers so I stopped bothering.

I think the idea that people don't bid on stuff because it has a starting price is nonsense, if something is worth £300 and it's started at £200 why would you be put off? It's still lower than the price you know you'll almost certainly end up paying.
I put my 50mm f/1.4 on with a starting bid of £220 and there were nine bids up to £295, I would rather it had failed to sell than gone for under £220.
 
Ebay I find is very unpredictable , for instance I'm on the look out for a budget pentax outfit , there was two for sale (bodyonly) same description ,one went for £65 the other £160 .
 
TCR4x4 said:
Setting a reserve makes the fees redicluous. I started to list my 105 with a reserve of £350 and the fee was £15 near enough. Without reserve it was less than £1.
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but if (say) your stuff sells on ebay for £50 more than on here, the £15 listing fee isn't so bad... and if you think that's high fee, try seeing what percentage proper auctioneers charge both you AND the buyer! :gag:


From the other side, what puzzles me is why anybody bids on an ebay auction in anything other than the last 30 seconds... you can guarantee you are going to be outbid...
 
flossie said:
but if (say) your stuff sells on ebay for £50 more than on here, the £15 listing fee isn't so bad... and if you think that's high fee, try seeing what percentage proper auctioneers charge both you AND the buyer! :gag:

From the other side, what puzzles me is why anybody bids on an ebay auction in anything other than the last 30 seconds... you can guarantee you are going to be outbid...
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Quite right, that's why it's on eBay and not here. I'm pretty much guaranteed a higher price. I sold my sigma 12-24 for over £100 more than i'd have got on here.

I get about 20% discount on eBay fees too, so it takes the sting off a little. Ive got 80 watchers on the lens at the moment, there is no way you'd have 80 people on the forum interested in one item, so it's not a bad deal even if the fees are £20 or so.
 
flossie said:
From the other side, what puzzles me is why anybody bids on an ebay auction in anything other than the last 30 seconds... you can guarantee you are going to be outbid...
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If you know something is only worth £X then you might aswell bid £X as soon as it's listed and if someone outbids you so be it. More fool them for overpaying.
 
DazJW said:
If you know something is only worth £X then you might aswell bid £X as soon as it's listed and if someone outbids you so be it. More fool them for overpaying.
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Thats always my policy now when bidding on Ebay, as I can be one of those that gets caught up in auction fever and want to be a 'winner'!

Also helps if Im on shift when the auction ends as theres no way I can just grab a sneak peak. Later I do feel sorry for the folks that paid over the odds for second hand kit.
 
DazJW said:
If you know something is only worth £X then you might aswell bid £X as soon as it's listed and if someone outbids you so be it. More fool them for overpaying.
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there are also people who bid £10 on a £1500 camera, just to remove the "Buy It Now" option...and then bid later and pay £1800 for it instead... :bang:
 
DazJW said:
If you know something is only worth £X then you might aswell bid £X as soon as it's listed and if someone outbids you so be it. More fool them for overpaying.
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Trouble is in that situation where you're the first bidder and it sits at 99p with 1 bid right up until the last half hour. By Which time all the vultures have amaassed as they've seen a potential bargain and are poised ready to go nuts and spend stupid amounts.
 
i generally use a sniper (goofbay or justsnipe) and just set an ammount and forget about it so as not to get drawn into bidding wars
 
Alan Clogwyn said:
By Which time all the vultures have amaassed as they've seen a potential bargain and are poised ready to go nuts and spend stupid amounts.
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DazJW said:
if someone outbids you so be it. More fool them for overpaying.
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I don't see how it's any problem to you if other people spend stupid amounts. They're going to bid whether the item has bids or not, if they bid higher than the item is worth then presumably they'd beat you whenever you bid. They're not going to think "well no one has bid on that item I want so I'm not going to either".
 
I believe if they do not bid at the starting price if it is worth say £200 secondhand and the starting price is say £180 then those bidders do not really want the item or know how much it is worth.

sometimes people just want something for nothing.

www.aaron.tweed.talktalk.net
 
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