Big Mo gives us some tips

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10261267

Oh my.

mopinko (43,464 posts)    Sat Mar 14, 2015, 01:10 PM

some notes on ebay from an addicted buyer.
 
so, i have been bitten soooo hard by the ebay bug. my collection of fp* little people has taken over my whole front room.

so i thought i would share some notes from my experience on the other side of the keyboard.

first, do not try to pad your profits w high shipping charges. lots w free shipping will be much more competitive. we are not stupid, we look at the total cost of the auction. $30-40 shipping charges are a huge turnoff.

smart buyers know this, i must admit. i look for these auctions because in the end the price is lower.

second, take good pictures! dont post fuzzy ass pics. dont take a pic of half your living room and your oriental carpets. again, i look for these auctions. i know the product well enough that i dont have to see that well. and i am expecting things in rough condition, because i am only looking for played w condition. i have gotten a few real steals this way.

third, dont.even.use.a.reserve. just start the bidding at your best price. i find there is a quirk in the ebay system here. i bid on an item with a reserve. i bid over 2x the starting bid, and the reserve was still not met. but here is the thing, until someone else came along an hit the reserve, my bid did not even count. it was only about $10 short of the $70 reserve, but it didnt even count. i did win the auction, but i cursed the seller as my bid sat there not counting. turned out the reserve was 4x the starting bid. that is just flat out stupid. it could have ended up unsold, as many auctions w reserves do.

most of these flaws are certainly inexperienced sellers. you dont see them in the more successful sellers.

dont be them.

*???

Vinca (23,084 posts)    Sat Mar 14, 2015, 05:33 PM

1. I rarely sell via auctions anymore.
 
I want to give people a good deal and start the bidding low, but then I risk selling a $100 item for $9.99. If you start the bidding at your lowest acceptable price, say $75, nobody bids. I do "buy it now" and offer free shipping on almost everything. It's less of a risk and less of a hassle for me. I started on ebay in the early days, 1998 I think it was, and it was a blast back then. The auction format was a real novelty and there weren't a billion listings so items often went to the stratosphere price-wise. My favorite ebay sale, from about that time, was when I put a miniature Oscar award up as an auction with a $500 reserve. It had been a table decoration at the Academy Awards ceremony in the 1930's. I met the reserve and then it just sat there. I was pretty happy, but was totally surprised when - in the last few minutes of the auction - the bid went to $5,000. Those were the days . . .

^^^the notorious re-seller, whose business motto is "you've got to be sharp; you've got to cheat the other guy before he cheats you."

mopinko (43,464 posts)    Sat Mar 14, 2015, 06:06 PM

2. i NEVER bid until the last minute.
 
the last 30 seconds, actually. i rarely lose. 

grasswire (42,740 posts)    Sun Mar 15, 2015, 08:24 PM

3. yes, ebay was a money tree back in the day
 
I couldn't wait to wake up in the morning to see how much money I made during the night. And watching your auction get hot was a real kick. Whee!

I learned to trust the market place in those days. I never used a reserve, started at a reasonable price, and trusted the market forces to give me a good return. I wouldn't do that now; I would set the opening bid at slightly under what I believe it's worth. The condition of ebay mandates that.

<<<wonders if Judy grasswire ever reported all that income.

juxtaposed (803 posts)    Mon Mar 16, 2015, 12:04 AM

4. I still buy on ebay to this day. I first started selling back when ebay came online. 1996-8?
 
I enjoyed it back when you would accept checks only.. No paypal BS.. Back then I had over a thousand positive feedbacks and not one negative, still do!. I would get a hand full of checks per-week and not one would bounce..

The good old days 

Vinca (23,084 posts)    Mon Mar 16, 2015, 08:05 AM

6. They've managed to "Amazon-ize" it, haven't they?
 
There's little seller-to-buyer contact, if any. I always make a point of sending a thank you note to my buyers and I refuse to use eBay's postage feature. I'd rather give my money to the local post office to be sure it gets credit and stays open. I never had a check bounce either and I remember carrying on some really nice conversations with people. I remember one guy from Great Britain sent me such a pretty photo I used it as a screen saver.

[Carl]

Greedy old hags.

[Big Dog]

judy grasswipe

I learned to trust the market place in those days. I never used a reserve, started at a reasonable price, and trusted the market forces

Those are fightin' words on Skins' Island.

[gore_bites]

fp = fisher price little people

[Big Dog]

fp = fisher price little people

Are those like Legos?

[franksolich]

fp = fisher price little people

Well, why the  doesn't Big Mo spell it out?

That's not any indication of being a good, or even competent, writer, simply assuming other people know what one means.

If Big Mo's too  lazy to bother spelling something out for her audience, it's a clear sign she's an insensitive clod contemptuous of her audience.

<<<always takes the time and trouble to spell something out, in case it might not be clear to readers.

<<<loves readers; hopes to be kicked in the ass as a reminder by one, if doesn't make something clear.

[ChuckJ]

I've sold some things on eBay. Here's my advice.

1) Sell only what you intend to get rid of and not what you intend to get rich off of.
2) Start the auction at a nickel with no reserve. A low price is more apt to get the bidding started. Once the bidding starts human nature kicks in. The bidder don't want to be beat by the other bidder. It will drive the price up.
3) Charge only what the shipping costs.

Sure, you may occasionally end up selling something for a nickel, but it is something that you wanted to get rid of anyway. Ninety to ninety five percent of the time the final bid will be much more than a nickel.

[lastparker]

fp = fisher price little people

Oh my - this brings back a great memory of my daughter's first birthday. I got her a "fp" little people school bus, and once we opened the box, I remember my Mom and me (and my Mom is a huge lib, but has brains and common sense, so could never be a DUmmy) laughing until we cried over the political correctness of the whole ensemble. There was a white kid (rotten 1%-er!!!!!!), a couple of varying degrees of brown kids, a wheelchair kid... and if I recall correctly, we really laughed over the Hispanic bus driver, wondering if that was the result of what we all now know as "institutional racism". Good times, good times.

ETA: I'm pretty sure I donated the whole thing to my local thrift store. Sorry Mo.

[franksolich]

Are those like Legos?

You know, I'm really sorry for being anal like this, but Big Mo was raised better.

So she doesn't like franksolich, and won't take his advice about making her posts more attractive to her readers--but she could at least listen to her pal Ms. Vanderbilt-Astor, the NJCher primitive, who wrote a most-excellent original topic on Skins's island last year, about the problem with idiots and inconsiderate slobs who use obscure acronyms.

To top it off, Big Mo's too  lazy to use the shift key.

My God, even nadin knows how to use the shift key.

If Big Mo keeps up doing this sort of thing, there's going to be a new award in the Top DUmmies contest for 2015; the Maureen O'Callahan, or whatever her name is, award for the primitive most contemptuous of its audience.

It shouldn't be any wonder her long-suffering husband dumped her, and her own kids don't care much for her; she probably treated them in the same slovenly, slatternly, lazy, sloppy manner as she writes.

[Carl]

You know, I'm really sorry for being anal like this, but Big Mo was raised better.

So she doesn't like franksolich, and won't take his advice about making her posts more attractive to her readers--but she could at least listen to her pal Ms. Vanderbilt-Astor, the NJCher primitive, who wrote a most-excellent original topic on Skins's island last year, about the problem with idiots and inconsiderate slobs who use obscure acronyms.

To top it off, Big Mo's too  lazy to use the shift key.

My God, even nadin knows how to use the shift key.

If Big Mo keeps up doing this sort of thing, there's going to be a new award in the Top DUmmies contest for 2015; the Maureen O'Callahan, or whatever her name is, award for the primitive most contemptuous of its audience.

It shouldn't be any wonder her long-suffering husband dumped her, and her own kids don't care much for her; she probably treated them in the same slovenly, slatternly, lazy, sloppy manner as she writes.

I fear you labor under the ideal that somewhere deep down these devolved sub species might still have a flash of human decency or civility.
They really are the throwback primitives you have long equated them to.

[franksolich]

They really are the throwback primitives you have long equated them to.

It sure looks that way.

[Carl]

It sure looks that way.

Their inability to mature past what would be 1st grade level for normal people is the ball and chain they drag through life.

[GOBUCKS]

idiots and inconsiderate slobs who use obscure acronyms.

It gives a sense of superiority, of being amongst the "in" crowd, of being a cool kid.

It's even more common among military folks than at the DUmp.

[JakeStyle]

People pay money for these?

[obumazombie]

Didn't we just get through having to put up with a bout of Mo's griping ?
She went off about how some storage locker bidder just made off with a priceless collection she was keeping in storage.
Now Mo has her whole living room full of priceless trinkets.
And probably has her whole urban garden full of the same treasures.
What is it about libs that they can't break the code of self destructive cycles ?

[delilahmused]

I buy the occasional lots of costume jewelry/parts/components and/or ephemera I might use for various projects but I don't know that any DUmmie would have enough of anything of value to make any real money from.

Cindie