Are 0.99 starting bid auctions considered gambling or smart marketing?

[Aweandlorder]

Get a better playlist on your phone

 

I kidd

Actually, that's got a grain of truth to it. I don't have wireless headphones and my laptop's speakers suuuuuuuuck goat dong. I can't get the tunes where I need them.

 

Peace,

 

Chip

 

My phone helps me alot.. Music is one thing, but heres a trick not alot of sellers know of:

Set your cameras pics to a shared location on your computer. IE, if you have an iPhone you set your pics to save on iCloud, by the time youre done taking all your pics for your listings, they will already appear in your shared folder on your PC. This saves alot of time especially when taking pics for Lots (thumbs u

[CAHokie]

You know your business better than anyone else.

To me, and this is just me, I was listing 50 -50 auctions and BINS, I found out that I ended up working more on auctions (listing and shipping books that ended up selling for 1-5 bucks) and spending more on eBay listing (relisting more for auctions w a higher starting price)

I ended up doing more Lots instead of 1-5 dollar drek and making more money. I think that most sellers hate to list Lots because the listing is more involved, but I much rather do that and wait for someone to bite than listing hundreds of listings that will close at close to nothing

You're absolutely right there. I've started to tweak things recently and am now keeping a list of titles with corresponding grades where if a certain issue of a title is not a minimum grade it goes into a lot with a BIN and if it's a higher grade and of a certain title then it goes up as a $1.99 start for a week's auction. It's started to decrease my volume as far as workload, but I've been selling a LOT more lots of books.

 

Books that would go a whole week without a $1.99 bid are selling for the same $1.99 as part of a larger lot. Nearly all of the books I list that way were had for 25-35 cents each, so I'm much happier with the result.

 

Now, if only I had more motivation...

 

Peace,

 

Chip

 

You have a nice family and sell comic books to support them. What better motivation could you need?

[Chip Cataldo]

You would think that would be it, right? Some days I just stare at all the work I have to do and barely accomplish anything. Other days I rip it speed-wise...putting up 100 auctions and 50 store items while packing 40-50 boxes.

 

I've been like this my whole life, tho...I wish I could figure it out once and for all.

 

Peace,

 

Chip

[kav]

Yep I feel ya

Sometimes it helps to trick yourself-staring at all the work you have you say you're just going to do 10 listings.

Inevitably you keep rolling

[Aweandlorder]

Some serious smart marketing results as we speak

[kav]

Remember guys the 99c starting bid only works if ITS A BOOK IN DEMAND

Modern drek not so much!!!

ASM 5 starting at 99c will do GREAT

[dupont2005]

I've been selling video games all week. Some sold below what I had hoped, within a couple dollars though. Some sold double what I was asking on Craigslist. All auctions. The thing is though, I probably had realistic expectations because I use eBay completed listings to estimate value, and not some price guide.

[dupont2005]

Remember guys the 99c starting bid only works if ITS A BOOK IN DEMAND

Modern drek not so much!!!

ASM 5 starting at 99c will do GREAT

Modern drek isn't worth more than 99 cents though.

[kav]

yup

not even slabbed

[sterlingcomics]

I'll never sell another book on eBay, so this topic is meaningless for me.

[dupont2005]

I'll never sell another book on eBay, so this topic is meaningless for me.

I don't know if I would sell a comic on there that isn't junk either. I guess it's possible, but it's definitely a last resort. Even after Craigslist. I still buy comics from there though.

 

Not because of the final values of comic auctions, but mostly the six month Paypal chargebacks and the fact that so many collectible bidders on eBay happen to either be scammers or immature children that are a nightmare to deal with.

[loadstone]

Some serious smart marketing results as we speak

 

Do you think the fact that this seller "does not offer returns" on this item turned away potential bidders reducing the final high bid? IMHO it may have had a slight affect in that the final price for 1 - 5 potential bidders may have been closer to $10-15 but the more likely cause is that there were plenty of raw copies in NM or similar grade sold for about the same price so if someone wanted it in HG, they had plenty of options.

 

Not a good strategy there.

 

[mrwoogieman]

I used to list everything at $2.99 starting bid and run auctions for Sunday finishes. Since I've gotten back into selling after a couple year layoff, I adjusted my strategy so that my starting bid was higher but still below where I thought the book should end and hoping for some bidding.

 

After reading this thread, I've decided to move to BIN and BIN/best offer only. So far I've sold two books in the 24 hours since my decision. I sold a Flash 139 in Good+ for $125! I thought that was a pretty strong price, and I would bet that it's higher than I would have gotten at auction (I had planned to start it at $75 or so, who knows if there would have been any bids at all).

 

So, old dog, new tricks. And I am continuing to adapt and appreciate the advice everyone dishes out here for free day in and day out.

 

 

[thunsicker]

Some serious smart marketing results as we speak

 

Do you think the fact that this seller "does not offer returns" on this item turned away potential bidders reducing the final high bid? IMHO it may have had a slight affect in that the final price for 1 - 5 potential bidders may have been closer to $10-15 but the more likely cause is that there were plenty of raw copies in NM or similar grade sold for about the same price so if someone wanted it in HG, they had plenty of options.

 

Not a good strategy there.

 

I suspect, as others have said, that it depends on what you are selling. I watch tons of comics and have never seen anything that's in my collecting focus end at $.99 (or $1.04). There are a few that end at around 80%-90% of GPA, but that's true across EBay, Heritage, ComicConnect, ComicLink, etc. Most of the comics I've seen mentioned here as selling way cheap are ones that probably aren't worth slabbing in 9.8 if you are hoping to make a profit anyway.

 

EDIT: And if you look at his completed items it looks like he had them all listed at $19.99-$24.99 before he put them all up at $.99. He sold maybe one or two.

[CKB]

I used to list everything at $2.99 starting bid and run auctions for Sunday finishes. Since I've gotten back into selling after a couple year layoff, I adjusted my strategy so that my starting bid was higher but still below where I thought the book should end and hoping for some bidding.

 

After reading this thread, I've decided to move to BIN and BIN/best offer only. So far I've sold two books in the 24 hours since my decision. I sold a Flash 139 in Fair/Good for $125! I thought that was a pretty strong price, and I would bet that it's higher than I would have gotten at auction (I had planned to start it at $75 or so, who knows if there would have been any bids at all).

 

So, old dog, new tricks. And I am continuing to adapt and appreciate the advice everyone dishes out here for free day in and day out.

 

 

Glad there was such good advice given in this thread eventually. I feel auctions have a very limited use for eBay sellers. If you do your research and can see multiple near-identical items ending with multiple bids for decent prices, go for it. But for 99% of items BIN is the only way to go.

 

So my vote is "gambling".

 

But, I've been shocked sometimes after doing my research where you can find active markets, though. So it's not all bad.

 

[Junkdrawer]

A Hulk 1 in any grade in any auction on any day, ending anytime will never end with its opening bid of $.99.

[1Cool]

This time of year seems to be especially strong for BINs since people looking for a gift want to get it quick and don't care if its a little more than an auction copy. And then after Christmas everyone has cash and gift cards they want to spend on something right away. I'd think auctions would work better in the spring or dead of summer when people are bored and want the thrill of an auction.

[1Cool]

A Hulk 1 in any grade in any auction on any day, ending anytime will never end with its opening bid of $.99.

 

Definitely. But a Hulk 1 that is thrown up for auction that gets all low ball bidders will go for a "steal" compared to a book with a good BIN. It may take 3 - 4 months for the BIN to be hit but I find the higher dollar is realized with a BIN over auction in most cases. So I'd vote gamble and a bad gamble unless you need the money right away since it is one that seems to lose most of the time.

[Junkdrawer]

A Hulk 1 in any grade in any auction on any day, ending anytime will never end with its opening bid of $.99.

 

Definitely. But a Hulk 1 that is thrown up for auction that gets all low ball bidders will go for a "steal" compared to a book with a good BIN. It may take 3 - 4 months for the BIN to be hit but I find the higher dollar is realized with a BIN over auction in most cases. So I'd vote gamble and a bad gamble unless you need the money right away since it is one that seems to lose most of the time.

ive seen people lose with BIN, just recently in fact with NM98. The news broke and all those $400 - 500 Cgc 9.8s got snapped up before they could adjust the BIN prices. Books at auction that same week were ending $700 ++++

[1Cool]

A Hulk 1 in any grade in any auction on any day, ending anytime will never end with its opening bid of $.99.

 

Definitely. But a Hulk 1 that is thrown up for auction that gets all low ball bidders will go for a "steal" compared to a book with a good BIN. It may take 3 - 4 months for the BIN to be hit but I find the higher dollar is realized with a BIN over auction in most cases. So I'd vote gamble and a bad gamble unless you need the money right away since it is one that seems to lose most of the time.

ive seen people lose with BIN, just recently in fact with NM98. The news broke and all those $400 - 500 Cgc 9.8s got snapped up before they could adjust the BIN prices. Books at auction that same week were ending $700 ++++

 

There are exceptions to any rule for sure.