Successful Auctions?

[kristal4742]

I sell antiques and vintage items. I have had 2 items so far that I have put up for auction due to the fact that I can't find enough examples to properly hone in on an accurate price. Both items received multiple bids on the first day with lots of watchers as well. The bids seem to reach my reserve price with usually 24 hrs left. I always end up selling for my exact reserve price, no sniping, no extra bids at the end. I guess my question is, why bother with an auction? Is this normal? I feel like I should just be setting my price a little higher and list BIN.

[femmefan1946]

Collectibles are one category where Auctions still work to some extent.

But 85% or more of transactions are Fixed Price and some who have been burned dealing with the plethora of deadbeats bidding on Auctions will add the Immediate Payment Required (IPR) option.

Buyers don't like waiting seven days to learn they have been out bid with seconds to go by a sniper.

Buyers do like the Immediate Gratification of buying, paying, and seeing their purchase mailed in less than the time elapse of an Auction.

Buyers like knowing how much they will pay, including shipping. This is also why Free Shipping * is popular.

You can also use Best Offer and/or Buy It Now with Auctions. Either of which ends the auction.

If you use Reserve on an auction and it does not sell, the Reserve fee is non-refundable. Remember that your opening price is a Reserve** which is free.

Sellers know what they will get for their item, including fees since those are based on the selling price. Higher selling price= higher fees.

Sellers deal with fewer deadbeats, especially if they use IPR.

Sellers can add Best Offer to listings and set parameters that automatically refuse or accept offers. The acceptable BO would be lower than the listed price, which adds a touch of auction madness to the transaction.

*Free Shipping means the seller's shipping costs are included in the asking price. TANSTAAFL.

** Since theoretically no one can bid lower.  With Auctions BIN and Best Offer are expected to be higher than the opening price, while with FP listings, Best Offer will be lower.

[byto253]

Your reason  for using an auction "... I can't find enough examples to properly hone in on an accurate price..." is bang on IMHO.   Perhaps you can fine tune the execution so that you are more satisfied with the outcome.  

Are you using a reserve where bidding is lower than your minimum acceptable amount?     Using the reserve feature is not common on Ebay, and not very popular.  I don't like it myself as I don't like putting the time in to something and you do not even know if it is going to sell.   I would guess that in your auctions with a reserve folks bid it up right away to find what the reserve amount is and stopped there.   It could also just reflect that you have a very good handle on what the value is. 

The usual way to "reserve" a price is to have the starting price at the lowest price you would like to achieve, but leaving the door open for any upside.  If it does not sell at auction, you can wait a bit and try again, or put it up as a fixed listing.   I make sure that I will be ok with the hammer price if there is only 1 bidder.   It sounds like you are starting, or have a reserve price, that is lower than you are comfortable with.  

I also like to put a Buy It Now price on the auction item that is on the higher end of what I would be happy with, then if someone wants it enough they can get it now.  Most of the time the BIN is not chosen, but there are enough to make it worth doing.  An example is a nice Paragon cup and saucer I listed recently that I figured was worth about $150 US, so I started the auction at $145 with a BIN of $195 US, and it got BINed at the higher price.  I had a good feel for what it was worth, but there were some outlier results that suggested I may do a bit better so thought it was worth a try.  

I only do this with items where I figure the demand should be pretty good, and like you said, it is hard to get a feel for the upside.  With starting prices set higher, be prepared for a lot of acutions to go without any bids.  Depending on what it is, I get a 30% to 50% auction sell through rate with this. I think that is pretty good since I am not starting at 99 cents!    Most of my listings are Fixed price but the auctions have popped up enough pleasant surprises that I will not dismiss them out of hand.   Just another tool in the kit. 

The new Immediate Payment Option (IPR) for auctions that femmefan1946 noted is something to take a look at as well.  I have been lucky in having very few non-payers with auctions, on par with fixed listings that the buyers cancel, but a lot of auction winners are ssslow to pay, so you are in limbo waiting.   I have not looked at IPR myself but definately will.  It is funny but the lower priced stuff is where I see more foot dragging on payments.  

For an auction with a decent dollar value item, I set shipping to be competitive for the competition or area being sold in, and it may not be enough to cover the actual shipping cost.  Auction psychology is usually to keep the up front hammer price as low as possible.   When you have a fixed item jacking it up to provide "free shipping" is easy but with a variable price auction item I like to have a buffer on that cost.   End of day I don't know if it makes much difference and of course it comes down to what you think is right for your items.

The other side of auctions is to just move out stuff where the final price is not that important and it is just hey, hey, this stuff has got to go!  You need to figure if you are selling cheap, is it just better to put in on Kijiji or craigslist then. 

There is no downside to trying to put some auctions up and try ways of listing and pricing sturctures to see what works better for you.   Auctions for unique and collectable items can be like catching lightening in a bottle and there is some luck in having the right buyers see it during the week you list it.   Still a worthwhile tool IMHO. 

[recped]

Dump the Reserve, it costs you money and a substantial share of buyers won't even bid once they see a reseve is on the listing.

If you are not getting prices well above your reserve it means your reserve price could probably be transfered to Fixed Price or you could just start your Auctions at the reserve value and avoid the ridiculous (non-refundable) Reserve fee.

The low starting price attracts bidder who maybe don't even understand reserves and think they can snag a real bargain, when push comes to shove they will drop out of the running early and you are left with one or two who may nibble bid up to the reserve but not much above.

[femmefan1946]

@byto253  has a good point about slow payers.

EBay recently introduced an automated Cancellation process, which sellers can opt into.

Unlike the original Cancellation, which was theoretically meant to deal with transactions where both parties knew it was not going to happen, this is really an Unpaid Item Dispute (UID)- without the "dispute" part.

• After four days (96 hours) eBay will Cancel any unpaid transaction, give the deadbeat a Strike, and block him from leaving feedback.
• This is low stress. The seller does not need to do anything after opting in from the Selling form.

The seller can still (I believe) open a manual UID after 96hours (48 if the seller is in the USA) and then the buyer has a further 96 hours to pay up.  The seller manually closes the UID. The penalties for non-payment are the same.

• This is slower, but may ginger up a sllllooooowwww paying customer, usually one who is known to the seller.

[ricarmic]

Personally I do not like or use reserves for the reasons Recped mentions, they are expensive and in my experience (very aged now, it's probably been over 10 years since I used reserves) they dampened sales.

I like to believe I have a decent idea what something is worth.

I start my auctions at the same price the item would be if it was in my store based on what I think it is worth based on evidence or intuition.

If it doesn't sell, it gets relisted in the store at the same price.

This protects me in situations where I in fact did not know the price and it was worth somewhat more (I have had some big surprises, notable ones like things I though should be garbaged going for $100s of dollars for reasons I still do not know!).

It does not protect me in situations where I in fact do not know what it was worth and it is worth less. Having said this at least in my (stamp) world it is hard to know for sure. Auctions will generally realize half or less of the same item/group as BIN. As a crazy example yesterday I saw a seller somehow getting $400 US$ BIN for a batch of stamps that really should sell for $5, and they've been getting this rate repeatedly.  I would really like to know how they are doing that without terrible feedbacks because that stuff is common material easily available for the $5 rate "everywhere else".....and they aren't doing anything to market them as searcher lots or anything!!

About 50% of my business is from repeat customers. Generally they've all caught on to the auction to BIN plan and they do not bid at all and purchase after it goes BIN, or they wait until the very end and the item goes for the start price. 

I've evolved my approach to start stuff that has some hope of extra bids as auctions, stuff that never goes above the start and is a "regular" item I just start as BINS.

Sometimes my repeat (BIN) buyers "found" me via the auctions so I think it gets exposure to other buyers that wouldn't see me otherwise.

[femmefan1946]

@ricarmic 

While some might immediately go to "money laundering" , my first thought was the hobby is growing  and new collectors, working alone with no clubs or stamp shops to guide them, who are  buying "big box o' fun" lots to pass the time.

That a lot of the workforce shrinkage in the USA seems to be from retiring Boomers (the youngest of us are 56) might play into this, since the philatelic demographic skews older.

Weeda Stamps here in Victoria recently changed hands (from Boomers to a GenX owner) and one thing Firman did was go into the storeroom and start putting out BBoFs for the drop in customers. He says they are flying off the shelves - at prices from $25 to $500.

But I digress...

[ricarmic]

@femmefan1946  do a (stamps category) search on "franco" you'll see what I mean....

[intimewithmusic]

Hi. When you said "Reserve Price" did you mean Reserve? You have to pay an extra fee for that... or did you mean "Starting Bid/Price"? They are two different things. You say your item sells for the exact "Reserve Price."  Reserves are secret but Starting Bids" aren't. I think you mean starting bid. the buyer sees that, waits till the auction ends and that is what you get. Here's my twist on that....

When listing items that have no comps to find out the market value you could try this unusual strategy. You have nothing to lose. 

-List with a starting price but no reserve. Make it high and be sure the SP is the very least you would take. Say it's $200. Run this auction for 7 days. I find ending auctions on a Sunday evening when bidders are available is best. 

-You receive NO bids but lots of views/watchers.  This is what you want. You're on the right track.  Start another auction RAISING the starting bid 10% more than the 1st time. (SP now = $225.)

-Run this one short maybe 3-5 days.  If you get more views/watchers but no bids you can make a choice.  

What you've done is flushed out interested buyers. If you take too long by running a 3rd "attention getter" you may lose their interest or another similar cheaper item  may appear and distract them.  

  After the second auction (about 10 days in) I would list it as a BIN with the 2nd starting price, in this case $225 and also add best offer. In addition I would send Offers to Watchers with a 10% discount which would be $199.99. 

  You have attracted attention, defined your market, not undersold (or it would have had bids) and created a sense of urgency as all the watchers who get offers know others got the offer too.  If it doesn't sell "That's the way the widget crumbles..." 🙂 Leave it as a BIN/BO. Adjust price as necessary.

ITWM