Hello Canadian eBayers! This week I'm flying solo to chat with you and answer your questions. Fire away!
@rose-dee wrote:
Hi Raphael, and Happy Holidays ahead!
We're in the midst of a fierce blizzard right now here in N.S., so I'm not sure how long I'll be able to stay online, but I wanted to ask one question: whatever happened to 'exclusive listings'? Are they still available/possible? They would serve my needs extremely well.
I used to use an 'exclusive listing' (i.e. a listing that could be set up to block all but one buyer ID) if I had a custom item that was prepared for a particular buyer, to avoid someone else grabbing the item first. It would make for very bad customer relations to put together an item at the request of one buyer, and have someone else purchase it.
If 'exclusive listings' are no longer available, do you have any suggestions for how best to deal with this situation? One seller suggested simply using the buyer's ID as the listing title, but I'm not sure that's a good idea. Your thoughts would be appreciated!
Hi rose-dee,
Happy Holidays to you as well!
I actually don't remember eBay ever offering that feature. The closest thing would be Pre Approved Bidders, which works only for charity and very high profile listings, and restricts bidding only to bidders put on a pre-approved list managed by the seller. However we very rarely allow anyone to use this feature.
The right way to sell to a specific buyer is to create a new auction-style listing and set the starting price at the price agreed to between you and the buyer, then have the buyer place a bid at that starting price, then end the listing early to sell to that buyer. Doing it this way (auction style) will allow you to cancel unwanted bids if there are any.
OK, thanks Raphael -- it may have been the "pre-approved bidder" feature I was thinking of. I have used this in the past (probably over 2 years ago) and it worked beautifully.
I'm referring to rather expensive custom-made clothing that I know will attract other buyers. I'm just concerned that if I put it up at auction at the agreed asking price as a start, someone could still outbid my custom buyer.
I think I'd rather not risk the auction format (nor pay for a ca. $300 starting price listing fee). I will probably just arrange with my buyer a mutually convenient time to list the item and give her the item # immediately upon listing so that she can get to it before it may even be searchable on eBay. I've done this before and it has turned out fine, although I do wish there were a better and more available feature to use.
Can't I use the pre-approved bidder feature for a ca. $300 item? Or is that not considered a "high profile" listing seeing as I'm such a little seller?
@rose-dee wrote:
I'm referring to rather expensive custom-made clothing that I know will attract other buyers. I'm just concerned that if I put it up at auction at the agreed asking price as a start, someone could still outbid my custom buyer.
I think I'd rather not risk the auction format (nor pay for a ca. $300 starting price listing fee). I will probably just arrange with my buyer a mutually convenient time to list the item and give her the item # immediately upon listing so that she can get to it before it may even be searchable on eBay. I've done this before and it has turned out fine, although I do wish there were a better and more available feature to use.
Can't I use the pre-approved bidder feature for a ca. $300 item? Or is that not considered a "high profile" listing seeing as I'm such a little seller?
By "high profile" we mean a listing that has gathered national media attention, or a celebrity listing (think "lunch with Warren Buffet") and such. We don't turn that feature on for much of anything else than that anymore.
You can totally use the method I outlined in my last post. You just have to cancel any bids from anyone else than the buyer you intend to sell to. Keep in mind that once you create a listing, it'll take some time before it's visible in keyword search results. If you make your buyer aware of when you are putting the listing up and message them the item number immediately after the listing is created, the chances of anyone reaching the listing before your intended buyer will be very slim. If that was to happen anyhow, you can cancel all bids to make space for your buyer to place their bid.
@rose-dee wrote:
OK, I'll give it a try -- hopefully I get the auction listing free with my store listings (I hope the ca. $300 start price doesn't attract an enormous auction listing fee because I'm already going to be subsidizing the Xpresspost shipping to the tune of ca. $25).
Thanks Raphael!
In the Vintage Reproductions clothing category, you should only be charged the final value fee of 10% on this particular example listing.
You can use this tool to see what the charges would be for any listing before you actually put it up on the site.
All right, thanks rose-dee for participating in this one on one session! 🙂
This concludes this week's Board Hour. See you next time!
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