eBay

lud-4367 · ‎10-05-2021

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/324064477436 It's a new bluray for $ 4 with free shipping in Canada. Since it has 3 discs, the minimum shipping cost will be $3.60 tax included through lettermail, and then there will be fee 50 cents from ebay. Even if the seller received those new blurays for free, this seller is still losing money for selling these items. I would understand if this is a new seller trying to get some feedback flowing, but no, they are far from it. The worst part of doing things like this is that it's disrupting the market. It makes all other listings useless. Is that what they are trying to do? It's hard to understand. Sadly, I get to see this kind of behaviors on ebay from time to time. Just like this https://www.ebay.ca/itm/174400982917 It's a boxset of 3 books priced at $1.49. I think this seller is just trying to make it even. This seller also has big numbers on their feedback. They seem to have been doing business on ebay quiet long too. Then why they are doing this?

rocketscollectibles · ‎10-06-2021

1. stupidity or price war

2. get rid of an item

3. attract buyers

I don't see any other reason

musicyouneed2 · ‎10-06-2021

I often wonder the same thing. If they want to get rid of their stuff, donate it, why lose money on each sale. My time is also worth something.

byto253 · ‎10-06-2021

So true, to many folks do not put enough value on their time. I am guilty too!!!!

I am bringing a haul to the Sally Anne today, it was time to cut some stuff. When I step back and look at what I sold and the cost, the bit I spent on these items is not material, but my time is.

ricarmic · ‎10-06-2021

It is possible they are counting on multiple/combined purchases.

In my own experiments this doesn't work, especially with free shipping on them all there's no incentive to buy multiples perhaps their experience is better.

They do seem to have a good sell through rate.....

PS we're assuming they're doing things the same way we are, they may have a very discounted ability to ship or some other thing we don't/can't do....

rocketscollectibles · ‎10-06-2021

It also can just be to promote too. I mean undersell can bring visility and new costumers. Or bring people to buy other items because of it, instantly or long term. Any store gifting products on promotional purposes. We don't have to make money on 100% of our items if we have a long term vision. The only money number that count is the total of everything at the end, not the total of items one by one

I have someone in my category who undersell, but not just one item, literally everything. And he's stacked with so many items and duplicates, so i know it's very frustrating. When i list something, do my pricing researchs and realise i just can't sell the item because of a single one guy... He sell at 50% of the other prices often, with shipping cost and probably combine. That's obvious he's doing his money on the shipping overcharge. That's disonest and he look like an hero to buyers. Nothing we can do, he just burn the market

That being said, price is not everything. I tried myself this strategy literally last week with one of my popular cards that i have a bunch of dupplicates. I have a lack of visibility and sales so i used this item to attract people and tryna boost my profil and score. I listed at $2.25 (losing around $0.50 per sale) while the lowest is $2.29, and others are $2.40 and more. Well i don't have a single sold and i seen a few sold at higher prices, got 3 views on the listing. My actual conclusion is that we can't do that without reputation, people will prefer to buy to sellers with more feedbacks over it

Ebay in some categories is a very tough place to sell to be honest

femmefan1946 · ‎10-07-2021

He sell at 50% of the other prices often, with shipping cost and probably combine. That's obvious he's doing his money on the shipping overcharge.

Which is cheaper ? A $5 card with $2 shipping or a $7 card with Free Shipping?

Is your competitor separating the asking price and the shipping price or is he combining them and calling it "free" shipping?

Both have promoters and as a strategy neither is wrong.

Combined (and discounted) shipping is a consumer expectation. But not combining is allowed by eBay, in fact with the GSP the seller cannot discount shipping, although she can pack multiple items into one box for GSP shipping.

rocketscollectibles · ‎10-07-2021

Which is cheaper ? A $5 card with $2 shipping or a $7 card with Free Shipping?

No if a card is overall listed a 7$, the guy literally is at $3.00 + $1.50 shipping for exemple. He's under every one by like 10-50% on every card, but all the cheap under $10 ones. He got so many at $1.25 + $1.50 that we could sell $4+, he just burn the cheap cards market

eburtonlab · ‎10-07-2021

1. stupidity or price war

2. get rid of an item

3. attract buyers

4. selling at a loss to raise seller metrics

lud-4367 · ‎10-07-2021

4. selling at a loss to raise seller metrics

What kind of benefit do you get for raising seller metrics?

ricarmic · ‎10-08-2021

What kind of benefit do you get for raising seller metrics?

One of the most important things of all, increased visibility......

lud-4367 · ‎10-09-2021

@ricarmic wrote:
What kind of benefit do you get for raising seller metrics?

One of the most important things of all, increased visibility......

I'm not sure "visibility" alone can make more sales. Based on my experience, demand, rarity, and good price have always made the sales in a flash. Unless a seller put a wrong name, I don't think the search discriminates the results depending on the seller rates. Having said that, can you explain about "increased visibility" with some examples?

ricarmic · ‎10-09-2021

If something is an awesome price, someone still has to see it before it can be purchased.

There are millions of items out there, getting someone to see yours is what is most important.

An analogy is you want someone to buy your sunflower in a whole field of them. How will they know to find/buy yours?

Generally these things increase visibility:

-newly listed items

-auction items with bids

-multi item listings with sales

-good seller statistics

-good sell through rate

-etc, etc, etc

(nobody knows for sure what increases visibility)

In other threads you'll see sellers complaining that they have the very best prices yet people who have things priced much higher are selling them faster.

That's what visibility does....

Does that help?

rocketscollectibles · ‎10-09-2021

I don't think the search discriminates the results depending on the seller rates

It is. 110%

As talked last week on another thread, personally in my category there's some sellers using false specifications. Most are 1000+ score sellers. And their items that has literally nothing to do in the search appears higher than mine that is legit the item searched. It's like you're searching for a big mac and those guys have better visibility with their pizzas than your big mac. Weird exemple but you get the idea. Ebay algorythm no brainer doing favoritism over the seller scores and performances. To me it's like implicit collusion