06-24-2024 09:05 AM
It's been about 24 years since I last sold on ebay. I just listed an antique 14k gold cigar cutter and I've had oly 3 views. There's 2 days left of a 7 day auction. Is that normal? I don't see the point in using ebay if I'm only reaching 3 people.
I don't know how it's even possible to get that few number of views on the internet.
06-24-2024 01:49 PM
Well most bids come in the last few hours of the Auction.
And Views are those of actual people who have looked at your auction, not robots or your own.
And Auctions make up less than 15% of listings on eBay.
There would be a very small market for your item, but the eBay market itself is huge.
I have items that have sold with only one View, others that have been listed for months getting few or no Views each month, but then sell.
More important.
Have you registered for Managed Payments so that eBay can transfer your customer's payment to your chequing account?
Get to that now.
EBay will Hold your funds for up to 21 days. They do this for every new and returning seller.
But you can use those Held funds to buy shipping labels.
You get a discount on those over counter rates.
The US Tracked Packet is a real deal, less than half price.
But it is very likely that any item in the unpopular auction format will not sell.
And if it does, that the sale will go unpaid.
You can open an Unpaid Item Claim and end the transaction after 96 hours, a huge improvement over the previous eight days.
But when you relist, use Fixed Price/Immediate Payment Required.
The cutter will have 30days to find a buyer instead of seven and the buyer will be a payer.
Congratulations on finding the community Boards. Lots don't.
Read as much as you can, and remember that members come here with problems not with happy news.
Are you set up with Managed Payments?
06-24-2024 02:46 PM
I already sold one item and after waiting a while they did finally pay it to my checking account. I assume that means I'm setup for managed payouts. I don't know if they'll hold the second one too or not? I'm not really sure how it works yet.
I'm just suprised that any auction involving something gold can have 3 views after all this time.
In this particular case I believe my starting bid is actually less then the the scrap value of the gold regardless of the antiquity of the item.
I'm still trying to figure out the shipping. It seems complicated. I asked my post office about ebay discount rates and they had no idea what I was talking about so I guess I have to print labels to get the discount rates? Unfortunately I have no printer at the moment. lol
06-24-2024 03:20 PM
Canada Post employees will have 0 knowledge of the eBay discounts as those eBay discounted postal rates are provided to eBay sellers by eBay > discounted rates are through an agreement between eBay and Canada Post and therefore Canada Post counter persons would have no knowledge of that...
and yes if you want the discounted rates you will need to access that process through eBay...
BTW, item views are calculated differently these days and not in the same fashion as was 24 years ago or even 5 years ago...the calculation of item views was changed more recently= about 3 years ago...
06-24-2024 05:29 PM
06-24-2024 06:03 PM - edited 06-24-2024 06:04 PM
My own personal belief is to have the most important words in the first 5 and avoid special characters at all costs. As well assume nobody reads the description and put everything you can fit in the title.
I have no proof that it matters anymore, but if the gold value is important I would start with 14K gold antique cigar.... I would most certainly get rid of the "/". Commas are ok.
So something like "14K gold antique cigar, cigarette cutter 8 gms" I think would do way better if the gold value is more important.
I noticed it says 11 views in the last 24 hours but that's probably all of us looking at it.....but we'll help as I think the bots notice something becomming "popular" and show it to more people as well...
PS if you change the wording "now" it will punish you search/views wise it is probably better to leave as is and reconfigure wording next time around that you have something like this.
06-24-2024 08:31 PM
I just peeked and it is showing the flame icon (hot item) and 13 views in last 24 hours. Hard as it may be try to stop checking on it too often, it will drive you crazy. I liked ricarmic's suggestion about the heading, to put the 14K first, instead of at the end, I think that would help.
Coming back after 24 years there are major, major changes...kudos to you for giving it a try again. Good luck!