Position of item -

[via.pier]

Hello,

I am selling an item, at a very very low price - I have checked others to make sure.  And yet, when I sort by price, I never find my item.  Can someone shed some light on this?  

I was thinking:

1 I don't understand how Ebay works or

2 There is some sort of cost associated to be on top

3 I must up my shipping and lower my item to get better visibility

Thanks for any info!

[ricarmic]

It would help if you can provide the item number....so we can check it out....

[femmefan1946]

2 There is some sort of cost associated to be on top

Sort of.

There is a Promoted Listings program which allows you to choose the additional fee you will pay eBay IF your item sells. This does give some extra visibility.

I've used it and been relatively pleased with results but my experience is anecdotal because it was interrupted by the pandemic surge in buying over the late spring and summer.

Sellers also  get boosts in placement when they are having similar steady sales, when they have Top Rated Seller status or when they are Power Sellers. All of which come from selling... which doesn't held relative newbies.

3 I must up my shipping and lower my item to get better visibility

NO!

Quite the opposite.

A 99c item with $20 shipping is going to turn off every single potential customer.  They will think you are price gouging on shipping.

You will do better with $20 for the item and 99c shipping.

Or $20.99 item with FREE SHIPPING.

DON'T PANIC!

Buyers love "free" shipping. They know intellectually that the cost of shipping is in there, but that doesn't change the surge of feels.

If your comic is not worth $21 including shipping, then you can reduce the price.

Let's chat about Cookie Jar Insurance.

This is just putting aside a few pennies from each sale in a virtual cookie jar as a sort of self-insurance premium against Disputes and Claims.

There really are not many of these compared to the number of sales here. Most sellers who do the math have less than the retail norm of 1% failed transactions.

Now take a deep breath.

Are your customers fundamentally honest? Or are they thieving entitled brats who will claim non-delivery if you don't send everything GoldPlatedTripleInsuredSuperEspressoVitesse ?

Most are the former.

And you can send* a comic book /magazine for less than a toonie with (untracked) LetterPost to either Canada or the USA.

If you can't emotionally manage that:

You are listing on dotCA?

Use Calculated Shipping to give your buyer the exact price to his doorstep of package service.

And put your item price where you want it to be.

Or list on dotCOM using USdollars and Flat Rate Shipping from an International Location.

You work out the shipping cost using the website below.

But if we knew which item was the problem, it would be easier to advise.

*Never offer Free Shipping overseas. Tracking may not be necessary but the rates! Whoo doggie!

https://www.canadapost.ca/cpotools/apps/far/business/findARate?execution=e1s1

[femmefan1946]

Also -- there is more than one Search.

Best Match is the default and probably most shoppers never notice any other.

But Lowest Price (plus Shipping) is very popular.

As is Newly LIsted/About to Close.

You might be number one on one Search and nowhere on another.

It's unlikely, but possible.

And,

There are nearly a billion items listed on eBay at any given time.

If there are a lot of a particular item, not all are going to be showing up with every Search.
Or they may be on page five or ten or further back.

I've also noticed that if I Search for a particular thing, then re-try the Search, I sometimes see entirely different items.

Apparently the Search algorithm thinks I have rejected those already seen and shows me a different bunch.  Maybe.

[femmefan1946]

I feel like a nag but-- why are you not selling into the USA?

Shipping is slow these days, but they are still the largest single economy on this planet, and right next door.

Just adding the USA to your shipping destinations will boost your visibility.

[esclyons]

Just a big head's up you can't charge 5$ for shipping, then say actual amount will be determined at the end of the auction..

You can't ask a buyer for more money after the item sells.. you need to learn how to properly set your shipping rates..

[travis7s]

Honestly, your listings need more work. Take lots of good photos, especially of things are that aren't brand new or are used. A single stock image for something like a comic book is not what a collector wants to see. ALL CAPS descriptions with spelling and grammar errors look unprofessional. Use the calculated shipping feature to set the rates before somebody buys. As someone pointed out earlier you will have a very bad time if you try to charge someone extra shipping after the sale.

[eburtonlab]

When a Lowest First sort is performed, you will often see a message at the top of the results: "We removed some search results to show you the most relevant listings. View all results" -- if you want to see all the results, you need to either try another sort, or click on that "View all results" link. Otherwise you are only seeing a subset of the results of that search, despite the number that is shown at the top. Try counting the results before and after following that "all results" link.

eBay does not really explain how it determines which listings are "most relevant", or why some results are not shown initially.

If you have a "lowest price" search sort bookmarked or saved, you can change that to the "all results" by adding "&_blrs=recall_filtering" to the end of the URL, or just bookmarking the "view all results" page instead.