A little EBAY sales help please

ben62670

Well my buddy want me to sell a few things for him on EBAY, and of coarse I want max $ out of it. Some of the stuff is audio, but one item is a very fancy amp meter that hooks up to a puter(data logger) The thing goes for over $2000 new, and I don't want him to lose out if I sell it too cheap. Any tips from you ebayers would be appreciated.
Here is the big $ item in question. It has only been used once to check the unit.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290252643677&_trksid=p3907.m32&_trkparms=tab%3DWatching

billbillw

What exactly is the question? To get max $$$ out of it, have good pictures, good description, and reasonable terms/shipping. Not much else you can do. For something like that, I'd probably do a fixed price for 30 days and allow for best offers.

megasat16

Yes Ben, What exactly you want to do to get the max $ out of it? If you don't want to let it go under 2K, just put a reserve price of $1999 and anyone who bids 2K will meet the reserve. But this makes a very high chance of the item not sold if it's not a hot item.

Putting a reserve price on the listing will cost the listing fee a lot more than regular non-reserved price listing. If the item was bid up to the reserve price, eBay will reimburse you the reserve price fee but if the item was not bid up to the reserve, you'll end up paying the reserve price fee to eBay. Just my 0.2 cents.

ben62670

Oops missed the biggest question.
At what time should I have the auction end as in 9pm east coast on a Thursday? That would leave west coast buyers out who are leaving work though. Before I was selling to get rid of stuff. Now I need max dollar:(

megasat16 wrote: »

Yes Ben, What exactly you want to do to get the max $ out of it? If you don't want to let it go under 2K, just put a reserve price of $1999 and anyone who bids 2K will meet the reserve. But this makes a very high chance of the item not sold if it's not a hot item.

Putting a reserve price on the listing will cost the listing fee a lot more than regular non-reserved price listing. If the item was bid up to the reserve price, eBay will reimburse you the reserve price fee but if the item was not bid up to the reserve, you'll end up paying the reserve price fee to eBay. Just my 0.2 cents.

When I see a reserve that is high I usually shy away from it. Sometimes it is better to have a low starting bid to get more people interested in it. For the Niles amp I may just start real low, and let it build, but the meter I may do the $30 with the BO as Bill suggested.

Thanks Guys.
Any more suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Ben

billbillw

DON'T do an auction! Do a fixed price 30 day listing! Allow for best offers, that way you will get an idea of whether there is any legitimate interest in the item. Set the fixed price low enough to be worthwhile for someone who would otherwise buy a new one with guarantees from the distributor.

A 7 or 10 day auction is too short for something like this. Its a specialty item and will probably not get a lot of bidders. I also wouldn't count on getting $2k.

ben62670

billbillw wrote: »

DON'T do an auction! Do a fixed price 30 day listing! Allow for best offers, that way you will get an idea of whether there is any legitimate interest in the item. Set the fixed price low enough to be worthwhile for someone who would otherwise buy a new one with guarantees from the distributor.

A 7 or 10 day auction is too short for something like this. Its a specialty item and will probably not get a lot of bidders. I also wouldn't count on getting $2k.

I am hoping for $1200-$1400 seeing it is listed by others for over 2k. For that particular item I am certainly going to take your advice;)

John30_30

Figure the least amount you can settle for as his reserve. Make sure that's plugged in. That way, you can set a low opener, even a dollar to get it rolling.

With a higher-$ item, let it run a good 7-9 days.
Most important, imho, is ending day/time.
Saturday evening 9:00 P.M. your time allows West coasters to hit it and make last-minute bids. Alot of serious bidders won't have a bid-sniper, preferring to watch and adjust last-minute bids manually.

I'm sure ebay has statistics on busiest bid times. That might be worth a google if it's public.

obieone

NOT trying to pee in your cornflakes Ben , but, as others have said, set the reserve at the lowest point possible. My 3+ year old Grainger catalog lists that thing @ $2395.
I would suggest talking to your buddy, find out what his cost is/ was, and determine what he'd be willing to take for it, and make that your reserve. Leave it on for 30 days, and repost if no nibbles?
Good luck.

danger boy

my suggestion and it's a good one.

have your friend list his own damn ****. why would you even get involved with sellling something for him? seriously. takes 10 minutes to sign up with Ebay.. and he can set his own reserve price or BIN, or best offer.

Maybe i'm just a ****. but I like friends to handle their own affairs where this amount of money is concerned. What if it sells low.. is your friend still going to be your friend when he thinks you scammed him of say $500 ??

ben62670

danger boy wrote: »

my suggestion and it's a good one.

have your friend list his own damn ****. why would you even get involved with sellling something for him? seriously. takes 10 minutes to sign up with Ebay.. and he can set his own reserve price or BIN, or best offer.

Maybe i'm just a ****. but I like friends to handle their own affairs where this amount of money is concerned. What if it sells low.. is your friend still going to be your friend when he thinks you scammed him of say $500 ??

He is scared of PayPal, and he has helped me out a lot. He is actually helping me out with this. He is also being very generous knowing that I am not working and has offered me half of what I get for it(not that I even want half). This is the same guy who came and installed an AC unit for me knowing that my girls and I were in the basement living in one room because he didn't want to see us stuffed in one room. I certainly appreciate your concerns, but this guy isn't anything like that.
Again thanks for looking out for me.
Sincerely.
Ben

Gadabout

I agree with Danger Boy....

Make your buddy get his own account. It is one thing to help him with this stuff, it's entirely another issue to sell it for him. I'm sure he is a good friend, and the easiest way to keep it that way is to help him out, not do it for him.

Even if he gives you the password to the account and you do all the listing stuff while he is there. teach a man to fish and all that....

Scott

ND13

ben62670 wrote: »

He is scared of PayPal, and he has helped me out a lot. He is actually helping me out with this. He is also being very generous knowing that I am not working and has offered me half of what I get for it(not that I even want half). This is the same guy who came and installed an AC unit for me knowing that my girls and I were in the basement living in one room because he didn't want to see us stuffed in one room. I certainly appreciate your concerns, but this guy isn't anything like that.
Again thanks for looking out for me.
Sincerely.
Ben

I see both sides. He'll likely get more due to your feedback. With zero FB, he might not even get a serious looker.

ben62670

ND13 wrote: »

I see both sides. He'll likely get more due to your feedback. With zero FB, he might not even get a serious looker.

Thanks Noel. That was another point. Nobody wants to buy a high dollar item with zero feedback. Mine is 92 100%
One hand washes the other:) I owe him a lot of hand washing. Others have met my friend Jerry here. There aren't many people that I feel as comfortable with as I do him.

megasat16

One thing I notice about eBay Bidding Wars is that more activities on late Fridays and weekends for the Hot Electronics Items. I think tech geeks who don't have a date or anything useful to do goes on eBay and start bidding war to get the gadgets they are dream of instead of a date.

This applies to me sometimes.

billbillw

IF you do an auction (which I don't recommend), have the ending time Sunday evening around 8pm-9pm. Not too late for east coasters, not to early for west coasters. People tend to be home Sunday evening also. 5+ years of Ebay selling tells me that gets the highest ending price.

dragon1952

I helped a guy sell some expensive video cameras once (like in the $2-5K range), and it was a little stressful. I wouldn't recommend it either.
If you want top dollar though, the odds are better allowing all forms of PayPal (premiere account). You are opening up a huge prospective buyer pool that can now use credit. The extra you get for your item, in most cases, will offset the fees.
Spend the $1.50 or whatever and get the supersize picture option with 12 very good photos. And spend the .10 for the outline around your description.
Make the description look professional. I always use a larger font with a blue color. It looks nice and is easy on the eyes and easy to read.
Do an auction with a reserve price. That way, you will not take the risk of getting less than you want. An auction will cost you less in final value seller fees. A fixed price final value fee on an item that sold for $2k would be $91.75 (8.00% of the initial $50.00, plus 4.50% of the initial $50.01-$1,000.00, plus 1% of the remaining closing value balance ($1,000.01 - closing value). The final value fee on an auction item that sells for $2K would be $51.31 (8.75% of the initial $25.00 ($2.19), plus 3.50% of the initial $25.01 - $1,000.00 ($34.12), plus 1.50% of the remaining closing value balance($1000.01 - closing value)
Sometimes setting the reserve price low and letting the bidders duke it out will work. Sometimes you get the bidding frenzy. People think they might get it for nothing, and then get caught up in the bidding. But sometimes, getting top dollar on Ebay is all chance....having an item there at the right time for the right buyer to come along. I've seen identical items sell for 30-40% less than the highest went for. By not setting a reserve to exactly the lowest you would accept, could allow someone to grab it for way less than you want. It's a gamble either way.
Another option is to use the fixed price sale with a 'Best Offer' option. You can set an artificially high Buy-it-Now and accept offers and often get what you are looking for as people think they are getting a good deal.
And is this anything that a large group of bidders would even be interested in, or is it very specialized? I only see one for sale, and no record of recent sales in the completed listings.

BTW, I think I read somewhere that Monday evenings get the most activity. People have more things to do on Friday nights and the weekends, and Monday everything is settled back down. I always shoot for a closing time of around 9-9:30PM EST. That way, on the west coast most everyone should be home from work. And it's still early enough on the east coast that most people are still up.

billbillw

I agree with most of what Dragon says above, but, do not pay extra for Ebay supersize photos. Instead, host large photos on Photobucket and link the photos in the auction using the HTML editor. Its pretty easy to do.

Yes, auction final value fees are lower, but you are limited to 10 days. I'm not sure if this item is popular enough to garner the needed attention in that time. I guess Ben needs to check and see if there are any completed AUCTIONS for this item. If the auctions are pulling in good money, then that is the way to go.

EDIT: I checked and there are no completed auctions for the DMII Pro in the last two weeks.

ben62670

This is a specialized tool that in this economy I would think there isn't a big demand for it. If we get $1200 we are happy:) On that particular item I am going top put it up for a BIN of $1400 or BO. If it doesn't sell I will drop it to $1200.
Thanks guys. It is certainly appreciated.
Ben

Polkersince85

Craig'slist with cash in hand.

ben62670

Polkersince85 wrote: »

Craig'slist with cash in hand.

That one high dollar Item would most likely never sell on CL:(

woodsman10b

ben62670 wrote: »

That one high dollar Item would most likely never sell on CL:(

You live in a large metro area dont you ben? Give the craigslist thing a try, its free so whats to hurt?

ben62670

Thats true. It certainly wouldn't hurt.

Hillbilly61

For certain high end stuff you might want to consider auctioning it on Audiogon ( www.audiogon.com ). The marketplace they cater to is aware of stuff that a general market like eBay may find a bit too obscure (therefore, no or low bids). I don't know much about them, but they are probably worth a look.

nooshinjohn

ben62670 wrote: »

Well my buddy want me to sell a few things for him on EBAY, and of coarse I want max $ out of it. Some of the stuff is audio, but one item is a very fancy amp meter that hooks up to a puter(data logger) The thing goes for over $2000 new, and I don't want him to lose out if I sell it too cheap. Any tips from you ebayers would be appreciated.
Here is the big $ item in question. It has only been used once to check the unit.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290252643677&_trksid=p3907.m32&_trkparms=tab%3DWatching

have you considered Audiogon for this one? there are more enthusiasts on there and it might be seen by somebody that understands it's function moreso than an ebayer might.

I did not see the above....

engtaz

Great suggestion.