Starting price?

[ismellonehugerat]

Have been starting most of my auctions at 99p. I get rid of most things but they often sell for pennies. Someone on another thread said never start at 99p but the lowest price you are willing to accept.

So... If you are successful on eBay what is your strategy on pricing? Also, does finishing on a Sunday really make a difference?

[NoMarymary]

I always start at a price I am willing to accept and also a realistic price. I have started lower in the past and been gutted when something has been well under its value but has to be sold.

I always end at the weekend around 7 ish as that's a reasonable time for people to be around and looking at items finishing.

Personally I snipe everything I want and forget about it!

[ismellonehugerat]

Thanks NoMary

I don't understand your last sentence though!

[Chrissy41]

I do a high cheeky buy it now and then add a best offer button. Buyer can buy immediately then and also feel like they had a bargain. I had a dress from Next, started auction £8 - no takers. Relisted and added buy it now for £16 or best offer with free p&p (thought why the heck not) - it sold immediately at full price - go figure? I would have accepted a very low offer on that one but they bought at full (over) price.

Never end an auction at the weekend, Mon and Tues nights is better. 99p is a waste of time and heartbreaking when you send an item worth £20 for pennies. There is no profit to be made selling at that amount.

The only merit of starting at 99p was when you got 100 free listings at that rate only - now you get 20 free listings at any price so why start low now? No point really.

[NoMarymary]

I've also done the buy it now/best offer thing and yes it does work too! Makes your blood pressure rise when someone offers a ridiculously low price! You can automatically reject.

Sniping is when you use a snipe site like gixen. It's buying only and it automatically sends in your bid at the last few seconds giving people no time to rebid

[ismellonehugerat]

I still have lots of things to sell so I'll try the buy it now/best offer and Monday/Tuesday night thing.

I did have something for sale last week that had no watchers. Out of the blue, someone asked if I could a buy it now and I suggested a high-ish price thinking they would knock me down and they said yes. They left good feedback too.

Must admit, people don't value things if they pay nothing/peanuts so I should probably apply it to eBay. You only need one buyer too...

[MizLizLemon]

I look at what similar items are going for and gage my starting price from that, it gives you a good idea of what people are willing to spend. Only put free p&p on if you can absorb the cost, I put in a bid on a girls coat the other day that had no p&p, I didn't think I'd get it as the person had put the starting price at 99p with no p&p, but I won it at £1.75. Unless that person is stealing stamps from work they're going to make a loss as to post the coat will cost £2.80.

[Chrissy41]

you only need to worry about the end time if it is an auction - with a buy it now the end time doesn't matter.

[ismellonehugerat]

Yes, of course! Wasn't thinking.

Does it take long to sell things with buy it now? The thing I like about auctions is the fact that the item will generally be out of the house after 7 days or so.

[PrimalLass]

I never start at 99p and always do the buy in now/best offer or start at a higher price. I would rather bag it up for charity than drag myself to the post office for 99p.

[Chrissy41]

buy it now varies - but you can list for 30 days so they can sit there quite happily - and if no interest you can reduce your price quite easily.

[fairisledog]

the ebay listing system nearly always prompts me to start a listing at 99p but one you've paid their fee (incl on the postage) and then the paypal fee, it just isn't worth the time/effort of listing at that price if it may only sell at 99p.

If you could guarantee that bidding would take the price up higher than 99p, all well and good but there are no such guaranteed outcomes.

I learned this the hard way a couple of times and now always start a listing at a price +p&p which after fees/p&p have been deducted will result in at least 50p left for me. I am having a massive house decluttering phase at the moment so it's still worth it if say 10 of my items only result in 50p each as that's still £5.00 to me for my trouble and house space freed up ! I am fortunate that there is a myhermes drop shop on my way to work and I visit the post office just twice a week when using the minimarket attached to it for some other essential food item we've run out of.

If ebay introduced a new discount rate for very low value final sale value fees then I might reconsider but I'd always whip out the calculator and see what's in it for me, if the item only sells at the starting price, before listing.

[NoMarymary]

I had a buggy up for sale, buy it now and it took about 7 days to sell. Also a chair took 10 days.

[whataboutbob]

Interesting that eBay encourages you to start at 99p though. I'm a begineer but had figured out that is not a good idea. A colleague put some high street clothes on at 99p, only realised 99p and withdrew the items. Cue angry email from buyer (understandably).
I'd never do 99p, would far rather toddle along to the charity shop and feel good about it.