What am I doing wrong??

[Sleepingbunnies]

I am trying to sell some things on eBay for my dad, rugs and bedroom furniture but nothing seems to be going :(

I'm actually getting disappointed for him because I thought the stuff would fly out!!

HELP!

You can assess that by searching completed and sold listings.

Type your search in using parameters as close as possible to your table for sale.

Once the listings come up look at the search options on the left hand of the screen.

One of the little check boxes is completed listings. Click this.

The page should refresh and those prices in green are those which achieved their sale price. Those in red didn't.

Thank you! Very helpful :)

This is the £34 buy it now postage available competition

The rugs seam near enough on the money and the bedside cabinets not that far off either.

Even on a fixed price listing is £80 really too much for a brand new coffee table?

It depends on the coffee table. To be brutally honest that coffee table and the £159 pair of bedside tables are your two weakest items - they look cheap and nasty quite honestly. If you do shift them, it won't be at anything like that price. Consider rephotographing if the pictures aren't doing them justice.

You also need to consider FREE delivery within X mile radius, because TBH, your ONLY market is people who don't have cars to drive to IKEA in Croydon.

YY to what previous posters have said about getting feedback quickly. Quickest way to do it is to buy 15-20 cheap BIN items and then follow up with polite emails requesting feedback ratings from anyone who doesn't do it automatically. Is there anything you need for business purposes (bubble wrap, stationary item?) that you coud buy?

HTH

Thank you for the feedback! Will go to the shop on Saturday with my camera as opposed to the crap phone my dad took the photos with! Thank you all :)

Another thought- if you have the approriate stock, think about selling 'bedroom sets' with the option to pay off in installments over a number of weeks before delivery. Some of the sellers on ebay selling antiques/jewellery/bicycles offer this.

In other words, if it was me, in your location, I'd be looking to be cheaper than Brighthouse (rip-off) type places and more convenient than Ikea.

Your customers are going to be low-income families in SE Lodon without cars or credit cards, I'd think.

Just a thought. Good luck

Don't the manufacturers have stock photos you could use? The photo that MisforMum linked to is much better than any you'll probably be able to take (no disrespect to your photography skills, but the one Misfor linked to is obviously well staged).

Really need to reduce prices.
Flat packs, can go Ikea, get cheaper and know they will last for years.

There is no mention at all about what these things are made from. Solid wood or mdf.

The second picture gives the impression that the table and the rug have been used. Yes it states for displays purposes only, but this is usually set in store not someone's home, which btw just highlights all the wires.

The carpet and rugs. Again more detail. And again reduce the price. Can get a bigger one, that is stain resistant cheaper on ebay and delivered. Sorry.

you need better pictures of item on its own with no other clutter. Make the item central and include the whole thing, plus where are your measurements, and it is pointless having items ending during the day.

No feedback - your description is severely lacking too.

and having feedback as a buyer doesn't make a good seller - buyers can tell if you have not sold anything before.

and never, ever let a buyer arrange their own courier ever, you can't claim for loss or damage and risk losing item and money if they claim damaged or lost - you need to organise a courier - actually, why won't you do that. Buyer pay for it, if you have a shop it is easy to get item collected by a courier?

I would agree that you need more in your title descriptions. Think of key words so even saying the colour of the rug will help and size/make/original price/material it is made from and something to make it sound appealing - words like bright, modern, classic, useful etc Try to add the brand name or shop that sells it to the furniture. New with Tags BNWT / new and unused condition - draw attention to any plus points like being new or perfect condition.

If you do them for BIN price at the lowest you think you would be happy with you might have some luck with selling them. Only certain things are worth auctioning really - rare/unusual/sought after.

You may find a car boot would mean less fees and people can just buy and take away that day?

are you sure that's a coffee table, it looks like a telly cabinet in that photo?

those prices are far to high for ebay.. cut them in half and you might get somewhere but tbh they don't look attractive in the photos that are up.

The shagpile rug looks like it's been well used and something I would just give away for free, the furniture doesn't look modern and it doesn't say what they are made of.

I really think you need to take some different, better quality photos.

Good luck.

Yeah afraid so, people want a bargain on eBay. I sell a lot of clothes on eBay and I've started beautiful unworn Reiss dresses at £29.99 in an auction, got no bids, put it on the following week with a starting price of £0.99p and got £57, it's bonkers but a low starting price works! Keywords as other users mention are key

it is pointless starting at 99p - you risk only one bidder. You have to start at the lowest price you are happy to accept.

Agree with Di it's about the 99p auction, they entice people to start bidding, but of course you always run the risk of it going for much less than you want, but I always think of it as it's better than nothing!

As for your items sorry but they look really dated and not very appealing and the price is extortionate

Terrible photos, sorry. The prices are too high for eBay and you really need more and better descriptions.

The thing that always annoys me when searching for items on ebay is the lack of description.

What is the colour (you cant tell from the photo as different monitors show it differently)

What is the material. Is it wood? It doesn't say.

Same with one of the rugs and carpet. It doesn't say what the material is nor the colour.

Sorry, just my pet hate cause then I have to ebay the seller. I like to have everything in the description.

I agree with everyone else that the items are massively overpriced. Both sets of bedside cabinets are really expensive.

I am trying to think of a way to say this gently, but once you're sitting on eBay, you can buy a really gorgeous secondhand 100% wool rug for much less than you're asking for the polyester one. In fact I bought an antique Persian rug for less than that not long ago, which will always have re-sale value.

I find that photos taken outdoors, in clear sunlight sell things best. Lots of angles, lots of close-ups. If the auction is for a pair of bedside tables, photograph them both together. But again, I think it's the pricing that's the issue - the other listings that are being thrown up in the "people also looked at" scrolling bar at the bottom show a pair of Ikea Aspelund bedside tables (already made up) for 21.52.

You also need better descriptive titles. I would describe that rug as "Red, black and grey contemporary rug with geometric design"

Good luck. If you really need to move this stuff, I think you're going to have to reduce your prices pretty drastically.

Sleepingbunnies I would not be looking on e-bay for a new coffee table if I was paying £80.00 to be honest,I would rather pay £80.00 for a really well looked after older piece of furniture in real wood even Argos have similar for less so I really think you have to look at your prices very seriously.So sorry to be a misery as I know how hard you must be working to get your business going.

Thank you to everyone for feedback, have spent the morning at my dad's shop and have taken some different photos, am going to be updating page tonight, someone suggested putting up 10 things on cheap BIN to get our feedback score up so that's what I'm going to do...

Opinions on these photos please... Be gentle!

much better - do make sure you add measurements to title and fill in all the item specifics so they come up in all searches.

Thank you butterfly!

Am thinking of leaving the furniture off the listings I do today and just concentrating on the rugs...