First time seller needing some urgent advice please

[Doginabandana]

I’ve just listed my first ever item for sale which is a sterling silver Tiffany cuff bracelet. I started the auction at £46 and within 5 mins had an offer asking if I’d take £100. I’ve also had another offer asking if I’d take an offer and if so what range. Is this normal and do I hold tight and not accept such early offers with it being less than 30 mins since my advert went live? Thanks so much

Well, did you have a price in mind when you started the auction? Have you had a look to see what similar Tiffany items sell for?

If you think you should get more than £100 and you are happy to risk it then hold on for the auction.

You could always try telling the second " "offerer" that you are looking for offers over (name a larger amount of money than £150), and see if they bite.

If you have absolutely no idea what the item is worth second hand, and if you like a bit of risk and don't mind the risk that you might end up with less than £100, then you might as well let the auction run to completion.

Do an advanced search on ebay for sold prices of tiffany bracelets. Seems like if it is a wide one they can go for higher than they are offering but not so much if narrower. Also if it is boxed and certificate then you will be more sought after.

If you decide you are willing to accept an offer you need to make sure you complete it all through eBay. Did you have the listing set up to accept offers or are the buyers just messaging to ask? If you didn’t set it up to accept offers you will need to go back in and edit the listing, this may add a fee. Not normally much but be aware of this.

Also make sure you use a fully insured and tracked delivery method. Some handlers can be funny about jewellery. I’m always very very nervous around selling expensive items, always someone wanting to pull a fast one and eBay always sides with the buyer IME.

Meant to add, if you don’t want to accept their offers it’s fine to just ignore. Don’t get into conversations you don’t want to have.

There’s an identical one starting at £80 with 1 bid and 5 days to go. There’s also the thinner one from the same collection with a buy now for £145 and there’s 23 watchers for that. I’ll try do an advanced search for sold ones. But I appear to have made a rookie error in my starting price.

Name change fail? Anyway I had a little look myself, love jewellery, and a low start isn’t always a bad thing if it attracts lots of interest. Did you set a reserve? Also as you already have bids, you can’t change the listing to accept an offer. Your only option would be to cancel the auction and select wrong listing price as the reason. No penalty for that. Also your postage looks way too low, given my experience with the insurance aspect.

Selling is a headache in the early days. Actually always a headache. I only do it through eBay for things that are a bit more niche than Facebook listings now.

Chickenitalia. Thanks this is so helpful. No I didn’t set a reserve. I’ve now done an advance search and the identical ones have fetched from £140 - £460 !!!! Do you reckon as I’m very inexperienced I should just leave it as it stands, Hope it gets a good price and suck up any extra cost for better/safer postage.

Whatever you are selling, someone will have sold one before. So always do some research before making your listing. Use the same search term (e.g. Tiffany bracelet) then choose the "sold items" from the left hand panel. Look through the listings and try to work out why some sold cheap and some sold expensive, and which one yours is like.

You can put a reserve price on an auction listing, but this usually has an extra fee. Starting low can whip up interest, but there is still some risk that you will get a disappointing price unless you can gauge the popularity from past listings

You can put a "Buy it Now" price with an auction (e.g. higher than you'd expect the auction to reach) but it disappears as soon as someone makes a bid.

You can combine a Buy it Now price with a "Make an Offer" option. By default eBay passes on any offer more than 50% of your BiN price but you can adjust that. If someone makes an offer you get two rounds of haggling to get the price up, then you have to decide if you have reached an acceptable price or not. If not - just decline.

If you have done your research, you will know whether the offer you received is good or not. Some people try to con you by hoping that you don't realise what it's really worth, others offer a good price because they don't want to risk losing it in the auction.

Always complete the sale through eBay and pay the fees, or you will lose your account. eBay messaging doesn't allow phone numbers or email addresses that facilitate completing a sale off-eBay.

filka thank you for taking the time to explain all this. It’s a very steep learning curve. Now I know I can check what the same or similar items sold for that is very useful . I don’t have loads I want to sell but do want a reasonable price for the things I am selling. I’ve already got someone asking if they can pay me £140 now and for me to end the auction on her bid as it’s her daughters birthday in a few days which sounds dodgy.

I should add that it's always better to have your auctions end during mid-evening, 8-9pm, when people are usually at home and active. You are less likely to get the best price on an auction that ends in the middle of the day, even at weekends.

That’s good to know too. Would never have thought of something like that but it would make a difference. Thank you so much.