Offer made just hours into my 10-day Auction

[Isittimeformynapyet]

I'm very new to selling on eBay and would appreciate some opinions on the listing I made this afternoon.

The item is a vinyl record that is usually sold by record collectors' online shops for well over £100 (up to £203!) as Buy Now. I realise these other sellers don't really care when they sell the stuff and I figured they are just chancing their arm.

Four hours into my auction I've had an offer of £50. It's not a terrible offer, but I was looking forward to seeing how much it would make in the real world, as it were.

As they've come in so quickly do they know it will likely fetch more than that if they let the auction run? What would you do?

Just decline it and let it run.

Thanks for that advice.

Just decline it

Decline.

It's actually sold for £203 in the past? 'Chancing their arm' implies that's an asking price

Yes, that's what they're asking! They'll be lucky.

Anyway, I did decline the offer. There's 48 people watching now with 8 days to go. Time will tell if I made the right decision.

Thanks.

Do a search for your item and then filters>completed items and sold items. Reorder into highest price first. Find the first one that is the exact same item and condition as yours. Find a couple more. Have a look at the ones that sold for the least, ignoring any that are for parts only or damaged. Then you’ll know what they’ve sold for in the past and have a better idea of value. You will offered other low amounts, everyone can see you’re a new seller and want to get a bargain. Hold your nerve. Sometimes items will double or triple in value in the last ten seconds due to buyers using software to place their best offer in the last ten seconds.

@Isittimeformynapyet you made the right decision. Good luck with your auction 😀

Thank you, that's useful knowledge.

I've been keeping an eye on my item (it's a vinyl record) for a year or more and the high priced ones have just sat there, being relisted over and over by the same dealers. Discogs UK lists it at £100 + so it does have value.

I'll let you know if I've done the thing.

Have you checked sold prices?

If it's actually selling at £100+ I'd decline and let it run. In my experience the early offers are almost always lower than the end price for desirable items because they know it will go for more than their offer.

Decline and wait

As others have said check completed listings - green means it sold for the value shown

I’m so curious !

I recently put an old gameboy plus games on ebay, expecting to get maybe £20. I ended up getting over £500. Turns out one of the games was very, very rare.

I did get quite a few offers during the auction period but declined them.

@MagpiePi how wonderful,,did you watch the auction in real time ?

I love this kind of story - well done!

That's what I suspected. Thanks 👍🏻

No. One person put quite a low bid (£150!) on in the first couple of days, then it all went quiet, then there were about 4 of them putting bids on, and then it went mad in the last few minutes. I think they use automatic bidding though.

Another lovely story was, I found an old amplifier with big valves that my Dad had built from a kit back in the 60s. I took it to the local auction house to see if it was worth anything and was told to chuck it in a skip. However, I put it on ebay and there was a lot of interest and it eventually went for about £150. But what was nice was that I got into a conversation with the man who bought it and he told me he restores old amplifiers and things like that. A few weeks later he let me know that he had got it back to full working order and had sold it on.

I’ve also been, not stung, but clearly not done as well as I could have. I was clearing out an old garage and apparently people will pay good money for ‘vintage’ tins of grease and the like.🤔 I put a bundle on with a start price of £5 or so, but also put a Buy it Now price of £10 as I thought it wouldn’t go and it was snapped up within about 15 minutes of going live.

@MagpiePi the old valve amps are very collectible, nice your dads creation got restored ❤️

old tins also collectible ! I saw this on the Yorkshire Auction House, he sold a metalwork Castrol Stand as well and old metal signs, they went for a lot.

@CalzoneOnLegs I might sort through all the other tins and bottles from the garage that I was going to take to the tip and see if they’re worth anything!

Only ever accept offers if they are over your minimum bid price. Especially early on, as there will always be people chancing their luck. Even if it doesn't sell, it will relist and you might find the right buyer the next time. I also only do 7 day auctions, as people will wait to late in the process to bid, or the price gets pushed up higher.

Update: my item has reached £60 three days before the auction ends. Phew!

I would say though, 10 days seems interminable. I just chose that as it was recommended.

Woo hoo! Fingers crossed for some last minute sniping upping the auction even more!