I haven't been on Ebay in a while as a buyer and I remember that a few years ago most cards (autographs) where starting at 99 cents and would be going up during the course of the auction period. These days I can hardly find those kind of cards online anymore.

What has happened? Are sellers getting scared, are final prices too low? I see most auction style cards are going to buy now or have a relatively high starting bid. Doesn't that take out the fun?

I also doubt they are selling many of these at those buy it now prices, most of the action seems to be on the cards that start at low minimum bids, at least that was the case when I looked up several STNG series 2 cards yesterday.

I can confirm that. I have been selling my James Bond personal collection during the past week, all auction style and starting at 99 cents at a lot of cards sold for decent prices. There just isn't that much competition in this style at the moment.

A lot of the cards I sell are higher priced and whenever I used to start the auction at 99 cents there were too many times I was majorly disappointed with the final price. So now I tend to start them at the price I'm looking for and just hope to get that one bid. Lower valued cards though you can definitely get away with (and maybe even benefit from) starting them off at 99 cents. Of course this is all from a seller's point of view.

Agreed, as a seller there is no "fun" in having a $25 card sell for $4.28 just because you didn't sell it right. If listing as an auction, I will price it at the very least that I would be willing to take for the card (which may or may not change over time).

As an eBay buyer I actually appreciate that more sellers seem to be posting reasonable BINs, rather than going for auctions.

Its not really that much fun to wait on a 6 day auction that has little activity and a minimal bid, only to have the price shoot up in the final two minutes, so that you either lose it altogether or overpay. Just give me a fair BIN on something I like and I'll be happy to pick it up right away.

Now for those sellers who post those incredibly inflated BINs, when I see that I will not buy anything from that seller ever.

quote:

Originally posted by Logan:
A lot of the cards I sell are higher priced and whenever I used to start the auction at 99 cents there were too many times I was majorly disappointed with the final price. So now I tend to start them at the price I'm looking for and just hope to get that one bid. Lower valued cards though you can definitely get away with (and maybe even benefit from) starting them off at 99 cents. Of course this is all from a seller's point of view.

+1

Not only that, but by doing this it is incredibly easy to just click the relist button and keep doing that indefinitely until someone bites, rather than paying fees to list a BIN when eBay gives free insertion fees for 50 items a month if they are auction listings. To avoid the fees, I'd rather put a higher starting price and wait for the bite than start low and get screwed in the end if a bidding war doesn't happen.

I agree with Raven, most everything I buy is now BIN priced, and if I can find one seller with a couple of well priced items I always look at all the items they have for sale. This saves me on shipping. I will sometimes pay a little more for one card just to have to shipped with the others things I want.

The new trend on ebay is buy-it-now. Most sellers don't list auction style too much. But sometimes I find regular auctions end low. It also gives the seller the mentality that there cards will sell too low. Hence the lack of auctions that start at 99 cents and tons of high buy-it-nows.

I wonder if the increase in mobile devices and technology the last few years has contributed to this at all? I've got an ebay app on my phone and I'll find a lot of things I might like and I'll just watch them all. Then I get notified on my phone just before the auction ends and no matter where I'm at or what I'm doing I can bid on something that I see going for a low price. If the price goes over a certain amount I just move on and wait for the next ending auction. Gone are the days of having to sit in front of your computer waiting for auctions to end. It makes it a lot easier to cherry pick those items that are going for a lot less.

I try not to use buy it now as I find my buyers realize they get a better deal if i use auction only - I used to list many (I had it way to long)cards for 99 cents and $1 ship but with ebays charge for shipping policy for sellers and buyers CRYING about shipping costs - I now list cheapest cards and some really crappy autographs and sketches for $1.66 to $1.89 with free shipping so the buyer/cryers do not have to pay for shipping - in truth WE ALL HAVE TO PAY FOR SHIPPING in some way

quote:

Originally posted by sherlock2:
I try not to use buy it now as I find my buyers realize they get a better deal if i use auction only - I used to list many (I had it way to long)cards for 99 cents and $1 ship but with ebays charge for shipping policy for sellers and buyers CRYING about shipping costs - I now list cheapest cards and some really crappy autographs and sketches for $1.66 to $1.89 with free shipping so the buyer/cryers do not have to pay for shipping - in truth WE ALL HAVE TO PAY FOR SHIPPING in some way

Us buyers only start crying about shipping when sellers try and charge $20 when the shipping is only $2 and then try and hide behind ebay's policies as an excuse that the $1 promo they are selling has to be fully insured and tracked.

What is ebay's charge for shipping policy?

quote:

Originally posted by STCardGeek:
What is ebay's charge for shipping policy?

In the past eBay only used to charge a final value fee on final bid figure. The only deduction to the shipping fee was Paypal's 3.8%. To boost their income, that was recently changed in the US so that shipping now has the Paypal deduction plus eBay's cut (in the UK that's a further 10% for private sellers). Net result, since eBay owns Paypal, is that eBay has increased its take from postage charges by around 200%.

eBay have claimed that this is better for buyers but the reality is they are pushing sellers towards only listing items as Buy It Now with 'Free Shipping'. This approach is bad for buyers as it pushes the price of everything up and prevents sellers from offering postage discounts on combined sales.

Sadly, an awful lot of buyers do not seem to realise it costs more than just the price of the stamp to post things. In this hobby, jiffy bags, toploaders and even 'penny' sleeves cost money but if you try and charge more than the exact price of the stamp for postage your DSR rating will get a 1,2 or 3 rating Oh, unless you have used 'Free Shipping' when you get an automatic 5 .

I do not track everything especially $1 to $8 items but there are those buyers/liars in the US that state they never received their card and also those outside the US whose postal systems are probably less than incompetent that also state they did not get the item and in truth the only way for a seller to protect themselves in the US is to use delivery confirmation and outside the US to use REGISTERED or priority - the basic customs number on a regular padded is nothing but a frill it has NO tracking capabilites or use of proof at this time - so on EBAY it is "let the seller" beware of irreputable buyers - so please do not complain if a seller protects him or herself with tracking - but also a seller should not necessarily be PROFITTING BIG TIME from shipping - it should be a fair price

Personally I have not had an auction hit my expectations a single time in the last 6 months. They all end up short of where I think they should end up. 99% of my auctions are now buy it now best offer that I put up for 30 days or good till canceled. Its just safer as a seller.

Since 2004 the cost of shipping a card has increased 300% from about 60 cents in a small bubble mailer to $1.95. This was due to reclassification of envelope, large envelope and package, besides postage increases and final value fees on top of that. Plus ebays astronomical increase in fees. This puts a chilling effect on everything. I still lose money on shipping every item. These days its hardly worth starting at .99, after fees and shipping and so forth you have few dimes left.


Evan
Studio-Hades
http://www.acheron-mint.com

I sell rarely on Ebay, but when I do, I start the price at what I think is reasonable plus shipping, but offer free shipping. Adjustments are made for tracking / signed for in the listings.

reading through this I am really tempted to get up on my soapbox and start a mini lecture. But I would end up going on and on and on about how I feel. So I opt out. Except for this, the problem isnt really ebay at all. The problem is many of it's sellers (who dont really seem to "get it") at all. And I am a seller myself.

quote:

Originally posted by peterc:
reading through this I am really tempted to get up on my soapbox and start a mini lecture. But I would end up going on and on and on about how I feel. So I opt out. Except for this, the problem isnt really ebay at all. The problem is many of it's sellers (who dont really seem to "get it") at all. And I am a seller myself.

Now that's just a tease. How can we argue with you if you don't tell us what you think?

I have only bought on eBay, but I don't feel that any of the rule changes in the past two years benefited me more as a buyer. Perhaps its because I was always careful and never needed any supposedly enhanced buyer protection.

All I know is that I buy very little on eBay now and only when I truly want a couple of items from the same seller. I have a handiful of favorite sellers that I dealt with over the years and I pretty much stick to them. Many of the odd ball things that were offered are now gone and, at least for me, I find that sellers have become so uniform that items carry the same price from everyone.

I'm sure sellers have many complaints about eBay restrictions and fees, but it isn't much fun on the other end either. Problem is, its still the most played game in town, and that's where they have you.