Diamond Card Talk Member
| 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. |
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Silver Card Talk Member
| 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. |
| Posts: 1255 | Location: California | Registered: January 19, 2006 |
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Titanium Card Talk Member
| 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. ____________________ Come, it is time for you to keep your appointment with The Wicker Man.
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| Posts: 29050 | Location: wolverhampton staffs uk | Registered: July 19, 2002 |
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Silver Card Talk Member
| 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 . |
| Posts: 1553 | Location: Warrington, UK | Registered: January 10, 2009 |
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Member
| 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. |
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Bronze Card Talk Member
| 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 |
| Posts: 559 | Location: AZ | Registered: December 11, 2006 |
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Diamond Card Talk Member
| 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. |
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