Fingers Burned-(An E-bay lesson learned)

[stewart boyle]

I recently decided to delve into the world of E-bay selling....
I had on a few occasions posted a couple of my quads for sale on the bay, i also made sure to include a fair reserve or opening bid,but nothing i had advertised seem to sell or atrract any bids,so i just shrugged my shoulders and thought to myself..maybe what i had for sale wasn`t that interesting or sought after.
But last week i put for auction an original,double sided,rolled,mint condition ,silver border,Alien Directors Cut quad,that can fetch upwards of £70 from a dealers site.
As none of my BIN auctions have been rewarding i thought i would put it up for auction with no reserve..99p staring price? bring on the bids...............
The result,6 bids..3 in the last ten seconds.......get in!!!
Final price..£10.50......sore one..

Lesson learned..always put a reserve and always describe your poster as acurately as possible.

Stew

[paul waines]

I'd have given you £11 for it Stew.

[stewart boyle]

I'd have given you £11 for it Stew.

Not funny Paul....

Stew

[Zorba]

Sorry to hear man...I have sold on the bay( not posters yet) and know that pain

I think much of it is timing/luck....If you look at emovie or Heritage results you can see dips and dives in results.

Plus....I dont remember seeing you list it here. It cant hurt to tell people. I am not looking for one of those and my buying tendencies change all the time but there are posters I am always on the look out for    

[stewart boyle]

Sorry to hear man...I have sold on the bay( not posters yet) and know that pain

I think much of it is timing/luck....If you look at emovie or Heritage results you can see dips and dives in results.

Plus....I dont remember seeing you list it here. It cant hurt to tell people. I am not looking for one of those and my buying tendencies change all the time but there are posters I am always on the look out for   

I had it advertised in the for sale thread for about a week,for £40.
There was no interest from anyone so i decided to put it on the bay at the 99p starting price.
Because i did this i asked one of the Moderators to remove my ad from the for sale section as it would would be unfair to keep it posted with a fixed price here,but could be bought on e-bay for possibly £1

Stew

[MoviePosterBid.com]

I recently decided to delve into the world of E-bay selling....
I had on a few occasions posted a couple of my quads for sale on the bay, i also made sure to include a fair reserve or opening bid,but nothing i had advertised seem to sell or atrract any bids,so i just shrugged my shoulders and thought to myself..maybe what i had for sale wasn`t that interesting or sought after.
But last week i put for auction an original,double sided,rolled,mint condition ,silver border,Alien Directors Cut quad,that can fetch upwards of £70 from a dealers site.
As none of my BIN auctions have been rewarding i thought i would put it up for auction with no reserve..99p staring price? bring on the bids...............
The result,6 bids..3 in the last ten seconds.......get in!!!
Final price..£10.50......sore one..

Lesson learned..always put a reserve and always describe your poster as acurately as possible.

Stew

Stew, I disagree.
here is a salient point: ebay sellers don't do well until they have high feedback, a known track record, sell frequently and are willing to take "whatever comes"

starting with quality merch isn't always the right way to go. You start slow, gathering steam and a following. Slowly you feed in some better stuff until you begin getting something near reasonable prices (and the word "reasonable" has diff meanings to diff people)

building a business is a big job. you lay one brick at a time and eventually you have lots of bricks

[stewart boyle]

Stew, I disagree.
here is a salient point: ebay sellers don't do well until they have high feedback, a known track record, sell frequently and are willing to take "whatever comes"

starting with quality merch isn't always the right way to go. You start slow, gathering steam and a following. Slowly you feed in some better stuff until you begin getting something near reasonable prices (and the word "reasonable" has diff meanings to diff people)

building a business is a big job. you lay one brick at a time and eventually you have lots of bricks

Experienced advice Rich and thank you for it..
I still naively think e-bay is just a place where i can maybe flog something at a mutually fair price.
E-bay seems to be turning into an online mall,full of sellers/shops,rather than an auction place.

Stew

[MoviePosterBid.com]

you're welcome Stew, but I think you also need to understand this part:

selling a single poster - unless it's one like Gilda that everyone talks about - is like being a single stalk of wheat in a huge farm of wheat. No track record as a seller has a negative effect on your ability to sell.

but yes, fleaBay is for the most part overpriced set-sale material in stores. less than 1/2 of 1% are actual auctions starting at a nominal bid. Reality is that you need to be an experienced, knowledgable professional to get real benefit from the site as a seller or a buyer

[kovacs01]

Kinda like this listing.  I think the chance that this guy sells this poster as a BIN on ebay at this price is pretty low.  That is not to say that I doubt its authenticity, but who is going to be willing to go in on something like that for a guy with a feedback of 3? 
http://cgi.ebay.com/GONE-WIND-ORIGINAL-MOVIE-POSTER-194O-RARE-/290534686243?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43a5377e23#ht_1359wt_1139
 

[MoviePosterBid.com]

that poster was listed for $17k 2 weeks ago
15k 5 weeks ago

it is & will forever be a perpetually listed poster

[stewart boyle]

The buyer just left positive feedback,so all is good,.kinda feels good knowing a buyer has gotten a great poster,at a bargain price..

Stew