Ebay Hats: Victories, Defeats, Gripes & Items of Interest

[alanfgag]

Thanks Billy... I hope it looks as good in the felt as it does in the photos.

cheers,
Alan

 

[casechopper]

So who picked this one up? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180640249898

I've been watching it since 30 minutes after the seller listed it but it went too high for me.

 

[randooch]

Alan, good-looking Knox Twenty! Looks like it'll be easy and fun to bash, too.

 

[Jedwbpm]

So who picked this one up? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180640249898

I've been watching it since 30 minutes after the seller listed it but it went too high for me.

I came in Third on it.

Jeff

 

[Tango Yankee]

No, Ebay does a lot better with fixed price listings that it does with its auctions. People really don't want to wait around for a week to see if the bought something or not.

I think that depends upon what's on the block. With auctions, there is at least the illusion or remote possibility that you might be able to score that diamond for the cost of cut glass. In reality, that's rare--but auctions do give the buyers the opportunity to offer as high as they are willing to go for something. If they lose after bidding their highest amount they're not looking at a BIN that's sold before they found it and thinking "I'd have paid twice that much for that." I'm willing to wait for that opportunity, and I think a lot of other people are, too.

Of course, this applies to items that are relatively rare, not made any more, etcetera. Not too many people are going to bid on an item that they can just buy new off of a web site, unless the bidding is below the web site's price.

Just my thoughts on the matter...

Cheers,
Tom

 

[fmw]

I understand the attraction of auctions. All I'm saying is that the majority of people don't like them. And they don't. In my case, if I want to buy something, I want to buy it. I don't want to see if I am going to buy it a week from now. Ebay is planning eventually to eliminate auctions entirely - or so they say. The problem for sellers is that they have to put a starting bid at the lowest price they are willing to accept otherwise they stand a good chance of getting fleeced. Buyers then are turned off by the "high" starting price which is likely to be the final price as well. They are also turned off by reserves. I'm not criticizing auctions. I'm simply reporting some facts.

Also Ebay is already uncompetitive with new, name brand products. Ebay sellers do not have a cost advantage but they do have fees to pay to Ebay that regular on-line merchants do not have. When I want to clear inventory on Ebay I usually list the products at cost so my financial bath includes the shipping the fees. In my business margins aren't high enough to pay someone fees and still earn a profit. If the margins are really high (as in the apparel business) then Ebay can work.

Ebay wants to get into the same business as Amazon but it is where they are uncompetitive. On the used and collector end of things, they do really well but it isn't what they want to do. That dilemma is behind the fall in stock prices they have suffered over the past few years.

 

[DJH]

No, Ebay does a lot better with fixed price listings that it does with its auctions. People really don't want to wait around for a week to see if the bought something or not.

Have you seen any eBay stats that support this? I'm not a huge fan of the auction process myself, but I'm sure I see more auctions than BIN listings.

Maybe sellers prefer auctions, even if a lot of buyers prefer to be able to buy on the spot.

It would be interesting to learn the relative volume of $$ that each of the listing types generates

 

[Lefty]

I love BINs when they're low and I'm the first to see them.

I love badly listed auctions and hoping that no one else will spot them.

I live.................in the shadows. :behindsofa:

 

[frussell]

I wonder how you got around to talking to the "majority of people." Seems like a huge task. Autodialer?

 

[fmw]

No I just read the results of polls as well as the reports Ebay releases. This kind of stuff is intersting to e-merchants like me.

 

[fmw]

Have you seen any eBay stats that support this? I'm not a huge fan of the auction process myself, but I'm sure I see more auctions than BIN listings.

Maybe sellers prefer auctions, even if a lot of buyers prefer to be able to buy on the spot.

It would be interesting to learn the relative volume of $$ that each of the listing types generates

I'm very bad about keeping links to articles. I read them and move on. I have little interest in reading them again. Ebay does release this kind of information. You might try auctionbytes.com which is a news blog dedicated to on-line selling. They might have one of the releases or quotes from them.

 

[DJH]

Thanks FMW. You've got me interested now - I'll see if I can track something down when I have some time.

 

[randooch]

I love BINs when they're low and I'm the first to see them.

I love badly listed auctions and hoping that no one else will spot them.

I live.................in the shadows. :behindsofa:

Cool Couch Kilroy, Lefty! Where do you find such a thing?

 

[Jedwbpm]

I love BINs when they're low and I'm the first to see them.

I love badly listed auctions and hoping that no one else will spot them.

I live.................in the shadows. :behindsofa:

Do you get to wear a cape when you do this

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

I have used eBay from the very start and it has changed drastically from the early days. As a collector I and others used eBay also as a trading site and now its lets drive the price up and up on stuff. Most collectors on items I collect have moved on to other ways of buying and selling. If you collect as I did for years you have know how to budget and eBay is not the way to do that. I have several rooms of collections
most of them where bought and sold a long way away from eBay. At a fair price.

 

[Dinerman]

The problem with BINs for hats, it seems, is that a lot of uneducated sellers see say, a 7-1/2 Whippet sell for $300, and think, "oh, my 6-7/8 stingy's also a fedora, let's list it for that", and it sits and doesn't sell. On the flip side, look at the classifieds here. People post nice things for reasonable prices and they sit, and sit and sit, because everyone's after a deal.

 

[fmw]

I think there is a sentiment among ebay buyers that buy-it-now equates to overpriced. It normally is just a way to keep from selling too cheaply. I put clearance items on ebay sometimes at my cost, knowing I will lose money on the transaction. Buyers then want to negotiate a lower price-not because they judge the value of the product that way but because they assume I am trying to fleece them with a buy-it-now. It is ignorance, I'm sorry to say.

Every seller wants the highest price possible and every buyer wants the lowest. That's just human nature. But since Ebay has too many sellers and not enough buyers, the system is out of kilter in terms of supply and demand. Prices are way too low on Ebay for new, brand name products because of this. And yes, people want them even lower. Human nature. With collectible products, the supply and demand systems works more like it should. I think Ebay should be finding a way to return to that rather than trying to be Amazon or Overstock. Amazon and Overstock ship products themselves. Ebay can't compete with that. I'm not sure why they don't see it. Amazon is an e-commerce company that sells advertising to other sellers on its web site. Ebay is a service that enables people to engage in e-commerce without doing what e-merchants have to do to get business. Not the same thing at all.

 

[Dinerman]

But like you say, with vintage, it's a whole other ballgame. Buy-it-nows on vintage are generally the last place to get a deal on vintage, and for the most part, are a good deal over what market value is. For new merch, they're great for buyers, not that great for sellers.

 

[Rick Blaine]

On eBay so often I see new brand name items for higher dollar than what the wholesaler from whom they bought the crap from charges- for their OWN retail. One born every minute, eh?

 

[Lefty]

AB 7 1/4

Great looking Bantam, 7 1/8


Knox 20, 7 1/8

pristine panama and extra pugs, 7 3/4

another one of those interesting low topper style hats, with my new favorite ribbon style