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/biz/ - Business & Finance

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11808970 No.11808970 [Reply] [Original]

Does anyone have any good info on the psychology of Ebay buyers?

I tend to list my items as "Buy it now" with the option to submit a best offer. I am wondering that if I do not allow best offer, will I lose sales? Best offer usually results in a lot of lowballs offers.

>> No.11809002

Yeah usually it does result in lowball offers but just set your auto-decline for those offers. Also completely matters on what your selling.

>> No.11809022

>>11809002
I am mostly selling electronics

>> No.11809362

Last time I checked, even if you don’t allow offers, buyers can still offer in a “message to seller” and you can accept or counter offer from that.

>> No.11809535

>>11808970
I have done a lot of selling on eBay. There are a couple ways to approach things.

If you're in a rush to sell, your best bet is to do BIN at a penny or two below the lowest other BIN. Electronics can drop in price quickly as new models come out, so make sure to account for that.

If you're not in a rush, I still recommend BIN. Set your price a bit higher and just wait. You still will have to check to see what your competition lists. If you have better photos and a better description, this can help. I once sold a used item for more than I originally purchased it based on an amazing description and some luck.

The best offer option is largely a bunch of shit. You only get low-baller a-holes. Either turn it off, or set the limit to $5 less than the BIN price. I sometimes set the offer limit to what I want, then increase the BIN price. This lets the low-baller idiots think they scored a better deal.

I usually offer free shipping, but I'm finding that it doesn't always help sales. Sometimes having a lower BIN price will sell the item for you quicker even if the price + shipping is actually higher than the competition.

>> No.11809583

>>11808970
>seller lists an item for $200
>i know for a fact he paid $90 for it a week ago before it sold out
>i offer him $150
>he responds with $195
Was he really expecting someone to offer him $195?

>> No.11809589

If you set really low bid starting prices but above average buy it nows buyers will be more inclined to use buy it now because they don't wanna fight a bid war. I've made about $300 selling old games like this.

>> No.11809626

>>11808970
Is eBay worth it anymore? Google trends shows a gradual decline over the years.

>> No.11809656

>>11809583
If it's sold out he very well might get it. It doesn't matter if he paid $3 for it. It will sell for market price.

>> No.11809698

>>11809535
thanks for the thoughtful and informative post.

I try to set my BIN for slightly less than similar items and I find that helpful. I tend to take a very basic picture with my phone that is clear, but I dont really go the extra mile. I also dont spend much time on the description. I think that if a customer is seatching for an item then they probably already know what it is. Do you find that the description is very helpful?

I never offer free shipping. I usually look for the lowest price that will arrive in less than a week.

>> No.11809738

>>11809583
some dickwad probably bought it.

i was looking at guitars and I knew for a fact that the guitar was $200 in a store. I offered a guy selling a "barely used" one for $195 that I would buy it for $100. He responded $185. lol no thanks

>> No.11809740

>>11809626
yes very much so

>> No.11809758

>>11809589
nice idea, but then what if my item sells for like $1?

>> No.11809824

>>11809698
I used to do very in-depth descriptions, and I don't think it made that much of a difference, so I do shorter descriptions now. I just list basics, and if it's used I say it's in perfect working order and guarantee it will not be DOA.

Only on some items does the description matter. When it is a difficult to acquire item with a value that is more open to debate, then the description matters more. If you're just selling a consumer good, then all the buyer cares about is the condition and price.

>> No.11809843

>>11809626
i have sold $600 worth of crap in the past 2 months. mostly stuff that i find or get as gifts, but sometimes i buy stuff to resell.

where are people buying instead of ebay?

>> No.11810175

>>11809698
Buyers think differently to everything you said. They don’t know what they are looking for until you tell them with nice pictures and a professional description. They love free delivery so just include it in the price. They want stuff to arrive in 3 days or less.

>> No.11810218

I have never found a way to make an ebay business profitable. I use it like a really shitty flea market / yardsale and that's it. I can't imagine how anyone is profitable with this trash website.
>fees and shipping end up amounting to like 15-25% of any item that sells for between $50 and $500
that alone kills it for me

>> No.11810580
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11810580

>>11809589
cancel the listings when they're not hot

>> No.11810627

>>11810580
meant to reply to >>11809758

>> No.11810635

oh, some tips for people who care, it's easy to make two accounts and just shill bid on your own shit, I do that all the time

I also make a bunch of really high offers on an item and then cancel them at the last second and snip with my legit account using a script I wrote, so people stop bidding since the thing is like $500 even though it's only worth $200, but I end up getting it for $100 because nobody else bid after I bid the price up to $500 and canceled all of them at once

this is against the TOS and they'll flag/ban eventually but you can just make unlimited accounts so I get like 10 feedback on all of them and just rinse/repeat, great way to get cheap electronics

But this isn't really a sustainable business model, more like Jew bullshit

>> No.11810645

>>11810635
snipe*
and protip for the plebs who can't code, download jbidwatcher and use that instead

>> No.11810681

>>11810218
I only know one guy who made an absolute killing on eBay. He would purchase broken electronics for cheap, then they would sell them on eBay as “untested”. He’s a piece of shit, but he got away with it for a long time because his descriptions had a big disclaimer.

>> No.11810766

>>11809589
Really? I've had the opposite experience selling trading cards and figures. I'll put something for a reasonable buy it now pice and it will just expire multiple times, then I put it as an auction and it ends up selling for more than the buy it now price it was sitting at for weeks