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I don't mean zero feedback, but low feedback such as 50, 100, 200.
Does having thousands of feedbacks really help sales? I think there used to be some sellers who would start over with a new ID every so often, just so the high feedback wouldn't scare off bidders? Don't know if there is any substance to that, but that's what I heard somewhere.
You guessed it. I'm having a hard time getting bids right now. It's very slow. I've had a few bright spots in the last month, but mostly it's slow.
Maybe it's slow for just about everyone?
I'm wondering if I should start selling on another, low feedback ID just to try to shake things up a bit.
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I know plenty of sellers who have done just that, Busker... and with good result. If you want to post or PM an auction link, I'll be glad to give you a buyer's perspective look at your listings.
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I started selling under a second eBay ID 3 years ago to differentiate product lines. I remember how astonished I was that, even with zero feedback, my first set of auctions did fairly well.
I started using a third eBay ID in March, one I had created 3 years ago but never used, because I needed an ID that had been registered on eBay Canada (the other two IDs had been registered on eBay US) to take advantage of an eBay promotion there. Again, I didn't notice too much difference with my zero feedback. The sell-through rate wasn't noticeably lower than what I would have expected if I had listed on the US site.
If you do fixed price listings, there are 2 important feedback numbers to remember:
- To create a Fixed Price listing with a quantity of one, you must have a feedback rating of 10 or more (or be ID Verified ). If you have a PayPal account and accept PayPal as a payment method on the listing, your feedback rating only needs to be 5 or more.
- To create a Fixed Price listing with a quantity of two or more, you must have a feedback rating of 30 or more and be a registered user for at least 14 days (or be ID Verified). If you have a PayPal account and accept PayPal as a payment method on the listing, your feedback rating only needs to be 15 or more.
This time of the year is always slow for me. In fact, I haven't listed any auctions for 3 weeks.
As a buyer I don't have any qualms about dealing with a low feedback seller but then I am not usually buying expensive items. I admit I was rattled once when I won and auction and send an e-mail to a newbie seller to say that I had popped a money order in the mail that day. The next day the seller said the item had been shipped.
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Yes, for some reason it seems so. On one of my ids I have a purple star. The others are blues and yellows. The blues and yellows sell better.
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I think that there are two aspects to this:
(1) The feedback number: I personally can't help getting the feeling that a rating of about 300 is optimum. It is enough to show experience, and low enough not to look like you are doing so much business that you will not "look after" the customer. That said I have had some strong sales this year over the 3,000 feedback mark - and much of that reflected the stock I was selling (a good run of collectible paper from a deceased estate attracted some serious competition). I have noted that my percentage of sales to the USA has been steadily dropping over the last 12 months, if I exclude the runs of USA railroad memorabilia I have been listing - so the state of the economy (or even available money in households) may be holding the market back somewhat in the USA itself.
(2) The positive feedback percentage: I am personally very impressed when I see a seller with more than 10,000 feedbacks and 100% rating. Whilst 10,000 makes me nervous that the volume of selling may mean that transactions or problems get lost in the cracks, anyone selling that type of volume and getting less than one neg per 2000 positives, is doing the right thing, and I will take a serious look at their items as a buyer. I occassionally get buyer comments indicating that my positive percentage gave them confidence (particularly to do their first international purchase).
I guess that it may come down to whether you are performing worse than those sellers in your line who have less feedback, or whether your line is just currently on a downturn. It may even be worth listing on both a "new" ID as well as your long existing ID and comparing the results for a while to (a) get a feel for the differences, and (b) possibly pick up different kinds of buyers.
Good Luck, Kevin
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One of the things that impacts my buying is the number of auctions that are up at any given time.
In other words someone running 0 to 25 auctions isn't likely to lose me in the shuffle. Someone running 26 to 100 had better have very good feedback so I know they can handle it. and 100 plus auctions at one time I am most likely not going to bid... That's just me though
and I prefer to bid on people who's feedback is in the 1000 to 4000 range - I will bid if they have less and it is good but I usually don't bid if it is higher.
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I have to agree with Sandy on this one.
If they have pages and pages of auctions (because I always look to see if they have something else I am interested in), I might question the seller.
Here is what affects my buying the most:
How long have they been a registered user? If they have 3,000 feedback and they registered in 1997, then it has been a slow and steady feedback climb. If they registered in 2005 and have 3,000 feedback then I might hesitate.
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I pretty much agree with Sandy too. I'm more likely to be put off by a high number of current auctions than high feedback. If someone has 300 auctions about to end I feel it increases the chances of a mistake, and decreases the chances I will get personal attention to fix it.
The total amount of feedback doesn't concern me though. Anywhere between 30 and 30,000 is fine with me.
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I think having a huge fb number also makes you a target for "stalkers" and other sellers to either copy your auctions or copy the items you carry.
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I've had hundreds of auctions up at once before and could handle it just fine. It depends on the person.
I think that some sickos like to seek out 100% fb sellers just to ruin their fb. I saw posts about it over on the fb board before where they were discussing fb stalkers. Shame there's no way to prevent that stuff.