Question
I have utilised the holidays to steadily list 10 day auctions, with some 7 days of lesser items to fill the gaps. Previously the most live auctions that I have ever had listed is 121 - I currently have 186 live listings and plan to put on another 10 or 12 magazines in a run tonight (my time) well before others start finishing.
I currently find that the major bidding activity is usually on the last day, and I have 14 hours until the first of these listings finish. As I have added to my listings, my strike rate of auctions with bids has stayed at between 31% and 36%, and I currently have the upper with 67 out of 186 auctions having bids. Some of it is good (and all the items I listed with higher starting prices have bids) and some of it is dross - so I am happy with this strike rate, particularly given that a chunk still has 9 days to go. Whilst I would be very dissappointed if I only get a 36% clearance, this feels good and I expect to have the percentages rise as the auctions end - I will be happy with a 60 to 70 percent clearance and hope to get some serious competition on a few items that I currently have listed.
This year is feeling much better than last year at this time (my worst Christmas - January period on Ebay ever).
How is everyone else finding it at this time????
Kind Regards, Kevin (hoping that I haven't jinxed myself)
Answer
You should check your number of watchers. That will tell you if your strike rate will go up much higher.
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Number of watchers can indicate items that they are being "coy" about (ie: high when there are 0 or 1 bid) and can indicate a likely snipe action (about 4 railway items feel that way at the moment), but overall there are no rules to the watch results. Personally I use bookmarks on my own computer, and once there is some bidding activity many of the watchers are just "sightseers" seeing where the item ends up, possibly having the item to offer themself later.
It is possibly the eclectic nature of what I sell, but the more I have studied the watch list, the less it means overall. I have had slightly more email enquiry than usual this week, which is usually a good sign, and my "gut feeling" is happy with how things are going.
Final new high figure (probably for all time) is 198 listings - currently 70 have bids.
Cheers, Kevin
Answer
Originally Posted by Kevin_T
Number of watchers can indicate items that they are being "coy" about (ie: high when there are 0 or 1 bid) and can indicate a likely snipe action (about 4 railway items feel that way at the moment), but overall there are no rules to the watch results. Personally I use bookmarks on my own computer, and once there is some bidding activity many of the watchers are just "sightseers" seeing where the item ends up, possibly having the item to offer themself later.
It is possibly the eclectic nature of what I sell, but the more I have studied the watch list, the less it means overall. I have had slightly more email enquiry than usual this week, which is usually a good sign, and my "gut feeling" is happy with how things are going.
Final new high figure (probably for all time) is 198 listings - currently 70 have bids.
Cheers, Kevin
If have something with little bidding but a lot of watchers, I know there will be bids coming. The items with no bids and 1 watcher usually means not likely to get a bid. So I can tell on items with watchers which ones are likely to get more bids and which items are just dead.
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Seems to be very different in different categories. Several times I have had $8 photograph lots with no bids, accumulate 10 to 15 watchers (high for the photo category), and still go unsold. Other areas it's a virtual guarantee for late bidding. Then I can have no watchers and up with 3 or 4 different bidders in the last minute.
I am building up watchers on the items that went on yesterday that I know are currently strong on Ebay, but they already have competitive bidding, and, whilst I have not listed USA railway memorabilia in quantity before, the numbers of watchers in that area are indicating what is the most desirable (because the stuff I knew, is accumulating, and two unexpected items are accumulating at a similar rate). I am also currently getting numbers of watchers dropping away on a couple of items after building up early (7 dropped to 3 in one case).
If I were listing one type of thing I could probably gauge from the watchers, but different groups seem to use it much differently, just as different groups seem to bid at different times or to favour different types of payments (who'd have thought police memorabilia collectors would favour sending cash in the mail? ). I do watch the watch list, but I have learned not to place any meaning on it, because there is a huge variance in how it is used in my experience.
Cheers, Kevin
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Kevin
Not sure if you have an eBay store or not. But for what I sell, I seem to get a good feel for which watchers are being watch for bidding purpose and which for just general interest. I learned from my eBay store which items are being watch and there is no interest in bidding.
Paper collectibles are always tough to guage.
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No store, Commentary, only ever auction for me.
One of the main points I wanted to make with the thread (but I managed to bury it) was that bidding and interest is feeling much stronger this year than last year at this time. I am interested whether other people are finding it the same.
I have also been noticing that there is much less "old" stuff in the searches that I have been doing over the last couple of weeks - I don't know if it is just the areas that I am searching, or indicative of the site in general, but I hope it doesn't remain that way, because some vintage buyers/collectors will get bored with it well and truely.
Cheers, Kevin
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I cannot help you out. Listed very few new stuff, mostly unsolds or reruns. So my sales will be poor for this promotion.
I did not see much new offerings from old sellers. Any new stuff are from International sellers. But shipping makes purchases almost impossible.
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We just finished this conversation at our weekly EbayNorth conference......IE a bunch of us stand around and shoot the crap about whatever comes to mind
My best selling items have been stuff I listed last year and two years ago and had no sales on them.....go figure
I have an item right now over 40.00 that was auctioned four times last winter and once it started at 99 cent with no takers. I was happy to get one bid let alone a bunch of them.
It feels better this year, no question about that. ...but different, it is like learning what they want all over again.
my sell through is not as high as yours right now, but a lot of mine are last minute snipers on this stuff. ...
Had a bin for a 175.00 item I probably would not have listed had it not been DimeDay.
I still want one of these promos every three month or so, it would sooo cool
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kevin,
I do regular searches on certain antiquarian items, and the general tendency I am noting is that there is a continuing decrease of these items on eBay. Not a dramatic decline, but something slow and steady.
In particualar, they are books and periodicals.
This can be good for the seller of such items as the competition is decreasing.
But it is also indicating that the suppliers of such items are veering away from ebay. Myself included.
The trick of course is to find where the collectors are at. As the eBay site is becoming ever more unworkable there will be more niche venues. I know little about railroad ephemera but if I had a batch I might check out a popular railroad magazine and look at the ads.
After CHristmas has always been for me at least a very good time to buy and sell as this is when people go to get what THEY want for christmas. I certainly do intensive searches for my collectables. But so far, nada.