Ebay advice.

[Darth Sith Lord]

Hi Guys.

Just wondering if I could ask your advice?

Several of my ebay items seem to sell for a £1 recently and the majority to the same person.

Have you any tips to help encourage others to bid?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/gj-coins/m.html?item=201373034902&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562

Are my listings/descriptions fair? Compared to many of you guys guys I only sell base coins but still many are worth a little more than £1.

Looks like a great community here

Edited June 24, 2015 by Darth Sith Lord

[azda]

Hello and welcome so far I've seen spelling errors which won't help, such as BRITISH spelt as BRIRISH, I've seen 2 so far. Are your coins also in the correct catagories? (I haven't checked that)

[Darth Sith Lord]

Hi appreciate the swift reply.

Edited the spelling errors. Thats my dyslexia!

Pretty much in the right categories too I think

[azda]

The George IIII proof crown is a fantasy piece, although not stated in your listing

[Rob]

It's a problem for most sellers. The majority of items don't sell because there are too many listings. As I write there are nearly a quarter of a million listed under coins of which 110,000 are British. There isn't time to look. So unless you find two people searching for the same item you find that most will sell for opening bids at best. That's why so many are on BIN now. Personally, I don't bother looking any more as I don't have the time to plough through hundreds of pages and only look when given a heads up these days. What used to take 20 mins is now a full time job.

The fact that most go to the same person suggests that he/she is happy with what you have sold, but as long as they start at £1, then that person will continue to acquire at that price. 10 years ago or more you only had one or two thousand listings and the %age of quality listing was better.

[azda]

The majority of your listings state either "rare" or "very rare" I'm personally not a huge fan of these type of listings especially if they are modern bullion coins or cupro-nickel, this would put me off viewing any further listings you have (that is a personal opinion only)

Grading is subjective, leave the grading to the bidder and maybe just add "collectable graded" if all your listings had UNC in I'd also walk on by

[Paulus]

I agree with Rob's and Azda's points. If you routinely describe all your listings as UNC and/or rare when they are not, potential buyers will conclude that you over-grade/exaggerate.

Bear in mind that the buyer has to pay the postage, so a £1 coin becomes £2.25 or more, which in many cases is more than the coin may be worth. I'm guessing that your regular buyer often receives a postage discount from you for multiple purchases?

As a seller, in my opinion, it is simply not worth the time and trouble selling an eBay item for £1. The net return on a £1 (+ £1.25 p&p) coin is just 66p, after commission, and assuming p&p is at cost.

You also state "I CANNOT BE REPONSIBLE FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGED CAUSED WHILE IN TRANSIT". As a seller it is your responsibility to ensure that the buyer receives the item as described in the listing, and undamaged. It is far more reassuring to hear that you will post the item 'signed for' and well protected by the packaging.

Edited June 24, 2015 by Paulus

[TomGoodheart]

Hi DSL Certainly eBay isn't what it one was and is generally overloaded with lower value items. But it's difficult for sellers to sell at higher levels too.

I guess it's a vicious cycle, people see stuff selling cheap so don't want to pay any more than car-boot prices. The items that sell are the 99p starters so people only see stuff selling cheap .. I had an item sell for 99p and I had to ship it to the US. Needless to say I didn't make a profit on that one!

With things that should sell for more I've used BIN/Make an Offer as you've done ... however it's a bit hit and miss with those too!

The listings look OK to me. Only comment on some of the coins are the photos on my laptop look a bit lacking in contrast. Are they scans as those can look a bit washed out/flat? I sometimes use a simple photo editor to increase the contrast/ colour balance. Not to fool people but to make the coin look (on my laptop at least!) more like it does in real life ..

Beyond that it's luck maybe? Anyway, welcome to the forum! Do you collect coins as well? (He asks hopefully!)

As to grading, well you could do worse than post pics here and ask for members' opinions .. it might help you feel more confident in that area.

.

Edited June 24, 2015 by TomGoodheart

[MRD]

Hi DSL, my approach is to list anything that i know will struggle to sell at the minimum price that i'm happy with, that way if i get 1 bid i can live with it.

In saying that i don't sell coins on Ebay, but i have only ever had 2 unsold lots out of over 800 listings.

Rob also makes a very valid point, way too many listings in the coin categories.

Regards

Michael.

[just.me]

Hi Darth, your pics etc are fine. Most of the coins you are selling are common but you have every one described are either 'rare' or 'very rare' and like Dave posted above, it's something that puts me off looking at more listings too.

If you did have a scarce/rare coin or note, then the listing would not stand out at all in a list with all the other 'rare' coins. Take the 1938 Penny, 1988 year set, 1973 50p, 1970 proof set, there are well over 100 of each of these on eBay for sale every week so there is a lot of competition. If your not in a hurry to sell them, list as a Buy It Now at a price you would be happy with.

The ever increasing Royal Mail postage costs are also not helping the sales of lesser value items. My daughter used to collect and swap Kinder egg toys, but when the postage system changed from the 1st/2nd class to the new letter/parcel sizes it ruined it, these are over 1" but weigh just a few grams and must be sent small parcel for a couple of quid. Just not worth her doing it now.

[Rob]

To which can be added, that with letter rate postage which appears to be the maximum that buyers want to pay, it doesn't allow for any protection to be used if you want to keep within the 5mm thickness limit. So small parcel rates (which if signed for to protect your own backside), push the price up to about £2. Add on the VAT if you are registered and that is £2.40. Add on ebay and paypoo fees takes a £1 coin to £4+ for a coin that may or may not be worth a quid assuming you want to realise a return. It does beg the question 'why bother?', but the answer is of course, because you can get free listings and every so often people buy. The only winners are eBay.

Royal Mail have also shot themselves in the foot with the 1" limit for large letters.