Ebay option of 'Buy it Now' - Is it worth doing?

Hey,
I was thinking about paying five dollars to confirm myself so I can use the 'Buy it now' feature on my items. Is it worth doing?

I would recommend it. If you have several of the same items you can list one with a low reserve to attract the customers. When that is sold others with hopefully use the 'Buy it Now' option to purchase your other products.

All the best.

All I do now is buy it now auctions due to the fact that most auction style winning buyers never pay! Unpaid item disputes have increased dramatically since eBay removed sellers ability to leave negative feedback for buyers.

Buy it Now is the best way to sell on ebay. It's the only option I have ever used. Most people don't want to wait on an auction to end that they are probably going to lose you, anyways.

I have some infor for those that have payment troubles. I have been using a service called reliabid. I was having a very bad time with non paying bidders in 2007. Literally 40% or more of my closed auctions ended up in a dispute with no payment from the bidder.

We signed up with reliabid. And since then. I have only had 2 Non paying bidders in the last year.

With reliabid it basically is a legal agreement added to the auction that lets the buyer know you will turn them into a collection agency. With the information on their account you can also damage their credit rating. They have a service fee but if you sell even low volume its worth it. I would suggest you get the reliabid seal on all of your auctions. It will literally kill non paying bidders with your auctions.

Also I am now leaning more toward buyitnow auctions. I may have to wait a few weeks for my items to sell but they are selling at my price and I am getting great value out of my items.

I'm personally a strong believer in letting the market set the price, so I favour the auction format where possible. That doesn't mean I start everything at 0.99, but I would prefer to set a starting bid close to that of what I would have set as a buy it now option, if I were going to do that.

That gives me the option of still selling the product, and possibly making more than anticipated if the market at the time is strong enough. The thing that would be concerning me is that if I was selling at but it now, and selling quick, it would be an indication that I was selling at under current market value.

Of course not a bad thing if you can sell at below market value and still make profit, but you could be burning cash if you are not aware of what the market will sustain at the time of your sales.

Money is tight, and will more than likely just get tighter over the coming months, so squeezing every cent/dime out of a product isn't a bad idea.

No issues at all with non paying bidders, but I set basic biding requirements for my auctions, and that includes having a positive feedback score of at least 10 or the bid is canceled without notification.

No doubt without including that in my bidding restrictions I would have had some issues, because I have canceled bids that did not meet my qualifying criteria, and never had one person inquire as to why!

When I very first started I used the buy it now option a few times and found it was attracting scammers like flys to burnt sausage. They would just hit the button, delist the product, then try and work me because they had nothing to loose, especially with mobiles!

There are some items that you have to set a buy it now price, usually drop ship products. Setting a starting bid on those products is just delaying your opportunity to make the sale and a complete waste of time.

Like most things, different strategies will work for different products.

Another solution is to use the option to make the buyer pay immediately upon purchase.

Personally, when I'm looking to purchase something on Ebay, I always look for the Buy Now listings, or else listings that are closing soon without buy now. Mainly because I'm impatient and don't want to wait days or a week to see if I'm going to get what I'm trying to buy. I usually provide a BN option on most of my listings - with the exception of anything that's second hand. I found a few good things in my large broom cupboard recently that were good, seldom used, and worth money so I listed them on eBay. They both have lots of watchers and I've had a few questions asked but no bids yet and it's still two days to run. Meanwhile one similar product in not so good condition as mine sold yesterday for $103.51 more than my start price which I found surprising so I'm glad I'd didn't place a buy now.