Who's Going to $0.99?

I thought it was rather big news this week when I got my notice from eBay that auctions starting under a dollar will no longer have a listing fee. This impacts me in a (good) way because I already start all of my auctions at $0.99, so I'll be saving some nice out of pocket money; anybody who is selling at low start rates tempted to drop to below a dollar?


Frank

Hi Frank, that is really good news - as long as you are in a niche that isn't too competitive!

If everyone drops there starting price to 0.99, it could mean the market value drops for products in some categories.

But for sellers with enough demand, this will be a great saving.

Yep, it's all about having the demand.

We're in an extremely competitive field, but all auctions are started at 0.99, because we know the numbers are there to get the price to where we want it at closing time.

All .99 cent listings will not work for most sellers. It will only work in certain niche markets or high demand markets. Its also a way for eBay to drive traffic to eBay.

I like the idea of 99 cent listings
Use these auctions to sell dead stock and generate
leads for future sales on your site....

Exactly Joe ... I lose my arse on my .99 listings but retain a good bit of customers for future sales.

It is going to be interesting to see what this does to the 'crap factor' on auctions though ... I'm sure with no up-front fee the number of garbage listings skyrockets.


Frank

If you keep it for $0.99, can u setup a reserve price so your item sold doesn't go below the value. For example, you sell something worth $100. You start at $0.99, and end of auction, last price is $50. you have to sell for $50, or else you get neg feed back. How many days is good to sell on ebay. 3 day, 7 days, 1 day???

Hi razaz

If you list an item for 0.99, then you are committing to sell that item to anyone that wins the auction at over and above 0.99. So if you only got 3 bids, winning bid was $3.78, then you have committed to sell that item for $3.78

The length of time you list an auction for really depends on how hot the market is. Some products are so hot that you can turn them over every 3 days, where other items you are best trying to get as much market coverage as possible.

I personally use a 7 day listing for my strategy, Sunday to Sunday closing between 5.5.30pm. All the stats that I've even seen show that's the time of day that most people are all at home together, and are not yet having dinner.

That gives my listings a chance to be seen by the maximum amount of people before closing, but everyone develops a strategy that works best for what they are selling, and who they are selling it to.

fudjj

Not to be a stickler, but $0.99 auctions can have reserve prices like any other. Just bear in mind that there is a reserve fee, so that obviates the no-fee aspect of the $0.99 listing.

raraz

If you are new to this, some advice you may not be getting is that you can't be afraid to lose a little money on a particular auction. Use a research tool like Terapeak to figure out the average recent prices people have paid for whatever it is that you are selling ... cut that down by 30-50% and figure out how much money you would lose per sale if you sold at that price. That figure -- 'net losses for sales at x[//] price' -- is really the benchmark for figuring out a successful selling strategy. If you try to run every sale with the mentality that it is simply impossible or unacceptable to lose money, you're either never going to make a sale because your prices are too high, or you're going to never make a sale because you loaded up on cheaper and cheaper stuff that no one will buy from you due to being out of style, obsolete, etc.

Loss management is imo the most under-represented aspect of selling online in this or any other 'how to sell online' course that I've seen.


Frank

My apologies, I should have clarified that a little better.

NP fuddj. I think that I need to do some clarifying myself ... this:

x[//]

Is not some complex algebra; it was supposed to be an italicised x, x :)

Also, to expand a little on what I was saying about calculating potential losses, it's not that I feel one should plan on selling at 30-50% of the average eBay price -- basic market dynamics won't let that continue for long. What I am saying is that in the real business world, most companies accept that there is such a thing as cost of acquisition when it comes to building a customer base -- ie. that every new customer is going to cost them a certain amount of money to actually get on board (advertising costs, infrastructure, incentives, payroll, etc.) and the goal becomes not how much money to make off of each customer in the door, but how to best keep them coming back.

When starting out on eBay, over and above price it's incredibly difficult for new sellers to build trust. Many buyers will buy from a seller with 2,000 feedback at a higher price than they will buy from one with 0. But if you have done business with that particular customer before, the relative strengths of your feedback score to the old guard powersellers becomes irrelevant.

Just looking at the gross profit margin on one sale of a given product is not the best way to gauge how, where or when to enter the market for that product. See what you can profitably upsell, how long you could function at a marginal loss, and make sure that you have everything you need to deliver 100% stellar customer service to your new customers. Providing top notch service adds a lot to your costs too, not so much in dollars but in time, but it's an additional cost that needs to be figured in -- and like negative margins, it's a cost of which you shouldn't be afraid, just realistically calculate how much you can stand before you start getting hives.


Frank

Hi,
Can someone explain the no fee for 99 cents. I've just listed 10 items on Ebay at that starting price and paid $1 listing fee for each.

So you started 10 auctions at 0.99 cents and paid $1 for each? that doesn't make sense, it should be 0.15 cents each unless you forgot to uncheck the picture upgrades with ebay now sneaky and once you upload an image they automatically check these features so your paying it at the last page if you dont uncheck them so paying $1 for each shows you paid for upgrades.


The New Policy doesnt start until March with the no fee for .99 cent auctions.

That part I do like in the new fee structure. What I do not like is that when I first started selling, I paid about $.20 for fixed price listings, I got a store and was able to pay $.03-0.05 per fixed price listing. Now the new structure has it back up to $.20! When I was paying the lesser amount my ebay invoice got sliced down by 2/3! Now my husband and I have talked over our new strategy and I believe we will be closing the ebay store as it really doesnt benefit us and switching to auction format. I assume doing low starting priced auctions will help us move more inventory and hopefully make much more profit each month over the last. BUT I am also interested in finding other avenues than eBay.

My online store sells are up and eBay sells are down so I hope to finally ditch eBay if everything continues as it is now.