| Why You Shouldn't Start an eBay Auction at 99c |
With an eBay auction, you set an initial starting price, specify the postage costs, and then the item is up for auction. If you receive any bids, then you must sell the item for the highest bidden price at the close of the auction (which could be your starting price if you only receive 1 bid).
eBay recommend that you start auctions off at 99c as they say this encourages bidding. Their whole fee structure is geared around this. If you start your auction at 99c, you only pay a 30c listing fee. If you start your auction between $1.00 and $19.99 you pay a 50c listing fee.
What eBay don't tell you is the hard truth.
• 54% of items on eBay receive no bids at all
• 23% of items receive only 1 bid
• so over 75% of items receive 1 bid (your starting price) or less!
That's not good odds folks!
Let's look at a real life example (yes - OK - it was me....)
I decided to list a set of 3 books by the same author. I followed eBay's recommendation and set the auction start price at 99c. This incurred a listing fee of 30c.
I also follow their recommendation to include a gallery picture - that adds another 59c to my listing fee.
So I am listing 3 books at 99c, and so far it has cost me 89c in fees.
I know these books weigh more than 500g, so I set postage at $9.00 because I know I can get a prepaid satchel (up to 3Kg) for $9.00 at the post office.
My item ends up getting one bid and sells for 99c.
eBay charge me a final value fee (like a sold fee) of 5c.
So my net profit at the moment is 5c.
Then I get to the post office to post the item, and find out the price of those satchels has gone up to $9.30.
I am now 25c in the red! (And would have been 89c in the red if my listing was one of the 54% which didn't receive a single bid).
And all I did was follow eBay's recommendations! OK - I messed up on the postage, but even 5c isn't much of a profit margin!
If I had seen those stats listed above that say that over 75% of items on eBay receive 1 bid or less, then I sure wouldn't have set the start price at 99c.
My personal view is that you should set the minimum price to the lowest amount you would be willing to sell the item for. I have listed items at 0.99c, and then received only 1 bid on the item. I have ended up having to sell an item at a price that I thought was outrageous. So – I only list items with a starting price of 0.99c that I am willing to sell for that price.
Bio – Di Ellis is the author of I Can Sell That! A Beginners Guide to Selling on eBay, and owner of the site  www.GoForBroke-DoItYourself.com where you can get more great tips on selling on eBay.
Article Source: UnArchived Articles
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