Getting good prices?

Classifieds are pretty flooded just now, with not a lot selling it seems.

Know its a bad time of year to sell, but is Ebay fairing any better?

Ebay gets a higher price 95% of the time anyway. It’s a sellers market, especially if you’re good at it..! 8)

Any tips for ebay success? I’m going to put a bike on there later – haven’t done it before!

I’m an OK Ebay seller- plenty of photos, lots of info and usually aim for Sunday evening finishes.

Just concerned that the usual 99p start, no reserve will see me getting stung at this time of year!

Tips?

Good clear pics of the item, not 4 all the same!
All the relevant details in a simple clear format.
Be brutally honest about the condition.
SPELLCHECK and use decent grammar.

ALWAYS start at 99p. It get people bidding and they’re hooked!
Don’t bother with reserves or buy it now. They cost money and if you’ve done it right, you’ll get top dollar every time

Couple of mine:

Only paid £110 new!
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280610611384&ssPageName=STRK:MESOX:IT#ht_851wt_1139

Mrs PP wanted to give it away!
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280617264740&ssPageName=STRK:MESOX:IT#ht_575wt_1139

Check my feedback…. 8)

SPELLCHECK

What’s a brothet? 😆

Did the dog come with the fridge freezer?

Peter that amp was a crime! Not your fault but what are people thinking. In the end I went and bought in Richer sounds. People were paying crazy money for old amps. Though not as outrages as you bidder.

I need to start selling……

Auctions don’t seem to be going that well, but i’ve got decent prices on fixed price listings. Just set them to run for 30 days and wait.

And if looking to win on eBay use AuctionStealer. It’s free and saves you getting into a bidding war. You can pay if you want to get even more ‘precise’ with your timings.

I’m selling off a fair bit of my old camera kit right now 😥

Don’t really want to, but must raise some extra cash for upcoming wedding fayres (I hate the word ‘fayre’ but seems to be common useage now!).

As has been said above – lots of nice, clear pics and if you can get a bit of cheery personal touch type stuff in as well, you’re onto a winner.

One of my lovely old cameras on ebay

Lots more to follow 😥

As many theories and opinions as there are users. 99p no reserve may have worked for PP, and is fine if your happy to let it go for that (it might, I know plenty of friends who’ve been stung by that for all sorts of stuff).

Personally I hate reserves, if I bid and the reserve isnt met I dont bother bidding again. Starting at 99p and then setting a reserve is just stupidity IMHO, especially for higher valued items (like nice bike frames where the reserve might be £500), you may as well start it at the reserve price, ie. what you would be happy to sell for. Which is what I do (either that or 30 day BIN’s like horatio says).

There is no logic to ebay prices so its up to you how much risk you take. I watched 2 cateye triple shots being sold by the same seller, ending within an hour of each other. One went for twice the price of the other. I bought a new old stock shock from a chinese ebay shop for £60, ended up selling the bike it was intended for and re-listed the shock (and put it on here with no interest). It went on ebay for over £100.

The other theory is to put a mobile number in and invite questions, which may end up with you selling it “off ebay” in a clear breach of their rules, and saving a fortune in ebay and PP fees. Another STW said in an ebay thread something along the lines of if you sell it via ebay your doing it wrong!

I also dont think prices are that seasonal, as a daily classified and ebay trawler a lot of quality kit gets the same price regardless of time of year. At the start of january I sold a 456 frame for £95 (I asked £100…) which is what they were fetching in July.

DO NOT AGREE TO A VIEWING AT YOUR HOUSE. Choose a sensible meeting place and ensure you’re not followed home.

Had a biked nicked after agreeing to meetup at my house with a ‘potential buyer’.

A common scam sadly.

Someone got a bargain from me this week, If youve just bought a lynskey procross on Ebay… Hello! Its boxed and ready to go! 🙁

ebay is as always, very unpredictable. Just sold a load of stuff on there this evening, most of it tatty old tyres, but a couple of good condition bits (stem and bars) that fetched about half of what I thought they would!

Sold 2 identical brand new disc rotors too, one fetched £6 more than the other! 😕

To be fair, with this lot I’m not upset at all as it was all stuff that’s just been hanging around like junk for ages, but I have had some wierd experiences in the past… The Thule Roof bars (with fitting kits, used once) that I only got £4 for was rather a stinger! But then I have sold a few things on ebay before for significantly more than I’ve paid for them too…

Put picks on Flickr, & link in the Ebay ad. YouTube vid also, good idea. Always finish about 8pm. Finishes on or just after 25th (pay day) if possible. Good wording, not pasted text from some website. Be honest I’ve sold stuff for silly money in the past. Seemingly a lot of chancers on stw these days, wanting to pay nowt then hawk on ebay.

Don’t include a picture showing your bike frame surrounded by beer cans, tissues and porn. It puts off potential buyers. 🙂

Always offer postage, I hate auctions that are pick up only.
If your offering postage, and making the effort to price it too then it massively enhances your potential number of buyers.
I used Parcelforce to send a bike two weeks before Christmas, picked it up from my house and delivered it tracked for about £12. All I had to do was wrap it. Ask your LBS for a bike box. 🙂

If it’s priced right in the Classifieds it’ll sell. Too many people are just simply asking too much.

mikertroid – Member
DO NOT AGREE TO A VIEWING AT YOUR HOUSE. Choose a sensible meeting place and ensure you’re not followed home.

I can see you point, but from a buyer’s perspective I would be very suspicious if someone wanted to meet in a car park / service station. It reeks of ‘stolen goods’, no come back, dodgy geezer etc.

i only sell stuff via buy it now, put the price you want, most sells within 2 weeks

I sold a bike last week and the cheapest postage I could find was Parcel Force 48hour at £28 (including £200 insurance compensation), I went through Quidco and got £3 cashback though.

99p no reserve may have worked for PP, and is fine if your happy to let it go for that (it might, I know plenty of friends who’ve been stung by that for all sorts of stuff).

To be deadly honest it’s probably their adverts that are killing them. I’ve sold everything under the sun, never had the slightest problem.
And, err, don’t they have mates with eBay accounts too? 8)

And, err, don’t they have mates with eBay accounts too?

BUUUUURN HIIIIIM!!! 👿 😡 👿 😡

And, err, don’t they have mates with eBay accounts too?

Just in case that is what you might possibly be suggesting this don’t forget that shill bidding is against all the rules.

psychle – couldn’t agree more with you this time but might have saved you a lot of trauma re the stars & stripes debacle 😉

I eBay now and then, I’ve sold a couple of bikes and plenty of bits on there it’s just a bit of amateur marketing really, my tips are:

1. Research: Get an idea of the market for your bike do a search for similar bikes look at spec, age, Condition and watch them to the end to get an idea of what sort of money you can reasonably expect to get… can help you decide if you want to put a “Buy it Now” price on the listing or not and what it should be…

2. Timing: Let the item run as long as possible so more people will see it, also try and set the end for a time when the largest majority of people will be at home say 7:30-8:00 pm, on a week night, not everyone can sit at work watching an item and bidding… Sunday Evenings are also a good bet you’re basically aiming to catch people when they are not busy… If you can time it try to get the closing date close to most peoples pay day (say within the first week of the month) basically you want to catch them when they are feeling flush, Mercenary but you are trying to optimise your sale price here…

3. Description: Be Thorough in your description, list all good and bad points Honesty is appreciated by any serious bidders, and stops anyone complaining that they weren’t warned. Be concise, florid descriptions of a brake calliper or pedal generally make it sound no more attractive and bore the reader, list the spec, give some history, be honest about any scratches or damage, if you read it back and it sounds like waffle it probably is…

4. Pictures: Give it a good clean and Take Pictures, as many as you can, close ups of anything interesting (if it’s got ISCG/Disc/V/Rack mounts and they are a potential selling point). Photograph any damage you describe, make sure the pictures are well lit (Day light is still best IMO) and in focus…

5. Answer questions: Do so as promptly as you can, be polite and clear, be prepared to measure Seat tubes, Steerers, tires basically anything, if you don’t know the answer to a question just say so… Never end an auction early when some cheeky Git asks (And they always do) if you have a “Buy it now price” in mind you’ll put it on the listing, otherwise just state that you prefer to let your auctions run their full course…

6. Hold your nerve: If you find yourself looking at the listing with 10 minutes to go and just one bid of 99p hang tight, many “seasoned eBayers” generally wait until about 30 seconds from the end and then bang in their very best offer, keep an eye on the “Watchers” number that’s the truest indicator of peoples interest, that and the number of questions you receive…

7. Disappointment: After all the above do be prepared not to get the price you hoped for, Don’t put a reserve price on the item you can’t afford to actually accept, if you know how much you expect then a Buy it Now Say 5% above that isn’t a bad option…

8. Fees: factor in the eBay/paypal fees and get a good idea of postage costs before you list, you can actually loose a fair bit of your profit to these seemingly minor costs…

Good Luck HTH….

You can get some proper bargains if you’re lucky, especially when stuff is listed wrong.

I/we sold a load if the missus’ no longer wanted handbags, I got a new bike out if it, yey!

Would agree with lots of the above, but avoid finishing the auction on a Sunday evening IF the following day is a public holiday……..lots of good up-bidders out on the raz!