2 questions about the Ebay auctions system

Olivier · Post by **Olivier** » Thu Aug 25, 2005 7:40 pm

Hello,

just wondering:

1. From past experience, can you tell if an item will sell or not depending on the number of people who added it to their "watch list" ? I have more than 10 people watching my auction, but no one bids and I don't understand why - I suppose they wait until the last minute... which leads me to the second question:

2. What do you think, as a seller, of the fact that people bid at the last minute? Do you know a way of preventing that from happening - for example by writing that you might stop the auction before it ends ?

Regards,

Olivier

Post by **Rekka Alexiel** » Thu Aug 25, 2005 7:49 pm

With the way eBay is set up, I think most people who really want to win an auction wait 'til the last minute. So I would say that if your auction has a bunch of people watching it, it will almost always sell.

shellie · Post by **shellie** » Thu Aug 25, 2005 7:58 pm

Ah, Olivier, that is the joy and the anguish of American ebay!

As a buyer, I looove sniping (and I bid in the last couple of seconds, not minutes!

), but as an ebay seller, I'm not nearly as happy about those last second bidders like me! And I don't know that you can tell a whole lot by the number of watchers on your auctions, though I tend to think you have a good chance of selling your item if it has lots of people watching. Sometimes, especially with collectibles like cels, I think people add it to their watch list just to see what final price the item will bring. (So they are literally just watching, but not intending on bidding.)

Sorry if that sounds rather negative, but that's just normal operating procedure on ebay. Don't worry... You have such lovely stuff up for sale right now, you should get some good bids, I'm sure!

Good luck!

RX78GP02AGUNDAM · Post by **RX78GP02AGUNDAM** » Thu Aug 25, 2005 9:47 pm

If you want to see more bids, start your auctions lower. Ebay and Yahoo Japan suggests that when making an auction.

Olivier · Post by **Olivier** » Thu Aug 25, 2005 11:57 pm

RX78GP02AGUNDAM wrote:If you want to see more bids, start your auctions lower. Ebay and Yahoo Japan suggests that when making an auction.

Yes, I understand. Good idea. I thought $59 as a starting price was not overpriced though. I didn't want to set a reserve price and obviously do not want to lose money either...

So many possibilities...

Olivier