This article refers to eBay auctions only.
Last week I had a chuckle as I read a blog post that declared "online auctions are dead".
What this writer was alluding to, was that because people are no longer able to auction mass produced cheap items successfully on eBay anymore, then the online auction model is no longer a viable way to sell things.
Well, rather than just state my case to the contrary, I'dI like to present evidence. Everything in the photographs here are posted by me on eBay and are doing very well.
They all started at $9.95 and are offered without reserve. You can click on the links to see them for yourself.
So why would this blogger and many others think that online auctions are dead? The blogger does not understand auctions.
See, when eBay hit it's stride, auctions became available to everyone as a buyer and as a seller. Since this was a novelty, the marketplace exploded with activity, and for a while it was a cash cow for virtually anyone with a keyboard and some junk. EVERYONE wanted to sell via online auctions.
The problem with this, is that much of what was being offered was low quality, mass produced things that are just not suitable for the auction market.
The novelty wore off, these sellers were no longer getting good money for their items and the word spread, that online auctions are dead. A very misinformed rumor.
Online auctions for the right products are hotter than ever. Things like antiques and collectbles are in very high demand as small investors look for alternatives places to put their money, antiques dealers look for new stock, and collectors look for deals.
But, you have to auction the right product in the right way.
Here are a list of DOs and Don'ts to be successful with your online auction items.
Do:
- Do sell antiques, collectibles and hot items that are in demand.
- Do sell with a low starting bid with no reserve.
- Do take several clear pictures of each item.
- Do write an accurate description of what you have, if your not sure, state that you are not sure, your honesty will be appreciated, but stating something IS authentic when your not sure, will land you in hot water.
- Do blog about your items and go beyond eBay to promote your offerings whenever possible.
- Do state shipping and return policy up front and be reasonable about them.
- Do list items that you can afford to let go for a low price if that happens. The auction game is not for everyone and just as any other game that offers high rewards, there are some risks.
- Do place your item in the appropriate category and put it in 2 categories if it deserves to be placed in 2.
- Do properly title your auction, this is an art in itself, see this article which expains further.
- Do try to list at least several auctions at the same time to cross promote. Also, even though there is a link to "see seller's other items" on the page, make sure you indicate in every description that you currently have other nice items up for auction on eBay.
- Do keep track of current trends and hot items in the marketplace. Even antiques and collectibles have cycles and sell better at certain times of the year. They also come in and out of favor with the marketplace. The best way to keep on top of your game is to briefly skim the best known content producers in the genre. Click here to see over 700 antiques appraisals, evaluations and articles.
- Once your item is listed, track your email to see if there are any questions on it. The rule of thumb is, the higher quality items get more questions.
- Do make sure that when you do bother to use a subtitle, you do so in a way that encourages people to see your other no reserve auctions.
Japanese stoneware bowl of very high quality, no reserve.
Don't:
- Don't bother with a reserve or a high starting price. If you do this and your item does actually get a bid, it probably won't get more than one or two. Momentum is thwarted when you place a reserve on an item. There's another name for an auction item with a reserve, it's called a fixed price. Now, there's nothing wrong with selling something with a fixed price, except when you try to pitch it as an auction item. If a seller has a fantastic item I'm interested in, and I find out after I've clicked on the item that it has a reserve, I make it a point NEVER to visit that seller's items again. Why would I? I'm into real auctions and this seller has demonstrated that they are not, I move on.
- Don't bother trying to sell mass produced items that can be found in big box stores or many other places, UNLESS there is something special about the way your auctioning them that enhances the deal.
- Don't title your auctions with cute words like L@@K, etc. That's web 1.0 marketing and it has no search engine value.
Well, that's it for the Dos and don'ts, but take some advice from an auctioneer who's been in the business for over 25 years, 10 of them on eBay. Auctions are NOT dead, BUT auctions of items which are cheap, mass produced junk are dead.
Hopefully the other marketplaces will come to agree!
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Comments
Wise words here. I love auctions, although I don't do reserve.
I'm interested in your division of all goods on eBay into "collectables" and "mass-produced junk". Don't you think some items might fall between these two stools?
Personally I think the novelty of auction-buying has worn off for a lot of buyers, and the only time they are prepared to bother waiting 7-10 days to see if they've "won" an item is if it's a rare one-off. The range of goods for which auctions are a suitable sales method shrinks daily. Even collectables' sellers I know are starting to talk about using buy it now for an increasing proportion of their sales.
Walt, I agree with you totally, auctions featuring rare items still perform well. They have long before eBay and they will long after.
The part I think that people overlook is that just because something is antique or collectible it is not necessarily rare--eBay itself has helped commoditize these once rare items over the years by opening up the worldwide community of selling.
And this is where I agree with Sue in the comment below, I use a lot of Store and Fixed Price myself, but that's because after years of selling this stuff online I now understand the value and/or what people are actually willing to pay.
But when I don't have a firm grasp on this information is where auctions come in and serve their purpose. If the items pass, well, I chalk that up to them not being as rare or interesting as I believe. They move to Fixed Price then. If they sell, great. Sometimes I'm still lucky enough to catch a little action and approach an old-fashioned bidding frenzy.
I actually used a high opening bid on something just last week--for me it worked, but the thing is, it was an item I didn't think would go recognized by enough buyers to garner that frenzy, even when clearly labeled, and secondly the minimum was all I wanted--though of course I would have taken more (and did have a higher Buy it Now price tacked on as well just for that purpose). Now I may have choked the item's potential by not starting it at $9.99 as you suggest, but I basically quintupled my money, so I was quite happy to do so.
Thanks as always for the informative post,
Cliff
vintagemeld.com
Once again a great article that many could learn from.
I only use auctions sparingly for Items that I feel will generate interest, and never list with a reserve.
My major "turn offs" from listings are:
1. a reserve
2.one that has a "buy it now" price set at just a dollar or two more than starting bid price.
3. (and my biggest peeve) is those listings, whether in an auction or a store, that lists nothing but the store policy/seller policy, DO this, DONT do that etc and NOTHING if anything about the item itself.
Walt has always offered some great items for sale and I enjoy checking them out.
Thanks Walt, for the quick and simple tips to help make a successful auction listing.
Susan
renagadesrelics.com
Just to muddy the waters I echo and amplify Sue. I believe the auction market is still there for genuine antiques sold by trusted vendors (which for me has nothing to do with eBay's inane DSR system) but not for modern mass produced or commodity items, which can still be validly considered collectibles sometimes.
I believe there is still room on this earth for bricks and mortar shops which have been boosted by new collectors generated by eBay.
I know the minimum or fair price I want when I list something and for me the fixed price and chatroom haggle availability on Bonanzle.com works. It is no different than making an offer in a bricks and mortar shop.
Finally, dear sellers, I have enough 20 and 30 year chipped crazed and cracked old garbage of my own, it is neither truly vintage, in any way antique, rare or valuable. In most cases you have vastly overpriced it. The venue is in no way to blame for your lack of sales. It should have a long shelf life for you.
I have always had Good Responce on Auction at ebay. Not everything will sale. But most due at a Good Profit
I agree with everything you have said. And there are small auction sites on the web like MilBid.com and EBid.com gaining ground daily so auctions are not dead.
But I'd go one step further and say there are also a lot of people out there who are missing the boat from the angle of cash flow that auctions can give you even on middle of the road items.
You can sell even common collectible items like depression glass and mccoy pottery at auction and still do well if you are willing to take what you can get and keep your merchandise moving. You don't need to get the last penny an item is worth to be successful.
Look at it this way. Buy a flower pot for $5 at a rummage sale. You see the same pot selling for $10 on eBay and sitting on shelves in shops for $20 all over the place. Why not list your pot on eBay (or MilBid or EBid where listing fees are nothing or a few pennies) for $6 or $8 and when it sells for $10 or more in the first listing be happy. You didn't hold it for 6 mo. waiting for it to sell and you had that money to spend buying more pots you could sell in the same time you waited for your parked pot to sell. If you do your homework you can make auctions work for all kinds of items again on and off eBay. Auctions are alive and well all over the internet IMHO.
@ Sue at Tamebay, of course there are many items that fall in the middle of either of those two factions, but there's simply not enough room to write about everything in one column.
As far as waiting to see if you've "won" an item or not after 7 days or so, doesn't apply to most of the bidders in the bid pool who really only come during the last few hours of the auction.
As far as the amount of items entering into the auction marketplace shrinking, I think is a subjective statement.
The main reason auctions of some type will always do well, is because they appeal to the gambling nature and sense of adventure so many in the antiques and collectibles business.
Fix price works well for those who don't mind waiting for an item to sell, auctions are better for liquidity, but again, they're not for everyone.
@ Henrietta, spot on. You see, although I'm very much pro-auction, I'm not against fixed price sales at all.
What I AM against is those who try to have it both ways by listing an item at "auction" but with a reserve. Which to me is not an auction, but a fixed price item. So in a sense, when I go to an auction page I've found to have a reserve, I feel like I've been lied to, because that is not really an auction, it's a fixed price sale, but the buyer has done me the courtesy of telling me what the price is.
Now,things that have a straight buy it now, or fixed price listing and are indicated as such, I consider to be legitimate truthful postings.
Also Henrietta, if you look at what I've said you'll see I said modern mass produced "junk".
I'm talking about here, thing that are made with very poor production quality,which is not all modern mass produced items.
There are certainly some modern produced items of very good quality, but again, they are not suitable for the auction process in my mind because the current retail value is set, so the sellers of these items USUALLY won't "start em low and let em go".
I no longer trust eBay auctions. About a year ago eBay hid user IDs so now I cannot tell whom I am bidding against. Shill bidding helps eBay's profits but hurts buyers. Too many potential scams and troubles.
I disagree about reserve. For lower priced items a reserve is simply too expensive to put in place and the arguments here mainly fit. But how can I put, say, an $800 sewing machine up for a low starting price, which everyone says is so important for good bidding, and in fact, it is important, then let it go with no reserve? The reserve is in fact not the price, but an insurance limit of how low I can afford to let it go without losing my investment? For instance, I recently listed a machine for $49.00 opening bid with a $699 reserve. The machine went for $835. I am really glad it did not go for $699, my reserve, but I am REALLY glad it did not go for $49.00.
While the tips are all good suggestions they fail in the nominal purpose: ensuring the success of an auction listing.
Even unique one-off items will flounder and fail no matter how you present it unless one thing happens: the listing gets eyes on it. If you don't get the traffic, your auction will get no bids. That all-important precept is at the root of virtually all of the general seller complaints that "auctions are dead."
AuctionWally is to be commended that his listings get enough views to reach acceptable bid prices.
@ goodsfairy, I respect your position, but the facts show that the highest amount of un-sold auction items are those that have reserves placed on them.
That is not only true on eBay but for any auction anywhere.
While you feel relieved that the machine you referenced brought $835, my belief is that it would have likely had a bigger pool of bidders had it not had a reserve, and thus would have achieved a higher price.
To each their own however. Good Luck with your auctions and online efforts.
@ William Hamilton,
I'm not quite sure my theory is negated by your point, which is "an auction will fail if there are no eyes on it".
I didn't think that needed to be stated, but of course your right. If no one sees your auction, they will not bid on your item whether or not it has a reserve.
Thanks for your input.
Online auctions are not dead...eBay is. I have moved my entire inventory to MilBid.com and other eBay alternatives.
Let me outline why I believe my point refutes your thesis then.
One might persistently follow all of your listing advice, have the right product at the best price, and yet still fail to sell the product - precisely because the venue has not allowed enough eyes on the auction. A merchant with that experience may well say "auctions are dead", and from that perspective he would be completely justified in it.
Self-evident or no, it does need stating because your theory strongly suggests otherwise: that is, simply having the right product and avoiding the hazards ensures success on eBay.
I agree with all that you have said, but I would have reservations about the low-start no-reserve policy on the smaller sites that may not have the traffic to generate a bidding war.
I wonder if the credibility of a site affects the prices obtained, in that buyers may bid lower if they are less confident about the integrity of the site? In that case a site such as Specialistauctions.com, where listings are moderated by expets in their fields, may be worth looking at as an alternative to Ebay.
@ William Hamilton. Again, I don't see the logic, if all things have been done properly, you will get traffic.
I've never seen an auction with high quality items, which have been promoted properly, are willing to sell at no reserve, and STILL fail to get attention.
Because of the competitive nature of auctions this just doesn't happen, or it's extremely rare.
If you have an example, please point me in that direction because I am always interested in finding markets and venues where I have very little competition.
Your logic seems to follow the line of thought which allows for the exception to the rule.
If your argument is that there are not enough eyes on an auction to bring the bidding up, then I can assure you, one of the basics has failed. Usually one of these 3
1) The item is not the quality item you think it is.
2) There were grave mistakes in the promotion, listing or other structure of the auction.
3) The seller has a reputation in that particular auction circle for selling with a Reserve, so no one bothers to attend or view that person's auction(s).
@ leapingcat:
You've brought up an excellent point, this is why all the new auction sites popping up are failing drastically.
No one bothers to shop them because most of the items have reserves. No one will EVER bother to support those auctions because they are not legitimate auctions, they are store items under the disguise of an auction.
Some consumers may be a little lax when it comes to due diligence, but I can assure you,that auction customers are not. They are the sharpest, most competitive buyers of any marketplace.
If you say auction, you'd better mean auction, or they are gone, for good.
I understand your concern, but ESPECIALLY important to a new auction site is selling at no reserve.
Who is going to want to view a bunch of auctions that have reserves?
If you take the auction out of an auction,... it's not an auction.
Now, that all said, there is absolutely nothing at all wrong with selling in a store format or a buy it now format with any item.
Just don't try to juice it the way you would an auction, it will never work, at least not on average.
I am jumping over to Specialistauctions.com to take a look, I've not seen them yet.
Thanks so much for your input, this is a critical auction theory conversation, and I appreciate input from everyone.
AW
Wally, that's a pretty outrageous claim, "if all things have been done properly, you will get traffic. " For every example you show of an antique bringing nice bids, one could expect to find dozens of listings where everything was done properly and failed to get bids. The sad fact of the matter is that these basic techniques are not the operant factors, not any more.
Have you disregarded the institution of Best Match, among other things, along with the almost universal consternation thereof? What of the disparate factors determining traffic, having nothing to do with the market value of the item?
@William Hamilton, if you cite specific auction examples of your argument as I've done, I'll be more than happy to further my case.
If you cannot, I think it would best serve this thread to end the conversation here, but I am interested to know more if you have specific examples.
It's hard to argue against the invisible.
Thanks for your time.
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