Bill,
"When I sell now, I start it at a price I would be happy to sell at."
I think we just have different views on the online auctions. I'm more a buyer than a seller, but with the things I have put up for sale, I automatically set the starting price at one I'd be happy with. The only times I've not done that was when I was for some reason interested in determining the prevailing market value of an item in case my "happy price" wasn't met. (I used a Reserve price to protect it.)
I personally have no experience with "real" auctions having never been to one, and it's definitely not my human nature to want to mimic the usual auction flow. Ideally, I want to bid once and be done with it.
Just to give you an idea of my bidding techniques, my bids generally fall into the following three categories. (Note I've purchased about 180 items on e-bay including initially a lot of artwork to decorate a new house.)
1) There's something specific I want, and I'm trying to get it cheaper on e-bay than I can get it elsewhere. I limit my bidding based on what that other price is. The timing of my proxy bid will be based solely on how popular I think the item will be. If I don't think it will be a hot item, I'll bid early so I don't have to remember to do it later.
2) I've found something I want that's on e-bay, and I know of no other place to get it. That's really good news for the seller. My max bid will solely be based on how badly I want it, and I'll wait until the end of the auction to bid.
3) I've found something kind of neat that I'd like, but I'm not dying for it. I'll place a bid early with my max bid (sometimes just the starting bid), and let it ride. If I win great, if not, no bother.
And I guess this really says something about my lack of gamesmanship, but I love the Buy It Now feature. If there's something on there I really want, and the Buy It Now price seems reasonable, I'll snatch it in a second before I'll get into a bidding contest with someone. If it costs me a few extra bucks to go that way, so be it. It's less hassle. I think if I were to sell a lot on e-bay, I'd use the Buy it Now feature with a high price hoping that there are other lazy suckers out there that think like me. : )
That's just the viewpoint from someone whose auction experience is limited solely to online auctions. It would be interesting to see how I would react at a REAL auction.
c |
