Help me squeeze this for all it is worth!

April 7, 2008 8:51 AM

eBay filter: I'm new to selling and stupidly listed my product early in the morning, now I'm worried I'm not going to get last minute bids. Does offering a "Free Gift" or a partial refund on shipping sound like a good way to get last minute bids?

A little background: This is a highly sought after item on eBay and I currently have over 25 people watching the auction, so I know that it will be highly sought after. My thinking, from what little I remember from my marketing class I a few semesters ago, is that by giving a little incentive to stay up I could get a higher price and possibly even a bidding war at the end by those people who want a good deal.

The free gift would be an accessory that I found and had not included in the item description, so I'm not out any money, thus not decreasing my profits. . I feel pretty confident that taking several bucks, probably $10, off of the final price or shipping cost would help as well (it is a larger item so the shipping costs more than usual) and wouldn't make a substantial cut in profits. I feel pretty confident that this could add another $20-$40 dollars onto the final selling price. I had also considered giving the accessory away as a "reward" for prompt payment.

I will disclose that I am thinking about doing this more out of curiosity of what will happen, but getting a few extra bucks wouldn't hurt either. Ultimately, I would like to know:

1. Has anyone ever tried anything similar to this? Has it been successful if you have?

2. Does anyone have any other tips or advice to get extra bids at the end of the auction?

Any help will be appreciated!

posted by iasdf1234 to computers & internet (15 comments total)

A majority of 'last-minute' bids are done via automated 'sniping software' and aren't done by someone sitting in front of a computer hitting 'refresh'.

Don't worry, you'll get some bids.
posted by unixrat at 8:55 AM on April 7

I don't think that's correct unixrat, but you will get bids. I wouldn't bother with any of these gimmicks. It is normal to be apprehensive if your item isn't immediately bid right up - be patient, it should find its value.

As an aside, you should expect prompt payment without handing out gifts.
posted by fire&wings at 9:09 AM on April 7

Reducing the shipping probably won't fetch more money, especially if you just mention in the item's description that you will be taking money off the final amount. The number of people who do not really pay attention to the shipping is surprisingly high, as is the number of people who don't really read the item description carefully (or retain what bits they did read).

The "Free Gift" thing sounds gimmicky and a little suspicious to me. What generally brings in higher bids are clear, accurate, detailed but concise item descriptions with lots of detailed and clear pictures of the item, along with high seller feedback.
posted by Polychrome at 9:21 AM on April 7

I've seen auctions that offer a free gift or shipping discount contingent on final price, i.e. "Free Shipping if auction reaches $250!" Since you're willing to discount shipping anyway, that might be a way to reach a price you're hoping for.
posted by ferociouskitty at 9:21 AM on April 7

If the item is highly sought after, then don't go out of your way to encourage bidding, as long as your starting price is in the correct range. You can search "completed listings" for similar items and see what they sold for and what time of day they ended. unixrat is right -- a lot of people do use sniping software (especially for "known" items, like a piece of stereo equipment, as opposed to one-of-a-kind items) and that's why you won't see the price go up toward the final sale price until close to the end. If this is an item that is frequently sold on ebay, then your best indicator of final sale price is to look at "completed sale" listings -- some of your bidders definitely are looking there, too.
posted by tractorfeed at 9:22 AM on April 7

BTW to see listings that have ended, enter your search as usual, then on the results page, look in the "Search Options" yellow box on the left, and in that box is a link to "See completed listings" which will take you to the same search, only ranging over auctions that have ended.
posted by tractorfeed at 9:25 AM on April 7

don't sweat it, if you're in teh states it might be a good thing, as a foreign buyer may snap it up!

i been selling a lot abroad lately, and who knows what time it is in those plays when my listings end in the evening (US Eastern)
posted by Salvatorparadise at 10:04 AM on April 7

Not quite the same situation, but:
I was selling an iPod on eBay--40 GB, 3rd generation. I expected it to go for about $75, maybe $80.
A buyer inquired early on about battery life, so I tested it and--disaster!--found that it didn't really have any (when I had said in the auction that it still had decent battery life). So I ordered a replacement battery for it (at $25 cost to me, including rush shipping), updated the auction and offered installment for $10 to the winning bidder. I figured that the new battery would be an incentive for bidders, and they'd probably pay the $10 for me to install it for them, so I'd make my money back on the battery.
Well, the iPod sold for--$75. The buyer never got back to me about whether they wanted me to install the battery, and instead left me my one and only negative feedback to date citing "NO COMMUNICATION!!" (The feedback was left three days after the auction ended. I had already sent the item by that point anyway. Needless to say, I left them a negative in return.)

In conclusion: I don't think incentives work. At best, they attract 0 feedback bidders who will ruin your 100% positive feedback score built over seven years because they have no fucking idea how eBay works (yes, I am still smarting after this experience). If 25 people are watching your auction already, I'd relax about getting last minute bids. All it takes are two bidders to have a bidding war, and it sounds like you'll be able to manage at least that.
posted by cosmic osmo at 10:10 AM on April 7 [1 favorite]

If the item is highly sought after because it is rare, then you have no worries. People will wake up at ungodly hours to snipe at auctions if they are motivated enough. No, not everyone uses automated services (I don't).

If it is "highly sought after" as in "very popular and there are at least 100 of the same item on at any one time" then you may have to offer a bit more to entice buyers.
posted by splice at 10:44 AM on April 7

1. Don't offer gimmicks. It feels desperate like you really need to unload this item badly for some reason. If you have a good item, it should sell itself. And as for shipping, if it's not free shipping, I don't think people would care at all - they'd simply mentally subtract that exact amount from their bid price.

2. Since you said this is a highly sought after item, you should find forums and message boards and post a short note that your item is for sale on eBay. Keep it simple and don't oversell.
posted by junesix at 10:59 AM on April 7

If it's a highly-sought-after item, then the time of day you list it doesn't matter.

The only time it might matter is if there are so many thousands of absolutely identical items that yours is buried many pages deep on the search results until the last few hours of the auction. In this case, the item really isn't worth listing on eBay anyway, and adding enticements won't help because the buyers aren't seeing the auction until the last few hours anyway.
posted by winston at 12:11 PM on April 7

I'm a little confused by the question, but I think you are worried that because the auction ends "early in the morning" that you won't get last-second bids. I would never bid on ebay except through a sniping program (if I'm at all serious about "winning" the product). It only takes one sniper to generate bids at the end. If the product is really sought-after non-snipers will have already entered their high bids, and the sniper will just increase the price until everyone else high bid is reached (or the snipers' high bid is reached). It would never occur to me to even think about what time of day the auction ends in (what time zone??).
posted by thomas144 at 1:26 PM on April 7

I'm not sure why you want to encourage "last-minute" bidding. The whole point of sniping is to win the auction before the price can rise to it's "true" value. Unless you believe that there will be a bunch of people watching the auction close in real-time and making emotional/irrational bids.

That said, it would be good to post your item at more normal hours, since auctions that are closing soon will show up in search results first. So, when people are searching at 7pm, they'll see items closing at 8pm before yours which closes at 3am.

I agree with what's been said - that the freebie promotion sounds lame. But askme types are more more sophisticated than the average, moronic ebay buyer.
posted by kamelhoecker at 2:49 PM on April 7

So many watches probably mean that at least 12-15 people have placed a 3rd party software snipe, to bid automatically at the last minute IME. If you're really worried, you can always withdraw the auction and relist later, ending at a better time. eBay has so many get-outs that you can always find a legitimate reason to do so. I've seen this zillions of times when the bid price is obviously not going according to seller expectations. There is obviously no penalty, because the item is always relisted. Personally, I'd list high-end stuff with a reserve, to end on Sunday about teatime ... :-)
posted by sgmax at 7:23 PM on April 7

I'm not sure why you want to encourage "last-minute" bidding. The whole point of sniping is to win the auction before the price can rise to it's "true" value.

Indeed. In fact, I've seen people offer a discount to bidders who bid early and still win, just to get some action going early in the auction (in some way, the opposite of what iasdf1234 is thinking of).

That said, it would be good to post your item at more normal hours, since auctions that are closing soon will show up in search results first. So, when people are searching at 7pm, they'll see items closing at 8pm before yours which closes at 3am.

I almost always list at bi-costal prime time on a weekday (say 9pm-12am eastern time). I'm actually not sure this is the best listing time, Sunday afternoon listings sometimes seem to get good prices, for example.. I'm certain that listing time has some impact on price, but as others suggest, if it is a really popular item with a well established value, it won't matter in this case.
posted by Chuckles at 9:12 PM on April 7