People who have sold on Ebay before.

Ryan Patrick O'Hara

Ryan Patrick O'Hara

Veteran
So I'm selling my first item via Ebay, and was curious about others' experiences regarding the number of 'watchers' and the actual sale of an item. Now i know this is various from auction to auction, but I'm still curious. Anyone every had a 'high' number of watchers and the item never sold? Low?

How many do you consider assuring?


Just curious. Thanks guys!
 
I don't really sell much on ebay, but my girlfriend does all the time. The watches/bidders thing is pretty much useless. She's had things with quite a few watchers and no one bids. About all it tells ya is that people are interested in what you're selling, but there's a big difference between interested and buying.
 
I didn't sell my first time on ebay, but I've heard of folks doing that before. Hope the high bidder's cute.

But seriously... ignore the number of watchers. I've had 0 watchers on items that have sold quick, a few watchers (5 or 6) on an item that didn't sell, and vice versa. It's kind of a bummer, too, that feature. You get watchers and think that something has lots of interest, and then nothing happens. But again, it really doesn't mean much.
 
Well, "watchers" indicate "cautious interest"... that is, people who are going to check out what else is available before committing to a bid. How's your price compared to others?
 
My experiences have been mostly positive regardless of the # of watchers, but damn, eBay has really jacked up their rates recently, compound that with the fact that they own Paypal or are in cahoots together or whatever....either way, they take a nice slice of your winnings.

BTW.....1st item? Have you ever bought anything? I'd be more worried about your lack of "star" clout than who's watching the item. If I saw an item for sale and the seller had 0 stars, I'd be leery.
 
Watchers are exactly that, watchers. They might be watching because they have the same item for sale, or are thinking about selling a similar item. They could also be watching to see if it doesn’t sell to offer a lower price.
 
Sell a bunch of low priced items first before selling a valuable item. Most people don't trust a seller who has sold only a few items or 0 items, and you won't be getting fair dollar for your more valuable item.

Ebay + paypal does take a chunk out of your sale. Paypal almost always sides with the buyer in any dispute. I always offer a return policy on the items I sell, because the buyer will almost always win out even if you say "as is" or "no returns". So there's no point NOT offering a return policy, and it instill confidence in the bidders.

I rarely sell on Ebay anymore, I just keep all the stuff I have in storage and don't bother. They take too much of a cut now, and there's too much risk and hassle in selling.
 
Ebay is all but dead in the resale game. Their fees make it nearly impossible to get a fair price. Almost everything you see on Ebay these days is cheaply made Chinese junk or very dated equipment.
 
I buy and sell fairly regularly. With selling it really does help to have a sense of interest but a lot of it is to do with timing and the actual NEED for a certain type of product. I've had high value items just sit there for weeks and then after multiple repostings, someone gets interested and either buys it outright or makes an offer. And that's usually out of the blue. There is really no way to predict buyer behavior.

As for buying, I'm cautious about getting a good price on an item that comes in starting at a low price. I know that if I bid I'll show my hand and jack the price up, so I approach it carefully and hope to hell no one else is really watching it closely. So instead of bidding, I place it on my watch list... and then monitor it in the last hour of bidding. Some items will start to go up as bidders come in at the last minute and get all excited. I've seen items go from $30 to $400 in a matter of minutes (and its usually close to actual market value, no longer a bargain, but people tend to get caught up in the excitement of bidding), and some I'm able to sneak in and grab in the last mminute at a decent price.

The Watch List is useful in that regard and can show careful interest... just depends on how people are using it. You can give Ebay another try for selling the geared head. It's a high value item and there IS a buyer out there for it...
 
I sold Hundreds of items on ebay over the years Mostly sneakers and Sounds for producers. But all the bootleg crap has ruined it for me. And the fees are just silly.
But bidding/watching could mean that you a have a sniper that will jump in in the last 5 seconds and try to get it at a low price. I used to watch dozens of items and when it has no bids I would wait until the last possible second to get it cheap. unless it had a reserve, I stayed away from those.
 
I'm a sniper. Pin Point accuracy.

I have a habit of swearing profusely at bidders who drive up the price a LONG time before the item is due to be sold, just so they have a bid in.

EDIT: Swearing in private of course. :grin:
 
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If you sell on ebay (as I do) then all you need to do is advertise at good prices that will catch the casual browser. My best selling items are the cheapest product I sell, and they shift reliably and make me an acceptable profit. I'm having time out as I'm not in England at the moment, and can't rely on others to do the work for me. I'll lose my power seller status as a result, but that's not important.

I relist items over and over again. The critical thing for me is having some products finishing each day. Most items that sell are on their last 5 hours - and I don't do auctions, just buy it nows! This means that people are looking for items that come up one or two pages in - rarely more. Quite often, I've listed an item three times and given up. A few weeks later, seeing it on the shelf, I bung it up and somebody buys it straight away.

Fast movers work best sold in multiples. Most of my products I import from China. Every one has a 7 day money back offer - as ebay insist it must. NOT ONE product was ever returned because it was junk. I have had just one item back because somebody bought something without reading the blurb, thinking it was a music stand, not a music stand light!

When I'm up and running, I visit the post office depot at least once each day and sometimes 2.

Having watchers means nothing at all. Sometimes I think people just click the button out of curiosity - I never treat it as a guarantee something will sell.

Don't rip people off for postage. DO post stuff quickly and respond promptly to questions.

I sold a cheap microphone to an elderly chap who asked tons of questions. Profit wise, probably £12. He's just bought a load of kit, including large diaphragm stereo mics in flight cases because he was pleased with service - not just products. The expensive microphones seem to sell better direct from my website - although I still use paypal for that.

eBay is not the place to sell full price products - that's not what it's for. I'm very happy buying £1-2,000 worth of stock from China and selling it on eBay. I won't get rich, but it's a steady income when I'm not doing proper work. eBay is too popular to get too many amazing bargains any longer, but that's an advantage to sellers, so they're happy. I've had plenty of bargains in the years I've been doing it, but they're less common - but they still exist. If you have £1200 quid you can get some studio peds from Vinten and lots of other less popular ex-pro kit. Somebody looking for £1800 for a £2000 Vinten brand new product is going to have a long wait.

I like buying and selling on ebay.

PS 30 day listings I've had no luck with - buried in too deep, so that it is only really accidentally findable in the first and last few days.
 
I've had the same experience as many here, there is a huge disparity between watchers / views and number of bids for the most part. obviously (and I'm sure others have had this too) on very rare occasions you will have an item that for some reason is the last one on earth and people bid their children's tuition on it. I definitely agree with paulears above about not ripping people off on postage though, I've had to pay outrageously high postage for some items and know how much it sucks so I've hopped on the good karma train. Just my thoughts. Best of luck in whatever path you take to sell items :)
 
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