A trip to Ebay in my future, I guess

[kinzel]

Sigh...

I don't like Ebay all that much but it looks like the bet since we've come up with a few copies of some of the harder to find books, like I Dare and and Pilots Choice and the first edition Partner in Necessity among the miscellany I picked up ion Atlanta. We've had multiple requests for all this stuff...

so tell, do, what's the best thing for bidders? A 1 week deadline? A 24 hour deadline?
When I have multiple copies in different states (one signed/dated to a principal of the company, for example, and the others unsigned (but signable!) should I put them up at the same time or one after another...

Should I permit a "buy now" with some off-the-wall high bid?

Gah, can you believe someone's asking $127 for the Ace version of Agent of Change? Heck, I think I may have a couple Del Rey copies around here - should I put them up to?

Real questions: I find in these different boxes a couple of the out of print SRM chapbooks as well as some Meisha Merlin stuff. Should I just list one each of them as well? What kind of starting bids make sense -- don't want to scare people away...

We have a few odds and ends of other things around -- for example, I know have the (somewhat dinged up)cover - poster of Crystal Dragon and of Balance of Trade -- anyone interested in them?

Advice from experienced ebayers welcome, but as always we'll make up our own mind...

Comments

[christymarx.livejournal.com]

Do a 7-day, but start it on a Sat. or Sun. so that more people can be there to track it when they're not at work. Remember your time zones and start the auction at a time when it won't be midnight in a key time zone when it closes.

You pay extra for such things as Reserve and Buy It Now, so don't bother with it unless you really think it's worth it. Remember also that your upfront fees are determined by either the asking price or the reserve price, so if you set a high reserve, you pay a higher listing fee.

When you begin the sell process, you give a description of what you're selling and eBay itself will provide you with the most relevant categories by percentage of hits. Then you select the category that seems right to you. You can list in more than one category, but that costs extra, too.

Be warned that postal rates change on 5/14. When you figure postage, use a link that eBay provides at that step of the process to get the new postage rate. It's a bit of a jump this time. Forex, first class is going from .37 to .41. You'll want to use media rate, and it's going up, too.

In terms of people selling books for outrageous prices, what they ask is irrelevant. Track the auctions and see whether they *sell*.