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

[missingvolume.livejournal.com]

I sold a set of the first 5 chapbooks a while back on ebay and it went for more than the Liadan Universe. Of course it was a bidding war. I do see writers selling on ebay and they get prices more than a seller like me can since you can personalize the copy to the seller and all I can offer is a presigned book. You could do a buy it now but remember that goes away once bidding starts unless you have a reserve price. You are welcome to email off LJ about stuff.

And one of the sellers of the $127 copy of Agent prices their books like that all the time. They find something that no one else has for sale on Amazon and price something silly. Some times they take it down once lots of lower end copies go up and sometimes they don't.

[(Anonymous)]

I buy books quite often from ebay. So I would reccomend the 7 day option. The trouble with 24 hour auctions is that there is a likelyhood of people not seeing it before it closes. I would also recommend giving the winner the option of what sort of signing he wants. You should know which of the chapbooks are rarer then others and I would sell them singlely. My problem with outrageous buy now prices is that truthfully that may inhibit people bidding for it. Yes sell the Del Rey copies. Some people are completist and they will want them.

Thomas Monaghan

[drammar.livejournal.com]

An article sometime within the last year in The New York Times (I believe) reported on a study that showed that starting an item with a lower price creates more interest and action than a high starting price, an outrageous buy-it-now or a reserve price.

I tried this out on my own auctions, despite some trepidation, and found it to be unequivocally true. I was amazed. I had always protected my items with a reserve, and counted myself lucky when the reserve wasn't met. But the items I started at just a few dollars with no reserve far far outsold similar items that I had sold previously. I've continued working with this theory, and found it to be solid.

I agree wholeheartedly with the poster who encouraged you sell the Del Rey copies -- even more because they can be personalized at the winner's preference. And also that a 7-day auction is best for exposure. Not everybody is on eBay every day.

If your multiple items have significant differences I'd go ahead and put them up at the same time. I would think that the posters would be a valuable eBay commodity as well -- although I'd buy them from you right now, given the chance!

People who are fans will make sure you get what you should for these books. And I'd also be glad to share opinions and options off LJ.

Best of luck.

[orlacarey.livejournal.com]

Seven day auction, start low and wait to see what happens. Also you'll get more $$ per book if you don't put multiple copies of the same book up at one time. Let each auction end before putting the next one up.

[groblek.livejournal.com]

Looks like everyone else has the same advice I do. A seven day auction is much better for catching the people like me who only occasionally check ebay, and not flooding your market with all the available copies will likely bring you more money. For the starting price, I'd suggest something near what the book would have cost retail and letting it go from there. I don't see any reason not to put some ludicrously high "Buy it now" price, after all, someone might want it *that* badly. If you do that though, I'd make sure not to list a reserve price, as people will be afraid you won't let the book go for less than that.

[kinzel.livejournal.com]

....
as I read these I keep thinking I've missed a question, and now I see which question that could be...

what/where/how do I list these so they'll be found by the teeming masses of Lee&Miller readers? Books? Collectibles? Science Fiction? SciFi? Rare autographed books?

I haven't sold (or bought!)anything on eBay for some years now so I'm seriously out of practice

[drammar.livejournal.com]

I'd try it a couple of different ways, and see which produces more hits. You can now list in more than one category also (of course it costs more, no surprise).

If I were you I'd do fiction>science fiction>signed as a good place to start.

Also -- make sure your item heading includes as much information as possible -- there's a limit on character count so you may need to be creative -- and make use of the subheading as well. For example:

I Dare - Liaden Universe Signed Copy
Personalized for you by Sharon Lee, Steve Miller

So much of listing on eBay is trial and error. (sigh)

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

You can hardly go wrong using the cover price as a reserve price, especially since you and Sharon can add the value of signing to your work.

Personalizing is fine, but signing without personalizing is (in some odd ways) a better thing for making the books inheritable, or making them so that they can be given as gifts by the buyer.

pricing

[baggette.livejournal.com]

I think that the cover price + a small gratuity because they currently out of print and therefore, are collector's items.

[alethea-eastrid.livejournal.com]

I echo the start-it-low but offer a high buy-it-now reccomendation. You can take a look at some of the used book sites to find out what copies are going for on there, then go ahead and add a premium (for the buy-it-now) because it's personalized and from the authors. 1 week, or three days at least. 24 hours just isn't enough time for word to get around. I'd put everything up in one batch, but that's mostly because a) I'm lazy and b) as a buyer, if I'm going to be buying multiple items from the same seller, I *really* like to combine shipping. Really really.

[topayz4.livejournal.com]

I prefer "buy it now" to auctions and don't participate in them much. I will pay more just so I don't have to deal with them. However, if its outrageously priced I won't bother at all.

[badgermirlacca.livejournal.com]

Something else to think about--speaking as someone who has bought too damn many things on eBay, do a seven-day auction and have it end in the EVENING, not ohdarkthirty in the morning or in the middle of the work day. That means evening on the west coast, too. Not everyone knows about eSnipe, and trying to keep track of an auction from work can be... hazardous.

[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*.

ebay

[(Anonymous)]

The only auctions I ever won were when I bid in the last 2 minutes. Any sooner and all I did was alert others that I was willing to drive the price up. I would think I had won and then "they" would swoop in with one minute to go and beat me. Very frustrating. Don't bid early. There is no point. I guess if you are not going to be there when the auction ends then telling the computer how high you would go it worth a shot. For things that are really in ebay "stores" and the price is fair, I always "buy it now."

Kelly
TC, CA

Re: ebay

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

Exactly. The only one I ever lost was when I bid early. I am now a swoop-and-snatch buyer.

:)

Another completely nonrelated to ebay suggestion

[bgwng.livejournal.com]

Have you looked into the possibility of listing your books on Amazon? They have free listings that last 90 days, and they make it very easy to manage listings and renew after the 90 days are up. This way you don't lose out on an ebay auction for lack of interest. You can quickly get set up so that they EFT the money-commission into bank acct of choice. Plus, I find that many people go to Amazon to look for books, even out of print ones. The downside is the commission, which is higher than the ones charged on ebay. (I once got $90, after commission was taken out, for an old chemistry textbook from the 1970s that I fished out of the recycling bin at work!)

A cursory glance at Amazon listings, shows that there are relatively few people offering your books and they're asking for extremely high prices. I would recommend listing in New as opposed to Collectible, because I find that sometimes Collectible can scare buyers away. Put something very descriptive--like Author selling personalized signed copy of rare book, etc. --in the description. As for price, you should ideally list at the price that puts your listing as #1, or at least in the top 3.

If you have multiple copies, you can simultaneously list on Amazon and ebay.

Love your stuff by the way!

[robotech-master.livejournal.com]

One thing I've always heard is that it's best to time your auctions so that they end on weekends, which means they'll be right near the top of the list when the majority of people are home and surfing ebay on their computers. Depending on when you place the auction, that might be 3, 5, or 7 days, as long as it ends on the weekend.

Beyond that: don't set your minimum bid for less than you're willing to take for the book. Eschew reserve prices, they only cost you more listing fee and they're a dishonest trick to get people to bid because they think they see a bargain, when in actual fact the seller won't be selling unless he gets a much higher price than that.

Buy Now prices are tricky things, because if you set them and they sell right away, then you may feel down on yourself for not setting them higher, or letting the auction run. But on the other hand, they do get you the money, right away. Whether to use them is in the end up to you, though I think I would leave off on them until you get a sense of how much money people are willing to pay for your books.

And for the signable ones, mention that you'll personalize the inscription in the item description; that should push the bid up a little higher. :)

[robotech-master.livejournal.com]

I would say set the cover price as minimum bid, don't use a reserve. All that a low first bid, higher reserve does is fool prospective bidders into bidding, thinking they're getting a bargain, when in fact they're not.

[(Anonymous)]

Also I woulf suggest you allow combined shipping. I sometimes will bid higher if I can combine the shipping costs to lower overall price but if I don't win it still has raised the price of the second item.

Thomas Monaghan

[kinzel.livejournal.com]

Wow -- eBay is a hot topic.

I can see I'll need to take my time -- perhaps Ill put up a getting-my-feet-wet item or two this week. I guess this explains why there are 979 books on "How to Ebay..."

Study, study.

[drammar.livejournal.com]

Please -- when/if you do list -- let us know what your user name on eBay is. I imagine many fans who audit here or over at rolanni's journal would be interested in participating.

Building a Clientele

[wjb3-reads.livejournal.com]

what/where/how do I list these so they'll be found by the teeming masses of Lee&Miller readers? Books? Collectibles? Science Fiction? SciFi? Rare autographed books?

It depends on how much time you want to spend. More time means more money per auction. I am also looking at selling in the future. From my experience with eBay and my wife's (MBA and marketing) for maximum price I would:

Start with the most common items.
Once I discover a good seller, I set up a bot that will notify me by email when they add new items I am interested in buying.

List items in multiple spots.
To find out what gets the most response, start with the most common and list them in different areas of eBay. When you find the area that gets the highest price, keep listing items there. Bidders searching the other areas will still find your closed (finished) auctions and click on your seller ID to see if you have more interesting stuff for sale.

Start with low bids
PBS had a documentary on Amish auctioneers. One pointed out "auction fever". In a battle with other people to get a "cheap" stove, the final price kept rising. By the end of the auction, a five year stove had sold for more than the same model brand new. This is also an argument against bid reserves.

Competitive but fair S&H
If you are going to sell volume, keep your S&H low. If you are going to sell unique, price your S&H higher but make sure packaging will survive most mishaps.

Buy all the eBay extras.
There is a way to pay for small photos when someone does a search. Everyone else just gets a camera icon (telling you this item has a photo). I skip the camera icons for many reasons.

BuyItNow for local but not limited editions.
No matter what you set for BuyIt now, it will not work unless you are going for volume. Too high, it will scare away bidders (see Start with low bids) too low and you lose money. Set any and some people will bid on other auctions starting at one dollar. The best use of BuyItNow I have seen is for items limited to one geographic area like Disney Pins. The seller is near the Disney Park and is just selling to those who live further away.

Dutch Auctions for quick sale
If you want a quick sale of multiple items, take the worst of the lot and set up a dutch auction for the lot. Whoever gets the worst item will have won exactly what they bid on. Those who get better items will not complain. Like BuyItNow, Dutch Auctions can save a lot of time if you make money off of volume.

Have lots of descriptive text in the title
Closed auctions only search by title. People may stumble across a closed auction and ask if you have any more to list.

At the bottom have lots of text period.
During the action, bidders can search the entire text.


Several articles have mentioned how eBay has *lowered* collectible prices. If there is a lot of an item for sale, and little interest, eBay will knock down the selling price.

eBay has several services for those who want to pay that will let you research past auctions to help you set prices.
=

Sellers vs. Buyers

[wjb3-reads.livejournal.com]

I prefer "buy it now" to auctions and don't participate in them much. I will pay more just so I don't have to deal with them. However, if its outrageously priced I won't bother at all.

I agree. Most of my buying on eBay is BuyItNow with sellers who will combine shipping. I can often save $20 on several items.

However, kajafoglio is having more luck generating funds with low starting bids than she had listing at a fixed price on ( www.studiofoglio.com ). Some of the sexier drawings have gone very high at the last minute.
=