Posted By:
Rob2 reasons for a low openiing bid: 1. Pay less on ebay listing fees and 2. Hope 2 bidders get into a bidding war making item sell for more than what it would with a higher opening bid.
These are both bad reasons: 1. Is penny wise and pound foolish. 2. Snipe websites make bidding wars unnecessary. I don't think Ebay wants to end sniping, or at least make it more difficult, otherwise, those greedy fee grabbers be doing what Yahoo auctions do with a 5 minute extension if a bid is placed in the last minute.
The people here complaining about not getting a lousy price really got the low end of in a price range (bet they're also forgetting the times where they got way more than expected too).They're listing was for non mainstream issues with commons. Market is thin in such areas, heck, market is also thin for minor HOFers for that matter. You need TWO bidders wanting to pay your expected price if you have a $10 opening bid to skimp on listing fees. Otherwise, if you had only ONE bidder willing to pay TWICE as much as the underbidder, YOU cost yourself that money.
Only 1 ways to handle auctions for the small to mid size seller: list where you get a satisfactory price with ONE bidder, along with a BIN. BIN's used to be free, but .25 fee is still a good deal. Even if you don't get you market paying bidder to go the BIN, you get him to bid to remove the BIN. Finally, accept the fact you will have far less than a 100% sell through on auctions with that strategy. Adjust your price on a relist, if appropriate, using any past sales as a guide. Relists are NO CHARGE when they sell a 2nd time. I see very few people take advantage of relists.