O/T: Ebay Strategies Revisited

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Posted By: T206Collector

I just got an e-mail from ebay about my watched items ending soon. It said, "Hurry! Your watched items are ending soon. Bid Now!"

In general, when ebay encourages you to do something as a bidder or seller, I would think long and hard about their motives. Ebay gets a commission for its sales. They are rewarded for higher sales. The reason they want you to bid early is because that is the best way to drive up the price -- giving other bidders a chance to bid against you. If sniping were at all productive for ebay, they would have a sniper service. The fact that ebay does not endorse sniping is the only reason you need to have in order to snipe every auction you bid on.

Moreover, when you sell an item on ebay, there is a reason ebay charges you for certain "bells and whistles" services. Again, why would they charge you for a service if that service would generally improve your sale price? They would want to make it free for you to encourage that seller behavior. When they charge you for more than one picture that is all you need to know. That is, they give you one picture for free -- because one picture alone will drive up the price. They charge you for extra photos since there is no meaningful marginal revenue for them to provide that as a free service. If two photos sold 150% better than one photo, believe me, they'd give you that second photo for free.

In short, if you're a bidder, sniping is the only way to go. And, if you're a seller, don't let ebay charge you for things that do not actually drive the end price of your auction.