Selling Expensive items on Ebay

[jenskar]

Are there any other options out there for expensive, hardly used, designer items? I've sold on Ebay for years, but never anything worth more than a few hundred dollars, generally less. My recent experience with a pair of Manolo's left them unsold, as the winning bidder (with only 5 feedback when I said don't bid and from France) wanted them shipped to a third party in the US (I said no), by then the gal who wanted me to end the auction early but then had bid had bought something else. So -- went from a 150 sale to shoes back in my closet.
I have several purses I'm thinking about selling -- including one of my "honeymoon" tpf Bluefly Prada purchases I never should have bought to begin with -- a deal is only a deal if you really like it and I'm not in love with this bag -- just let myself get talked into it. When I think about the fees (plus PayPal fees too) it's about 10% -- which just seems exorbitant. But given all that, what works best? Buy it Now with a reserve? Fixed price? What are people having luck with lately?
Any help welcome -- especially with the Prada -- I'd love to have something I actually really like. Thanks !!

 

[peppy]

If you set your auction to allow bids only from buyers where you agree to ship to (ie. USA only), then buyers from other countries can't bid even if they have a USA shipping address.

Unfortunately, there's nothing you can do to block a low feedback buyer. The buyer can still bid, you can DON'T ship, but you risk a non-performance report and a negative feedback and lose your ebay fees.

So, set up your buyer restrictions. All my listings are Fixed Price or Store (some with Best Offer option), and it's been pretty ok. But then, I ship worldwide. good luck!

 

[mmmpurses!]

If you set your auction to allow bids only from buyers where you agree to ship to (ie. USA only), then buyers from other countries can't bid even if they have a USA shipping address.

Actually, no, that is incorrect, they can still bid. I exclude ASIA in all my designer auctions, please note that is not because I want to but because of eBay restrictions with regards to sales of certain designers. I still get bids from people from Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand. Now honestly, I don't mind selling to people in ASIA, in fact some of my best customers have been Asians and I love doing biz with them. All I am doing is following rules otherwise my listings would go poof - pulled by eBay.

It is annoying, I have emailed eBay soooo many times about this. It doesn't prevent their bids, all it does is change the invoicing procedure at the end of the auction. I have to manually invoice each one because they can't automatically pay like everybody else.

 

[mmmpurses!]

Are there any other options out there for expensive, hardly used, designer items? .....

When I think about the fees (plus PayPal fees too) it's about 10% -- which just seems exorbitant. But given all that, what works best? Buy it Now with a reserve? Fixed price? What are people having luck with lately?
Any help welcome -- especially with the Prada -- I'd love to have something I actually really like. Thanks !!

Back to topic, do not know of a better online marketplace at the moment for your items. Outside of the online world, I have good things going the consignment route, but I've read here and there that's a good way if you live in a big city like NYC, Chicago, etc... not too great around smaller cities.

Yep when you add everything up from listing fees, to gallery pic fees, to final value fees, and paypal the overall fees will end up close to 10% overall.

To me what works best is decide what would your rock bottom minimum to "let it go" would be. Then strategize around that. For example, start the bidding at above that minimum and include a BuyItNow for slightly above that as well. Some sellers set the listing for 3 days initially. If you see watchers but no action, within 2 days I drop the price on both the BIN and Starting Price and extend the listing to five days. I keep doing that for 7 days. Those previous extensions do not cost extra. I sometimes go to 10 days as well, it costs extra to go to 10 days but in the end it is cheaper to extend than to relist in some cases.

Another one is to set your listing for seven days from the very beginning working in a price decerease slightly every few days (if there are no bidders of course).

List a few low-risk, but popular, items that you absolutely do not care what they go for, like a used pair of Manolos, set it as low as possible and let that auction run its course with price setting by the bidders, no reserve. Note: right now I do not recommend doing this with new items unless you are willing to lose quite a bit. These "sacrificial" listings will generate lookers for your other listings.

Now start listing away 'cause nothing sells if it is not listed!

 

[Jayne1]

But given all that, what works best? Buy it Now with a reserve? Fixed price? What are people having luck with lately?

I don't like reserves. Take great pictures. Start with a reasonable, but attractive price, something you can live with if you only get one bid and see how it goes.

 

[Jaicienne]

I do a lot of buying and selling on ebay, and I can feel your frustration with listing something over and over and it never sells. I've had things that I was sure would be a "go", but never get a single bid!

I love the idea of the "sacrificial" items to generate traffic to your main item. And the "best offer" is great, too. You can put a fixed price up for longer than an auction-style, and that thought that "hey, maybe I can get it for less'" is pretty darn tempting!

And I really don't like reserves, either. However, the one thing that I keep hearing over and over as a seller is how important it is to get that first crucial bid. (They always say starting low is the key...but come on! With something obviously pricey, how can you do that?) So I think that a reserve can come in handy in that sense. (Just know that you have to set a reasonable reserve, too, or it will frustrate people. Plus you have to pay extra for that...of course. *sigh*)

I would be sure to really get great pictures, and create a buzz with the title. I usually put my titles in all caps, too, so they stand out. Plus, I use subtitles every time for the same reason. (It's a less expensive way of getting more visibility than hilighting or putting the box around it.)

Best of luck with it, though. And I'd say don't give up! All it takes is one bidder to sell that baby, and they will eventually come along!!!

EDIT:

Gosh, one more thing. IT was mentioned above about lowering a price in the last day or so if something hasn't been bid on. But you really should try to wait it out. It's been my experience that most bids are placed within the last five minutes of the auction!!! There are a lot of people who do sniping and/or just wait till the end so not to bid it up.