The Mysteries Of eBay

[Gary Hendrickson]

One of the mysteries of eBay is how an auction can attract absolutely no attention one week and then, if re-listed a short time later, can do very well.

http://images.auctionworks.com/hi/6/5801/santa_bear_mug.jpg

I listed the Dayton Hudson Santa Bear mug shown above in early December with a starting bid of $5.99 and it didn't sell. It wasn't even added to anyone's watch list.

I re-listed it again after Christmas with no changes to the starting bid, the headline, or the description and it sold for $25.75 with eight bids from four different bidders. Where were those four bidders in early December? If even one of them had noticed the first auction they could have had the mug for $5.99.

We are often told that when an item doesn't sell, we should tweak our starting bid, auction headline, and/or the description itself. Then, if it sells the second time, we attribute our success to the changes we made.

Frequently, it wasn't the changes that sold the item, but rather it simply wasn't on eBay at the same time people who might be interested in it were. As sellers many of us think prospective buyers are on-line and on eBay as often as we are but, even for the die hard collector, that isn't usually the case.

[Natalie Williams]

and I think as soon as something gets a bid or two, it creates the interest from all the others and it can snowball from there.

[Gary Hendrickson]

You're right - that's often the case.

It's as if there is a "if no one else is bidding there must be something wrong with it that I'm not seeing" mentality.

[Stephan Iscoe]

Gary,

Mark Twain said, "In the real world, nothing happens at the right place at the right time..."

We can help things along by emailing to a list of previous bidders and winners; this will generate views and starting bids.

Have fun!
Stephan

[Gary Hendrickson]

Hi Stephan,

I maintain quite a few eBay mailing lists. However, each of them consists of collectors who have pretty narrow collecting interests. I don't have one for Santa Bear stuff because, overall, the market has pretty much died a painful death in the last couple years.

I wouldn't notify any of my lists about this mug because they would pretty much just scratch their heads and say "What does he think he's doing?" I consider stuff like this mug to be pretty much "toss it on and see what happens."

[Stephan Iscoe]

highly targeted niche ;)

Or...
would it cause a lot of opt-outs if one emailed their
targeted list with a message like:

"This may not be your mug of tea,
however if you know a Santa Bear fan..."

This tactic would have to be used sparingly!

Best of Success,
Steph

[Gary Hendrickson]

would it cause a lot of opt-outs if one emailed their targeted list with a message like:

"This may not be your mug of tea, however if you know a Santa Bear fan..."

Just one opt-out would be one too many. These are lists of people who regularly bid hundreds or thousands of dollars on the kind of items the lists relate to. Emailing one, or more, of these lists about something as off-topic as this mug would be nothing short of intrusive and stupid.

A number of people have written about building and using email lists in conjunction with selling on eBay. None, that I've seen, understand how to really make one of these lists work effectively. They all take the "Internet Marketer" approach which is exactly the opposite of what sellers should be doing.

Gary's eBay Rule # 24 -

If you want to maintain a highly responsive list of targeted auction bidders you NEVER send them ANYTHING that doesn't relate to the subject of the list - NEVER.

[Stephan Iscoe]

I think we call that SP.AM ;)

Thanks for you insights and making the distinction
between building relationships and marketing.

[homespunmoney]

Hi Gary,

Thanks for some great thoughts.

Did you add these folks to your lists manually based on them having purchased something from you... or did they subscribe to your list through a double optin process of some sort?

Thanks in advance!
chris

[Gary Hendrickson]

Chris,

The first list I started several years ago was for Rosemeade pottery. I did it manually. I had some 3x5 cards printed telling about the list and put one in the package for every piece of Rosemeade I sold. If someone was interested, they emailed me and I added their email address to a list on my computer.

As I started more lists I began using ProAutoResponder and a single opt-in process. Two or three years ago, ProAutoResponder suffered a massive melt down and lost nearly everyone's list. In my case, they were eventually able to recover part of some of the lists but I left them for AWeber.

When I started with AWeber I went to a double opt-in process and still use that method. Currently a link to join a list is included with each winning bidder notice that goes out for an item related to the list. I also have a small website related to each of the lists and there are sign-up links there also.

Since I'm dealing with serious collectors there are quite a few word-of-mouth sign-ups also.

Gary

[homespunmoney]

Thanks Gary! Great information..... I'm dense, I guess, but it had not occurred to me to put a link in the "winning bidder" notices.

It won't take me long....

Cheers,
Chris