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The Science of eBay
PreacherTom writes "Professors of marketing, economics, management, and psychology have published dozens of papers to try to explain how and why eBay users buy and sell online. At the same time, there is no shortage of people offering helpful hints online. Kerry Miller takes a novel approach, offering 10 tips to maximize your profit that are based on a summary of these scientific analyses, rather than just 'educated' guessing."
Most of the tips are common sense or obvious to people who have used eBay a few times, to both buy and sell.
I don't know about anyone else, but I've about had it with eBay. It hasn't improved in the last five years and they slowly nickle and dime you to death. I'd love an article on The Science of Leaving eBay: ten reasonable alternatives.
-Grey
Silver Clipboard: Time Management Tips
You always have to wonder why business professors -- if they know so much about how to read the market -- aren't out there making a fortune instead of making less as a professor.
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
It's funny that many of the auction that I have seen on eBay actually close higher then if you had bought it at a retail store.
In bad times, people sell stuff. In good times they buy. Either way eBay is making $$$.
Same reason alcohol is great: drink to forget (bad times), drink to celebrate (good times).
Did you collect and analyze data from ebay, like the researchers? No, you say? Then what makes you think your opinion matters?
ResidntGeek
Originally from this Usenet posting.
Updated:
Don't post stuff in lots. Auction stuff off separately because you'll have a hard time finding someone who wants all of it, but you will get bombarded with annoying emails from people interested only in one or two items who want you to break up the lot. Instead, list everything the same day, mention in each item description that you've got other items that complement this item, and create a link to all your current auctions (assume people won't think to click on the official eBay "View seller's other auctions" link).
Having nice, large photos of everything will encourage a higher final value. People like to know what they're buying.
Having detailed descriptions will cut down on having to answer the same question a hundred times from prospective bidders.
Make the auctions run for at least 5 days, so patient people who like to search and zero in on low-priced items they need will be able to put you in their watch list-- more watchers in the beginning means more people competing with each other and driving up the price at the end.
Time the start of the auctions so they end on a Sunday evening, but before 8pm-- when people are almost certain to be home but aren't yet glued to the TV. (But definitely don't end it the night of the Super Bowl!)
I have used the above tips for years, with great success.
~Philly
Many of the tips have corollaries for buyers. For example, if you're a buyer, search for misspellings, as the closing prices tend to be lower. I can see the big caveat to bidding on an auction with a reserve--you could end up the high bidder, but not a winner. Bidding on reserve auctions might work better for a buyer who needs a large quantity of a particular product--so losing one individual auction wouldn't be terribly frustrating.
Sent from my iPhone
You always have to wonder why business professors -- if they know so much about how to read the market -- aren't out there making a fortune instead of making less as a professor.
Business programs are very different than scientific and engineering programs. I have BS and MS degrees in Computer Science. The MS degree was from a school near JPL, lots of part-time consulting gigs for profs and students. Now I'm working on an MBA. The relationship with industry is far more intimate with the business school. Prior to business school I believed in the "those who teach" line as well, now I know that the kernel of truth in that joke distorts the true big picture.
In my marketing class some of the cases we studied were anonymized consulting projects the prof had run. These were projects intitiated by execs at big oil, big movie studio, etc. And no, I'm not at some big name ivy league school. State university, well regarded but not one of the big names.
Several of the profs are semi-retired and having fun teaching after making millions. One is on his third career. 20 years in the Marines, 10 years with the company he founded, now teaching and consulting. Most of the professors do consulting for industry. They are hired to study organization problems, marketing/sale problems, etc. MBA and PhD candiates are often some of the grunts for these projects.
Networking. I did not fully realize the importance of networking before business school, but for business it is essential. Teaching is an amazing networking tool. You are generating hundreds of managers and execs who will be inclined to come back to the prof with their problems.
Do you know how much a professor with just a few years behind him makes at a good American university? At least in the upper five figures, often in the six-figure range. Yes, that is more money than I would know what to do with. Plus, you can't beat the amount of vacation time you get, travel expenses if you go to conferences, etc. Sure, competition for such positions is stiff, but if you've got what it takes, why not go for it?
it's because ebays fee structure, charges a percentage of the closing price, not the total bill (including shipping).
so if you sold an item for $100 with $5 shipping, ebay would bill you for their share of $100.
If you sold the same item for $1 with $104 shipping, ebay would bill you for their share of $1.
Buying electronics on ebay is more trouble than it's worth, because of this. The margins in that category are so slim, that the only people who can make any money, are the ones who have excessive shipping.
------ Work is so much easier when you don't
I'll think about it next time I have something to sell
"This PowerMac 6500 power supply unit is hot!! A must-have for the summer!!"
Besides that, everything listed there is pretty obvious, except maybe the 8, which says not to make the auction end during the peak hour.
You just got troll'd!
Ebay's policies specifically prohibit inboarding outrageously inflated shipping rates. Eg. BiN price of $1 for an iPod plus $300 'shipping'. People do this because Ebay just charges a percentage of the final price without shipping, and they want to keep the extra 5% for themself. Ebay tends to ignore this because it's very difficult to police, and there's a gray area like when someone charges $4 to ship a CD, and mails it for 75 cents via media mail. If you're the iPod guy charging $300 shipping, ebay will cancel your current auctions and send you a harsh letter to stop (with no followup). If you're charging $4 to ship CDs and don't combine shipping, Ebay won't do anything. Ultimately, these people shoot themselves in the foot anyway, because they get massive (relatively) amounts of negative feedback, causing their auctions to close at lower prices, that more than offset the amount they save on reduced ebay fees. This is in addition to the people who see the practice as a blatant ripoff attempt and shy away from the auction.