Buy It Now or Auction? That is the Question!
Should you put your item up for Auction? Should you only use Buy it Now (BIN) with Best Offer? Sometimes when you are first starting out on eBay, there are so many decisions and it can be overwhelming. Years ago, auctions were the way to go. Now that isn't true. Unless you have a highly desired item, you don't want to start a low auction. Start the auction at the least price you are willing to take. Think about it. You have your time sourcing, taking pictures, describing the item, etc and that is also money. An auction can sell with just one bid so you want to make sure you are getting at least enough to get your money back for what you have invested. Bidding wars don't happen much anymore since there are so many sellers and items on eBay (my two cents).
One reason to put up auctions is to generate interest from eBay. Buyers like auctions. Cassini likes auctions. Auctions get buyers to your listings. Auctions make you more visible to Cassini. You just have to figure out your bottom dollar and roll with it. Hopefully you will get more than one bid but possibly not.
I rarely do any auctions unless I have an item I want to get rid of. 99.9% of my items are BIN with Best Offer. When you use Best Offer, potential buyers see you're willing to negotiate, and then you can hopefully come to an agreement for a price you're both happy with. If they low ball you, just submit a counteroffer. Don't let emotion play into it. Sometimes they will offer again and you go back and forth until their offers run out. Sometimes it turns into a sale. Sometimes not. It's all part of doing business. I had a guy tell me, this is my last offer and this is the lowest I can go on a Filson shirt. I made about $40 profit on it so I was willing to let it go for the price he wanted to pay. To begin with he made me a low offer. I knew my shirt was worth more than that so I counteroffered. He came back with another price but I still counteroffered. His last price was more to my satisfaction. He wanted it pretty bad and I wanted to sell it.
Another option is to set your Best Offer to reject prices under a certain amount. I like dealing with people and seeing what interest they have so I prefer to counteroffer. Also, some days, depending on my sales, I might take a lower offer then I am willing to accept on other days when I am selling more.
I have developed my own little business plan. I start an item out at a decent price with Best Offer. Higher than I expect to get but not too high to generate interest. After a month, if the item hasn't sold, I mark it down a few dollars with Best Offer. Sometimes I do this another month or two depending on the item and the brand. If it hasn't sold in a few months, I put it back to a little higher price with Best Offer and leave it Good Til Cancelled and forget it for awhile. To get rid of items, I have a Clearance Category and once a week, usually on Saturday - Sunday, I have a half off sale in that category.
Do you use Auctions or BIN? Both? Do you have a business plan you wish to share?
