Don't forget that your eBay customers are irrational
July 21, 2007 by MindanaoBob
Filed under My Past Life
Do you know who Seth Godin is? Seth is an entrepreneur, like I am, only he’s pretty famous, and I’m virtually unknown. Seth is a best selling author, marketing guru, customer service guru and lots of other things. Today, I was reading Seth’s Blog and found an interesting post regarding eBay.
According to Seth, most people are irrational. He uses the following as evidence:
Set low opening prices. When choosing between identical items, buyers seem to favor whichever auction has the most bids. The best way to grab early bids: Start with a cheap price. By the time a $1 DVD auction reaches $10, it will probably attract more newcomers than a DVD that started at $10.
Seth goes on to talk about not using reserve prices too. These are pretty much exactly the same things that I’ve been saying. It’s nice to see somebody whom I consider to be a real expert in selling things (online or off) backing up my position!
Go read Seth’s article, and while you are there bookmark his page or subscribe to his RSS feed. He is always a good read!
About the Author: Bob Martin is an Internet Entrepreneur living in Davao City, Philippines. Bob is an American, but has lived in the Philippines for about a decade now. Bob got started in the Online Auction business in the early days of the Internet, selling on eBay while it was still in it's infancy.
MindanaoBob
i am from the Philippines.. how do i accept payment from eBay bidders?
Hi Amiel – Your question has already been answered in the blog, perhaps you didn’t read it over yet. I recommend Paypal. If you don’t take Paypal you will never be successful on eBay.
Thats a good point Bob. and it think you and seth are right. As a buyer (well, will-be-buyer since im still to get that debit card
i seem to gravitate toward items that has alot of bids. I think that psychology is “if a lot of people think it is worth their time and money, it must be better than the rest”
Also, whenever i see a similar item that is not getting any bids, im thinking that perhaps, other people saw something that i did not and thats whay they are not bidding on it.
Hi Jerico – Yep! I do really believe in this. This is why I was suggesting to start your auctions at $0.01. Seth seems to suggest starting at $1.00. Either one is OK, and will garner lots of bids!
Hi Bob, how are you?
I have several items of my own on ebay.uk at the moment, I was already aware of setting low starting bids with no reserve as I always avoided buying things with high start or reserve prices. I am in the stage of panic now though! they are all at 0.99p with 1 bid on each! but I will ride through this stage of worry!
Ebay.ph is rubbish for buyers as its free to sell isn’t it? The sellers all put high start prices and a ‘buy it now’ price which is almost the same, and nobody ever seems to bid.
regards
phil
One more thing about having lots of bids, it becomes a competition between bidders and is fun to watch as certain items end.
phil
Hi Phil – I am doing well, and I hope you are too. Hang in there on your eBay items! Hopefully they will pull out a decent price for you in the long run! One thing to keep in mind too, the longer you keep selling and building up your profile, the better your items will do!
You are right, watching auctions end is great fun!
Hello,
I agreed 100% ! Set the bid at $.99 and bidder will start to bid as crazy.
hi Peter – absolutely!