I guess it's more about trust and maybe marketing than I thought.The trust thing is obvious. Buy from a trusted seller, but maybe the seller on top has a "storefront" on thebay? maybe he bottlenecks traffic into his buying domain with some clever other ploy...I just sell with clear, concise, detailed descriptions, being aware of what search terms I want to show up in. Past that, I just make sure that all of my stuff gets there and is packed with the best of care. I don't run a business or anything, I just try to make back some of the cash I have poured down the gullet of our hobby's beast.
I mean, I have seen a lot of wide gaps in prices, but never on such small a scale. I've seen auto cards just out go for TWENTY dollars apart in just minutes...but it was $47 and $67. This is a different beast.
I have this card, so naturally I was checking to see what I could get for it once I decide which 2011 prospect B'autos I'm going to keep. I find these auctions. These ended only about an hour apart, and no. not midnight and 1am. more like 4pm and 5pm. I have always been a minimalist stat geek and have a 1041 rating on eBay. I like to think I know how it works (I am sure many of us do) but this stuff just intrigues me.
One of the questions that need to be asked is "What was the minimum bid on each of those cards?"
ReplyDeleteAnd, yes, that is a difference in ending price.
Being someone with VERY little ebay experience, I'm curious about it, too. Maybe all it has to do with is the rating. I suppose people are willing to spend an extra 10 bucks to avoid a potential hassle.
ReplyDeleteThe feedback thing is a definite issue with some people, but I tend to not let that bother me. A long-time and/or high-volume seller probably has several people who check his listings daily or weekly, and bid higher and more frequently in order to combine shipping. And an hour can make a big difference, depending on what people are doing. People could be at work at 4pm with time to spare to check and watch the auction, while they're out the door, in traffic at 5pm. It could be lucky, with a couple bidders going at it in the first card auction and totally missing the second. And I see one other factor when I looked at your image. The full image shows shipping costs - while the first card's shipping is $3 and the second is $3.75 - only a 75 cent difference - that could be the deal breaker in several people's eyes. If I'm looking for a card and I see a few with around four days left, I'll watch one or two of the ones with $2-3 shipping and completely ignore the ones with higher shipping. When the auctions are ending and I get the alert or I check my watching screen, I see all the ones with lower shipping, and probably forgot the one with higher shipping.
ReplyDelete