eBay: Why are all the listings "Buy It Now"?

Renaissance 2K

Renaissance 2K

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Quick question:

When I started on eBay, it was primarily an auction site. A few people posted fixed-price listings, but the bidding was the real way you found deals.

These days, despite the increase in fees for fixed-price listings, Buy It Now auctions seriously outnumber auction listings, especially when it comes to video games.

Anybody have any insight as to why this is?
 
I'm sure it's many factors, but for me the matter is simple: with buy-it-now style listings, I can check the immediate payment required option. With traditional listings, dead-beat bidders have become increasingly common, especially on 'controversial' items. For instance, many people dislike selling games for a profit (say, buying a Wii and then making money off it), and will go out of their way to bid an item up and then not pay for it. I've had it happen so many times over the years that I almost never use traditional auction listings now.
 
One of the many changes ebay has done is to fiddle with their pricing scheme. I am not sure of the specifics, but I believe BIN have a cheaper listing fee and ebay takes a lower cut. I don't think that is exactly it, but it is in the area.
 
[quote name='Porksta']One of the many changes ebay has done is to fiddle with their pricing scheme. I am not sure of the specifics, but I believe BIN have a cheaper listing fee and ebay takes a lower cut. I don't think that is exactly it, but it is in the area.[/QUOTE]

I'd be willing to bet that this is it. I'm not sure what it was before but it was pretty expensive to insert a BIN auction but now it's really cheap.
 
Buy it now games usually sell for 30 - 40% more than similar auction types, so as a seller, why even bother with auction listings? Also with auction listings there is a ton of little details you have to take into account like time listed, etc. to get the highest price there is none of that in buy it nows.
 
BIN actually gets you higher listing fees in the video game category. Items sell higher at BIN prices because people want their stuff NOW and don't want to deal with hassles of an auction. However the higher listing fees take a cut of what you are selling, so it equals out depending.
 
[quote name='wampa8jedi']I'm sure it's many factors, but for me the matter is simple: with buy-it-now style listings, I can check the immediate payment required option. With traditional listings, dead-beat bidders have become increasingly common, especially on 'controversial' items. For instance, many people dislike selling games for a profit (say, buying a Wii and then making money off it), and will go out of their way to bid an item up and then not pay for it. I've had it happen so many times over the years that I almost never use traditional auction listings now.[/QUOTE]

This, 100% of my lists are fixed price with immediate payment required. I was tired of non paying bidders.
 
I think alot of it has to do with stuff just not selling as well as it once did and people still need a certain amount out of what they are selling so theyre sticking to BIN's vs letting it ride so they dont lose out.
 
I agree with most of those who have responded already. BIN listings avoid deadbeat bidders and joke bids, and allow the seller to ensure that the item sells for a certain amount if it sells at all. The final selling price on auction style listings seem to be trending downward lately; I'd much rather risk 15 cents to throw up a BIN game for 30 days and see if it sells at a higher price that will cover the added final value fees.
 
[quote name='elmyra'] I'd much rather risk 15 cents to throw up a BIN game for 30 days and see if it sells at a higher price that will cover the added final value fees.[/quote]


That's a key factor; more exposure for BIN vs the short, week-long run of auction-style listings.
 
Because auctions suck these days since sellers can't leave negatives. Buyers can bid on whatever they want and don't have to pay if they don't feel like it. So you get people who bid on the same item from a bunch of different people and only pay for the lowest one.

Buy it now is simple since you can require instant payment.
 
It makes sense, I guess. It's annoying from a buyer's perspective - especially when it comes to older titles - for obvious reasons, but I feel like it has the unfortunate side effect of driving up the prices on all channels. This time last year, people were saying that we can't trust BIN prices when determining game value, but now, that's really all there is.

I was trying to set up a large trade on another website and needed prices for a handful of games that I had sold a few months ago. I was shocked to see that the average price across the board was 20% higher for nearly everything. I guess this is the explanation.
 
[quote name='Doomstink']Buy it now games usually sell for 30 - 40% more than similar auction types, so as a seller, why even bother with auction listings? Also with auction listings there is a ton of little details you have to take into account like time listed, etc. to get the highest price there is none of that in buy it nows.[/QUOTE]

This is the most important part to me.

I get a little over $40 shipped for Gamecube, cords, one controller and memory card when I do fixed. If you search for completed gamecube systems, many go for around $30, after shipping.

Also, I use fixed listings just to get in the normal results, with the goal actually being to drive traffic to my store, whether people buy the item listed or not. 5 cents for 30 days is a lot better when I'm paying for advertising.
 
[quote name='Renaissance 2K']It makes sense, I guess. It's annoying from a buyer's perspective - especially when it comes to older titles - for obvious reasons, but I feel like it has the unfortunate side effect of driving up the prices on all channels. This time last year, people were saying that we can't trust BIN prices when determining game value, but now, that's really all there is.

I was trying to set up a large trade on another website and needed prices for a handful of games that I had sold a few months ago. I was shocked to see that the average price across the board was 20% higher for nearly everything. I guess this is the explanation.[/QUOTE]

As a seller, all I can say is I don't have any sympathy for buyers on ebay. I hate you all and am happy for any inconvenience that happens to you.

:lol:
 
[quote name='ninja dog']As a seller, all I can say is I don't have any sympathy for buyers on ebay. I hate you all and am happy for any inconvenience that happens to you.

:lol:[/QUOTE]

Heh. I wasn't even referring to being a buyer off of eBay. I was more frustrated with the fact that we can't use it as a reference tool anymore when we were determining value.

Why am I not a buyer off of eBay? I still do buy occasionally, but not nearly as much as before. I got sick of people calling games "mint condition" when they had rental labels, names written in Sharpie, hand-drawn case artwork, a manual that was used as toilet paper, and a disc surface that mimicked the Grand Canyon.

Honestly, I've had much better experiences with new sub-100 feedback buyers who are scared shitless of being called out as a bad seller - both in terms of price and condition - than I have with the Super-Mega-Ultra-Optimus Power Seller Prime sellers with 99.8% feedback who use the words "may" or "might" or "no" more than anything else.

But I'm not bitter...
 
yeah, mega sellers are a pain in the ass. Those 10 page long auction descriptions with no actual info about the item have got to go. They make it all complicated on purpose to confuse dumb people and to bury astronomic shipping costs and/or hide one little line that says "disc only."

I pretty much only buy on ebay when it seems like a worthwhile risk.
 
For determining value, I look through recent ended, and look at where the threshold is for if they sold or not.

Usually there's a pretty well-defined line.
 
[quote name='ninja dog']yeah, mega sellers are a pain in the ass. Those 10 page long auction descriptions with no actual info about the item have got to go. They make it all complicated on purpose to confuse dumb people and to bury astronomic shipping costs and/or hide one little line that says "disc only."

I pretty much only buy on ebay when it seems like a worthwhile risk.[/quote]

My favorite is rare, used video game listings that have stock photos and default item descriptions - usually from mega sellers.
 
[quote name='fakero']My favorite is rare, used video game listings that have stock photos and default item descriptions - usually from mega sellers.[/QUOTE]

The sad thing is ebay is increasingly targeting the mega sellers with fee discounts and turning away from what made it great in the first place - auctions.

I still list auctions for some games but in most cases ebay's default 'best match' heavily penalizes my search standing even with 4.9dsr's since I charge a shipping fee. That's part of the reason I sometimes avoid auction format, all the other reasons have been listed in previous posts.
 
Also, fixed price fees aren't that bad if you know how to work around them. The only way you can really do that is by starting an eBay store and being a Powerseller, but once you've got those two things you can do any of the following to knock down fees:

Powerseller discount - Anywhere from 5% - 20% discount on fees (depends on feedback)
Double Powerseller discount - Offer free shipping to double discount (10% - 40%)
Outside refferal credit - Refer a buyer to your store inventory item from an outside source and get 75% off fees.

Also, the fee for store inventory is only 12% as opposed to 15%.

I've never been able to do it, but I suppose if you can get an outside refferal credit + double powerseller discount of a high enough % you can eliminate FVF fees entirely.
 
I have to agree that Ebay isn't the great marketplace it once was in the late 90's and early 2000's.

Everyone knows about it now. So, like that favorite music band you once loved, once everyone learns about it and it becomes popular, it loses value.

It used to be you could get great deals from Ebay using the old-style auctions. I often sniped from my cell phone, and made out okay.

Now, it's hard to even find scarce items or serious deals on anything. I agree the BIN auctions aren't so great. They're basically neck-in-neck with retail, so everything has become so homogeonous.

People are also more Internet savvy, these days, which is why Ebay shops -- places that sell your things on Ebay for you -- aren't quite the boon they used to be.

Craigslist may not be at the same level marketplace as Ebay, but there are no fees, and even no PayPal, which was bought by Ebay some years ago.

Craigslist is nice because you get more direct contact. It's best to leave your phone number so folks can actually talk with you. I always feel you can tell the true intentions of people by their voice via a quick phone call, as opposed to an inorganic email.

That said, I have several Ebay accounts, all of which have 100% feedback as both a buyer and seller, and only hop on to sell quick stuff anymore.

I may go with the store format and try to sell things on Craigs simultaneously (I'm moving cross country in about 6 weeks and need to get rid of things, so both sites may be the way to go.)

Back on track: Ebay is more of a commercial site than it used to be. These days, as I'm in school for a gaming degree, I mostly buy games of course, as well as books. Half.com and Amazon and Buy.com work best. I rarely find anything cheap on Ebay anymore.
 
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