High starting bids for eBay postcards

[Moonraker]

I don't expect eBay vendors to give away their cards for next to nothing, but I do wonder about those who set "starting bids" at "high retail" - what I would flicker an eyelid at if I saw them at a fair. There are two vendors in particular who do this, one listing more than a dozen cards at a time for "Wiltshire"; a couple do sell, which probably makes it worth his while, and the remained get re-listed a couple of months later.

Admittedly all I want to do is sell a few surplus cards and I'm not too bothered what they bring; I state a staring bid of 99p in humdrum cases, but if the card is worth £8 or more, I stipulate about 75% of retail.

Which reminds me. Some optimist recently set a starting bid of $4,999 for a card said to bear the signature of German flying ace Baron von Richtofen; he got no bids. Earlier this year he had sought advice about the card's value from the World War One Forum to which I belong, and was given a much lower figure. He was talking of asking Sotheby's to advise on the provenance, but didn't mention this in his eBay blurb. He didn't help his case by saying it was a piece of Nazi memorabilia; the "Red Baron" was killed before the Nazi party was founded.

Moonraker

[kevinramsdale]

I don't expect eBay vendors to give away their cards for next to nothing, but I do wonder about those who set "starting bids" at "high retail" - what I would flicker an eyelid at if I saw them at a fair. There are two vendors in particular who do this, one listing more than a dozen cards at a time for "Wiltshire"; a couple do sell, which probably makes it worth his while, and the remained get re-listed a couple of months later.
Moonraker

I would imagine that these listings (and subsequent re-listings) are done in conjunction with the eBay cheap listing offers, when it typically costs only 10p to list an item whatever the starting price.

So 12 Wiltshire cards at say £10 each would cost £1.20 to list at these times and if two sell would gross £20. After final value and Paypal fees the seller should still net a profit of £15+ (From this would have to be deducted the original cost of the cards)

I must admit do find it an interesting challenge to see how much more I can get on eBay for a card over and above the price I had it available in stock for.

[Moonraker]

I must admit do find it an interesting challenge to see how much more I can get on eBay for a card over and above the price I had it available in stock for.

Kevin: do you every lose out by getting less than your stock price? In the case of one of the vendors I mentioned, I would have put in bids had his starting prices been 20% lower, or the equivalent of a lowish price at a fair, which might have prompted some rival bidding. I guess it depends how keen he is to maintain a decent turnover, assuming he's a dealer. On the other hand, if he's merely trying to sell off his collection, he can afford to wait for his high prices to be met.


Moonraker

[kevinramsdale]

Kevin: do you every lose out by getting less than your stock price? In the case of one of the vendors I mentioned, I would have put in bids had his starting prices been 20% lower, or the equivalent of a lowish price at a fair, which might have prompted some rival bidding. I guess it depends how keen he is to maintain a decent turnover, assuming he's a dealer. On the other hand, if he's merely trying to sell off his collection, he can afford to wait for his high prices to be met.
Moonraker

For the majority of cards it's very dangerous to use a starting price below that which you actually want to achieve. I would only use a nominal start price (of say 1p) for something I was really confidant would attract a lot of interest, something of the Titanic for instance.

Most cards sell at the opening bid - whatever that might be.

Generally I would regard the stock as a portfolio, as long as an acceptable number of cards sell overall then it doesn't much matter which ones they are, sometimes I might even put the price of certain cards up over time to cover eBay's ongoing listing fees.