Advice from experienced eBay-ers?

Question

So I posted a listing for a TV that I have at a starting bid of US $5.99. Within two hours I had two watchers.

And over the next five hours I had one bid, some guy matched the starting price with $5.99.

Pretty soon I had 11 watchers and one other bid at $6.49.

Now I have 13 watchers and counting.

Is this a good sign? Do you think these all these people are waiting until toward the end of the auction to make their strike and start a bidding war?

Or is it possible that someone's gonna snipe this thing at $6.49 and p**s me off?

This is my first auction that someone has actually placed bids on. So anyone with experience, can you tell me if this means I'm gonna sell this at a reasonable (hopefully 3-digit) price? I paid $275 for this at retail.

h**l better freeze over before I let this go at 7 dollars.

Thanks.

-TJ

Answer 1

My wife is a PowerSeller and has started $1000 dollar items at 99 cents to save money on listing fees, so far no disappointments. But it is a roll of the dice and if you must make a certain amount so as not to suffer a loss then add a reserve, but this most likely will limit the number of bidders. The most popular PowerSeller book advises to start all auctions at 99 cents to start the bidding war.

Answer 2

Hi!

If you are uncomfortable at the prospect of your TV going for $7 you should have put a reserve on the auction... (A reserve is the minimum amount of money you will let the item sell for)

Now that there are bids anything coud happen, it could go for $7 or $170+... you just don't know.

watchers may mean interested bidders or it may mean that they are watching your item without intent to bid... e.g. to see what the item goes for if they have a simmilar item etc...

I think however that they will be hoping for a bargain on this occasion - by that I mean the majority will probably bid meaning you may get a decent price!

Good luck, hope you get a decent price :)

Answer 3

I started my auction at 99 cents, not for a TV though.  I had 25 watchers.  There were questions from a few people, but none of those actually bid.  It started slow, but really took off nearer the end and I finished getting more than I had expected.  It's unpredictable, though.  I see lots of auctions which end with lethargic bidding.

There have been some auctions where I waited until the last day to place a bid, and found that the item had been withdrawn "because the item is no longer for sale" or "because of an error in the listing".  So I suppose if you were really unhappy with the amount of interest, you could stop the auction yourself.

One auction where I was the only bidder, the seller later emailed me to say she couldn't sell at that price, it was a handmade item, and the winning sum did not cover the cost of the materials.  We just agreed not to leave feedback for each other.  But I'm sure she still had ebay costs to pay  -  there are no costs except listing fee if there is no bid, and she had one bid - mine.

Answer 4

Don't worry, it will sell for atleast $125 I am sure of it. 13 watchers is very good, better than what most my items get! and every ebayer including myself waits till the last 5 minutes of an auction end to place their bids in. This is called sniping. It is not unheard of for an item to increase over $100 in less than a minute.