FA: Model Making Books

What does that tell you?

Trouble is, the last two, and the related one about scenery, were sold off for something like =A31 ea by the railway book club so a lot of people who would want them may already have them. I'd spend my money on something from White Swan.

MBQ

I tried to flog two out of those three on eBay ages ago. They're still on my bookshelf...

For books I think most people would go to Amazon as their first stop so it might be worth trying on there. If you do, let us know how it goes :-)

The sort of books the OP was spamming are the sort of book that people pick up SH at 'swap-meets' and or exhibitions - often from society stands, and for pennies...

The odd thing about e-bay is the volume of such that does get sold.

: >

: > The sort of books the OP was spamming are the sort of book that : > people pick up SH at 'swap-meets' and or exhibitions - often from : > society stands, and for pennies... : >

: >

: : The odd thing about e-bay is the volume of such that does get sold. :

That, I'm sorry to say, says a lot about the sort of mind set that uses (crim)eBay...

It would be interesting to see just how many items are NOT sold these days. There have been a couple of posts on items on the list which I thought - that sounds interesting - but I've bought a lot cheaper elsewhere ;) This 'batch' would be the same sort of price from the amazon second hand shop - but for the stupid rule there that they can't combine postage ....

"Lester Caine" wrote

We sell about 95% of the lots we list, but the secret is to have a realistic starting price & avoid having a reserve. We also charge postage at cost, with no add-ons to cover packing or eBay fees.

John.

One of the annoying things is that you can't set a reserve less than =A350 IIRC so there is a risk of something reasonably valuable going for peanuts.

MBQ

But if realistic starting price more than peanuts ?

Cheers, Simon

: One of the annoying things is that you can't set a : reserve less than £50 IIRC so there is a risk of : something reasonably valuable going for peanuts.

That says a lot about the mentality who list such items on (crim)eBay, taking the easy option, rather than taking the trouble (and yes perhaps a small pre-sale financial commitment to maximise their sales potential) to list the items in places such as specialist magazines small-adds sections etc.

: : >One of the annoying things is that you can't set a reserve less than : >£50 IIRC so there is a risk of something reasonably valuable going for : >peanuts. : : : But if realistic starting price more than peanuts ? :

I thought that MBQ said that such reserves can't be set for items less than £50? A starting price *is* a reserve price, is all but name!...

Granted you can set the start price higher but I like to go for the low start price to attract bidders. At the end of the day, if I can't stand the risk then I won't sell on Ebay.

MBQ

They are different, and getting them right is the key to successfull selling on Ebay.

Starting price is the lowest bid that will be accepted to start the auction. it is visible to all.

Reserve is the lowest price at which you will actually sell. The actual value is known only to the seller, although Ebay will list items as "reserve not met".

MBQ

Are you trying to imply that the items I sell are the proceeds of crime?

MBQ

: Are you trying to imply that the items I sell are the proceeds : of crime?

So you quote their T&C's and from that we are meant to work out that you have (or not) used their services, for all anyone knows from the above comment you could have just read the T&C...

MBQ, you really are one sure retard sometimes, if you could think you could be dangerous!

Not on eBay - they create their own definitions of commonly used words :-) MBQ explained the difference between real English and eBay English quite nicely!

I take it you don't buy or sell on eBay? You don't sell because all sellers are criminals, and you don't buy because all sellers are criminals. Therefore you can't really understand the workings of eBay. It's just a shame that it's only ever the scare stories that influence people's opinion of eBay. When I'm in selling mode, I work hard to keep the customers happy, but I also have to be realistic on what I'll make on it. Before eBay decided to wipe my hard-earned DSR ratings (because I haven't traded for 12 months), the ratings were 4.9 on all four categories. I sell when I need money, not to run a business where certain losses are inevitable.

Why on earth would I want to list stuff in model railway magazines when I can get a massively bigger world-wide market by listing on eBay? The fees on eBay for private sellers are a darn sight higher than magazines but it's worth it for the exposure.

FWIW, I have cocked up by risking a low starting price against a high expectation of sales value, and on a few items it's actually cost me more money in postage that the total final value and postage combined - I said I wasn't doing this as a business :-)

I'll soon be finding out the "these days" bit, but a year ago I sold around 97-98% of stuff I listed. Some stuff goes on the second time of listing, but I'll only list again if I think it's worthwhile.

It seems rather dishonest to set a starting price which is lower than a concealed reserve price. People will waste their time looking at products that you've pretended might be available at a price you won't in fact accept.

But then auctions in general seem a rather dodgy way of trading.

-- Richard