Learned an Expensive Ebay lesson

[CrotalusHH]

I put a very custom brush up for sale. I did it with no reserve because I was told that I could end the auction and cancel the bids if I didn't like the price.

I waited until the last 5 minutes because the bids were going up, but they still had not risen to the point of even covering my costs on the materials.

So I went to end the bidding. KINGS X! You can't end the bidding in the last 12 hours. Never again. I would have just kept the brush and used it myself before letting it go for that price. The guys hasn't paid for it yet. Maybe he won't and I can cancel the sale.

[Merkur25]

It is against the rules but I have already won a item on Ebay to have the seller cancel the auction afterwards due to the fact it sold under the value of the item. It is against Ebay rules but really, its Ebay

[CrotalusHH]

If I had been able to stop the auction, I would have. I'm not going to refuse to send it now.

I'm sure there are sellers out there willing to do that. I'm not one of them.

My auctions will have a reserve from now on, rare as they seem to be.

[insomniac]

My auctions will have a reserve from now on, rare as they seem to be.

The best thing to do, honestly.

[Piper Down]

The best thing to do, honestly.

I once put three high-end pipes on ebay with reasonable reserves, but well below the street value. Each one went for the absolute minimum reserve.

Never again.

[Bubblehead]

I once put three high-end pipes on ebay with reasonable reserves, but well below the street value. Each one went for the absolute minimum reserve.

Never again.

Street value for used high-end pipes, or street value for new high-end pipes?

[Price]

A good rule of thumb would be to set the starting price of the auction at the lowest price you could stomach letting it go for.

[global_dev]

A good rule of thumb would be to set the starting price of the auction at the lowest price you could stomach letting it go for.

sometimes people won't even begin bidding on that...

[Manning]

A good rule of thumb would be to set the starting price of the auction at the lowest price you could stomach letting it go for.

Thats my recommendation. Operative word is "stomach". Its usually much lower than what I would be happy with, but a price that wouldn't make me want to lose my breakfast over it it sold that low.

Because price fluctuations are so great on eBay it can be very difficult to determine what an item will sell for. If it doesn't sell because your price was too high, then you can always relist it.

[TCP]

A good rule of thumb would be to set the starting price of the auction at the lowest price you could stomach letting it go for.

+1 Unless you know that is an item that will cause a feeding frenzy, don't start with the price too low! I love to start a nice Fatboy at $0.99, free shipping and no reserve.

[cb91710]

A good rule of thumb would be to set the starting price of the auction at the lowest price you could stomach letting it go for.

This.

I will not bid on a reserve auction. I snipe... I don't get into this "I always have to be the top bidder" with the idiot down the road and bid the price up to triple retail 2 days before it closes.
I bid once, I bid late, and I bid HIGH.... I've only lost two auctions I've bid on and in both cases the previous high bid before my "snipe" was simply more than I was willing to pay.

But if I have no clue where it's going because the reserve has not been met, I won't even put it in my watch list.
My first choice is always BIN. If I can't BIN, then I'll snipe it. If I can't snipe it because I'll be at work, I'll drop in a high bid as late as I possibly can and hope for the best.

[denim]

Given the change in rules several years ago where eBay stopped protecting sellers, I stopped selling there.

[rebos]

Given the change in rules several years ago where eBay stopped protecting sellers, I stopped selling there.

same here. one bad experience as a seller and that was all it took. i was out $100 in the end.

[Champion of Capua]

The best thing to do really is offer it to your brothers here on BST. If nobody bites here than by all means take the recommendations of those gentleman with the above suggestions.

[CrotalusHH]

The best thing to do really is offer it to your brothers here on BST. If nobody bites here than by all means take the recommendations of those gentleman with the above suggestions.

I showed the brush on here and barely got any reply at all. I think one person said, "nice". I don't have vendor privileges..... One person asked if it was hung with a magnet. Nobody asked if it was for sale and I didn't want to get in trouble by advertising it. I got my post removed for doing that on "another" site.

$28. This thing took hours to make.

[global_dev]

that's very different than putting it actively on the BST.

[rebos]

that's very different than putting it actively on the BST.

+1

and I think you would have done better putting it in the B/S/T. why not try that?

[GreekGuy]

Successful selling on ebay requires knowing what you're doing.

You can start at $1, but that only makes sense if you KNOW you're going to get a lot of bidding, or if you have no idea what you have (like most sellers) and just let the market take it where it does.

As others have mentioned, you could have listed it on the BST, but for anything on ebay you need at least 2 people who want to pay x amount for something for a good auction. Next time, do a BIN, or start the auction for more. I don't mean any offense when I say this, but its not like its a butterscotch simpsons. How many people do you think are actively searching on a regular basis for horn handled brushes? Probably not that many.

[roklein]

Lessons learned. If you learned something, then it wasn't a total loss. Look at it that way. Next time, you know what will work better for you.

[Techichi]

Refund the guy's money, then PM him and explain.