Why Won't More Vintage Card Auctions Include A BIN?

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Posted By: T206Collector

As a collector who regularly sells cards on ebay, I do not understand why more sellers don't include a BIN with their auctions? It seems like the result of a fundamental misunderstanding of how auctions work. Auctions do not earn sellers the highest bid prices -- they only earn sellers a marginal increment over the second highest bidder. That means that high bidders are often getting an item at a price less than what the highest bidder was truly willing to pay.

If your BIN is too high, you'll just end up with the same auction result as if you never included a BIN; but if your BIN is just right, you may sell an item higher than would you would have gotten in auction.

I guess the answer will be that sellers think that more often than not their BINs might be placed too low, below that which they would have earned if they had just let an auction run its course.

Still, it's amazing to me that more auctions don't also incude a BIN number -- some figure that would be an above-expectations sale.

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Posted By: Mike Ernst

As one who is getting back into the hobby after a 25-year hiatus, I'd be hesitant to put in a BIN for fear of giving things away too cheaply, or if the BIN was too high, that few would bid, assuming that the reserve would be unreasonable. In other words, I don't know the values well enough.

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Posted By: jay wolt

One reason why BIN's aren't used that much by me is I usually start my auctions at .99 cents or $9.99 so if I have a $400 card, and I set a Buy It Now at that level. It will disappear after the first bidder bids the lower amount.
Granted I can start the auction at $349.00 and set the Buy It Now at $400.00 but to me that is not a true auction. For better or worse the high man wins regardless if he wanted to spend more $$$ to obtain it...jay

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Posted By: Mike

I have to admit that I would be willing to pay a little more and use BIN rather than wait for an auction to end...maybe I am crazy, but I hate bidding..perhaps i should look into using a sniping service.

As a seller, I like using a reasonable BIN or even better, i have had good luck with the best offer feature on eBay...

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Posted By: davidcycleback

eBay will nickle and dime you to death. Using the BIN involves a $$ charge to the seller. Every BIN, every extra picture, every picture enlargement, every minimum bid price increment, every 10 day auction, every subtitle and every PayPal payment costs the seller extra. An eBay seller can have $20+ in charges from eBay & PayPal on an an auction. An eBay can rack up a $2.50 charge for a $5 sale, or $5 for a lot that doesn't get a bid. The sellers won't pay for an extra fuction unless they think it's worth the cost (will show up in final price or in sale vs. no sale). If the sellers aren't using BINs, it's because they don't think it's worth the cost-- in other words, they don't think bidders will BIN often enough to justify the cost.

As a seller, I would use the BIN if I thought it would make me more money. I would put BINs on all my auction right now. The fact that I don't have a BIN on any of my auctions, says I don't view it as a method to make more money.

I think what a lot of buyers only don't realize is that with all the costs (paypal, eBay, shipping, internet cost, snipers trying to get the lowest price possible, etc ,etc), the margins of profit can be razor thin selling on eBay. If a seller choses every useless bell and whistle eBay offers, their razor thin profit will change to loss.

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Posted By: cmoking

Unless the seller knows the market very well, he's only going to lose if he puts a BIN in an auction. Here are the three scenarios, with the likely results:

BIN is too high - no one takes the BIN, and the card sells for the highest bidder in the auction. The BIN was useless.

BIN is just right - someone takes the BIN, but it would have gone around the smae price anywa. The seller does not benefit.

BIN is too low - it gets snapped up very quickly. The seller loses.

There are exceptions, but overall, these scenarios are not beneficial for the seller...unless they know the right price for the card very well and sets the BIN just a shade higher than expected fair market value.

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Posted By: T206Collector

<<BIN is just right - someone takes the BIN, but it would have gone around the smae price anywa. The seller does not benefit.>>

Just right, in my mind, means that you get the high bidder to maximize his cost -- this could be hundreds of dollars more than the next highest bid. Indeed, I have won auctions on ebay where my sniper bid was hundreds higher than what I won it for. If it was a BIN at what my cost threshold would have been, I'd have bought it as soon as I saw it. By not using the BIN, I saved hundreds of dollas, but the seller lost out on hundreds of my dollars. We are not just talking about "shades higher than expected fair market value," we are talking about targeting that buyer out there that is willing to forego the ebay roulette wheel for a shot at a set price, even if that price is above market value. I have made several sales of this nature and they have, in my opinion, been much higher than market value.

<<BIN is too low - it gets snapped up very quickly. The seller loses.>>

Why would a seller set a BIN "too low"? He is setting it at what, for him, is higher than expectation. He should always feel good about a sale under these circumstances. A seller who does not know the market very well before the sale, is not going to somehow become educated about it after the sale. Perhaps later down the road he'll have regrets, but then he never should have sold it in the first place without knowing the market.

<<BIN is too high - no one takes the BIN, and the card sells for the highest bidder in the auction. The BIN was useless.>>

I do, however, agree with this.

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Posted By: Daniel Bretta

I recently put a lot of 50+ T and E cards in F-VG condition in one lot on ebay...I had debated putting them up with a BIN of $600 -they were all commons except for 4 low grade HoF'ers....I decided I would just let them ride and if they got the $600 I would be happy...well they went for close to $900 and I would have never thought they would have gotten that...I think that's why more people don't use BIN's.

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Posted By: cmoking

Are you disagreeing with what I think seller's are thinking? Or are you disagreeing with whether the seller's thinking is right?

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Posted By: davidcycleback

I think it's fairly simple. Sellers will use BINs if it makes them more money (items sell more than at auction). Buyers will use BINs if it means the items sell at less than normal auction prices (makes the seller less money). In other words, sellers will use BINs if it raises the sell prices, and buyers will use BINs if it lowers the sales prices. It's known as irreconsilable differences, resulting in sellers not using them. If BINs were free for the seller, I'm sure every seller would have a bin on every auction lot. But they aren't free.

There were three mentioned scenarios for a BIN auction: 1) BIN too high so BIN not taken by bidders (seller out BIN fee); 2) BIN too low so lot sells for less than normal auction price; 3) BIN is taken at the exact same price as would be realized in normal auction (seller out BIN fee) ... Isn't each of these scenarios reason to not have a BIN, but run a normal auction? In each scenario the seller loses money.

Of course there's the unmentioned fourth scenario: 4) BINs regularly taken at price higher than would have realized at regular auction, making eBay sellers lots of extra money. And when this starts happening, about every eBay auction will have a BIN.

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Posted By: Rob

If the Bin is set a bit high, it will motivate a buyer to place a bid to remove the BIN, so a BIN is useful even where it's not being used.

There is no reason not to set a BIN at twice the opening bid (more or less) on common vintage cards like T205, T206 & T207's when you can use one of several websites that give a past history of card sales, there's a less than 5% probability you'll have 2 bidders get into a war and/or high snipes driving price above what research shows, but there's perhaps a 25% probability your card will sell for less than an optimal or high price. A quarter a BiN is worth it. AS for Ebay nickel and diming, one can use auctiva.com free for picture hosting and scheduling, circumventing Greedbay's charge for those extras.

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Posted By: Matt E.

Sounds like Ebay Express is for you. You even get a cart to place your overpriced vintage cards in.
Enclosed is a link to some T205's.



http://search.express.ebay.com/_Sports-Trading-Cards__t205_W0QQ_nkwZt205QQ_fxdZ1QQ_ptasZ9Q2cCharm sQ5fCharmQ5fBraceletsQ5e2Q2cSoftwareQ5e3Q2cArtQ5fP hotoQ5fImagesQ5e3

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Posted By: James Gallo

I have bought and sold a ton of stuff on ebay over the past 8_ years. It all that time I have seen BIN used the least on prewar cards.

I see a huge benefit to BIN for me.

I am very impatient and would rather spend and extra few bucks to get the cards quickly. If I saw a card I wanted to spend $100 for on ebay and it had a $125 BIN I would just buy it.

From a sellers POV pieces with BIN often sell for more then I would have gotten for the same piece at auction. So this is huge benefit.

I know some people get scared away from auctions with high BIN, but I have also recently made some offers on stuff and been very surprised when they have been accepted at well below the BIN.

I can understand not using a BIN on an auction that starts low and doesn't have a reserve because in that case usually the BIN is gone quickly.

Still I always like the idea of someone hitting a BIN quickly and paying me right away which is another benefit of the feature.

All in all I don't see any drawbacks except that stupid .25 fee that ebay hits you with.

I use BIN as both a buyer and a seller.

James Gallo

Looking for 1915 Cracker Jacks and 1909-11 American Caramel E90-1.