EBay strategy? Or, "why can't Johnny sell a card?"

[insidethewrapper]

Did this with a lawn mower once. Put it in my front lawn by the road for $ 10, nobody wanted it. Raised the price to $ 25 and it sold that day.

[judsonhamlin]

The lawnmower example makes more sense - at 10 it might be seen as inoperable by a passerby, but at 25 there might be an implication that it actually works. How that works with a 1930s card with paper loss though (the card here) escapes me.
Should've taken a marketing class at some point I guess.

[BruceinGa]

Just as the mower sold so did a 1965 Mustang that I had in the late 70's. I had painted it, replaced bushing in the 4 speed shifter and listed it for $2500 . I received one call and they never showed up to see it. I told my buddy that got me into restoring Mustangs and he said I had it priced too low. I raised it to $3500, the phone rang off the hook and sold it to the first person to view it, for $3500.

[EYECOLLECTVINTAGE]

There is really no rhyme or reason to the ebay game in my opinion. With that being said, I agree with most posters here. Sometimes the lower you price it , the more unattractive the item becomes. The buyer does like to feel like they are getting a item of value.

[brianp-beme]

[QUOTE=insidethewrapper;1711586]Did this with a lawn mower once. Put it in my front lawn by the road for $ 10, nobody wanted it. Raised the price to $ 25 and it sold that day.[/QUOTE}

A friend once told me a story that is a slight variation of this theme. I believe it was a set of tires that they had on the lawn with a free sign. They just sat there, no one wanted them. They finally decided to put a sign up for them for $25, and the tires were almost instantly stolen.

Brian

[greco827]

I've actually been doing a bit of tracking on this, and BO's regularly pull a higher price than the same card (grade/backing) as a card which is auctioned. Straight BIN also pulls a higher price, but I assume the seller is willing to sit and wait to get the higher price.

There are, of course, exceptions.

[Eric72]

Fascinating glimpse into the quirks of human behavior...

[pbspelly]

There's a famous story about a jewelry store that was having trouble selling a particular kind of jewelry (I think it was turquoise but could have it wrong). The owner was going on vacation and left a handwritten note for the store clerk to put the jewelry on sale at half the price. The store clerk misread the writing on the note and doubled the price of the jewelry. When the owner returned from vacation, all the jewelry had sold out.

This never happens to me, though

[Jantz]

[QUOTE=brianp-beme;1711704]

Originally Posted by insidethewrapper

Did this with a lawn mower once. Put it in my front lawn by the road for $ 10, nobody wanted it. Raised the price to $ 25 and it sold that day.[/QUOTE}

A friend once told me a story that is a slight variation of this theme. I believe it was a set of tires that they had on the lawn with a free sign. They just sat there, no one wanted them. They finally decided to put a sign up for them for $25, and the tires were almost instantly stolen.

Brian

Oh yes, this works well. People would rather steal from a stranger than accept a free gift.