auction v BIN on ebay

[Mark]

Peter
Yes, but those eternally present BIN's serve at least one purpose: they let me know the price at which many of my cards will not sell. By telling me what the cards are not worth, they are something like a poor man's VCP.

[Peter_Spaeth]

40 auctions, 4408 BIN

[calvindog]

Originally Posted by Mark

Peter
Yes, but those eternally present BIN's serve at least one purpose: they let me know the price at which many of my cards will not sell. By telling me what the cards are not worth, they are something like a poor man's VCP.

LOL this is so true. When you see a card on BIN which you already own, you pretty much know what price the card will NOT sell for.

[dennis]

after 6 months i would think these "sellers" would lower their price on the BIN. (or at least offer a make an offer.) i have been outbid many times only to see that the buyer has put up the same card that they just purchased and more than doubled the price as a BIN. these cards never sell,at least if these sellers got the cards graded maybe they would have a chance to sell at double what they bought them for. oh i forgot if they get them graded they quadrouple the price! don't these sellers realize that people who might buy these cards know what they should sell for? these sellers should be embarressed.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Perhaps they think the recovery is right around the corner.

[Exhibitman]

Ebay has made it nearly 10x more expensive to auction cards rather than offering them at fixed prices. Ebay charges $0.35 to list a $200 item for BIN and $3.00 to list an auction with a $199.99 minimum bid. If you want to do a $0.99 minimum and a reserve of $199.99, you pay $2.15. So do I post my ten weekly items as BINs with best offer levels allowing for someone to make an offer ($3.50 total cost to me) or do I put them up in auctions costing me $21.50-$30.00? in a weak market, where every cent counts, the up-front costs alone are a consideration for a casual seller.

The market on Ebay also sucks right now on most categories of cards. Lowball bidders are doing quite well. I'm throwing down very low bids on a lot of cards and winning a surprising number of them lately. Do I, as a rational seller, want to sell into that meat grinder with no price floor? Since I don't do this for a living, I'd rather keep the cards than throw them away at a loss or at little profit, which is what a straight auction often means lately.

No, sellers are responding to external and Ebay-based stimuli about as they would be expected to under the circumstances. Unless Ebay takes steps to reverse the financial incentives, the skewing towards BINs will go on.

[familytoad]

I've got to say that this is the type of post that deserves a ton of viewership and an occasional ping to keep it near the top. The analysis of how much BIN costs as opposed to the standard auction format is so "dead on" that maybe there isn't much more to add..

But if for no other reason than to keep an informative post alive, can someone point out the search criteria instructions so that others can do the same ratio comparisons on different price ranges??
I'm interested in ranges both lower than the $200 on listed and much higher...just because I like to debate/discuss/analyze things.

Also, I am a ebay selling neophyte, so does BEST OFFER cost the same as BUY IT NOW? If so that might further explain seller motivation or intention (although we probabaly already know that an unrealistic BIN price is only meant to separate the unknowing from their cash)

Thanks
Brian L
familytoad
Ridgefield WA

[tbob]

I agree on the BIN prices being generally too high lately but there are still bargains to be had with BINs if you are lucky enough to stumble upon the right card at the right time. As far as pre-war cards go, if there is a BIN on ebay which has been there over 24 hours and no one from this board has banged it, it probably is going to go unbanged

[Exhibitman]

Basically, they are complementary and are not any extra cost. You can use a BIN with a Best Offer to let people bid on your BIN items. Say you have a card you want to list with a $2,000 BIN but you'd gladly take $1,800 and if push came to shove you'd take $1,500. You do a BIN at $2,000. Ebay lets you set a range of Best Offers, one to take automatically and one below which you automatically reject the offer. You set the automatic accept at $1,800 and the "go away" floor at $1,500. If an offer comes in between the 2 you have 48 hours to review and decide whether to accept it. If an offer comes in above $1,800, it is accepted automatically and the auction closes. If one comes in below $1,500 it is rejected automatically.

I've been very happy with the results using this set up. One trick: set the floor and ceiling Best Offers at odd numbers, like $1,798 or$1,499 rather than whole numbers. Seems to help.

If Ebay did a better job of publicizing it I think we'd see more action on the BINs. It does take a bit of thinking, which I realize is difficult for many Ebayers.