Homebrew01

I "watched" a listing for an old Cannondale a while back because it was similar to mine, but since it's priced double what it's worth, it hasn't sold (was originally 4x its worth). However, it's still listed month after month for 29 day listings, but I never get the "An Item you were watching has been relisted" message. It just stays in watched items list.
What kind of listing method is this ? Isn't the seller paying fees each time ?

LeicaLad 

I've watched one frame be consistently re-listed for more than TWO years!

You'd think the seller would take the hint, eh?

I don't think the 29 day BIN listings are treated the same as auctions.

southpawboston

Honestly, eBay should have a policy wherein if an item isn't sold in xx days, the price has to be lowered by a fixed percentage (like 10%) to relist it. I'm really irked by sellers who clog up the search results with crap priced at 2-3 times it's market value, and listed for what seems like perpetuity. Really, can't these sellers get the hint that no one is going to buy that crap at that those prices?

sailorbenjamin

I think you get these kinds of listings for free if you sign up for the $15 a month Ebay store. There's a 24" Schwinn beach cruiser, incomplete and incorrect for $400 here. Been there a looong time, too.

Homebrew01

Well this guy must be going broke then because he only has 2 bikes for sale, and $15 a month for a year+ is a lot of money ....

Chombi

Heck, there's a bunch of Mavic handlebars overpriced and collecting dust at eBay for almost a year now. What is bad is, everyone else selling Mavic bars are pricing them close to what the yoho had his at $200+ - $300+ (I got my NOS Mavic 350 bars last year for like 68 bucks!)....so they now all just sit there for months with no bids.
I noticed the same with a bunch of mafac levers too.

Chombi

wrk101

Its better than that, the first 50 listings, EVERY MONTH, are free. They just bumped the final price fees to compensate. Just about negates the purpose of opening a store, unless you are going to list a lot of stuff. I tend to list 10 to 15 items a week, so this change is working pretty well.

While you guys are focused on bikes, I have sold some really low volume items, where it can take months before an interested buyer comes along. Now on bikes, there is enough demand where a bike realistically priced should move.

Fissile

Yup. I find this really annoying as well. Not only does it fill up the search results with useless, overpriced trash, it encourages every other noob to ask 10X what his crappy backyard shed find is really worth.

southpawboston

And eBay probably likes this because the higher the price, the higher the listing fee.

Snydermann

Whatever you do, do not write the seller and explain the true value of their item and make a reasonable offer. I never do that and I never get a discounted price. I've never paid $35.00 for a saddle that was listed for a year for $90.00, never happens. . . . don't waste your time.

wrk101

Another on the never do list, never make a reasonable, but low, offer on a buy it now or best offer auction. I never do it, it never works, OK, it does work, but just don't do it!!!

Alan Edwards

Theres a purple/white Ironman for 650$ and he hasn't fixed the tires or adjusted anything, the bike is not ridable. Called him because he's local and he thinks he'll get it because the bike is "rare". One man one dream.

Homebrew01

You can put a price range in your search. I had a saved search for moderately priced wheels, with a high limit for price, to filter out the super duper wheels.

tugrul

What about real low volume items, like this NOS Miyata Team frame/fork?

A forum member bought one of them.

Fissile

I've been looking for a 1 inch threaded steel fork for some time, I've seen this ad gotta be for two years now. You'd think that the seller would drop the price to $10 to clear the thing out after two years of collecting dust, but nope. It's been $99 dollars for two years. Hope springs eternal.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Zebrakenko-2...item43a67a7cd3

bobn

How about the guy who lists an item and doesn't get any bites. Then he increases the price and doesn't get any bites. Then he increases the price again! I was waiting for the price to go down, not up. Go figure. I just gave up.

cpsqlrwn

I would like eBay to require a $100 fee to have the word "rare" in a listing.

cpsqlrwn

After seeing this listing.....

https://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-Handmad...item4aae8dfe07

maybe the fee needs to be $250!

southpawboston

That's actually a proven tactic. I've seen items not sell at a low price, then sell when relisted for a higher price. Similarly, I've seen an item not get any bites for weeks with a "Buy it now" price not much higher than the staring bid, then once someone placed a bid, things snowballed and the bidding ended up going beyond the Buy it Now price. This happened on a frame I wanted to buy. I watched it not move for weeks as I hemmed and hawed over the Buy it Now price. I figured no one wanted it at that price, so I put a bid in instead, confident I could get it cheaper that way. Just before closing, the bidding shot $50 past the original BIN price. I also had that happen with an item I was selling on eBay, but it was a smaller item not worth much, and the final bid was only a few dollars over the BIN price I had set for it. Lesson: if the BIN price is reasonable and you want the item, just grab it, don't go all cheap and try to save a few dollars by foregoing the BIN price and underbidding.

Toeslider

I don't remember the details off the top of my head, but I was selling some custom-made photographic prints a while back on ebay using the 29 day renewing auction format. I was being billed $1 a month for the auction, whether I sold anything or not. Of course they ding you for a higher final value fee on the other side by doing it that way, but for certain items it makes sense.

Lets say you have a bike that someone MIGHT pay $500 for, but it won't sell quickly at that price. Maybe a good deal on that bike would be $200-$250. If you're not in any hurry to sell it, or maybe don't want to sell it that bad, you can advertise it on ebay this way for $12 a year. Not a bad way to go, in hopes of that one buyer coming along that can't live without your bike.

Remember, ebay is a service for SELLERS too. Some people just have the need to complain no matter what. The ones that complain about overpriced listings are usually the same ones that complain that they can't get a fair price for the stuff they are trying to sell. Deals are out there, and so are buyers. Just ignore the stuff that doesn't fit your needs. No one is forcing you to buy it.

Zumkopf

Slightly OT, but there's a fair amount of research on buyers' reaction to pricing. Turns out an item priced at $99.99 will often sell better than the same item priced at $95 or even $90. The theory seems to be that the buyer thinks the former item should be $100 or more -- but it's less! -- while the latter items are believed to be priced at full value. Go figure.

himespau 

I think that's why gas is charged at a price ending in 9/10 of a cent (something I think should be illegal since they always round up as you can't pay with part of a penny).

Fissile

I'm not a marketing expert, you're probably right. I picked that auction as an example because it's so far out on price only someone totally detached from reality would pay that much money for such a thing. Zebrakenko bikes were run of the mill Japanese bikes sold in department stores back in the 70's, not bottom of the barrel, but not high quality either. As far as I know the bikes have no collector value. That fork also doesn't have much appeal from a utility standpoint either. Cheap steel, stamped dropouts and the headset race seat is probably the old JIS standard of 27mm instead of the current 26.4mm. If you want just a replacement fork, you'd be better off getting a new threaded Nashbar carbon fork for $70. Like I said, I'm just amazed at what some eBay sellers will try.