Ebayers?

[catnapper]

I'm getting frustrated! Ash and I put some baby clothes up for auction.... and not one person has bid! Is it normal to not have any bids until the day hte auction is up?

We're starting to feel like we're not going to sell our items and will be stuck with the whopping $2.15 posting bill

Ahhhh... and we were soooo excited to make a fortune off ebay. All I can see is that we spent hours photogrpahing the stuff, editing the photos, writing descriptions, and nobody is seemingly interested! Did we do anything wrong?

[Maresche]

Bidding at the very last second is an extremely popular way to bid. It's called "snipping" and many bidders do it and many others dislike it.

Baby clothes though are a pretty popular item so you may not get many bids on that fact alone. I'm not sure clothes do well on Ebay at all. Sorry.

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

No, it's not uncommon to not receive any bids until the final minutes actually. People are becoming very ebay savvy these days and will wait until the wee moments to bid, hoping to keep the final price down. I learned early on that good pictures are a necessity, but do not spend hours upon hours getting it just right - you're just wasting your time. Also, did you research your items on ebay before you posted? You need to do that to make sure you have them priced right, and also to check our your competition. If there are a ton of baby clothes on ebay, it's possible you might not get any bids at all.

Ebay is a weird thing. The items we had that we thought would bring a ton of money brought almost nothing, and the items we thought were worthless brought a ton of money - go figure. All you can do is try and hopefully in the long run you'll make way more than the few posting fees for the items you didn't sell.

Question though....the baby isn't even born yet and already you're selling items you bought for it?

[jazzcat]

Are you new to ebay - I mean zero feeback? That will sometimes keep people away from bidding when it's a newbie. Do you accept PayPal? I usually only bid on auctions that take PayPal because I don't like to send checks or deal with money orders and I get some level of protection with PayPal.
I've never sold or bid on baby clothes so I'm not sure what more you may need to do but those are basics. Is it possible your starting price is too high?

Also, I typically "snipe" and bid at the very last moment so maybe you have some of those waiting.

[Ally Cat's Mommy]

Would you post a link to one of your ads so we could have a look and give you some feedback - I buy quite a lot of stuff off eBay, but certain wording etc puts me off bidding.

[catnapper]

LOL Debbie! The clothes we are selling were given to us by a friend of a relative who gave the clothes to by mom who gave the clothes to us.... follow that? Good, we're not sure if WE do! They are cute clothes, but the size is either wrong for the season where the baby will fit them or we happen ot already have another one just like it! Amazing but true, we have duplicates of a lot of clothes already thans to family and friends who gave us stuff already.

We tried selling them at Once Upon a Child but they aren't taking that size at the moment.

My photos are good (I think), nice and clear, with descriptions at the top.

We listed them in two categories because the sizes fall between two categories.

Its listed a Lot of clothing.

I have only ebayed once in my life -- and got 100% positive feedback

So, now that we were sure these clothes would do well and aren't, should I run around the house looking for stupid stuff that we're sure WON'T sell? And then we'll make a mint off it?

[catnapper]

Sorry Julie, here's the link (duh! for forgetting to post it!) Please tell me if I put in anything offesnive! I was just following hat other seemingly successful ebayers wrote in their ads.

Kim's Ebay listing

[Lizzie]

I can't give any help because I've never bought or sold on ebay, but I do have some questions for those with experience if you don't mind broadening this thread? Tell me if you do, and I'll open a new one.

I would really like some input from those of you who have sold on ebay. For instance, how do you get a PayPal account? Since I'm a newbie, is it best for me to offer locally only so that people can see the items in person? What I want to sell is some Beatles memorabilia going back to the early 1960's. I have special magazines from their first trip to the US and, I think, one to Scandinavia, plus the very first editions of the Beatles magazine. Do you think anyone would be interested in a ticket stub from a 1963 Beatles concert?

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

For instance, how do you get a PayPal account?

Go to Paypal.com, create a log-in then create an account. They'll walk you through all the steps. You WILL have to give personal information that most people warn you about giving out over the internet, but just make sure the https: is at the beginning of the URL and you should be fine - I've never had any problems. As for getting started on Ebay, they offer a ton of info for newbies. I read through some of it, but I learn from doing so the best thing for me was to just jump in and start an auction! If I were you, I would save my Beatles stuff until you're a little more experienced. Start out with items you really don't care about just to see how it works. Also, if you want to get the most for your items, DON'T only offer them locally. I find most people will ask questions if they're unsure of what they're looking at through pictures, but most don't need to see the item in person. Although, you need to be honest when describing the item. Don't try and gloss over obvious flaws and make the buyer think he is getting a pristine item if it is not. Trust me, if they really want it they will take it, flaws or not.

A few months ago I started selling a ton of stuff on ebay. I started out with only 1 review, and that was a "buy" review so it really wasn't helpful now that I was selling. I didn't find that people were put off by that at all.

One word of advice. Put right in your listing that you will not end listings early so please don't ask. Until I did that, I was getting requests to end auctions early all the time. I started out with a low starting bid to get peoples interest....for example. One item I started bidding at $9.99. Almost immediately someone offered me $75.00 for the item. Thankfully, by that time I had wised up and told him no, even though it sounded like a fantastic price at that time. We ended up getting about $225.00 for the item, which made the $75.00 offer look pretty measly. So stick to your guns and don't end auctions early. There are much more savvy people out there just waiting to prey on the novice - don't be taken in! I could go on and on, but I too, don't want to hijack this thread.

Kim, don't you have a ghost living in your stairwell? I bed he'd bring a boatload of money!

[Donnaj4962]

I am an ebay buyer, but not a seller.I took a look at your ad, and I think it looks GREAT! Much better than most... (I really like being able to click on individual items to view.)!!! Your descriptions of the items was very good, in my opinion.

I have never bought clothing on Ebay, but my one concern is that many expectant parents typically get these sizes of clothing at Baby showers. I don't know if that has anything to do with your not getting any bids, was just an observation.

Good luck! I hope that you get some last minute bidders and the items sell!

[catnapper]

Lizzie, my neighbor would LOVE to see about the Beatles stuff -- he's got a sandwich shop name the Yellow Submarine and its filled with Beatles stuff. A die-hard fan!

I forgot to answer Lori's question: Yes, it has Paypal as the payment option. I want it as the only payment option unless someone emails me and asks if they can send alternative payment. I'll have to feel really good about them before I do accept other forms of payment.

[chrangharris]

The add looks great! I think I would have broken the items down into the sizes- sell all size 0-3 together, 3-6 together, etc. When I'm looking for clothes, it is normally for a specific size and not such a broad range- that could just be me though!

Do we know that Ashley is having a girl or is it still a surprise?