Ebay Shocker!

[disneymom3]

Okay, I have always hesitated to list toys on ebay that were not new because I figured they were not worth the hassle of listing, packaging etc and would not bring in very much money anyhow. I tried to have a garage sale a few weeks ago and the weather was lousy and had very few people come. So, here i am with all these cleaned up organized toys ready to sell and there they sit.

Alright, decided to bite the bullet and go for it and threw several of them on for listings. One which ended last night that I started at $2.99 hoping it would just get ONE bid, sold for $12.50. There is no way on this green earth that I would have been able to sell this thing for more than $3 at a garage sale! Then the really shocker is, I have a toy on there that I would have sold at my garage sale for $3--had it priced and everything. The auction doesn't end until Sunday and it is at $31.00!!!!! Oh my goodness!!

I gotta say, I have no idea why anyone would want to pay $31 for a simple used toy. I don't know, maybe they are in hot demand and I just didn't see the value. But gotta tell ya, my kids don't play with this thing much and they never did.

This is cool!

 

[princessmomma]

So tell us, what were the items?

 

[barb45]

Ya - let us in on it!

 

[imsayin]

I predict your $31 item will sell for much more! The beauty of ebay is that you can get WAY more than you would at a garage sale for certain items. I always look my toys up before garage-sale-ing them. Some people collect toys or just have to have an item that isn't made anymore.

 

[disneymom3]

I will tell you but if you have one you have to promise not to list it before my auction ends!! It is a Tomy Pull N Pop Dome. Honestly, I think it is kind of a silly toy. I am wondering if it is used for kids with Autism or visual problems or something. It is definitely a cause and effect kind of a thing.

imsayin--I KNOW that is why I am in such shock. With three more days to go, I can't believe it has gone so high already. That last minute sniping is going to be darn fun!!

 

[welovedis]

This one recently sold for $44.00!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=19181&item=5975904572&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

But it looks like it was possibly relisted and is the one that ends later today (5 hours left). Wonder what is up with that?

I also wonder why with 2 of these selling, that one is going for almost $20 more than the other?

GL with your auctions!

 

[disneymom3]

It is the same seller for those two, but I think it is two different toys. The balls are different in them. Two of the other current ones are mine. One ends Sunday and is at $31 and the other ends tomorrow and is only at about $13. Only at $13 I say, it's still $10 more than a garage sale! The price difference is really weird though especially as mine each have 6 balls and as far as I can tell there should be no difference. I even used the same description for them!

 

[mrsboz]

How old is this toy and how much did you originally pay for it? I am amazed at the prices that people will pay for things. My friend and I are doing at flea market at our library on Saturday. I hope that we do half as well. Lucky you!

 

[Donna]

Just a general question regarding running two similar listings at the same time. Do you think you are in competition with yourself doing this? Wouldn't your auctions do much better running one, waiting til the listing is up and then running the other? People will not bid if they see another one up at the same time and going for a lower price. I've had similar items but only list one at a time and have found the final prices will go much higher this way. Makes for much better bidding wars at the end!

 

[Texan Mouseketeer]

We have had people pay more for something than they can get it for in the store - and I mean before shipping is added on!

 

[mobmilli]

My Ariel & Friends pvc set sold for over 30.00 a few weeks ago. It was many many years old & you can't get most of the character's nowadays in the current pvc sets. There's no way I'd ever get anything close to that at yard sale.

Never underestimate the $$$ of EBAY!!

 

[Brendita]

TELL ME ABOUT IT.
I used to collect McD Disney happy meal toys.
I don't have the room to display in this house.
Got tried of them being in storage.
I put 5 sets on Ebay made over $60.00 that was without pictures.
So I'm going to be taking more out of storage.

 

[Az Pirates]

Hey,

I have one of those!
In fact I put it out at our big community-wide yard sale in April and no one was interested. Guess I'll pull it out of the donate box and put it up on e-bay.
I promise I'll wait until well after your auction ends Julie.
I hope you have lots of last minute bids and get a great price for it!

btw, my youngest loved that toy and actually played with it quite a bit - but has long since outgrown it. I even bought an extra set of balls for it in case we lost a few. Possible selling point!

 

[JudicialTyranny]

That's what drives me crazy about Ebay (as a buyer). I don't know what drives people to overpay for things - maybe it's just the competition of trying to win an auction.

I have been looking at some baseball equipment for my son, and I've been outbid by people on items that, if you add in shipping, would cost less to buy at a sporting goods store - even after paying sales tax. My goal in using Ebay is to try to save money.

It's the same thing with some computer equipment. I was trying to find some inexpensive network switches for my kids' school, and I get outbid by people who pay more for used equipment than it would cost to buy it new!

For most things, I don't even bother trying to put in a bid until about a minute before the auction ends - you just have to hope to catch a time when some nut isn't paying attention and making crazy bids.

 

[disneymom3]

Just a general question regarding running two similar listings at the same time. Do you think you are in competition with yourself doing this? Wouldn't your auctions do much better running one, waiting til the listing is up and then running the other? People will not bid if they see another one up at the same time and going for a lower price. I've had similar items but only list one at a time and have found the final prices will go much higher this way. Makes for much better bidding wars at the end!

Yes, it was dumb timing on my part. Basically I was listing a bunch of stuff and got carried away and put them both on there. I usually space things out better than that. I sold some china a couple of years ago and listed one place setting at a time. I would co-list some of the accessory pieces but not more than one place setting. I messed up this time and my only excuse is that I really didn't care how much I got for it.

AZ Pirates--thanks for waiting! I hope yours does really well too. Mine didn't sell at the garage sale either and boy I am glad now!!

 

[disneysteve]

That's what drives me crazy about Ebay (as a buyer). I don't know what drives people to overpay for things - maybe it's just the competition of trying to win an auction.

Competition is part of it. But another part is regional availability of items. We often don't realize that something that local stores are flooded with may be totally unavailable in another part of the country (or in other countries).

For example, my cousin had me list a Franklin Mint diecast car model. We live about 45 minutes from the Franklin Mint factory so you see these things everywhere around here. He had tried to sell it at several car shows and the most anyone offered him was $60. I put it on ebay and sold it to a guy in Alaska for nearly $150. Franklin Mint models just aren't so easy to come by out there.

I've also had some great sales to foreign buyers. I've shipped to nearly every major country at one time or another. Many products are strictly sold in the US and are a real find for someone in England or Japan or Germany, for example. They will quite happily pay well over retail price to get their hands on one.

 

[disneymom3]

Steve--I have considered selling internationally, but am wondering about shipping. I have shipped to Canada and that was no big deal, but is shipping overseas a big difference? I have heard that you end up with higher prices oftentimes if you will ship to other countries.

 

[disneysteve]

Steve--I have considered selling internationally, but am wondering about shipping. I have shipped to Canada and that was no big deal, but is shipping overseas a big difference? I have heard that you end up with higher prices oftentimes if you will ship to other countries.

I've sold to UK, Germany, France, Japan, Belgium, Netherlands, Mexico and more. As far as I'm concerned, a sale is a sale. Why pass up potential buyers just because I have to fill out a little post office paperwork to ship. My foreign buyers generally pay with a money order in US dollars or they have mailed cash (which always surprises me). I'm not positive because I haven't been selling for a while but I think they can use Paypal now too.

 

[disneymom3]

So, the paperwork would be the same to Europe as it is to Canada right? Something about crossing the ocean has led me not to do it I guess. How silly is that??

 

[disneysteve]

So, the paperwork would be the same to Europe as it is to Canada right?

Yep. Same form.