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| (Forum Home)--->(Seller Forum)--->(Success rate and experiences of penny auction sellers) |
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| Seller: Hagrid(53-0-0) | Post#1 - Posted: 02/05/2010 at 05:21:20 |
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I am not a high volume seller but I am an example of how the penny auctions work.I had a three barrel set, Mossberg 500 20 ga .Bird barrel unfired, a ported rifled barrel and a smooth bore slug barrel. I listed that shotgun four times. here and on another site. Starting bid 175.00. I never got a single bite. I ran it 10 days at a time. I was allowed to sell as a penny auctioneer and listed it for a shorter period. I had my first bid five minutes after it opened and sold it for 302.00. The power of penny auctions is amazing. I will never list any other way. trapper |
| Seller: Bubba J(105-0-0) | Post#2 - Posted: 02/05/2010 at 07:41:26 |
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Hagrid: After getting hosed on a few Penny Auctions (no guns though) I lost my faith in them. However, after receiving some advice from a couple others here, I have listed a couple guns and did OK on them. I feel that used firearms are the best and more profitable items to sell using this venue. any other types of items are a crap shoot in my opinion. FR&G |
| Seller: Hagrid(53-0-0) | Post#3 - Posted: 02/05/2010 at 12:02:25 |
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Jim, I only sell guns. I am a hobbyist at best and my feedback shows it. I don't try to make money but it is nice when I do. Generally, I sell to buy something else. Checks in the mail for the boots. trapper |
| Former Seller: selling4cash(10-0-0) | Post#4 - Posted: 03/04/2010 at 19:35:36 |
| (no avatar) | Well, it's a Penny auction, so you KNOW someone will bid $1 on it, just in case everyone else misses it! With my recent sales, I wasn't happy with several of them. I thought they should have brought more, given the prices for similar (or identical) items. OTOH, with one rifle, I tried 3 times with a reserve price and a BIN, but no takers. However, when I put it in a Penny auction (in my case, I don't yet qualify for true Penny auctions, so I started at $0.01), it sold for $100 above the BIN that I had the last time I had it listed! Go figure! In the end, you'll be happy with some, regret the others. You play the game (the gun WILL sell), you take your chances! But at least it sold, and you can move on to the others! You might do a search for your item, then list it at 95% of what the others are priced at. If it doesn't sell, re-list it at 90%, and so on. Eventually, the price will match the TRUE market value, not what you think the value should be. |
| Former Seller: slumlord44(12-0-0) | Post#5 - Posted: 03/04/2010 at 19:56:04 |
| (no avatar) | As a buyer I normaly will not bid on an item that has a minimum bid that is close to or higher than what I consider the item is worth. Once the bidding gets going people will tend to bid more. |
| Seller: WallyM3(47-0-0) | Post#6 - Posted: 03/04/2010 at 20:14:01 |
| (no avatar) | I've been mulling over selling one or two particular pieces I have as penny auctions. I don't have the OK yet, but I'm getting close to 50 positive feedbacks, both as a buyer and a seller combined, which I think meets the requirements. I've not seen either of these guns on any auction site, and no comps either, really. If I go down on these, I could go down financially. Is it worth the risk? Well, there are many who say that they won't even consider a "Red R" auction, and a seller has to take that into consideration. I have taken some awful beatings on some things that way, and I've been rewarded, too. But, I'm running out of stuff to keep the banks at a distance and the wife's chemo med bills taken care of. I just don't know what the answer is. There is a strong and frequently valid strategy that is based on the notion that bidders will enter a contest and become invested in it. I've seen this happen and have benefited from it. I've also left serious change on the table. Well, that's business for ya. When I ran over $2 billion in portfolios, I used to tell clients, "Hey, if you have your health, you've got your wealth."
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| Seller: Hagrid(55-0-0) | Post#7 - Posted: 03/05/2010 at 06:21:07 |
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Wally, The main thing that happens is traffic. The little penny symbol draws three times as many hits as a basic auction. More traffic more hits, more interest in the item being sold. I notice hits in the 400-600 range on a 10/22 I had up for a penny and the Mossberg I mentioned had a couple of hundred hits as a basic with a starting bid and over 400 as a penny. Better mouse trap????? trapper |
| Former Seller: selling4cash(10-0-0) | Post#8 - Posted: 03/05/2010 at 12:06:33 |
| (no avatar) | I'm a little bummed that there are requirements to get that "Penny Auction" title. IMHO, anything that starts at $0.01 should fall into that category, regardless of the history of the Seller. What's the logic in the special requirements? |
| Seller: Elitist(138-0-0) | Post#9 - Posted: 03/05/2010 at 13:25:22 |
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1) Don't sell an item on a penny auction UNLESS you have been confirmed as a "Penny seller" and have the symbol AA uses. That's what attracts the attention. Just starting it at a penny...you're going to lose money because no one is going to have their attention called to it by that little sympbol. 2) Don't sell anything OTHER than firearms on penny auctions. Guns sell well because that's what people are looking for here and everyone wants a bargain...so when a Super-Pooper Hotshot Manglum comes up on a penny auction, it draws lots of bids because people notice it and want it. Other stuff, not so. I once sold a complete set of Cutts Compensator choke tubes with an auction starting at a penny...and I sold it for a penny. You can't back out once a bid is placed. 3) use a reasonable bid increment proportional to your item. If you're selling a S&W Model 10 on a penny auction, and you expect it to go for $225, don't put a $10 increment, USE A $1 INCREMENT. If you're selling a Rigby double rifle that is worth $25K, then using a bid increment of $100 might be justified. 4) Have a Buy It Now Price that's reasonable and a bit above what you think the gun will sell for. If you think it will fetch $275, use a BIN of $285 or so. You will be amazed at how fast a reasonable BIN will sell any item, and how many people will pay that extra $10-25 to nail down an item the really want. A PENNY AUCTION ISN'T ONE STARTING AT ONE CENT: IT'S ONE THAT HAS THE "PENNY AUCTION" SYMBOL ASSOCIATED WITH IT. |
| Former Seller: OLD RATTLER(203-0-0) | Post#10 - Posted: 03/05/2010 at 14:37:49 |
| (no avatar) | Post #8; There is more to being a PENNY AUCTIONEER than just having 50 positive feedbacks. Being a PENNY AUCTIONEER involves meeting the criteria AA requires and sends a message to bidders that you are TRUSTWORTHY. Just starting an auction at a penny does not reflect the integrity that a PENNY AUCTIONEER does and to do it any other way would defeat the purpose of PENNY auctions. |