So are you saying 920 items is too many for one seller to offer at one time? But if so, why? When they are all from one seller, they are far easier to look through, and you only pay one shipping charge if you buy ten items, instead of 10 shipping charges if you buy from ten sellers. If the single seller splits those 920 items over several weeks, then all the advantages of ease of looking and combined shipping go out the window.
And having so many items greatly increases the chances of real bargains, and that after all is a large part of what keeps the bidders coming back over and over. When I started selling movie posters full-time 15 years ago, the "prevailing wisdom" was that you could not offer too many at one time, or you would "flood the market", and drive prices lower. My contention then and now is that if you offer lots of items you bring out LOTS more bidders, and the lure of bargains results in lots of high prices (although there are still enough true bargains to bring the bidders back). If selling a lesser number of items "would generate even higher prices if your bidders weren't having to spread their money around on so many different posters every week" as you suggest, that would NOT be good for my business, for without any bargains the bidders would say, "why buy here when everything goes high" and my business would drastically fall off. I contend that is exactly what is the fatal flaw in auctions that have high reserves. Once a bidder participates one time they see there is no chance of getting a bargain (whether or not there was another bidder) and their interest level in future auctions from that company greatly diminishes.
Just my opinion!
Bruce
At 12:43 PM 9/24/2004, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Bruce,
OK, I'm gonna ask the question... no, it's not "Why do you want to be President"? It is:
What's so desirable about auctioning off so many items at one time every week? I mean what, exactly, is so beneficial about this? I know the official line you give in your newsletter -- which is that is more convenient to offer a large selection so people can buy more than one and save a few bucks on combined shipping. But that would be still be true if you were listing maybe 300 or 400 at a time as well.
You even admit in your newsletter that "I know it can be difficult going through 8 zillion listings..." and so offer some tools which help -- but that doesn't answer the question:
Why is it so wonderful to put up so many items all at once every week? Doesn't this contribute to the much-lamented attitude that so many claim eBay has created -- which is that "Oh, there are just millions of posters out there. If I don't bid up on this one, there will be another along next week..."
Now, I know you get top-dollar for the stuff you auction, but is that really because you offer so many at one time or because you've been around forever and are an excellent marketer and have developed a large loyal following who simply prefer to buy from you and so you generate more competitive bidding than most other sellers can? If that's the real reason, wouldn't it stand to reason that you would generate even higher prices if your bidders weren't having to spread their money around on so many different posters every week? If that happened, wouldn't you make the same amount of money but have to work a little less hard and your sellers realize even higher prices?
Just wondering.
-- JR
- ----- Original Message -----
- From: Bruce Hershenson
- To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Sent: Friday, September 24, 2004 9:15
- Subject: [MOPO] MoPo: FA: 920 inserts on eBay end Tuesday!
- 920 inserts, all at 99 cents with NO reserves! Has anyone ever
- auctioned so many inserts at one time, with no reserve on any of them? I
- seriously doubt it!
- ALL these started at just 99 cents with NO RESERVES on any of them! This
- is a really great chance for collectors to possibly get inserts (which take
- up far less space on your wall than one-sheets, and yet often solely lose
- "dead" space in the design, often giving them superior images to
- one-sheets) from good titles for super bargain prices, and how many times
- will that happen to you over your collecting career?
- I added these 920 inserts on Tuesday, September 21st (starting at around 7
- PM CST) as 7 day items, which means they end Tuesday, September 28th,
- starting at the same time. Be sure to check them out sometime before they
- end (either by going to http://tinyurl.com/2cxv5 or by using the link from
- my HOME page, http://www.emovieposter.com or by looking me up under my eBay
- user ID, emovieposter.com). Good luck on whatever you may bid on!
- Given there are so many places you can purchase vintage movie memorabilia,
- doesn't it make sense to buy where there are no reserves, the items are
- accurately described, the bidding is run by a third party (eBay, not me,
- and I have no clue how much you are bidding) and when you win an item or
- items it is shipping promptly, incredibly well packed, and you are only
- billed a single $8 U.S. shipping charge (which includes a strong tube and
- insurance), no matter how many items you purchase in a week?
- I know it can be extremely difficult to look over 920 inserts in just a
- few days, but remember you can use Bruce Hershenson eBay Auction Gallery
- (which is located at http://www.emovieposter.com/section_ebay/gallery.cfm )
- which has large thumbnails of all our eBay items, and links from each item
- to the actual eBay auction. Best of all, this gallery is searchable! You
- will really find this a great benefit if you want to look at all of our
- items this week! You can simply browse all of our current items by viewing
- the images in this gallery (48 to a page) in our number order, or you can
- use our search to only see thumbnails of your specific search terms (in our
- number order)! NOTE THAT THIS GALLERY HAS A RECENT BID PRICE LISTED BY
- EACH ITEM, AND THE PRICES ARE UPDATED AT LEAST ONCE A DAY!
- Thanks!
- Bruce
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