Re: I'm running an ebay pricing experiment. We should all watch.
- From: JonPin <jkjeepers@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 1 Jan 2012 13:52:10 -0500
Ebay is too fickle of an environment to run experiments. If you had 5
machines to sell in the same manor then yes it would be a good
experiment.
I had an ebay business years ago that I ran all sales at a 99 cents no
reserve format. I had the same items month to month, so I made out on
some and lost on others. The law of averages works out here.
But then I started selling some pinball parts and machines that I
purchased from an op in the same manor. Yes, some would win with
multiple people wanting that one and bidding it up, yet other things
would lose big time because no one showed up. I still was working in
volume of sales and it averaged out over the range of sales, but if you
looked at market value on the particular titles it made no sense for the
data.
Example: Sold 2 machines both .99 no reserve auction a month apart.
One was a Slick Chick, no back glass, decent PF no plastics, rough
cabinet, but complete with a spare junk playfield. It sold for $425 and
was shipped to California. I believed it to be a $200 sale, but the
buyer had been looking for a while and was pleased to find one, even a
restorable one. Most of all he was happy with the price. This would be
a high price for the game thus making the price guides look low for the
game.
Second was a Gottlieb Flipper Cowboy, repo backglass, very good PF with
plastics, wrong art on good condition cabinet, and complete except upper
half of shooting backbox cowboy. It had a TON of interest...many off
ebay offers, but I held the auction out in fairness. It sold at $401.
Think I am joking? Check out Boston Pinball, I own the lowest price for
that machine in the sold column. I am still a little bitter. It should
have been more, I could have sold it for more, but NO ONE showed up to
bid. Some people admitted to me expecting that it would go through the
roof so they did not bid. They guy that won bid $401 and went to bed,
shocked in the morning. I sold it to him at that price and did not say
it fell off the truck. In this case I set the low mark and in a sense
devalued the game in the data making the true market value for the game
seem high.
Law of averages on the 2 says that I won and lost and I am even though I
think I lost more on the Flipper Cowboy than I made on Slick Chick. It
all worked out, but take either sale individually and it makes no sense.
Market value is what an item would sell for in a normal sale. The
auction format in ebay has too many factors and loopholes to determine
true fair market value without being able to look at other contributing
factor like auction format/duration, shipping policy, location of game,
quality of description, pictures, advertising on RGP, ect...
All this being said I still use Boston Pinball for BASIC valuation and
then I add in RGP values, Craigslist, and Mr Pinball Guide for when I
price a machine to sell. The thing is to know your market. If you
couldn't get it sold here then this was just not the right market at
that price for that game. It may very well sell higher on ebay because
it just got exposed to a larger audience that is not addicted to RGP
like alot of us here.
Just my 2 cents...
and I wish you the best with your auction.
Jon
--
JonPin
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