Skip to main content

Banner Sponsors

Tedsby - Handmade teddy bears and other cute stuffed animals. Hundreds of teddy artists from all over the world and thousands of OOAK creations.
Teddy Bear Academy - Online teddy bear making classes

Amanda Pandy Potter Bears
Staffordshire, UK
Posts: 1,864

Does anyone recommend buy it now on ebay when selling bears. The only trouble I can see with it for myself is I don't have an average price my bears go for. Would I look really greedy if I set it too high, too low and you undervalue youreslf. Hmmm.....

Anyone got any thoughts or experiences in this?

clare14 Country Bears
England
Posts: 3,066

Hi Amanda!!

I thought this very same thing when I listed my new bear tonight, I'll be very interested to hear from others...  bear_original

I saw your new bears listed, they are exquisite!!   bear_wub

TamiL Dolls N Dreams
Aurora, Colorado
Posts: 6,454

I have not sold any bears that way, but have done so in the past for my dolls.
You would just have to set them for a price you would be comfortable with.

Some bidders like it so they won't get into a bidding war toward the end of the
auction. Anytime I would list one with a buy it now option it would usually go pretty fast.
Maybe you could try a few of your bears that way and see how it goes.
Anyways good luck with your auctions.

Judi Luxembears
Luxemburg, Wisconsin
Posts: 7,379

Hi Amanda.
The only drawback I can see to this:  Let's say you have a buy-it-now price for your bear set at retail.  Ebay gets a cut of this.  So you're not any better selling it on ebay than your website.

I would set your price where you are comfortable, like Tami said.  Art is a difficult thing to price.  What I like about ebay is that you can often get much higher than retail...that is what an auction is all about.

Laura Lynn Teddy Bear Academy
Nicholasville, KY
Posts: 3,653
Website

Laura Lynn Banner Sponsor

It depends on my mood bear_original  Sometimes I use a Buy it Now and sometimes I don't.  If I do use it it will be a little higher than my regular retail price to compensate for the eBay fees like Judi pointed out.

nettie scotland
Posts: 2,160
Website

I sell about half my bears with B.I.N Most of my bears go abroad and its hard to have an auction end at a time that is suitable for europe the us and australia so lots of my regulars like the B.I.N
A lot of my buyers know each other and don't like to bid against each other.I make my B.I.N a bit higher than my reserve would be to compensate for paying ebay fees and only having it shown for a small amount of time.I find now lots of my buyers have asked to be alerted to my auctions via ebay and they can go in the first few minutes.
Hope this helps
Diane xxx

bearlyart Canna Bear Paint
NY
Posts: 749

Yes, I agree with the others.  I have used a BIN on eBay bear sales, and I'll just put the BIN a level above my regular retail pricing.  Of course, then when it sells I always wonder... 'if it had just been an auction, would people have fought over it????'.  BINs are particularly nice for doing quick sales, though.

I think one question to ask yourself would be... when you ask a reasonable price for your bear on eBay, do you usually have one or two people bid on the bear, or many, many interested parties?  If you usually just get one or two bids on an auction, you might as well try the BIN.  Maybe that one interested party would be interested enough in the bear to pay a little more and not have to wait for the end of the auction.  However, if you routinely have people fight each other for your bears, unless your BIN price takes that into consideration and is even higher, you're probably better off letting your regulars cheerfully duke it out in an auction.

Hope this helps!
Kelly

Judi Luxembears
Luxemburg, Wisconsin
Posts: 7,379

Well put Kelly :clap:

Aleta - The Silly Bear The Silly Bear
Portland, Oregon
Posts: 3,119
Website

I'm probably not going to make any friends on this one....but keep in mind, this is only MY opinion.  I don't care for "Buy it Now".  I think it defeats the purpose of an auction.  If you're willing to sell your item for a BIN price, why not put it on your web site and avoid the eBay fees?  Providing you have a web site, of course.  In an auction setting I prefer to duke it out with other collectors rather than have one person come along and steal the cookie.  I find that, for me, I tend to start looking at other bears if certain artists bears are always snapped up using BIN.  But hey, that's just me.   bear_original

I do understand that eBay reaches a wider audience than perhaps a web site.  If you're using eBay as a tool for advertising, BIN kind of defeats that purpose.  When I list on eBay (which admittedly hasn't been awhile!) I try to have listings on my web site at the same time.  The "Me"  icon has a link to my web site so I'm able to use eBay to reach their audience as well.  Just food for thought.   bear_original

Warmest bear hugs,  :hug:
Aleta

Amanda Pandy Potter Bears
Staffordshire, UK
Posts: 1,864

Thanks everyone. It gets you thinking. It came about because someone asked if I had a buy it now price. I don't suppose it hurts to try. Good points though from Kelly. Some auctions get just a couple of collectors bidding, others more. I'm doing a red panda (the species, not the colour) so as its not the usual I could try it with that. I won't know unless I try it. If it does'nt seem right for me I've still got the auction part, plus it could be the wrong time, or bear. I also think it depends if you buy bears yourself, if I was bidding on something and it went with a buy it now I would be dissapointed, but there you go. Worth a try! :thumbsup:

Just had a funny thought. Not with bears but how many times have you seen people bidding on things in an auction and they bid higher than the sellers buy it now only listings. For the same product!!!! My husband has called me in many times to look at that. I could understand it if they trusted a certain seller more, but the same seller?  bear_wacko

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB

Banner Sponsors


Johnna's Mohair Store - Specializing in hand dyed mohair and alpaca
Past Time Bears - Artist bears designed and handcrafted by Sue Ann Holcomb