Read Craig Stark's BOOKTHINK article titled "Reviving Your Business".
He talks about how he had drifted away from eBay selling, and had been focusing on fixed price selling venues. He said he found he has been pricing higher, and waiting however long it would take to find a buyer at his price.
Finding his sales in a bit of a slump (the economy, don'tcha know), he turned back to eBay auctions, and was pleasantly surprised at the results.
The part I related to was that in his watching the bids, and then realizing higher-than-expected prices, it got him excited about selling again.
That's why I am always saying, 'I loves me my auctions'.
Here's an excerpt, but treat yourself and read the whole article...
This had the additional effect of inspiring me to put even more auctions up, and before I knew it, I had more active eBay auctions running than I'd had in years. I not only felt revived but fully engaged in my business again, and stuff that had been collecting dust on my shelves because I'd sort of written it off as not quite worth bothering with was now, once again, starting to look as though it had value.
Something else. A few of my items did close out at mildly disappointing prices, but the majority of them exceeded my expectations. One particular auction closed at over $500 more than I thought it would!
It's always difficult to explain these things, but in tough economic times buyers do look for bargains, and auctions with low starting bids very much are bargains - until they get bid up, that is. But even when they get bid up, the bidder's sense of getting a bargain often remains because it's the bidders who are setting the price, dictating the outcome, not the seller. "
[This was posted 2/3/09, and ebay has changed alot, but can still be viable. Lots of people are still having this discussion - link.]
