I listed an couple eBay auctions of a parted out 2012 Advent Calendar. I decided to be a rebel and start the bidding at $0.01 as an experiment. Little did I know that it draws people so well!!

Listing #1: 3 watchers, 5 bids

Listing #2: 2 watchers, 1 bid

Listing #3: 6 watchers, 3 bids

Listing #4: 2 watchers, 3 bids

Listing #5: 3 watchers, 5 bids

These are the results of the listings thus far and they have been posted for less than 24 hours!

I am sure that many of you already use this method, but for those of you who do not, give this a try for the next time you list something. Attracts bidders and watchers like poop attracts flies!

I've been experimenting a bit also on starting bids at $0.99 or starting them at the price I want to sell them for. Starting them low, you definitely get more bids and watchers, but not always a higher selling price. Example: I recently sold two Friends Stephanie's Pet Patrols. Started one at $0.99 and it finished at $12.56 with around 75 views, 14 watchers and 11 bids. The one I started at 12.00 ended at 12.50 and only had 4 watchers and 2 bids. Still need to experiment with charging shipping or offering Free shipping and different starting prices to get a good idea on what works best consistently.

Ya I am debating whether free shipping is the way to go especially if you are the lowest price ( fixed ). Other note, has anyone raised a price for a fixed item during an auction. I am tempted to do so but not sure if I should.

Ya I am debating whether free shipping is the way to go especially if you are the lowest price ( fixed ). Other note, has anyone raised a price for a fixed item during an auction. I am tempted to do so but not sure if I should.

I did Free Shipping and started at $0.01. Since these were fairly cheap auctions (max of 3 minibuilds from Advent Calendar), I figured it would be alright to experiment. Once I list something and it has a bid, then I don't change anything unless there was an error in the description of the item. If there was an error in the price (never happened yet) I would just end the listing if it didn't have any bids. If there were bids, I would let it play out and hope I get a fair return for it.

I listed an couple eBay auctions of a parted out 2012 Advent Calendar. I decided to be a rebel and start the bidding at $0.01 as an experiment. Little did I know that it draws people so well!!

Listing #1: 3 watchers, 5 bids

Listing #2: 2 watchers, 1 bid

Listing #3: 6 watchers, 3 bids

Listing #4: 2 watchers, 3 bids

Listing #5: 3 watchers, 5 bids

These are the results of the listings thus far and they have been posted for less than 24 hours!

I am sure that many of you already use this method, but for those of you who do not, give this a try for the next time you list something. Attracts bidders and watchers like poop attracts flies!

Keep us updated. I've wanted to try this, but I never had the right set to try it out. Hope it goes well for ya! (:

Ok, I will! I can't wait to find out the results and probably would have told everyone even if you didn't ask, Darth Lego!

I'm quite interested, too. I guess I'm worried that I might not get close to what I am hoping to get out of a given set.

Ok, I will! I can't wait to find out the results and probably would have told everyone even if you didn't ask, Darth Lego!

Ok, cool. Thanks Comicblast!

I'm quite interested, too. I guess I'm worried that I might not get close to what I am hoping to get out of a given set.

Me too. That is why I decided to start out with little sets/lots first to see how it works. For sets worth more than $75, I don't think starting at $0.01 is a good idea since you can only have an auction going for so long and it might not get the attention to get all the way up to $75. Try it out with a Battle Pack or something.

I should do this its just whenever i'm about to I get scared that I will sell it for like $5 when I want to sell it for $25.

I should do this its just whenever i'm about to I get scared that I will sell it for like $5 when I want to sell it for $25.

The decision to start an auction at $.01 is really going to depend on a ton of factors that you are only going to know from experience (e.***. how "in demand" the item is that you are selling, how many other competing auctions they are, etc).

In the ideal situation, you want to get 2 or more bidders getting into a "have to win the auction" frenzy/competition where they are driving the price up beyond what a Buy It Now would get.

In the old days when eBay charged you more for starting a listing at a higher price (insertion fee), it made sense to start auctions at $.01. Now that eBay will generally charge you only $.50 for a Buy It Now for a 30 day listing, why would a seller risk having an auction end at $15 when you could have sold it for $20 Buy It Now price just to save $.49? What are the chances that an auction would drive the price to $25? That's where the advanced knowledge of the item/demand/competition come into play.

You will notice that most listings on eBay are Buy It Now because sellers don't want to get stuck in a situation where an auction gets you a lower price than what you really need to not lose money after fees, shipping, etc.

Plus the idea of shadowing an auction, staying up late and trying to outbid people at the end gets old quickly. If there are Buy It Now listings at the eventual price that the auction is going to end at regardless (or even a couple of dollars more), why go through the hassle?

If you want to play the auction game and not get surprised at the final amount, start the bidding at the minimum price that you would be willing to accept (assuming only 1 person may bid on that auction).

And free shipping will definitely drive more people to your auction. Wouldn't you like free shipping on the items that you buy? Then so would your buyers. Think like them. Make your listings appeal to you as a buyer (nice pictures, good description aka professional) and they will attract more buyers/bidders.

And forget about reserve prices, buyers generally avoid those listings. Why waste time bidding on an auction with a reserve price because even if you are the high bidder but don't meet the reserve price, you won't get it and it will just piss you off. And if your high bid meets the reserve price, then you have just bid the reserve price, even if no one else is competing with you. As a buyer, I don't want to be forced to pay more unless there is someone else as competition. And eBay charges a higher insertion fee for reserve price auctions.

Wow! Thanks for the advice! I will definitely do this next time!!!

And for buying advice....don't believe that you are going to get a great deal by waiting on an auction and trying to bid at the end. EVERYONE thinks like that and they all think they can try to sneak in at the end and get a great deal. For example, say the Black Pearl is going to $150+ now. There is probably some auction where there's only a day left and it's only $90.. A ton of people are gonna think, "Hey, I can wait until the end and bid like $100 and get it". Then there's a mad rush in the last minute where people make crazy bids because they don't want to lose it for just $2 (The second highest bidder just "loses" by the minimum bid amount) and then they do something crazy like bid $175 to win it. Later they realize there was a Buy It Now for $160. Happens all the time. If you want to keep your sanity and not have to wait and bid frantically at the end of an auction, figure out ahead of time what the market price is and the maximum that you are willing to pay. Then, when it's a convenient time for you before the auction ends, make a bid for for your maximum amount PLUS a few dollars more. That way, you don't have to wait around and join in the last minute frenzy. eBay will automatically bid for you and if you lose, at least you lost by more than a couple of dollars so you can feel "no way was I gonna pay that price". And, occasionally, you may get a good deal because the people who bid at the end generally only bid a couple of dollars more than the current high bid so if your bid is at a real/higher market price, those people will be automatically outbid and will be frantically trying to rebid but may run out of time. For example, you determine from other previous auctions that the Black Pearl is going to sell for $150 so you decide that the maximum you will bid/pay is $150. There is currently an auction with a price of $100. You put in a max bid of $155 and become the high bidder at $105. At the end, some person will make a bid of $110, thinking that your max is $105 instead of $150. They are instantly outbid. By the time they realize that, they may run out of time to make another higher bid. If they do make another bid, they may bid $125, still thinking you maybe only bid a max of $120. They will be outbid again. So perhaps, you win the auction at a lower price than your max. If that person makes a bid of $160 and wins the auction from you, they paid enough over your max that you don't feel bad about losing. And the best part is that you didn't have to wait around at the end of the auction to join in the frenzy. Just put in your maximum beforehand and let eBay do the work for you. At least that's my opinion..8-)

This is some GREAT $*** i'm hearing right hear!!! Thanks grackleflint you're the bomb, I'm guessing that you've had a lot of experience?

Yeah, I'm an eBay old timer now as both a buyer and seller.

Cool!!

Yeah, I'm an eBay old timer now as both a buyer and seller.

Thanks for the quality replies, gracklefint! I am sure it helped plenty of us out, including myself with our future eBay-ing.

Here are the results so far. Almost half way through the auctions.... Fairly happy with the results so far as these are the best I have gotten yet.

Hello, everyone! I am pretty satisified with the results of the first half of my 2012 Star Wars Advent Calendar. This was an experiment for using free shipping as well as an auction. Here are the results! Listing 1: $7.50, 9 watchers, 55 views (Santa Darth Maul) Listing 2: $3.25, 11 watchers, 64 views (Super Battle Droid + Two other minibuilds) Listing 3: $4.25, 8 watchers, 41 views (Gungan Soldier) Listing 4: $3.25, 5 watchers, 67 views (Gonk Droid) Listing 5: $3.44, 5 watchers, 27 views (Security Droid + Two other minibuilds) Obviously from these results, the Santa Darth Maul is the most popular. I did a solo auction to start out, and did the astromech droid that came in this set. Here is the result from that one: $8.60, 1 watcher, 11 views. This is the very first time I started an auction out at $0.01 and had Free Shipping. These are the best results I have ever had from a listing, and I am happy, especially since I have only sold 1/2 of the Calendar minibuilds. Just to get an idea of how badly some other of my listings were, here are some of the results of one of the other ones that I listed. 1 bid, 15 views, 1 watcher.