Overlisting by eBay sellers

[gramophone-georg]

Well I guess I’m one of those people you’re speaking about. I typically list between 50 and 100 cylinders at a time and have been doing this for years. I believe eBay is a selling platform for people to list there wares for sale without limitations. My cylinders listings are listed separately because each one is different from the next one. I also believe it is easier for buyers when the items are listed together, additionally it would be difficult for sellers to combine shipping costs if they were listed a few at a time a day at a time. I’d be interested to hear your suggestions on a better way to list my cylinders on eBay. I still have a few thousand to list.

Rich Gordon

Cylinder records are a different animal. There really isn't a correct category to list cylinders in the "records" section. I am actually even sort of OK with DDs being listed in phonographs as they are actually sort of Edison phonocentric specialty items. But seeing hundreds of Victors and red label Columbias and such listed under "phonographs" is just annoying and is a distraction that's not needed. Full disclosure: one of my favorite frequent flyer record sellers is guilty of this. I didn't buy from him for several years though after he quit listing in "records" since I didn't know he had switched, so he lost probably several thousand in sales by doing this from me alone. I figured he had just stopped selling. I sort of good naturedly pointed this out and we had a chuckle, but it seems doing it this way must work for him as he is still at it.

But choking the first 50 pages of new item search with crap that has absolutely zippo to do with any machine built before the mid 50s is just stupid. There's a specific category under "vintage electronics" where your target audience is going to be looking. Use it.

And that is all I have to say about THAT... to quote Forrest Gump.

[Steve]

For what it's worth (nothing), I don't think it's anyone else's place to insist sellers cannot re-list items at the same price just because they don't sell quickly. If we can laugh at the prices and think we know better, thats fine and great, but let's just move on to something else.

It's simple market economics. One thing I've learnt watching auctions over the years is that prices are rarely as fixed as we might think or hope. The market is highly volatile and that works both ways.

Recently I was offering a very good machine at a very fair price on Ebay. It didn't sell so Ebay automatically relisted it. As a collector I wasn't fussed if I sold it or not so I left the price alone. It kept going for weeks without any interest. Then months. Eventually I removed it for a week before re-listing it manually. It sold instantly to a buyer who told me he'd been looking for the same machine for over 2 years! I wondered where he'd been looking when my listing was probably one of those irritating a few folks here. The moral is: there is always someone out there who will buy something most of us probably wouldn't. It can just take a liitle time and presumably some sellers are fine with that. It's simple supply and demand. We may believe we know this specialist market better than the next person but we can never own it or expect to make demands of it, let alone dictate the pricing strategies or expectations of others.

[fmblizz]

Blocking sellers is the easiest and best way to go. I hope there is not a block limit because I may be getting close. LOL

blizz

[gramophone-georg]

For what it's worth (nothing), I don't think it's anyone else's place to insist sellers cannot re-list items at the same price just because they don't sell quickly. If we can laugh at the prices and think we know better, thats fine and great, but let's just move on to something else.

It's simple market economics. One thing I've learnt watching auctions over the years is that prices are rarely as fixed as we might think or hope. The market is highly volatile and that works both ways.

Recently I was offering a very good machine at a very fair price on Ebay. It didn't sell so Ebay automatically relisted it. As a collector I wasn't fussed if I sold it or not so I left the price alone. It kept going for weeks without any interest. Then months. Eventually I removed it for a week before re-listing it manually. It sold instantly to a buyer who told me he'd been looking for the same machine for over 2 years! I wondered where he'd been looking when my listing was probably one of those irritating a few folks here. The moral is: there is always someone out there who will buy something most of us probably wouldn't. It can just take a liitle time and presumably some sellers are fine with that. It's simple supply and demand. We may believe we know this specialist market better than the next person but we can never own it or expect to make demands of it, let alone dictate the pricing strategies or expectations of others.

Probably because eBay manipulates the marketplace- a LOT- and automatically relisted items drop further and further in search results until they are not shown at all.

[phonospud]

IMG_7001.jpeg (122.64 KiB) Viewed 176 times

[Steve]

For what it's worth (nothing), I don't think it's anyone else's place to insist sellers cannot re-list items at the same price just because they don't sell quickly. If we can laugh at the prices and think we know better, thats fine and great, but let's just move on to something else.

It's simple market economics. One thing I've learnt watching auctions over the years is that prices are rarely as fixed as we might think or hope. The market is highly volatile and that works both ways.

Recently I was offering a very good machine at a very fair price on Ebay. It didn't sell so Ebay automatically relisted it. As a collector I wasn't fussed if I sold it or not so I left the price alone. It kept going for weeks without any interest. Then months. Eventually I removed it for a week before re-listing it manually. It sold instantly to a buyer who told me he'd been looking for the same machine for over 2 years! I wondered where he'd been looking when my listing was probably one of those irritating a few folks here. The moral is: there is always someone out there who will buy something most of us probably wouldn't. It can just take a liitle time and presumably some sellers are fine with that. It's simple supply and demand. We may believe we know this specialist market better than the next person but we can never own it or expect to make demands of it, let alone dictate the pricing strategies or expectations of others.

Probably because eBay manipulates the marketplace- a LOT- and automatically relisted items drop further and further in search results until they are not shown at all.

I can't say I've ever noticed that. My re-listed item was easily found, even after 4 months.

[edisonclassm]

Now there is somebody from Japan listing dozens of every conceivable size, shape, material, etc., Nippers all of which are grossly overpriced. I wonder if he has sold any? This is not the first time he has flooded this site!