[alfa] Re: My Spider still for sale and Ebay flakes

["Karl N. Matthias" <karmat@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have a friend who sells items on Ebay professionally.  He gave me a lot
of tips which I've found to be quite helpful.  He has found that the best
way to sell an item on Ebay is to have no reserve, no BuyItNow, and to
start the auction at a reasonably inexpensive price not too much below
what you would like to have your "reserve" set to.  So for example I sold
my 1993 Audi S4 and I wanted to get something like $7500 out of it.  I put
the car up with no reserve, no BuyItNow, made it very clear I would not
end the auction early, and started the bidding at $5000.  That was low
enough to interest buyers, but not so far below the $7000 reserve I would
have set.  A lot of people won't bid if there is a reserve because they
don't want to waste their time when they might not get the car because
they don't know if your reserve it reasonable.  A lot of times if it
doesn't clear reserve they have already bid on a similar item so they
don't want it when you offer it for the reserve.  If you insist on having
a reserve, try saying right in the auction what it is.  This doesn't hurt
your position at all with regard to selling the item.  The worst case is
that you get your reserve.  Best case (if your reserve was reasonable) you
will get more than that because someone wants the car and doesn't mind
upping the ante another chunk.  BuyItNow on a car can be a huge waste of
time and energy because any 12 year old can punch the button and you have
to start all over.  I know too many people who have had to relist items
due to BuyItNow from some punk.  Hope that helps.  In the case of my Audi
S4 I got more than I ever expected for the car, which was nice!

Karl
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