Sorry if this has already been covered in another thread (i did a search and didn’t find anything) but I wondered what is the best way to auction Pokemon cards on eBay? I’ve done this before however I wonder if there is a formula people use to get the best results for their auctions.
For example is there a specific day that is generally better for a auction to end on? For example a Sunday evening as more people would be at home? Or is another time generally better.
And is it best to start at 99p/cents to draw more people in and hope to increase the interest, or would you start a auction at a price point you are happy with a card selling at worse case scenario? Or somewhere in the middle?
End auctions in the evening between 8:00 - 10:00 PM EST (6:00 - 8:00 PM PST). This allows a window when most of the US is in the evening, which means resting, which means more ebay browsing. Best day to end is Sunday. Worst is I think Monday, Friday, or Saturday probably.
If you are auctioning, start at $.99. Don’t start at your minimum or whatever, you will lose interest. $.99 auctions garner interest, more interest means more competition, more competition means more emotions, more emotions mean higher prices.
If you are trying to fetch the highest price, don’t auction at all, BIN a bit higher than what you deem as market value, then allow best offer. You will be surprised if you are patient.
I do 7 day auctions and 10 day. Mostly based on when I have free time, which most Sundays I do have free time. So I list most auctions sunday evening for 7 days to end on Sunday (best day for buyer attention imo). Keep in mind you can create a listing to start at a future date so use this to your advantage whenever you have free time. Don’t be the guy who has free time on a Sunday morning at 8 am and decides to list a high value item that ends up selling way under market value because no one is awake. Or do be that guy (i’ve gotten a lot of good deals this way… )
Tips:
-Make sure your titles are thorough and accurate (that means spelled correctly!). This can’t be overstated (see complete shadowless psa 10 set in ebay sold listings).
-State your return policy very clearly in your descriptions. It doesn’t always, but it can help you win cases if an ebay rep can reference it if a buyer makes a claim against you.
Have a neat and orderly description. Break it into parts with headings such as:
Description
Condition/grade
Return Policy
Shipping info
An easier experience for the buyer is a good thing.
Great advice above, one thing that I would like to add is that you can schedule the start time of a listing, so you can control when it goes live and when it will end. That way your “free time” doesn’t have to directly coincide with exactly when you want the listing to end 7 or 10 days later.
I just wanted to get some more feedback from you guys after some of my recent auctions finished. A couple didn’t do as well as I expected and while I accept that you dont always get what you hope for/expect to via auction and a item can sell for a few dollars lower than you might hope for I was really surprised at the result of my auction for a PSA 9 Charizard from world champions pack:
Now obviously JIT is a well known and established seller in the hobby which means people maybe happier to pay a bit more for cards from him for his service. And you could argue the card I had for sale is a weak 9, but $90 difference? Have I messed up somewhere in this listing, or just bad timing?
Any advice to improve my eBay auctions/listings in the future would be appreciated.
-JIT offers a $5 shipping economy option. Cheapest I could see in yours was $17, that’s a big turn away.
-JIT is established as you mentioned, so buyer confidence.
-you ended your auction the Sunday after a holiday in the states. So you lost a huge amount of attention. What with the World Cup going on too, and vacations, there was likely very few people paying attention overall. I was in Chicago all weekend have barely paid attention. I did win a lot for $40 that looks to be worth at least $200. I’m sure there hav been similar stories.
It’s really important to pay close attention to your target regions and avoid major holidays or some sport events.
I wrote down a list of about 10-15 tips in the pwcc thread a while ago.
If you’re a newer seller doing auctions for the first time, don’t expect to get the values as an established business that has a following over 11 years selling.
There is alot of work which has gone into building up a community and following. We had approximately 18000+ views that auctions. Did alot of free giveaways on multiple pages, and email marketing as well.
Don’t do an auction on not so hot items if your new.
Psa 9 is not something people want to fight over.
The card you listed at the time in march wasn’t around so much, I think I listed it as there was only 1 other psa 9 listed on eBay globally much higher. Now there is many more people flipping and selling, that card… haha 9 in fact… So yeah, massive difference in timing. Alot of people have had their long delayed psa returns from earlier in the year come back now. So it’s a tough time.
Also tax season, everyone wants to sell…
Make yourself an asset list when your the only one on eBay with the card or others are listed super high and it’s in your price range. As that is what the bids will be based off. What has sold and what is listed the time of your item.
Also… please, maybe for once… someone can link one of the hundreds and hundreds of our auctions which consistently go 30-50% below other sellers buy it now prices.
I think this card above is the same outlier someone linked before… I admit, it happens, sometimes people overpay, but for the most part. People save on auctions.
There is many many examples where I have lost money on cards and don’t even break even on the grading cost. That’s the risk anyone takes doing auctions, some will go under the radar and others may go crazy.
But we have undersold alot… of items, which I wish sometimes I held onto longer.
We offer the lowest postage starting at 5 USD globally worldwide. Free gifts in all orders, 12-36 hour mail out. Combined discounts as well.
All I can ask, is to maybe follow and check all our auctions, both the high, and the low, and then you will see why we have the following we do. If cards were consistently going overpriced or higher, people wouldn’t keep buying. There is alot which go quite low compared to others.
I’m a collector myself, and I like to get deals where I can, and I feel the fairest way to give deals to others, is via auction from 99 cents or $2. Bid what you feel is right, and do your research. My goal has been for a long time to try and bring Japanese collectables cheaper to those abroad from Japan.
For the “average” eBay Seller - someone who only sells a couple items every now-and-then; there is definitely a time and place for eBay Auctions. However, if you’re a “larger” eBay Seller - someone who has a consistent, semi-large BIN Inventory; there is also a different dynamic to eBay Auctions. Everyone LOVES Auctions (and getting a really good-deal on something)! I’ve noticed that Auctions generate A LOT of interest / buzz through both views and watchers - which does not always equate to a “bidding war”. However, it does drive additional traffic to my eBay Store - whether that be additional followers and/or people viewing my BIN Items and either Messaging, Submitting a Best Offer, or Purchasing!
I’ll regularly list 10-20 Played / Damaged WotC-Era Holo Cards (Single-Card Auctions). I’ll start the bidding at $0.99 with Free Shipping. 99.999% of the time, these Auctions (if viewed alone) are at a loss for me - as I like my Top-Rated Seller Status and thusly need to package / ship everything via USPS with Tracking ($2.75 Cost for Everything). Not many people are willing to spend $3.00+ on a Played Entei #34 Promo Card! LOL However, my BIN Sales are consistently higher during the period when everything on auction is ending. Plus, I consistently have new eBay Buyers purchase that $0.99 Entei Promo Card and then add something else onto their purchase - thus placing me back into the black (profitable-sale).
Yeah, I strongly advise against doing auctions. I learned it the hard way, but it was always on items I could afford it so it was never too much of a beating.
As others have said, you need a big store with a lot of followers if you want to go that route. Just be happy it was a small loss for you, we have a member here that lost hundreds if not thousands when they ran an ebay auction several months ago.
I’d also add that’s it’s totally fine to put a starting price you are comfortable with. NOT what you want or full market value, but maybe at least half? It’s less attractive to potential buyers, but at least you don’t net 10% of what it’s worth… not that I think the card you had was worth $100 though.
Some great feedback and information here guys thanks a ton! Really useful, im sure it will help me improve my auctions in the future.
I do normally do BIN OBO and actually had these cards up for about a month and a half like this, however I am trying to raise funds for the up and coming PWCC auction hence why i decided to go with a auction this time.
Thanks again @teraz for some great points. I did wonder if the shipping might be a issue, however when shipping internationally I generally feel more confident going with tracked if I think a card is going to be worth over a certain amount hence why the steeper shipping price. For items below $30 I would use economy normally.
I did not even think about the holiday in the states, its something I will have to check in future. Being in the UK sometimes these things are easy to miss.
Thanks for responding @kkthxbai I tagged you as I wanted your opinion on this so much appreciated. I never expected that my auction would achieve the same as a long established seller hence why I mentioned it in my above post, I know a lot of work obviously goes into getting to the stage that your store is now. I just thought the disparity in price was a bit crazy and I was a little disappointed/surprised so hoping everyone can help me out to understand why and learn and improve for the future.
I had a few more questions if you don’t mind helping me out a bit more just so I can understand better.
I cant find the list of tips on the forum do you know the link at all?
I checked eBay and could not see any listings for a World Champions Pack Charizard anywhere at the time of listing and in PSA 9 its only a Pop 3 card. Am I missing something? Or is eBay filtering stuff out?! I set my search to worldwide.
When you refer to tax season isn’t this hard to avoid for every country as each one has a different tax season though?
