A quick shout out to penny auction for bringing this Associated Content Post!
Online auctions offer many conveniences to the consumer. You shop from your own home, and save money on gasoline. There are some very good deals out there, especially for hard to find items and collectibles. Above all, it is the excitement of the auction itself. When it is down to the last few seconds, who will offer the most? It is about the desire of an object, the competition, the calculation and timing to acquire it, who could ask for any anything else?
My wife and I have been involved with online auctions since 1999, but we are not professionals who do it for a living. We sell niche items, mainly vinyl records and other resale and collectible merchandise. We only have auctions several times a year. We are not mass-market sellers, who are often known as power sellers. While we may not be those people you hear about on television getting rich making thousands of dollars a week, we have been around long enough to see what works, and what does not. We also purchase many items online ourselves, and have the experience and perspective of being a buyer too. This is not a step-by-step article on how to conduct an online auction, but is written to better inform those of who are interested in either buying or selling.
There are many online auctions out there besides the more popular ones, and this information applies to all of them. First thing is first. While it appears a convenient and inexpensive way for the consumer to shop, we must always remember that someone is making money out there. Yes, it is free for the buyer to register, and purchase items at an online auction site. There are no monthly or membership fees either. So how do online auction sites make a profit? They make money from the seller, silly.
This is how it works. The seller has an item to sell. The seller pays a fee dependant upon how much the seller wants for it, also called a minimum bid. There are usually other options, but lets stick with a basic auction. Normally the auction site has a table of fees that are calculated by several ranges of minimum bids. Let?s say that a fee of fifty cents is charged for any minimum bid up to ten dollars, sixty cents for up to twenty dollars, and so on. If the seller wants more for their item, the fees continue to go up. The maximum basic fee can be up to three dollars to post a single auction.
I know what you are thinking. You have an item that you know will definitely sell for a thousand dollars, so just ask a minimum bid of one dollar and it will only cost you fifty cents. Wrong, because what the online auction site does is add another fee for how much it goes over the minimum bid range. In other words, if it sells for over the ten-dollar range, an additional percentage is attached to whatever it eventually sells for. It can range from one and a half to two percent of the winning bid. It sort of evens out in the end, but more often is an extra fee if the item sells well over the minimum bid. Add in extras like more or bigger pictures, immediate purchase options, bold text, etc. and the fees can begin to escalate. And let?s not forget, a seller usually does not sell just one item. They could be selling ten to over a hundred items at once. We were selling 121 vinyl records in a recent auction of ours.
That is not all a seller must do, and this is where some of the confusion begins for the buyer. To prepare an item for online auction is a matter of effort, technology and style. Basically all that is required is an image, description of the item either in text or HTML, and choosing options for the auction, including shipping. It is pretty simple on the surface. There is software out there that can; create auction pages, manage multiple auctions, post automated responses and other wonderful customer-alienating tools to make the seller?s life much easier.
If the seller is auctioning a thousand new identical items, life is a breeze. Even if the seller is auctioning multiple new items in a specialized category. These are the power sellers. They obtain some type of agreement with a liquidator or discount shipper, use software templates, copy and paste descriptions, use generic images, and have a seller?s rating in the thousands. They are number sellers. Automated software is how they conduct business, and is usually their only line of communication with the buyer. There is nothing wrong with power sellers. We regularly purchase items from power sellers and are usually very satisfied with the items and service, but we do our research as consumers too.
Our own auctions fall into the other type of seller category, the independents. Here is where you will find new items and used items, the used items being collectibles, artifacts, and everything else you can think of. This is a mixed bag of professionals, beginners and people just getting rid of things in the closet, pro resale businesses, auction and estate sellers, non-profit organizations or hobbyists among others, all in varying degrees of technology and professionalism. There are honest sellers, communicative sellers, mysterious sellers, sellers who gouge on shipping services and those who do not, and there are just plain liars.
In our case we mostly sell used collectible vinyl records to serious collectors, who want as much information as possible about the item they are interested in. Sometimes a customer will spend over a hundred dollars for one single record or collectible, as this also applies to anything else we happen to sell. Over the years we have learned that in order to avoid a lot of additional time during an auction answering emails about an item, we will spend the time to write a full description of it in each auction ad. It works. We now have fewer email questions to answer during an auction these days. We also avoid a lot of questions by fully stating our payment and shipping policies in large easy to read text. This all takes time to do and prepare for an online auction, and the buyer usually does not take this into consideration. Even after all this effort, sometimes a customer does not bother reading it at all. We occasionally get an email from these buyers, and politely refer them to the ad.
For us, the procedure of auctioning a single item goes something like this. We will first evaluate and write a description of each item. This might be describing the record condition in detail, or documenting every connection on an electronic gadget, again to avoid questions later. If you think you can just copy and paste the information or images from some web site, in most cases you cannot. There is a real possibility that someone can sue you for this, or will make a complaint and have your ability to hold auctions revoked. It is better to describe it yourself, unless you have an agreement with someone, and do not copy an image from somewhere, take the picture yourself.
We use a camcorder because of its zoom capability. A digital camera can be used also. This is where a buyer can tell if the auction is being held by a beginner, or someone who just does not care. Online auction pictures are only so big, in spite of the mega pixels images your camera can produce. Your picture winds up a little bigger than a credit card unless you pay for enhancement features. Our advice is to fill the picture with as much of the item as possible. How often have you found an item you are interested in, only to find an image of a tiny object, poorly lit, sitting on a blanket, and the blanket is mostly what you see? If you can?t see it, you may as well not take a picture of it at all.
After pictures are taken, we convert the descriptions we have written into HTML documents for each item. We own a web site and have the HTML software anyway. This is not really necessary, because you can just copy and paste the text you have written, or use the auction site?s HTML tools. We use our software to create our own HTML templates with general information, and our policies. Then we paste in each description and save it as a page. For us it is simpler to paste these HTML pages in, rather than select the auction site?s options. If you do use HTML, try not to go overboard. As a buyer I grow weary of looking at large pages of pretty differently colored boxes with small type, and have to search for a description of the item, which is usually only a few words.
Anyway, the pre-auction preparation (if any) and the auction fees are what the buyer tends to overlook when taking part in an online auction. What most buyers do not realize is that an online auction is not like shopping at a single department store. These sellers are independent, with their own various ways of doing business, all with their own procedures, policies and terms. We will occasionally visit message boards and often hear complaints about sellers who offer no communication, or give vague descriptions. These sellers do exist, but it is up to the buyer to research what and whom they are buying from. Most auction sites have a rating system of some sort, which is always helpful. Personally we have a tendency to avoid sellers who obviously have just started unless they take the time to offer detailed information and a good image, regardless of how pretty their page looks.
Sometimes a buyer?s complaint stems from a disregard to first read the conditions of a seller?s auction. It is not that hard to do, but in the excitement of finding something we want, sometimes we may hit the mouse button to bid, before using common sense. In every one so far, we will get at least one email during the auction where the bidder asks us to let them take their bid back because they did not bother to read the conditions plainly stated in the auction. If the bidder has raised the bid past the range where extra fees are incurred, things can get a bit sticky.
An online auction buyer must also do their part in making the transaction satisfying for both sides. A buyer should take the time, research and ask questions (not at the last minute) if the answers are not available in the ad. If they do not get any answers, then let the buyer beware. On the other hand if the auction is by a power seller, with over a hundred auctions to manage every week, the buyer cannot expect quick, if any response. If a buyer wants to purchase an electronic gadget with tons of seller feedback and customer service, then they should go to a department store and pay retail price.
We have learned that an online auction is like selling at the flea market. Buyers are generally that type of customer. A buyer goes to a flea market because they want a bargain. They are willing to spend less for a new and cheap imitation, or a brand name item as quality used merchandise. Sometimes they go to pick up an oddity or specialized item, sometimes for an every day thing. The similar trait of any online auction buyer is that they want it cheaper than they can find it in a retail store, or they are avid collectors and users willing to pay top dollar for a hard to find item. Many online businesses operate with this in mind, in whatever they are selling.
One thing is for sure. An online auction is a very exciting thing to be a part of. We will often attend live auctions locally, and it is easy to get caught up in one. You first walk in, look around, and make notes when you see something you want. Then the auction begins. Next thing you know, the item you are interested in comes up. The bid starts at twenty-five dollars. There are no takers. The bid is lowered to fifteen, then ten dollars, still no takers. The auctioneer finally drops it down to five-dollars, and four or five hands raise up at once to make a bid. The bidding gets back up to what the original asking price was, and then surpasses that. A few bidders will drop out, eventually leaving just two. You sit there watching the action, tempted to come out of nowhere and raise the stakes.
Yes an auction can be exhilarating, and if you happen to win the item, it can be very exciting. Then the downer sets in, and you have to pay for the item. In our experience it can occasionally take a week before a buyer bothers to finish the transaction. The thrill is over for them. There are some services that make paying easy for a buyer. Just register your credit card with the service and pay for your item. It is all so fast and easy, but more importantly it is free. Free to the buyer that is. The seller must pay additional fees (another percentage) to accept this service. If they sell their item for a dollar, they may have just officially made about ten to fifteen cents after all of their effort.
Some sellers make up the difference by charging outrageous prices for shipping, feeling that their effort and materials to pack the item is worth the additional price. While I admit that it does cost money for packing supplies (we recycle most of ours), try visiting the United States Postal Service web site and see how much it is to ship a one-pound package across the USA. It does not cost that much. The time and effort to pack your item and ship it is apparently a highly valued skill to some sellers, and you must pay extra to make it worth their while. So a buyer must not only consider the seller?s auction conditions, they must also calculate the deal they are actually getting by comparing it with how much it will cost to ship it to their doorstep. Sometimes you may as well go down to the corner store and buy it there. In any case just remember that above anything else, it is the buyer who must understand what they are getting into BEFORE making a bid.
These are just things we have learned in our years of selling and buying items in online auctions. All in all, an online auction is fun for the seller and buyer, as long as both parties are aware of each other?s needs. For a seller it is offering as much information so that the buyer can make an educated decision upon their purchase. If the seller does not care, they will not get very many return customers or positive ratings. For the buyer, it is necessary to understand that sellers come in all shapes and sizes, with different business practices and auction conditions. This is the seller?s right. It is a buyer?s responsibility to know what the seller?s auction conditions are, and then decide if they agree to those terms. If the buyer chooses to let action speak before asking questions, it will sometimes be an inconvenient road to go down for a simple discount. Mutual understanding from both sides can make any online auction a pleasant and enjoyable experience.
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Be sure to visitpenny auction at the key site!
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