A few questions about selling on Ebay

[jajaja | 10]

Hi.

 

I recently decided to list a few NES manuals for sale on Ebay. Its been years since i last sold anything on Ebay, so i might be a bit out of the loop, so i have a few questions:


1) I listed the auctions about 2 days ago now, but theres hardly any views on my auctions. Some of the manuals are fairly uncommon/rare, like Little Samson for example, and after nearly 2 days or listing, the Little Samson manual auction has 4 views. I would understand the low views if i listed some very common manuals like Super Mario Bros 1 or so, but is it normal for auctions to get this low amount of views? I did 10 day auctions, so there are still quite some time before the auctions ends, but still, seeing so few views in the begining makes me wonder.

When i listed the auctions, i wrote in "NES manuals", and i chose the suggested sales category called something like "PC- & Video Games > Manuals and Inserts". It sounds like the proper category to list them in i think, but would perhaps the auctions be more noticeable if i list them in the games category instead (assuming that more people are actively searching for the games themself in the first place rather than the manuals)?

I can also mention that i listed these on the german Ebay site (Ebay.de) because the manuals are the german versions. I assume that the german NES collecting community is smaller compared the the NES collecting community in the US for example, so having less views in general wont be that surprising to me. But still, 4 views in nearly 2 days of listing for something related to Little Samson (the PAL version of the game is also fairly sought after, at least from what i know), that seems quite low to me.

So i just wanted to ask if someone knows if this is normal, or if i did something wrong when i listed them

It is also possible that i have listed the mauals with a too high of a pricetag, and perhaps people arent clicking on the auction when they see the price in the listing. Still though, i feel that the number of views are quite low.



2) Before i could complete my listing on Ebay, i had to add/register my bank account number to Ebay. When i did this, it said something like "all payment from Ebay will be payed to this bank account", if i remember correctly. Has the payment system changed on Ebay? When i sold thing on Ebay years ago, i just provided the buyer with my bank account information and/or sent a Paypal invoice. But with having to add my bank account information to Ebay, it sounded a bit to me like the buyer is now paying directly to Ebay when the auction has ended, and then Ebay transfer this money to my bank account. Also, i bought something on Ebay a few weeks ago, and then the invoice also included import fees/VAT that i had to pay (i bought something from the US thats being sent to Europe), which made it look to me like i payed directly to Ebay instead of paying directly to the seller him/herself.

So does anyone know how payment for auctions works on Ebay in these days?

Edited June 3, 2023 by jajaja

[Mega Tank | 974]

57 minutes ago, jajaja said:

I recently decided to list a few NES manuals for sale on Ebay.

You might want to link your eBay ID or auction listing so people can see the actual listing.

[a3quit4s | 4,127]

You are correct on the PayPal/eBay thing - eBay now handles all their own user finances. You’ll get paid out for your sales within a couple days. If it’s a new account or a higher price item you may have to wait longer for positive feedback or maybe a week. Any fees you have are deducted from the bank account or you can choose to not get paid out as fast and have the fees deducted from your balance I think. 
 

I usually pay the $1 or whatever to have my auctions featured. It helps with views. If you’ve also set them for BIN only or long auctions they will show up later in peoples feeds. It may take time for people sorting in a specific way to find your auctions. 
 

If you are selling things that are rare I agree with @Mega Tank to post links or even sell them here for a little bit less than eBay since you’ll avoid ~10% in fees. 

[Mega Tank | 974]

8 minutes ago, a3quit4s said:

If you are selling things that are rare I agree with @Mega Tank to post links or even sell them here for a little bit less than eBay since you’ll avoid ~10% in fees. 

That too, but I meant it for feedback. If people see the actual listing, there could be things wrong with it that have been left out of the original post. 

[jajaja | 10]

@Mega Tank Sure Here is the link to my Little Samson manual auction: https://www.ebay.com/itm/134594712558

@a3quit4s Understood. Then i might have to change my auction description a bit. I wrote in my auction regarding shipping that it is possible to have the manual(s) shipped as a normal letter (as in no tracking number and no insurance) to save on shipping cost if the buyer wants to take that risk, but then the payment had to be done with a direct bank transfer to me (i dont want people to accept the risk of sending it as a letter, then the item(s) potentially getting lost in the mail, and people would still fill out a complaint about not recieving the item, and i have no tracking number to prove that i sent it).

But if Ebay handles all the payment, i assume that i must have a tracking number available in case the item(s) get lost in the mail? If so, i will remove the shipping option in my auction to get it sent as a normal letter.


And yeah, i will promote the my auctions on this forum soon, indeed I just wanted to wait a bit to see how things went on Ebay itself before listing them on Videogamesage as well.


Thanks for the answers to the both of you!

[jajaja | 10]

And just to add, i might also sell things here directly on Videogamesage as well, indeed, as @a3quit4s mentioned I just thought that i would try Ebay first for these manuals because they are the manuals for the PAL version of the games. I am under the impression that most of the users on Videogamesage collects NTSC version of games first and foremost, but i might be wrong though, there might be a substantial number of people here on Videogamesage that collect PAL games as well

[a3quit4s | 4,127]

I didn’t pick up they were PAL but I’d still post them here you never know we have people all over the world. I would definitely put tracking on everything, shady ass people will try to say they never got stuff and if you have no tracking your out whatever money you got. Remember on eBay they always side with the buyer so if you don’t have a tracking number that says delivered, you are on the hook for the cost. 

[Brickman | 4,019]

Agree with a3quit4s. I wouldn’t even bother offering a shipping option without tracking, it’s just asking for trouble.

Another thing you could consider doing is just adding the price of shipping into the item price and offer “free shipping” for local buyers. You’d be surprised how many fall for this psychological trick because they see free shipping.

Also, some items are just better off as as buy it now. The little Samson manual is probably better off as a buy it now if there haven’t been many views on the item. Let it sit for a month or two and lower the price until someone bites.

[jajaja | 10]

@a3quit4s Understood. I will make a thread in the Buy & Sell category on this forum soon to promote my Ebay auctions And i will also remove the option/mentions in my Ebay auction where i offer shipping without tracking.

I was thinking that offering cheaper shipping, that this might lead to more people might wanting to bid on my auctions, but i am not taking the chance for this unless its possible for the potential buyer to wire the money directly to me first. So i fully agree that its best to only send things with a tracking number when all payments go through Ebay as you mention, indeed!


@Brickman Understood. I will remove the option/mention in my Ebay auction where i offer shipping without tracking. I was thinking that offering cheaper shipping, that this might lead to more people might wanting to bid on my auctions, but i am not taking the chance for this unless its possible for the potential buyer to wire the money directly to me first. So i fully agree that its best to only send things with a tracking number when all payments go through Ebay as you mention, indeed!

I might try to include free shipping for local buyers as you mention, and see if that makes more people check out the auctions

Yeah, i will probably try to do a Buy It Now option as you also mention if these auctions dont sell this round. I decided to try auctions first because i am not sure about the more specific value of these manuals, so i just put a start price to see if i get that as a minimum, but also having the possiblity to get a higher price if people start to bid But i dont have too high expectations that all of these auctions will sell at my current prices to be honest, so i will probably end up doing Buy It Now listings for these manuals when/if they dont end up selling now, indeed.


Thanks for all the answers, help and tips, everyone! I appreciate it!


EDIT: I added some text.

Edited June 4, 2023 by jajaja

[jajaja | 10]

EDIT: Oops, i was about to edit my post and i ended up double posting instead by mistake, i am sorry

Edited June 4, 2023 by jajaja

[Tanooki | 4,953]

I just looked at your listing, then I decided to see if I could find it by (using a non-logged in incognito mode) going from ebay's main page and just typing 'Little Samson manual' and it never came up.

I think your ! you put after INSTRUCTIONS! and MANUAL! are making it unsearchable.

I then tried to paste your exact title: LITTLE SAMSON NES GAME INSTRUCTIONS! ORIGINAL MANUAL!

Also NO HITS.  It just doesn't come up.

I even tried just 'Little Samson' ...that's it, and it still never comes up in a search site wide.  I'm not sure what anyone would have to put in to have it show up other than a direct link.  Somehow it's just broken.

[a3quit4s | 4,127]

9 hours ago, Tanooki said:

I just looked at your listing, then I decided to see if I could find it by (using a non-logged in incognito mode) going from ebay's main page and just typing 'Little Samson manual' and it never came up.

I think your ! you put after INSTRUCTIONS! and MANUAL! are making it unsearchable.

I then tried to paste your exact title: LITTLE SAMSON NES GAME INSTRUCTIONS! ORIGINAL MANUAL!

Also NO HITS.  It just doesn't come up.

I even tried just 'Little Samson' ...that's it, and it still never comes up in a search site wide.  I'm not sure what anyone would have to put in to have it show up other than a direct link.  Somehow it's just broken.

Same for me. I figured because it was on like a German or whatever eBay it was taking time to cross post to eBay.com

[Brickman | 4,019]

I also can't see it on ebay.com.au

@jajaja do you have international shipping available to all countries? That could be why the view count is low.

[jajaja | 10]

@Tanooki @a3quit4s @Brickman

Thanks for the input and help everyone!

I have now removed the exclamation point from my auction topics. I did add a space beween "instruction" and "!" earlier, hoping that it wouldnt effect the search, because as you mention, having "instruction!" written might result in that when people search for "instruction", the auctions might not show up in the search result due to the exclamation point at the end of the word, indeed, i agree. But even with a space between "instructions" and "!", maybe the search still wont show the auctions, so i have just removed the exclamation point all together just to be on the safe side. I have also added the word "instruction" to the topic in the auctions where i had enough space to do so, just to make sure that theres more words that can be searched for

I have also activated international shipping (i think so at least hehe, hopefully i did it correctly ). I thought that i had this on, but after looking again, it was turned off.

Can someone try to search for my Little Samson manual now and see if it comes up in the search result?

Thanks again everyone!

EDIT: I added some text.

Edited June 6, 2023 by jajaja

[a3quit4s | 4,127]

Still no manual only listings for me. Even switched to worldwide even though I think that is the default filter anyways. 

[Tanooki | 4,953]

Still nothing.  I think the original listing is just trashed as far as the ebay search goes.  What I mean is something on their side is broken that even when you fixed it it still isn't listing it because old information still hides out of view.

 

It maybe best to trash the listing and remake it with a clean title

Little Samson Nintendo NES Manual Only  (or something like that, most people don't search instructions, they search manual)

[jajaja | 10]

@a3quit4s @Tanooki

I am sorry for a bit late reply here.

Thanks for checking/searching for my auction again!

Yeah, it defintely seems that something is broken on Ebay side as you mention, indeed. The view count on my Little Samson increased a bit during the last few days, but i do think that is partially (or maybe even mostly) because that i posted the link to the auction here. My other auctions still have a very low view count. For example, according my Ebay stats, my Chip & Dale Resuce Rangers 2 manual auction has only gotten 5 views in like 6 days. Even if my listing price should be way too high, i'd still expect more views for a uncommon/rare manual like this. So i agree that something might be broken on Ebay's side with my listing, indeed.

I will leave my auctions running for a few more days just to see if anything should happen (it is about 4 days until they end), and if the view count shouldnt for some reason change a lot during the next 2-3 days or so, i will probably just cancel the auction and relist them, as you suggest, i agree.

Understood, i did only write "manual" in my auctions topic to begin with, but i added "instructions" later on just to see if it made any difference to my auctions view count But when i relist my manuals, i will only write "manual" and not "instructions" in the auction topics. Thanks for the tip!

Due to these Ebay problems that i have, i will also wait a bit to post/promote my auctions on this forum.

If i end up relisting my auctions, can i tag you guys again in this thread and ask for you to search for my auctions again?

Thanks again for all the help!

[Tanooki | 4,953]

Yeah it's fine.  I'll look.  I sold on there for a number of years before the tax law changes, and I've had an account since it was only California based back in the mid 1990s so I'm not new to it either for buying.

[jajaja | 10]

On 6/8/2023 at 4:23 AM, Tanooki said:

Yeah it's fine.  I'll look.  I sold on there for a number of years before the tax law changes, and I've had an account since it was only California based back in the mid 1990s so I'm not new to it either for buying.

Nice! I didnt even know that Ebay was only California based in the begining. Personally, i have been on Ebay since 2005 or 2006 if i am not mistaken.

I have now listed the manuals again. This time, i chose to list them only in the more general "Video Games & Consoles" category rather than listing them in the "Manual & Inserts" sub category of "Video Games & Consoles" like i did earlier. I have also specified the shipping cost in the listing option rather than just writing the shipping cost in the auction descriptions like i did earlier. It might have just been a bug in Ebay's system earlier as we talked about a few days ago, bu hopefully the listing changes that i did will make it easier to find/search for my auctions regardless.

Can you please try to search for "Little Samson manual" or something like that and see if you find my auction?

Thanks!

[Link | 2,737]

I searched for little samson original manual! and it was the first result. I searched for little samson manual and it was the last (16th) result before "results matching fewer words".

[jajaja | 10]

On 6/12/2023 at 6:12 PM, Link said:

I searched for little samson original manual! and it was the first result. I searched for little samson manual and it was the last (16th) result before "results matching fewer words".

Great! Its nice to know that my auctions appears in the listing now when searching for them. Thanks for checking/searching, and thanks for the additional info regarding the search results as well! :)