LESS IS BETTER?

We, as ebay sellers, are always looking at other sellers blogs, stores and just checking things out to see what is selling, how things look and what the best prices are. Heck, there are some brands that I never find at my thrift stores and I check them online to see what they look like.

There is a blog, a very popular blog, that I check sometimes. This blog has a great resource list of ID sites and I have used them lots of time when I had something I just couldn't find on ebay.

I was reading this blog this morning and I hadn't been to their store in a while. The blog topic today was things flying off the shelf. I thought I would see what was flying off the shelf because we all want things to do just that. (Oh, and what is up with just one picture per item? I thought the better we described things in pictures the better the customer liked it? If I'm looking to buy an item for $50-60 I would want to see more than one picture. Just my way of thinking.)

Imagine my surprise when I clicked on her feedback list and saw about 25% of her items sold with best offer accepted. A pair of shoes listed for $65 and she accepted $33? A top listed for $18 and accepted $7? Now, I don't know how long these things had been listed or what she paid for them originally, but is this real?

I may be crazy but I think I list things for a fair price. Sure, sometimes I list way too high. But a lot of times the completed listings are all over the place and I will tend to go with the higher end pricing with the reasoning that I can reduce the price later if it doesn't sell. But 25% of my items at less than half the listed price? I don't think so.

It's not the fact that I am greedy or am out to gouge my ebay buyer, but I'm like everyone else. I want fair market value for my price and my work.

I'm not in this business to give away my stuff.
My stuff ...that it took expensive gas to go find.
My stuff ...that it took my time to clean, photograph and list.
My stuff ...that I drive to the PO every day to ship because I don't want to risk putting the boxes on my porch and having something happen to them. (It's called paranoid!!)

I'm going to take a look at what I have listed just for the fun of it and imagine that I took half price for everything. (It's called a nightmare, Stephen King style!!)

And since every listing should have some kind of picture. I'm going to include my sweet Nikki. She has been gone for 2 years now and I still miss her.

Her eyes were really amber.