Buy It Now Pricing

Written by Texas Tracy on January 19, 2008

Tagged under category: Pricing Items to Sell

A few years ago ebay added the feature ‘Buy It Now’. This stemmed from what I guess was ebay’s realization that they were losing tons in revenue buy people ending their auctions early and selling the item outright to someone who originally saw it on ebay, and then conducted the transaction via email. Thus, ebay was taken completely out of the loop.

There are occasions when I will utilize this feature. Most often it is when I have what I would consider a hot item. This would be one that I know will generate a lot of buzz from either collectors or avid fans. My buy it now price (or bin as some ebayers like to abbreviate) is for the most part computed in this way: I look at the completed listings for a similar item (if you don’t know how to do that send me an email). Then, I view each thumbnail and try and find the items that are as close to mine in condition as I can, and then compute an average ending sale price for them. This should give you a reasonable sale price to list as a buy it now. Make sure you only use the figures of items that actually sold (the prices are in green, not red).

Many times, usually at the beginning of an auction, I will get emails inquiring about my buy it now price. This happens often because the majority of my auctions start at $9.99. I will always consider a buy it now price, but it is rare that I will accept one. Usually a bidder is looking for a cheap, quick deal (can you blame ‘em?) so you must not get excited and take it without first doing your homework. Utilize the completed auctions method mentioned above and make sure that you are not shortchanging yourself.

One final note: not too long ago I had what I thought was a nice purse listed that I thought would have an ending bid of around $35. Early in the auction a lady emailed me asking me if I would accept a buy it now offer and what would that be. I responded with $35, thinking that I would be pleased with that amount. She never responded to my email, and I thought perhaps she got mildly offended and thought $35 too high. As it turned out, the purse sold for $125. Go figure!!

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