eBay instituted the changes outlined in their Spring Seller Update on May 1. Now that we are 2/3 of the way through the month it might be interesting to think about how eBay's changes have shifted anything in the category. For those of you who don't remember the switch is that auctions that end in a sale are now free (listing not final value). This was to encourage more auctions with realistic minimum bids.
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Vintage Boy Scout Memorabilia Up First
One of the grumblings on the fee changes was from eBay store owners. In the past eBay gave you so many "free" listings each month with your subscription price. That remains true but now they've yanked auctions out of the equation. So your free listings only count if they are BIN fixed price.
   
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Order of the Arrow Auctions Live on eBay
The eBay theory is that if you know what an item is worth you should price it at that and put it in your store. If you don't or have a really unique item that best fits the auction format then run it that way. If your auction sells they will refund the listing fee. So essentially every auction is free to list assuming that it sells. This runs counter to some strategies that people in our category run where they run a batch of auctions and get maybe a 10% sell-through rate.
   
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Scouting Auctions Ending Soon on eBay
The area that I think may see some impact from this is Centennial and 2015 NOAC issues. That is the only fragment in our hobby right now that is "hot" and where multiple people might bid for the same item. So it's a good bet that auctions will work well in general for those new issues. eBay is only offering a very small carrot (listing fees) to encourage this behavior so I don't know how many serious eBay sellers will mess with their strategy to accommodate.
   
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  Here is a picture taken Sunday at our end of the year banquet and awards program (Court of Honor). This picture shows all the Girl Scouts from our church. The colors represent Daisy (blue K-1), Brownie (brown 2-3), Junior (Green 4-5), Cadette (tan 6-8). My Juniors had just received their Bronze Award before this picture was taken. We have a great group of volunteers but I have to confess I'm ready for a summer break. :) Yours in Scouting,
Jason Spangler
Santeeswapper LLC |
