Huge Bidding War in the Making

Remember this dress??  I had it in an 8 and it sold very well.  I then went back to Banana Republic and ended up winning a $500 shopping spree, so I got it again to sell in a 6.  It's got FORTY watchers and 4 bids.  A holy bidding war is about to break out.  Check it out here.

Don't miss it!!

Living with Stress

Oh MY God.  Why do I do this to myself??  So I have these patent loafers up for auction right now.  I'm selling them for a friend of mine who asked for my help.  I listed them twice for a fixed price and they didn't sell, so I took a chance and listed them as an auction.  Now with 11 hours to go, they've been bid up to $11.50 and have 10 watchers.  And I'm FREAKING OUT because these are worth so much more!  Yes, most of the bidding on an item happens in the final hours, and yes most items actually end up selling for their market value but OH MY GOD WHAT IF THESE DON'T!!

Curious?  Want to Keep Vigil with Me? Click here.

I know, I know, I keep telling you guys not to worry about individual item profits, that you have to take risks to make money, blah blah blah blah.  And I still fully believe that and feel good about it - when it's MY ITEMS at risk! :(

Alright.  So these have 2 bids and 10 watchers.  That means at least 3 people have yet to bid (according to my bidders to watchers ratio philosohpy, which you can find here).  I've been tweeting about them, I'm posting them to Facebook in a minute, and I've emailed a couple of repeat buyers to stir up some interest.  Any other ideas for how I can draw in some traffic in 11 hours??

Rant over.  Thanks for listening.  I'll keep you posted.

Obsessed with eBay Auction Watchers

You guys are going to hate me for writing about this again, but I'm obsessed with the people who watch my listings!!  One of the dresses I have up for sale currently has 17 watchers - a personal best for me - but only one bid, and no one has used the ridiculously low Buy It Now price of $24.99.  I mean, this beauty to the right is certainly worth more than that, don't you think?

Anyway, I discovered there is such a thing as a watcher counter and I put it on my most popular auctions so I can see what happens.  I half expect to wake up and find I sold one of those dresses, because if it were me seeing that there are 12 other people out there coveting my item, any one of whom could "Buy It Now" at any second, I'd definitely want to pull the trigger first!!

Incidentally, for those of you who are also sellers, you can find the watcher counter widget at http://www.watchcount.com/widget-info.php.  I'll let you know how my experiment goes if you want to hold off on using it.

Missed the Boat on the 300 Mark

So....  I was doing the math so I could update my earnings at the top of the page and I realized I missed the $300 mark entirely.... I'm actually now $20 from the $400, which is encouraging considering I have six or seven items listed (four of which are dresses).  Three of those items have more than 10 watchers each, which bodes well for my sales.

And speaking of watchers, I've been thinking about doing another watcher experiment.  I'm wondering what would happen if I displayed a counter on my items that told viewers how many watchers my item has.  I'm not even sure such a thing exists, but if it doesn't, I could always do it manually.  My thinking is that for really hot items with a Buy It Now price, knowing there are many other watchers might push people to throw their hat in the ring sooner OR might prompt them to use said Buy It Now price.  On the other hand, for items with very few watchers it might prompt buyers to think they'll be able to get the item for a really favorable price.

For those of you who are eBay buyers out there, what do you think of the idea??