eBay Collectables versus eBay Reselling

The other day I posted this blog about eBay Consignment versus eBay Reselling. Today let's explore eBay Collectables a bit.

Here's a great article called Why 60% of eBay Auctions Don't End in Sales from Auctiva. It was written from the perspective of a collectables sellers who has about a 30% sell through rate which she's perfectly happy with. 'Sell Through Rate' refers to the percentage of eBay auctions that end in a sale. If you sell on eBay as your home based business, this is the one of the most basic metrics you should be tracking.

This article is a great read if you sell in collectables on eBay. It illustrates some of the fundamental differences between eBay selling models. In eBay Reselling, for example, 30% is generally not a good sell through rate. The author mentions she never bothers with research because the auctions themeselves are her test. She goes on to say that if an item doesn't sell in the auction, she moves it to her eBay store where many times it will sell at a later date. These is a great approach for collectable items because you never know when someone is going to be looking for those 1964 lime green FiestaWare dinner plates. Just because it didn't sell in the auction doesn't mean someone isn't going to come along looking for it at some later point.

But these approaches don't work well in the reselling model. Research will reveal in advance what market products people are likely to buy and therefore your sell through percentage should be naturally higher. Also if the resell item doesn't sell in the first or second auction listing, there usually isn't much point in putting it in the store. It usually just indicates there wasn't demand for the product at the price you were asking. And if it's not a collectable type item, there likely won't be demand for it at some future point.

The article has a lot of common ground as well. It talks about some of the reasons items don't sell, like price point and timing so be sure to give it a read no matter what you sell on eBay. But keep in mind that different eBay models require slightly different approaches and will offer different expectation levels. eBay advice in general is not always "one size fits all".