So last week you read my rant about how I regretably closed my eBay store due to eBay’s fee hikes that shaft the “little guys” like myself, but you also got the scoop about how I listed the Quimper dishes I won at the amazing Saugey’s Antique Auction. The results from these auctions are why I may never leave eBay completely.
My original “awesome” goal when I listed these plates, bowls, and mugs was for the eBay auctions to “pay” for the antique auction. To completely stress myself out for the week, I started each auction at .99 cents. Of course, being smart ebay buyers, no one really started bidding until the next to last day, so I really had myself thinking I ‘d be doing well to make $100 off everything.
Slowly the bids started trickling in. On the last day of the auctions with around 12 hours left, I had a panicked bidder email me asking me to cancel her bid because she meant to bid $31.79, but forgot the decimal! The poor lady accidentally bid $3,179 on the 5 plates! If I would have cancelled her bid, she would not have been able to bid again, so I emailed her back with instructions on how to retract her bid. Anybody who has been buying off eBay for long has probably done this — I have definitely been a victim of finger-fumbling, but since I typically bid with less than a minute left, I just have to hope there’s no out-of-control-brand-new bidder bidding against me! She was able to pull her bid out so she could pay a more reasonable price. Happy bidders are the best kind! 🙂
In the end, I actually made 83% (yes I was nerdy and did the math. 😉 ) back of what I spent total at the antique auction. I’m super happy with the investment being as I have many more great items from that auction to sell!
In case you’re curious exactly what I sold, here are the links:
Quimper France Dinner Plates
Quimper France Salad Plate
Quimper Italy Dinner Plates
Quimper Italy Salad Plates
Quimper Italy Mugs
Quimper Italy Soup Bowls
I shipped all of them today, so I’m hoping and praying they get to their destinations safe and sound! I haven’t posted yet about how I recently learned the hard way that shipping insurance isn’t what it’s all cracked up to be (ha!), so now I’m more weary than ever about shipping breakables! I “should” be receiving my check from the insurance claim soon (it’s only been 4 months of fighting for it) , so I’ll post when I finally have it in my hands. 🙂
Hi Ashley,
The new ebay fees don’t actually go into effect until a current listed item end and then gets relisted. I’ve been slowly ending my listings in my store as the day they’re due to be relisted arrives. I’ll eventually have my store closed by the end of the month, and then I’ll only be doing the auctions too. I totally agree with you though – the new pricing plan really sticks it to the smaller sellers!
AK
Shoot! I completely focused on the fact that fees were going up and didn’t think about it logically. This is the slow part of the year for me anyway, so hopefully I didn’t miss out on much selling by ending my auctions earlier than needed..I mostly wanted to avoid paying the $15.95 for another month. Thanks for bringing up a great point! 🙂