Thursday, March 09, 2006

Experiments work on eBay ..Two lessons learnt

For those of you who are regular readers of this blog you will know that I am going through an experimental period in my eBaying life .

One experiment was to hit the charity shops in Shrewsbury ..read the " Charity shops and eBay " post . Whilst looking around the shops I came across these two animal prints

A nice looking Cat and Owl at the bargain price of £1.29 each .... for those of you who don't like maths thats £2.58 for the pair.




Anyway as part of my experiment I originaly offered them up to the eBay world at a starting bid price of £4.99 and postage at £2.50 ...... And guess what the result was.. NO BIDS

So not being one to give up...I put them on again but this time I had a starting price of £0.99... And guess what .... They SOLD for £5 ( which was the price I was looking for in the first place )

So in my experiment I have learnt two things ..

1. You can find bargains at charity shops.
2. Start the bidding off at a low price as this attracts the bidders.

So overall I made a profit of £0.89p which would have been £1.39 if I hadn't had to relist ...I know its' not going to break the bank but it still represents a profit of nearly 20%

So it's back to the charity shops for me :-)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rob,

Keep up the good work! we'll be visiting often

Dan

Rob. said...

Thanks Dan

Rob

markmcc said...

I'm determined to learn the English money system. Ever since I've been a kid I've wondered how much a six pence was worth in American money, or a quid, or a farthing. I've got to find me a English money dictionary so I can get up to speed.

Also, other there you are much better using your words. I've noticed between you and the Daren at Problogger (excellent site by the way) you use the word "learnt" a lot. It's never used over here. Yet I hate using the word "learned" I don't think it's proper English.

Way of topic, it just came out. Sounds like you "learnt" I thing or two from this past auction.

I'll be learning a thing or two myself coming up shortly. I'll be taking copious notes when I list my upcoming auctions. It's all about moving forward then making corrections then moving forward again.

Good luck on your run to the charity shop.

Mark

Anonymous said...

Hi Rob,
Thanks for your comment on my ebay adventure as a taxi driver over on Marks site. I have found most of my inventory at thrift stores which I'm guessing are the same as charity shops over there. Keep up the good work.
Justin

Anonymous said...

Rob,

I love thrift stores (charity stores) but I can never seem to find anything worthwhile at a reasonable price. Have you heard of Goodwill? It's a charity organization in the states (maybe elsewhere too) that has thrift stores all over. But, the really interesting thing about them is they also have an on-line auction site. People donate things to them, and they, in turn, put them up for auction on-line. It's unbelievable the things they have to offer....here's the web site:
http://shopgoodwill.com

Linda

Anonymous said...

"Learned" is proper English. In America, "learnt" is not even a word, though I've often heard the British use it, mostly casually. I would not use it in an official publication, because it sounds ignorant.