Ebay isn't always expensive :(
 

Especially if you sell with free shipping. I got the low end on all my Campy Victory parts (in excellent shape) that were properly described with large photographs. The prices with free shipping were lower than I'd normally get with auctions listing $5 - $10 shipping per item.
I suppose it averages out over the long run.

sorry, but I think that $22.50 for Victory shifters and $10 for a Victory FD are not 'low end' of the price range. Same with the $56 headset. It's Victory not Record...

Sorry it didn't work out for you this time. As a seller I dont like giving free shipping on ebay unless it's an expensive item and not too big/heavy. I think the seller usually gets shortchanged.

As a buyer bidding on multiple items from one seller I don't like seeing free shipping as I don't get the "combined shipping" advantage.

+1 I tried an experiment with free shipping, it did not work at all.

Overall (as a seller), ebay auctions seem to be slow right now.

I also found out that free shipping doesn't bring higher prices. And it causes friction when some guy in Italy doesn't like your shipping price.

i wonder why auctions would be slow in the heart of summer.

I usually offer free shipping when buyers use the Buy-It-Now I set. I set the BIN to have a price I can live with shipping. Buyers seem to like that arrangement.

this is always true. I would wait until fall and then watch the auctions to see if people are getting a fair price. I don't sell between May-September, but I do plan on buying during that same time.

On the other hand I got good money for my shimano 600 parts... lol

+1

This whole year has been slow for me.

Ebay has been spotty for me this year, but got a lot slower in the last couple of months. Note, I am not selling bike stuff on ebay. I tend to sell other stuff that I either pick up at garage sales or thrift stores.

Lately Ebay has been good to me... I sold that Le Tour for a really good price abit ago and today sold my Traveler frame for good money....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=360282284724

I tried to sell it on CL for $100 as a complete bike and it sat for a month with no bites.(so much competition giving stuff away)
I have seen a good amount of interest in all frames I post on the bay so may list more though I would rather sell the bikes as whole it just seems a better return for me to part them out.

Ebay does not take a percentage out of the shipping so it's better to charge $10 shipping and get $10 for the item then to sell for $20 with free shipping because in that case ebay is getting a percentage of the whole $20.

That is true but I have good luck with my buy it now items with free shipping. I'm not fooling any informed buyers with my prices. They know an item's worth and what it costs to ship it but many appreciate the lesser hassle and say so. Sometimes it means the difference in it moving or sitting.

I noticed many more snipers these past few weeks, and it has almost doubled the price on many things.
I just watched in amazment how a Maillard aluminum freewheel go from 100 to 200 bucks in the last 5 seconds of an auction with programmed sniping bids. It pretty much kills trying to get anything good at eBay for a good price.
It sure didn't cost that much earlier this year. Those prices used to be reserved for the Italian aluminum freewheels.
Well, TDF's done for the year. Hope those weekend snipers with the deep pockets go back to their other hobbies for the rest of the year soon!

Chombi

Well, TDF's done for the year. Hope those weekend snipers with the deep pockets go back to their other hobbies for the rest of the year soon!

Though others may hope they hang around a bit longer

Were you the seller with the complete arabesque group? Indeed, that seemed like a good price to me.

I'm only now getting into ebay, and I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty impressed. It gets better in the fall? Great, because CL and word-of-mouth sales in a Wisconsin winter are pretty nonexistent. I have noticed that parts sales (I mostly sell on list-serves and to friends) tend to pick up around February as people start projects for spring.

Ebay can be insane, but I like to let other people tend their own insanity. I always start bids low and give an accurate shipping cost based on what my postal scale tells me. That said, I was pleasantly surprised to sell a stem for $450+ the other day...And Schwinn parts...ai ai.

I don't understand this logic. Whether or not they bid in the first 5 seconds of the auction or the last 5 seconds they still bid an amount that would have had to be beat by you or someone else. Bidding and interest keep you from getting a "good deal"...it's NOT sniping. In that case, if you would have bid $210 you might have won. If you had bid $100 you'd have obviously lost because someone wanted the item MORE, as evidenced by the bid that would have been higher than yours.

If anything, sniping keeps prices lower for bidders....

+1...VERY slow. On the fkip side, it's a good time to be a buyer.

I picked up this Centurion last week off ebay: $60 (picked it up to avoid shipping). I would consider that a good deal.

+1 Sniping is just another form of bidding. If someone wants something really bad, they will pay top dollar for it. Good for them, and good for the seller too.

95% of what I sell on ebay does not get snipe bids.



http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4098/...a772e047_b.jpg

I did pretty well on my last selloff but the prices were all over the place. Overall it worked out fine. I was better off parting out the bike than selling it whole, and that's all I really cared about.

Personally, as an occasional buyer on eBay, I really don't think what you charge for shipping makes much of a difference.

As far as I'm concerned, if I'm will to pay up to $40.00 for your part, my max bid will be $40.00 if the shipping is free or $5.00 if the shipping is $35.00, but you're essentially going to get the same bid from me either way. It doesn't matter where you're located or how much it actually costs for you to ship it, it's all part of the price for the buyer.