Getting ready to trim my collection down a bit - Auction questions

[NYLatenite]

Hello all,

I've recently decided to look into trimming down my collection a bit, as storage space is at a premium and I could use some cash. Before I do anything, I thought I'd best ask a few basic Ebay questions so I can make the most of my auctions.

1.) If I'm looking to move extra common and uncommon titles, is it best to just try to move them individually, or am I better off bundling them with a rarer game and selling at a bundled price, using the rarer title to move carts that normally might not sell?

2.) Shipping - Has anyone found that allowing bundled/combined shipping helps sales?

3.) More shipping - apart from packaging everything at the post office in priority mail packages, is there a way to get said mailers on the cheap for home use? (stamps.com or the like? - I do plan on using the post office for shipping)

4.) Delivery confirmation - should I force this on all sales and just build it into the cost of shipping and handling?

5.) The market itself - Just how is the sellers market right now? In looking up a lot of the things I may move, I've noticed a lot of high prices being asked for stuff, but no takers at those prices. I've also seen a lot of really good deals being offered with few bids, making me wonder if it's not the best time to be selling.

Any information anyone with some auction experience could offer would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[Aussie2B]

Well, here are my opinions at least:

1.) If I'm looking to move extra common and uncommon titles, is it best to just try to move them individually, or am I better off bundling them with a rarer game and selling at a bundled price, using the rarer title to move carts that normally might not sell?

Rarity doesn't matter that much. It's all about value. There are plenty of very common games that can still pull in a fair chunk of change on their own. In my opinion, if a game can sell for at least 10-20 bucks on its own, then it's worth selling separately from everything else. The games that are so cheap that they're tough sells should be bundled together. Even without a highly desirable title among the bunch, the quantity alone will be a selling point.

2.) Shipping - Has anyone found that allowing bundled/combined shipping helps sales?

As a buyer, I do find it annoying if a seller doesn't combine shipping costs, so I would say it helps.

3.) More shipping - apart from packaging everything at the post office in priority mail packages, is there a way to get said mailers on the cheap for home use? (stamps.com or the like? - I do plan on using the post office for shipping)

If you're going to use Priority Mail, you can "order" the boxes online from USPS.com and have them mailed to your house at no cost to you.

4.) Delivery confirmation - should I force this on all sales and just build it into the cost of shipping and handling?

Your call. Some sellers are paranoid and get a delivery confirmation every single time, but I personally only bother if the item has a decent amount of value to it (like, say, $30+). Thus far, I've never once got burned doing this. *knock on wood*

5.) The market itself - Just how is the sellers market right now? In looking up a lot of the things I may move, I've noticed a lot of high prices being asked for stuff, but no takers at those prices. I've also seen a lot of really good deals being offered with few bids, making me wonder if it's not the best time to be selling.

Well, summer isn't the best time of year for selling, but I wouldn't necessarily say it's a bad time. It really depends on what you're selling. If you're selling, say, SNES games, the market is really hot for many of the big-name and cult classic games these days. But don't go off of active auctions. If you want a realistic idea of a game's current market value, look at the completed auctions and get an idea for the average.

[Tokimemofan]

Anything over $50 in value should be listed as a buy it now or as a 1 cent auction. I have never gotten burned doing that, invariably someone snipes in the last few minutes. I once had a game go from $60 to $150 in the last 10 seconds.

[Gameguy]

1.) If I'm looking to move extra common and uncommon titles, is it best to just try to move them individually, or am I better off bundling them with a rarer game and selling at a bundled price, using the rarer title to move carts that normally might not sell?

I find it's best to sell common games in bundles if you have a lot of them and want to sell them quickly, it's best to mix in a few of the more desirable games in with them and bundle with a system if you can. If you really had a rare game worth big bucks I wouldn't include it, but games worth $20-$30 individually would still be alright.

It helps if you at least include a few complete series of games in a bundle if possible, like for the NES all 3 Mario games or all 3 Double Dragon games. If you're missing a game in a series people won't be as interested.

I wouldn't even use ebay for this, I find local sales can work better. Having an NES system with 40 games for $200 is fair, looking on ebay similar bundles seem to sell for around $65-$150 and ebay takes fees too.

[Cornelius]

I'm with Gameguy on the selling locally for something like this. Pull out anything really expensive and sell that online, but a lot on CL can do pretty well. Hard to say though sine we don't know what you are selling. If you just mean sell some games from many collections, use eBay. If you are selling an entire NES collection, see above.

1.) If I'm looking to move extra common and uncommon titles, is it best to just try to move them individually, or am I better off bundling them with a rarer game and selling at a bundled price, using the rarer title to move carts that normally might not sell?

I'd sell separately anything worth 20 or more, maybe 15.

2.) Shipping - Has anyone found that allowing bundled/combined shipping helps sales?

I do free shipping on all my stuff, but I'm not often selling a bunch of games from the same system at once. In that case, I have charged shipping and do offer combined shipping. I only ever charged actual cost of shipping. It really annoys buyers if you charge shipping but don't combine, and it doesn't really make sense either.

3.) More shipping - apart from packaging everything at the post office in priority mail packages, is there a way to get said mailers on the cheap for home use? (stamps.com or the like? - I do plan on using the post office for shipping)

I send as much as I can First Class, which can be any package up to 13oz, which is more that you'd expect. It is the cheapest option and is just as fast as Priority in my experience. I've bought bubble mailers for that off eBay, which seems to be the cheapest way to get them. I forget what "#" size it is, but it is the size that fits a DVD case

4.) Delivery confirmation - should I force this on all sales and just build it into the cost of shipping and handling?

Get DC on everything. Trust me, it will save you worry and hassle. I think Priority always has DC no matter what (domestic). Really, you should bite the bullet and buy a scale. Then you can prepare all your packages at home and print shipping labels through eBay/paypal. This gives you a discount on shipping charges and DC (you are forced to buy DC on First Class but it is only $0.19). Then you can just walk by all the suckers waiting in line at the Post Office and just set your packages on the counter or use a drop box (check with your PO for how they want you to do it). Plus you may find it handy to have a scale around otherwise; I use mine for cooking/baking sometimes.

5.) The market itself - Just how is the sellers market right now? In looking up a lot of the things I may move, I've noticed a lot of high prices being asked for stuff, but no takers at those prices. I've also seen a lot of really good deals being offered with few bids, making me wonder if it's not the best time to be selling.

Any information anyone with some auction experience could offer would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Summer can be better than you might think, especially for newer stuff. Kids have more time to play games and so are purchasing more of them. Pricing is always like what you describe, stuff priced too high doesn't sell often, and sometimes people get great deals on auctions. I agree with whoever said either use a BIN or .01 auction for expensive stuff. I do almost exclusively BIN and price based on other BINs that have actually sold.

Good luck!

[Aussie2B]

Yeah, personally, I go with bubble mailers and first class shipping too, and I can usually get a box of 100 bubble mailers off of eBay for around $15 shipped. Although, if you're selling a game that's in a cardboard box, don't use a bubble mailer. You definitely want to use a box then to prevent crushing.

I should probably get my own scale one of these days, if only because my local post office seems to have really crappy scales that are off and always give weights greater than what the package really weighs, but I sell fairly infrequently so it hasn't been worth the effort and investment thus far.

[xelement5x]

Yeah, personally, I go with bubble mailers and first class shipping too, and I can usually get a box of 100 bubble mailers off of eBay for around $15 shipped. Although, if you're selling a game that's in a cardboard box, don't use a bubble mailer. You definitely want to use a box then to prevent crushing.

I should probably get my own scale one of these days, if only because my local post office seems to have really crappy scales that are off and always give weights greater than what the package really weighs, but I sell fairly infrequently so it hasn't been worth the effort and investment thus far.

Yeah, a postal scale is totally worth the investment. I think I spent my first $25 or so of "profits" on a scale and it has paid for itself many times over by now. I normally take the weight I get and increase it by a couple ounces though, just to account for heavier scales the PO may use.

Like others have said, buy mailers in bulk in you can, but also get packaging tape that way! Buying a one off roll from the store is pricey compared to an 8-pack from Costco.

I make sure combined shipping is prominent in auctions. If you're listing a lot of items at once (like over 20-30) and they're similar content, you'll get people bidding on stuff they would normally pass on since combined shipping can entice people to drop a couple extra bucks on another game they want.

[bigbacon]

as someone who has been buying lots of games lately COMBINE SHIPPING.

I bought from one ebay member over another even though one had higher prices because they combined shipping. So I get like 6 or 7 games and the shipping is like 6 bucks instead of 3 bucks per game or whatever.

Saves me a lot of money and saves you materials.