OUR EBAY EXPERIMENT: RESULTS & WHAT WE'VE LEARNED

Well our little experiment with selling at auction on ebay, after not having done so for months, is nearly finished. We still have a few auctions running but it's easy to project already how those will end up i.e. dead. Here's our conclusions:

1) Ebay will bring lots of page views and even bidders  ... IF the auction starts at 99 cents or less!

2) Ebay will bring few page views and almost no bidders if the auction starts at what an item is worth, unless it's worth very little

3) Lots of "watchers" doesn't mean lots of bidders. Now we know that's not news but in general, if you have 50 watchers, you're lucky to have 10 real bidders.

Of the 13 items I had listed, 5 were sold. Three of them went for between $30 - $46, at the opening bid price! The other two, higher end pieces, went for less than 1/10th their appraised value!! I let a $6000 Jabel ring go for $650! There were 13 watchers. Only one person bid. What were the rest doing? I suspect the rest were probably other eBay sellers just curious to see if that Jabel with one carat of diamonds (worth more than the entire ring!) would sell at all before they list theirs.

The other item that sold for 1/10th its appraised value had actually been previously "sold" on Ruby Lane for twice what I got on ebay ie.. $395. The original buyer never paid up. But here's the rub: either she or her relative bid on the eBay auction and got it for half price! Well good for her you might say ie. smart bidding and smart shopping. True. But for me as a vendor, it sucks.

Then there's my daughter's auctions. Several of hers finished yesterday and she still has several to go. The ones that started at 99 cents all sold. Did she get her money ie.. what it was worth? Well on one ring she got back her cost. But since ebay fees come out of that, she's down. On a second ring which miraculously she had priced with an opening bid of $475, she got all her money back but didn't make anything. Interesting that that one did gets bids and didn't start at 99 cents. The gorgeous diamond cross pendant shown in my previous blog post? It went for less than $100. Then take off ebay fees. It started at 99 cents. Now what if she'd paid $200 for that in the first place? Ouch!

Of the items still at auction, only one, a semi-mount for a ring, has any bids. All the others are high end items with the bidding starting where she must start or lose her shirt. On all those items there have been very few page views and just about no-one has a "watch" on them.

So final conclusion as far as we little sellers go: don't sell on ebay unless you can afford to start your auctions at 99 cents!! And don't complain if item sells below what it's worth if you do list there: that's the chance you take when you sell on ebay.

Our auction items are now back in our shops at RUBY LANE and RUBY PLAZA. If you're reading this and are a vendor or buyer, we're open to offers on all items, even when it doesn't state "make an offer". As summer sets in, sales slow down so we're a little more flexible, especially when we're overstocked. So why not drop over and take a look. Don't be shy. We'll listen :))

We have the gorgeous original set by STANLEY HAGLER (shown below) that's a real collector's item: Make us an offer!

Or how about this recently added sapphire/diamond brooch and earring set (below) that we've just added this past week. It's incredible!