EBAY SELLING EXPERIMENT PROCEEDING AS EXPECTED - POORLY!

If you read my previous blog post, you know that for the first time in a very long time, we decided to list some of our gorgeous fine jewelry on auction at eBay. Their offer of free listing i.e. no fees for a change, was an opportunity to compare eBay as a selling venue to our usual venues at RUBY LANE and RUBY PLAZA.  We were also hoping to use this as a chance to lure visitors to our new Ruby Plaza shop as it carries quite a few items that aren't or cannot be listed in our Ruby Lane Shop. We hope YOU  have checked out the new shop by now (hint! hint!)

So here we are with auctions ending in the next 24 -48 hours and going by the "page views" eBay supplies, traffic to the auction items have been dreadful! Whether that's because they're buried under so much other stuff at ebay that folks don't find them until the last minute (much to our disappointment of course) or they simply aren't what buyers want, we don't know. But we do know this much: eBay shoppers are still very loathe to bid or buy anything that priced higher, or where the opening bid is high, even if it's worth every cent and you can prove it by an appraisal. We have rings listed, like the glorious diamond and emerald cocktail ring below (which comes with an appraisal for $2150 CAD) on which the opening bid is a

very low $695, almost my cost, and no-one is even watching it. OUCH! This ring has 0.40 cts of VS - H diamonds (top quality) and 5 genuine, not lab-created emeralds! It's a absolute steal at that opening bid price.  But no, instead there's more watches on simple rings starting at $29 that aren't a patch on that one and will never match it for value. 

Well we do have bids on some items. Of course, they are the ones starting super low, like that incredible diamond cross shown at the top of this blog. That beauty comes with 0.65cts of diamonds and no kidding ... that one is worth bidding on. But here we are with 4 days to go in the auction at the bidding is stalled at $21.75!! How typical. We know what the watchers are doing of course: they're going to wait till the very last second and try to snipe it for pennies. And whoever wins it will score bigtime. But will they pay what it's really worth? I'm betting it doesn't even reach $200 and it's certainly worth more than that. 

Here's another example: the ring shown below comes with an appraisal for over $2200 CAD. The main diamond in this one is about 0.29cts and again, high quality. Bidding has opened (started at $49) and has reached a grand total of $87 at this point. Whoopee! NOT! Is this going to be another one of those items we lose our shirts on? Probably. Why do eBay sellers put themselves through this!

One thing's becoming abundantly clear to me: to sell successfully (ie. make any money) on eBay you either have to be able to buy items at rock-bottom prices or be a masochist. You certainly shouldn't rely on it as your only source of income ie. better keep your day job and do ebay for fun. Did I say fun? What's funny about losing money?!

One of the other rings we have at auction (there's plenty more) is the fabulous emerald-cut solitaire shown below. About a year back, we couldn't keep this style of ring in stock. Everyone was after emerald-cut solitaires. Well right now, this one's had lots of looks but only 4 watchers. Let's hope they're serious and not just curious. This is a 0.28ct solitaire engagement ring whose diamond is VS - VVS clarity and F-G color ... just a gorgeous and valuable stone. We have the opening bid on this at our cost! Someone will get lucky if they're smart enough to bid. But you can bet they'll do the usual eBay thing: wait till the last second.

For me, I find this type of selling utterly nerve-wrecking. I try not to worry but I know that I'm one of those unfortunate sellers who doesn't buy her stuff at bargain basement prices. We pay a lot for each and every fine piece of jewelry we carry. So if we list on eBay, we can't start auctions at 99 cents like the big guys do, though I must admit some of them do amazingly. I guess the difference is they have huge followings on eBay. Maybe they have retail outlets. Maybe their buyers are other jewellers who know the value of the pieces. I wonder how many "ordinary" buyers who'd just like a nice ring for themselves or someone they love know the real value of what they're looking at. We know the quality we're selling. We spell it out in detail in our shops at RUBY LANE and RUBY PLAZA. We provide that same detail to eBay buyers but they don't bite. Why! There sure is something different about buying and selling on eBay. 

And thank heaven for our loyal Ruby Lane/Ruby Plaza customers who buy from us again and again, knowing that that they'll get what they see and it's worth what we say. Make no mistake: there are some very good, honest sellers on eBay who do bend over backwards to serve the customer and who stand behind their product. But there's one thing we have seen time and again too ie.. sellers who sell diamond and gemstone jewelry, making lavish claims about the quality, and then, even when you prove to them it ain't what they say, they refund your money and relist the item exactly as they had it before! Hmmm! 

Well, we'll see how our auctions go over the next few days. I know we'll be disappointed. I'm willing to bet most of the items won't sell at all, even at the super low opening bids, and those that do sell will bring sad $$ for the value. Those who buy our pieces will be very happy as they'll get top quality for low dollars. As for us, it'll be back to where we like selling: RUBY LANE and RUBY PLAZA. Oh, while we have you: that's a genuine diamond and garnet JABEL shown below and bidding on that one starts at only $295!! That's giving it away!

IS EBAY STILL THE BEST PLACE TO SELL YOUR VINTAGE JEWELRY?

A few days back, a member of our jewelry group posited this question: "Is there really no alternative to ebay for selling items by auction"? From the answers members gave him, one couldn't help but sense a tiny bit of despair. Yes there were alternatives out there, but if you really wanted to sell by auction, eBay still rules.

Many, like me, prefer not to sell auction-style: we know that invariably we'll lose money in one or more ways:

1) eBay buyers are bargain hunters ...they have a garage sale mentality ie.. get it as cheaply as you can. Take advantage of a seller's need for funds at that moment etc etc. Hence, the seller rarely gets what they really would like or need for the item.

2) if you do get a price you're happy with, ebay's fees will cut steeply into your profit.

Either way, you usually end up with less money than you wanted, less than the item was worth, or if you had the misfortune of paying too much for it when you first bought it, of losing $$ altogether.

I guess that's why we deserted ebay over 2 years ago as sellers. We felt we were being eaten alive there. We moved over to RUBY LANE and everything changed. It's been great for us. We like it so much, we've even dared to open a second shop at their sister site, RUBY PLAZA. That one will take time to grow but we're confident that ultimately, we're better off on both those sites than selling on ebay.

BUT, eBay is trying hard to lure the sellers back. They've been running a very special offer that ended today, June 1st. They let vendors with good DSR's list auction-style for FREE! Well, since things have truly been a bit slow in the last couple of months, we've decided to test eBay out for the first time in a long, long time. We know we won't get the price we want for the items we've listed, but we're curious to see what will happen. Are the shoppers still bargain-hunting on ebay? Will they recognize value when they see it or decide that it's still too expensive for them? In short, we're conducting an experiment of sorts. It'll be interesting to see if we sell anything at all LOL!

If you'd like to have a look at what we've listed, you'll find our auction listings HERE There's quite a mixture of items: gorgeous diamond and gemstone rings, some Shermans, some fine jewelry like the necklace shown at the top, and even loose genuine gemstones. Auctions start as low as $29 for rings. The better rings, several with appraisals, start at only 1/4 to 1/5 or even in some cases, 1/10 of the appraised value! This is a great chance to get some of our fabulous jewelry at a price lower than we've had it in our SHOPS, presuming you win the item for the opening bid. Yes, we were careful not to cut our own throats on this experiment. We've done that too often on eBay LOL.

But if you're the type who doesn't like buying on eBay, but you want one of our items, here's what you do: locate that item in either our RUBY LANE or RUBY PLAZA shop and email us. We can talk about it ie. if item doesn't sell on ebay, after the auction ends, you can buy it from us that opening bid price. How's that sound?

Visit the EBAY LINK to our items today. Except for the gemstones, you can link straight through from the item listing in eBay to the listing in our shop and vice versa. Then contact us. Have fun!