Some Things You Might Not Know About eBay Users
Written by: Don Miller
Posted on April 10, 2008
Filed Under Starting your Online Business, bans
I wanted to add some more secrets of eBay users to try and help you understand how to capitalize on the habits of eBay users. I have 20-25 BANS sites now. I am planning many more. The majority of my sites will feature collectibles of all types. People collect and people will always collect. They desire to hoard things of all shapes and sizes. Now some will tell you that collecting is their hobby. Okay, that is a reasonable explanation, but not one that I used to decide which direction I would go in choosing my categories and domain names. I promise you what you are about to read will surprise some of you. Here is why. Take a look at this quote.
A blog called Collectors’ Quest cites an episode from a TV medical show that showed brain scans of hoarders, and a Dr. David Tolin who believes that “hoarding, currently considered a subset of obsessive compulsive disorder or OCD, really may be a unique disorder completely separate from OCD”. I call it addiction.
And this one “Some tend to become “addicted” on a more permanent basis to whatever they feel compelled to do. As a result, we have love junkies, sex junkies, relationship junkies, education junkies, pet junkies, food junkies, work junkies (workaholics), television junkies, shopping junkies and so on, the common features being an obsessive preoccupation with the activity they have chosen; difficulty in stopping the activity even if it comes in the way of their financial, social or emotional well-being; accompanying feelings of shame and self-disgust; and the experience of a sense of craving, irritability and restlessness when they are unable to engage in the activity – all classical “symptoms” of addiction.” That’s a mouthful but, I agree.
The most popular categories you will find on eBay tend to lean towards some sort of collecting and not the kind of collecting Monika wrote about. I have experienced this first hand back in the baseball card boom. I owned a retail store that sold sports memorabilia. Men, women and children would come on each day to open packs of baseball cards. I had clients that would open 100’s of dollars worth of cards in one visit and this wasn’t a once a month visit. they shopped two to three times a week. Imagine opening $150.00 box of baseball cards in less that 15 minutes and asking for another . People literally asked me not to tell their spouses about how much they had spent. At this point you might be wondering if I own a baseball card site. What do you think?
The Choice is Yours
Now wouldn’t it be nice if you could set up BANS Sites for all those big ticket type items. You certainly can and I suppose you will hit the lottery every now and then. Ill have a few of those, but I would rather feature lower priced, easy to ship items. There is just a bigger market share if you structure it this way. Just to prove a point, when I was selling on eBay I would upload 100- 150 auctions per day. That usually took 1 hour. That meant I has auctions ending everyday. I charged $3.95 for shipping meaning if 100 auctions sold. I was going to make $150.00 to $200.00 on shipping and handling. The items sold for between $10.00 and $100.00.
The point is low cost items are searched and sold on eBay. It feeds the addiction for some at a lower cost. I know some of you are wondering at this point , does Don collect baseball cards? I once took a card to the grocery store to pay for groceries. They said I needed cash. Cards or cash, hmm, seems an easy decision for me. Sell the damn card. Hope that answers that question.
What Does This Mean for Your Bans Site?
Does this mean all ebayer’s are shop-aholic’s ? Of course not! It does mean, collectors are at least slightly bent that way. A good salesman knows their prospect. A good salesman presents opportunities to provide a product or service for their prospects, regardless of the market or personal preference for that product. A 1994 SP PSA 9 Alex Rodriguez used to sell for $2000.00 in its glory days. I just checked eBay and you can get one for around $400.00, but it still sells. The customer has to have it before it gets pricier or at $400.00 you cannot miss this opportunity to own this card at these levels. That is the two ways I would market the card. This is the best part about owning BANS, minimal entry price into a limitless collection of products. The ways of the past would have included a $1600.00 cardboard dinner, a loss most of us could ill afford.
Other Collectibles to Consider
I once sold a Mickey Mantle autographed baseball to a man who claimed to have a 1000 of them in a warehouse. He has 1001 now. Autographs sell people.
I have never understood the logic behind comic books as I have never read them, but people collect them and pay significant sums of money for them.
I live in the state of the big eared rodent. His name is Mickey Mouse and he was invented by a guy named Walt Disney. I wonder if he ever dreamed it would get to this. I suppose he did. Disney products have been a hot seller for generations now.
Lenox porcelain plates and figurines have had good runs on eBay in the past. I know I was shipping porcelain garden birds frequently at one time; they might be worth checking out as well, which brings me to my next point.
Watching eBay Trends
eBay started in 1995 a bit before Google if memory serves me. It is a powerful tool for spotting trends. Spend some time on the site and pick some categories. Watch the auctions end especially in the evening hours. You can literally spot trends in what is hot and what is not. Check your closing prices and you will see prices jump dramatically. If there are lots of players involved you might want to be too. Last second bid snipers knock each other off in droves. They have software for it now; I used to have to do it manually. 9 seconds left? Bang I win. The the point of all this is to to say collectors go to great lengths to collect what they want, even searching through pages of SERP’S.
If you have any questions or would like a second opinion on your choices leave it in the comments and Ill be sure to address it.
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Tags:, build a niche store, ebay.bans, marketing
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Some Things You Might Not Know About eBay Users, Home Based Business Opportunities…
I ve added some thoughts on choosing categories for BANS sites . You might call it market research. Vic will tell you not to over think this thing and he is right. But in my time in eBay I found out some interesting things about the way people shop by …
I’m surprised this post hasn’t garnered more comments Don. It is an excellent follow up on your last post about BANS and EBay.
To get insider knowledge from a person who has been there before and seen it all, this has got to be worth more than absolute silence. Come on people, give Don a heads up on this.
Too many think about what sells for the most. The key to making money with Ebay (selling or with BANS) is to focus on what people want to buy. We all have our own wants and needs; it’s safe to say you’re not the only person who likes to collect comic books, if that’s your thing…
Don, this is a very enlightening post. I have not really focused on collectible items but will definitely do so soon based on this advice.