Auctions always get regulated to somewhere near market value, that is what happens in the last minutes. Sweet deals on buy it now are bought within 5 minutes of their listing. I don't know how you can ever say you can get a deal as sweet as a 71 for 750 on an auction?
I clear 200 -1000 a guitar. And as stated I cleared 3500 on that private stock. You doing better than that?
You know very little about basic ebay economics. You are very correct - auctions get "market value". However, they don't get "book value". That's for the "Buy it Now." Auctions REGULARLY produce lower final values than their fixed-auction counterparts. This is due to:
1) the economy and its affect on a buyer's confidence and more importantly the buyer's pocketbook
2) the lack of demand for certain products that would otherwise command book value
3) variable factors involved with the listing itself (bad pictures, 4 a.m. listing time, bad description, lack of question answering)
4) the availability of buyers at the time the auction ends (i.e. Johnny might have bidded a bunch on it but he was at work)
"Buy it Now" auctions don't have the responsibility of having to handle any of these variables. Just because a few guys a week list their guitars way cheap doesn't mean the whole format itself is that way. "Buy it Now" auctions have the benefit of:
1) allowing the seller to price something at book value and wait for someone to come along who will buy it. A specific/maybe obscure color or model of guitar won't command as much in live auction because the 1 or 2 people who would pay $1000 for it aren't around to bid on it. Thus, it might only go for $700.
2) allowing the seller to decline bad offers and shoo away low prices by having a set price. If a guitar normally costs $1200 new but only goes for $700 new at auction, that leaves a $500 gap. You think people will never buy in that gap??? Sure they will!! But not in the auction. An ebay seller then goes and lists for $950. He might have to wait a couple times around and maybe lower it a few bucks but it will sell just the same - and will command a higher price.
I don't have thousands of dollars to invest (I'm a college student) or else I'd be making more. I have made up to $250 a guitar but that is half skill and half luck. Yes, if you're going to get a "Buy it Now" deal you have to be sitting and staring at ebay every minute of every day.
I've heard alot of ridiculous things in this forum (or any forum...for that matter) without any proof. You show me proof you're doing this and I'll consider your responses legitimate. Anyone can say they made $2000 doing anything on this thread. Who was the buyer? And who did you buy it from? Please post your ebay user-name so that we can verify this if we like. This ain't any different than the real world.
And also, I didn't come on here to argue with someone who's better at making money. I could care less. I was using my experience with ebay as proof that I may have at least some knowledge of the site and its comings-and-goings. Indeed, I also occasionally stop to verify the claims if tb's many users, as I am now. It makes the world cleaner and clearer to do so.
