What Is Your Ebay Strategy?

Yeah, the more research I'm doing, the more I'm thinking it's a great place to buy. I found a couple of reliable sellers who always put up junk gold/silver at low starting prices and no reserve.

I've personally bought the majority of my coins off of ebay. The rest I either got from pocket change (the cheapest way to get coins) or from local coin shows.
I collect (not a seller) modern coins so I haven't had too much trouble with any transactions, but the more rarer the coin the greater chance there is to get 'enhanced' coins or, worst of all, ...fakes. As a buyer, one needs to really do their homework before buying/bidding.

As for strategy, I prefer sniping when I am able to. The least amount of time someone else has to try to trump your bid the better. Beforehand I determine what I think the coin is worth, and after subtracting the listed shipping cost (if any) I submit that amount (or a little less) and then cross my fingers. I've learned bidding early and then getting into a bidding war can be costly. I don't normally mind losing an auction because there's always going to be another coin listed to try again.

I always try to sell on gunbroker also. It is about 1/4 of the fees and gets a surprising amount of coin traffic.

I have actually had pretty good luck on ebay... the key is patience and I always bid on coins that have the following criteria:

Free Shipping
Good value (i.e. the price point is lower then avg retail price)
Good high quality pictures
High seller feed back who has been around awhile

...and I wait for that deal to come up and I set my max bid; if I win awesome! If not and someone out shoots me then I move on.

I've bought a lot of coins off the 'bay, never any issues but then again we are talking the $5-$50 range.

I've sold a fair amount of coins (and truck loads of other stuff) as well. fees are cheap compared other venues and you get a world wide audience. it was a little more seller friendly now a few years ago, now it is all about protecting the buyer, but its still a good place to do business.

for "clearance" stuff I start at 99 cents with no reserve price. everything sells, not always for what I want - but for what the market says it is worth. for items that I want to get a set price I list for Buy-it-now with "best offer".

its left over from when paypal and ebay used to be separate companies.

paypal hits you again when you convert currency during a withdraw (as a canadian I can NOT withdraw US funds into a US bank account, they force me to convert to canadian dollars and skim another few %)

I do not sell with auctions. I only do buy it now. I do not put up the best offer option because I got tired of the "I'll give you 30 bucks" for the graded VF 32D Washington that I kept getting. Serious buyers that think they can haggle a bit will do so regardless. And many times I have dropped the prices.

If you did not pay full retail or more for the coin, you can get your money back plus some depending on the item. I just put up 3 07 Mint Sets with a FRV range of 24-28 bucks per CoinWorld priced within that range. They got snapped up within 24 hours of me listing them. The other sets I listed as well, 96-02 and 06, have done nothing. Just depends on the items.

For pricing structure, look at FRV. Price at the low end of that. I do NOT use finished auction prices as a guide. Auctions are far to varied in results with far too many things affecting them for them to be an accurate guide. I personally have snagged far too many coins at stupid low prices on auction for me to expose my assets to that madness. Or to buy into those prices as being an accurate guide. Completed buy it now listings on the other hand, give a better idea of what people will pay.

As for those of you who keep bashing ebay. I do not pay 15% in fees. It is more towards 12. And as mentioned, that is less than most other places. The places that charge significantly less do so for one major reason. They CANT charge more because they do NOT have the traffic. If you only pay 6% fees but don't sell your items, what is the point?

ebay is a great market place. But the simple rules of buying apply here as they do everywhere else, including your LCS. You better know what you are doing and what is fair and reasonable for the item you are buying/selling. It is just common sense really.

All that having been said, a single rule of thumb for pricing? Unfortunately, no. It really is a matter of feeling out the market for the item and a good bit of simple luck. Each thing needs to be researched. Those 07s for instance. Had I know they would get snapped up like that at the price I had them at, I might have added a buck or so and likely still have sold them quickly.