[meteorite-list] Steve Arnold's Famous Reverse Auction

From: MeteorHntr at aol.com <MeteorHntr_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:18:13 EDT
Message-ID: <c4b.27ce1f87.3547fb85_at_aol.com>

Hey Guys,

I really didn't want to get into this yet, as I wanted to be the first to
try this on Ebay. Talk about it too much, and someone else might try this
before I get to do it first!

But I will explain it so you guys don't get too confused.

Ebay has an Auction format and a "Buy It Now" feature.

Yes, "Buy It Now" is NOT a true "auction," even though most people think of
Ebay as an Online AUCTION Site. With "Buy It Now" sellers can place items on
sale for a fixed price. As a seller, if you want to discount things for 5%
or 50% or 90% off some of your items, you can. Michael Cottingham had a 40%
off sale for a few days, just a couple of days ago. So I am sure most all of
you are aware of this Ebay feature.

Since, so many people seemed to enjoy my so called "Reverse Auctions" I had
in the past, I thought "Hey, why not do it on Ebay?"
 
The problem with doing it the old way was that there was a LOT of work on my
end, lowering prices, dealing with an influx of emails on people that wanted
to buy it at the new lower price. With Ebay, it will be much easier to do
this.

So that is my plan.
 
My email earlier was simply an attempt to contact some of you that have
previously bought from me, people that enjoyed the process. I wanted to talk
with you guys off line about some things.
 
Of course, in my description on the Ebay lots, I was going to explain how I
was going to progressively lower the prices, in my "Reverse Auction" style,
starting with my asking price, then maybe a day later, putting a 10% discount
on the ones that had not sold. Then maybe the next day, putting a 20%
discount on the remaining ones. This keeps going until everything is sold, or
until I raise enough cash and decide I don't want to sell some or all of the
remaining at too low of a price.

The opposite way of doing this is with a normal auction with a reserve
price, or at a starting price.

Theoretically, a lot might get down to 99% off, before someone "Buys It
Now." If the lot was a $1.00 item at the start, then it would then be marked
down to $0.01. If it was a $1,000.00 item, then it might go down to $10.00.

In fact, someone might not even pay $0.01 for some meteorites. It happens
that some "Normal" auctions start at $0.01 and the seller hopes that the bids
go up, yet sometimes no one even bothers to bid once on them, so there is no
sale at $0.01.

Is it a "scam" to start high and then lower the price until an items gets in
a price range that someone decides they want to buy it? I don't really
think so.

If I think a 100 gram Goa is worth $1/g or $100, I might start it out at
$100. If someone likes that rock, and agrees it is worth $100, they can "Buy It
Now" at that price. If not, I might drop the price with a 10% of Sale, and
it is now $90. If no one likes that price, and I want to go lower, I can
offer a 20% off price, and thus the "Buy It Now" price is temporarily at $80.
And so on. If I have 2 Gaos up, each 100 grams, and one is oriented, and the
other isn't, someone might jump at the $90 price, while someone else might
wait until the price gets to $50 to Buy the nonoriented one.

In fact, I think some dealers put "retail" prices on their web sites, but if
you call them, or email them they are willing to lower the prices to make a
sale. Maybe the first day they put something up, they might not sell
something too discounted. But talk to them a week later, or a month or year later,
and sometimes buyers can talk a seller down. No scam involved.

Is this a gimmick? Well, I guess it depends on the definition of
"gimmick." I would tend to think it is "marketing." Of course, it being on Ebay, no
one is forced to participate. Is Ebay a "gimmick?" Is "Buy It Now" a
gimmick? Is offering a discount a gimmick? Is "Free shipping" a gimmick? Is
saying "hurry up and buy before I sell out" a gimmick? By a broad enough
definition, about anything can be called a gimmick.

AND having said ALL that, I don't even know if I will call this a "Reverse
Auction." My original email to the group only asked if anyone here had
participated in one of my "Reverse Auctions" of the past. Maybe my previous
"Reverse Auctions" didn't fit the legal definition of a true auction, but those
that enjoyed participating in them in the past, know what I meant when I asked
my simple question to contact me off list.

Doug mentioned, this more as a "Going out of business sale" format. I would
agree, with the exception that I am not "going out of business." Maybe it
would be best compared to a furniture store that is having an inventory
liquidation sale. The goal of the store is to move out enough inventory so there
is enough room for the new inventory coming. The sale gets better and better
each week, until there is the floor space for the new, then the sale goes
off. You expect the best stuff to go early, and real bargains can be picked up
on items that others, for whatever reason, don't seem to value.
 
Maybe if you have had a yard sale, you know that over time you get to be
more flexable on price, often lowering prices, maybe more than once, over a
weekend sale. At the end of the sale a guy shows up with a truck and offers you
$20 to haul it all off, and you are happy to take the deal!

I had items in previous auctions sell for 80% off what my first asking price
 was. In those cases, either I totally missed guessing what the real value
was, or someone got a real sleeper of a good deal.

"Sniping" can occur, but it happens EARLY instead of at the last second.
 
I have just acquired a lot of inventory some of which, to be honest, I don't
know what it is worth. I could put it on Ebay, and let the price go up, but
that requires I sell it. With a reverse auction, someone could offer me a
trade for something, as the price is going down, and if I wanted to take, I
could tell them to "Buy It Now" and I could take barter instead of cash or
paypal. With and absolute auction, you don't know until the very last second
what it will (or will not) sell for.

Anyway, my request of asking those of you that have done it before, if you
enjoyed it, please email me off list. I still want to chat with you.
 
If you didn't enjoy the process in the past, I would have to assume that you
didn't participate, or you were too greedy, hoping the price would go down
one more time, and someone else jumps in and gets it before you do.
 
If I do end up doing this on Ebay, by all means, if you think it is a scam,
and you don't want say a 3mg crumb of Chassigny from the Natural History
Museum in London for $100, or $90, or $80, or $70, or $60, or $50, or $40, or $30,
or $20, or $10, or $5 or $0.01 by all means don't bother participating.

In fact, there are a lot of people that might like the Chassigny at $10 that
would hope you DON'T show up and "Buy it Now" at $20 and you get it instead
of them getting it.
 
Maybe I shouldn't have said that? Now no one will probably want to say
anything nice about it hoping to run off all the competition. Drats...

Steve Arnold #1
 



**************Need a new ride? Check out the largest site for U.S. used car
listings at AOL Autos.
(http://autos.aol.com/used?NCID=aolcmp00300000002851)
Received on Tue 29 Apr 2008 12:18:13 AM PDT