Ebay Bid Success Rate

[Woodwind-migration]

I signed up on eBay about a month ago. So far, I placed bids on five coins and did not win any of them. This does not count the two BINs I bought.

 

I'm really not surprised at this. I figured with the strong coin market now and the fact that I bid primarily on coins in "respected" TPG slabs I wouldn't win a whole lot of bids. Hey, that's life, and if I'm able to acquire a coin well below retail that's a bonus to me.

 

I was just wondering what the eBay "success" rate is for others on this board. In other words, about what percent of non-BIN bids do you actually win? Feel free to add info on what you bid on, etc.

[gmarguli]

Nice to see you here Allen. Stop by more often!

 

I put many coins on my watch list and never bid on them because they go too high before the end. I usually bid at the end unless it's just a fun bid or I want to mark it or test another bidder or maybe bump it up for some reason.

 

Excluding those auctions and only talking about the ones I bid on at the end with a desire to win, I'd guess I win 80%+ of my bids. I usually bid rather strong as I don't buy too much and am willing to slightly overpay since I buy so little.

[JamminJ]

How often I win depends on by bid strategy. I collect mostly pre 1918 German and Austrian coins with a primary focus from 1526-1806. However, I am willing to buy anything I think can be profitably resold.

 

 

For stuff that I need to win my success rate is around 80%. These are coins that look particularly nice, fit with the core of my collection and are seldom seen. From time to time my snipe is double the actual closing price. These are coins that could be considered "conditional rarities" and thus have no well defined value. They must be acompanied by a good return policy.

 

For stuff the I want but only at a reasonable price my win rate is around 20%. These may coins that I know another will come around if I miss this one so I'm willing to be patient. They may also be coins which I may already have a similar one or be of a tangential interest. I usually have a good feeling of what these coins are really worth and will not overpay.

 

For the "only if it's dirt cheap stuff" the win rate is very low, maybe 2% or 3%. These are raw coins that look like they may have problems, have scary sellers, crappy pictures, have restocking fees, or is just stuff to resell.

 

Finally there's the "watcher bid" category where I place a bid just to see what the closing price is and have absolutely no expectation of winning. Every once in a while one falls through the cracks due to a wrong description, bad closing time or I just plain underestimate the value. I'd say the percentage of wins on this is very small, say 0.25%.

 

My main goal buying on e-bay is to get coins that are either nice or cheap.

 

-JamminJ

[spy88]

First off, welcome to the forums, WW! Glad to have you. As for your question about others

...eBay "success" rate...

I can only offer from my own point of view with some pertinent general statements towards it.

 

As with anything you don't have 100% control over, one's success rate boils down to how badly an item is wanted and to what extent one is willing to go to get it. You can put in a bid of $500 on a $100 coin thinking no one will ever top it. But if just one other person is thinking the same way and puts in a bid of $400 or $300 or even $200, he/she has just made you spend more then the coin may ever be worth. There are those occasions where rarity of the coin may make the price seem outrageous to others...but you got the coin you wanted and price is

secondary. Many people use sniping programs (there are lots of them out there). I personally prefer to be able to be at my computer to snipe bid at the last 2-4 seconds of an auction (a atomic clock is very worthwhile having). Sometimes even these methods don't work because you might be bidding against someone of like-mindedness and all it takes is 1 cent to lose out. Even now with knowing how many people have put in bids and/or are watching a item, you can never really know what something will cost you---or not as the case may be. And luck comes into play also. Impossible to estimate this factor.

 

All in all, I've done fairly well with getting the coins I want at a price I feel comfortable with. And this is really the key...being happy with the coin and and the price. I've had my share of disappointments too (haven't we all?) but truly believe in my sig line statement. And without really explaining it, I'll just say it isn't a belief in fate or karma, or anything like them. Wonder why no one has ever asked me to explain it.

[braddick]

The rare coin or two that are eBay "Must Haves" my success rate is near 100%.

 

The coins I don't care about? 5- 10%.

[James_OldeTowne]

I have a very low winning percentage. Probably well under 5% !

 

James

[kryptonitecomics]

I bid on a lot of coins with no expectations that I will win them at the levels I bid them up too......hey we all try to get lucky. As others have stated, if it's something I am truly interested in I would say 80% of the time I win them.

[Woodwind-migration]

Hey Greg thanks for the welcome. Yeah, I'm starting to visit here more often so maybe I'll double my post count to 18 by the end of the year.

[JamminJ]

Yeah, I'm starting to visit here more often so maybe I'll double my post count to 18 by the end of the year.

 

 

That's almost a post a month! Better get crackin'.

 

-JamminJ

[astrostu]

I have 11 "wins" and 10 "losses" so that's a 52%. But most of the stuff I have lost are because they went higher than I was willing to pay. And since they were common things (rolls of pre-1970 Kennedy halves) I figured that within a day or two someone else would have the same thing up and I could win it at a lower price. This isn't to say that I haven't lost some stuff that I wanted to win and in retrospect I should have put my maximum bid higher, but thems the breaks!