Can I search for auction only items and other newbie questions

[LovesVintage43]

Hello all, I am just finding my way around the site and was wondering ,when looking to buy, can I search for items by Auction only?

I see many people sell by using the buy it now facility...is this because they find that traditional auction style listings do not work well for them ?

If I choose to sell an item on a 7 day auction, can I then just relist again if it does not sell and do I have to re-do the whole listing or is it saved?

Many thanks for reading my questions,any help would be gratefully received as I want to find out what will work best for me before I put some items up for sale.

[astral276]

Hello all, I am just finding my way around the site and was wondering ,when looking to buy, can I search for items by Auction only?

Sadly...No. Neither can you filter on BuyNow only. The only filter is to return those listings that have BuyNow at least as an option. The eBid search engine really could be a lot more flexible. It is something I have 'moaned' about since I got here.

I see many people sell by using the buy it now facility...is this because they find that traditional auction style listings do not work well for them ?

It seems that the thrill of the auction has fallen out of favour - people want things NOW!!! Even when an auction does get going there are few bidding wars here - so start your auctions at the minimum you are willing to accept, or (though I don't like them) set a reserve price.

The inclusion of a BuyNow price is also one (there are others) of the requisites for the listing to be fed to Google Shopping/Products. This gives the listing wider exposure; many sellers offer a BuyNow price just for this reason.

If I choose to sell an item on a 7 day auction, can I then just relist again if it does not sell and do I have to re-do the whole listing or is it saved?

A fixed period listing runs for as long as you set it to, and then closes. It then goes into your My eBid > Listings I Ran area. From there you can just relist it, with all the setting it initially had, if you wish.

You also have the option, when you create/edit a listing, to set an AutoRepost value to between 0 and 10. This will automatically relist the item (using the same settings) the set number of times. After the set number of auto-relists the listing will close as normal. See: http://mootango.webspace.virginmedia...idkb.htm#a0066

[LovesVintage43]

Thank you so much Astral for your detailed replies, you've been a great help. I have to agree with you that I am finding navigating the listings a bit of a chore for this reason and a lack of categories-for example I went to browse the cds and it is not divided into singles and albums meaning scrolling through pages of listings...this is definitely something that would improve the use of this site so people can find what they want easily ! Maybe that is one of the things putting people off??

I wonder why the auction style listing has fallen out of favour?..I know that people do want things quickly,but I know that for the sort of things I like to buy I am prepared to bid and wait if it is an item that is hard to find...in my mind, the increase of buy it nows is spoiling it for me...when I am on ebay I always search for what I want by auction first,as I'm sure many collectors do.

As you can do a combination listing for auction with a buy it now price at no extra cost this is probably a good one for me so I can start at the minimum I'd like and set a slightly higher price for buy it now. I agree with you on reserves, I don't see the point doing them on ebid at all, may as well just start at that price !

[cerealmunkee]

The site is not very clear when navigating it, due to the limited amount of listings compared to the two main other sites this isn't as troublesome at first glance as it could be, unless you factor the possible lost sales that this may bring, but i can't prove this to be the case. t is only a suspicion.
The CD category....if you were browsing by Artist title....then you would see in the left column the various format options, but that isn't browsing as such, i suppose.
Certainly, if the search could be slightly more refined then perhaps using the site would be easier, although of course don't forget that once you become used to using it it will become easier. If you're used to using Ebay then it goes with saying that another site will not navigate in the same way.

The auction style listing has never really been in favour so to speak....there are one or two reasons. I think that the first is that when creating an auction style listing you have no ability to see your listing appear in Google search as one of the main criteria for this is that you need to provide a fixed price . an auction style listing doesn't provide this facility.
Google shopping is essentially Ebid's shop window to the world outside of Ebid and it by using this search that we can and do often attract new site users who are buyers who may hopefully become sellers and then repeat buyers.

also.....and this is a theory, and i cannot actually offer proof as such, but i believe that there are a growing number of Ebay buyers who are looking across that site and in some instances can only obtain what they are looking for via an auction.....this means the following, they will have to wait up to nine days until the auction ends, in the meantime they may be embroiled in a bidding war, there is a high chance that they will find themselves on the end of shill bidding activities. due to this these Ebay users are now turning to search engines to track down what they want with a view to going to other sites.
Why mess around with Ebay auctions when you can buy the same items now and not run the risk of being cheated.?