New At Selling On Ebay Question

[Larry Barrieau]

Hi, I have a P 51 sterling set for sale on ebay. I have been looking for it for 5 days and after scrolling through hundreds and hundreds of pens (12 pages worth) I don't see it. If I type a search for it I can find it but it's doesnt show as being on a regular page. Do all pens eventually make it to the first page of Collectibles-Pens and writing instruments-Pens-Fountain pens- other. Listing?

 

Thanks this is only my second try within a week to put something to sell on ebay.

 

Larry

[Beechwood]

If you post the reference number we will look it up and provide guidance if possible

[Guernseytim]

It'll move up the list as the auction end date nears. If you want it to be more features, they charge you extra.

[PAKMAN]

I searched for Parker 51 Sterling and only found 8 so they were all on the first page. You can sort by cost, name or by ending soonest which may bring it up to the top.

[Cryptos]

I just listed my first ever eBay sale (not a pen), just to try the system out, and my listing appears fourth in the 'lowest price+shipping' and first in 'newly listed'. That's with the no frills listing option. So I am not sure what's going on with the OP.

[Larry Barrieau]

The number is 251762048796

 

 

 

I just scrolled through 800 pens and gave up. They don't follow an exact chronological order do they? I would expect the first listings to have the shortest time left but it doesn't always work that way.

 

Thanks for your input. Larry

[Cordovian]

If the sort filter is left at the default "Best Match" setting you will see that it lists the results by relevance. Since your listing begins with "1948" it will not be considered as relevant as those that begin with "Parker 51" and thus will be farther down the list. Does that make sense?

 

When I list items I try to keep the most relevant information first then tag on additional information on the end (e.g. "circa 1948"). I'll test and edit the listing a coupe of times to try to make sure it comes up in the top 10 - 20 on default search. This needs to be done BEFORE the first bid.

 

It looks like you're getting plenty of hits so bidders are finding your pen set even thought it was a bit down the list. I'm sure you'll also see some last second snipers that will push the price up as well.

Edited December 23, 2014 by Cordovian

[ISW_Kaputnik]

Checking out that number, I see that you have attracted a couple of bidders who apparently don't understand the concept of automatic bidding.

 

Sorry, I'm not in the market for these, but best wishes anyway, and it looks like you wrote a good ad. Did you also try eBay customer support? Are they helpful? I plan to try some selling on eBay myself in the coming year.

[Larry Barrieau]

Cordovian, That's very interesting. It makes sense that people would be looking for "Parker" before they would look for "1948".

How do I test to see where it comes up on the default list?

 

ISW, I did go to ebay support and got some general tips on what to do. Mostly I just followed the basic directions by choosing from dropdown lists. It will take a while before I get comfortable with it.

 

 

Thanks very much.

 

Larry

[Chrissy]

Hi, I have a P 51 sterling set for sale on ebay. I have been looking for it for 5 days and after scrolling through hundreds and hundreds of pens (12 pages worth) I don't see it. If I type a search for it I can find it but it's doesnt show as being on a regular page. Do all pens eventually make it to the first page of Collectibles-Pens and writing instruments-Pens-Fountain pens- other. Listing?

 

Thanks this is only my second try within a week to put something to sell on ebay.

 

Larry

It depends what category you listed it in. If it's a Parker pen or pens and you have not listed it in the Parker category then you will never find it by looking in that category.

 

If you decided to list it in the 'other' category for some reason, then your pens will be invisible to everyone who searches in the Parker category.

 

If I was you, I would go into your 'My ebay' and then go into your 'active' listings and edit it to change the category so that it's in the right place

[Cryptos]

People use the categories to search? Never thought anyone would. I start from the assumption that the Parker pens (for example) will be in Collectibles>>Pens and Writing Instruments (or whatever it's called). That's as far as I go as I generally don't expect sellers to go too deeply into the classification of things. YMMV (natch), but I've seen lots of pens that are not in their respective categories. As long as 'Parker' is in the title it will show up on a general search (once again, I assume this is where most people start their search).

[NinthSphere]

People use the categories to search? Never thought anyone would. I start from the assumption that the Parker pens (for example) will be in Collectibles>>Pens and Writing Instruments (or whatever it's called). That's as far as I go as I generally don't expect sellers to go too deeply into the classification of things. YMMV (natch), but I've seen lots of pens that are not in their respective categories. As long as 'Parker' is in the title it will show up on a general search (once again, I assume this is where most people start their search).

 

Just for ref, when I'm shopping Sheaffers, Parkers or P51s specifically, I do filter it down to brand. I assume the presence of filters that deep means that plenty of others also would.

[Cryptos]

And you find, in general, that you don't miss anything?

 

I tend to drill down from broad to narrow. It never occurred to me that people would start their search at the narrow end. I live and learn!

[inkstainedruth]

When I'm looking for stuff on Ebay I do fairly broad searches, and then narrow it down -- for example I would do "Parker 51 Aerometric" or "Parker Vector fountain pen" (I have to do that on the Vectors to try and weed out the bulk of the rollerballs). Then if there were huge numbers of them, I might narrow it down further by USA sellers only, or by color (yeah, I still occasionally check out the Plummers, even though I don't need another one... ).

But I learned early on from a friend of mine that sometimes things get mis-categorized. She was very good at spotting things that weren't selling because they were not in the right place, getting them for a very low bid, and then immediately relisting them to where they were *supposed* to be -- I think she didn't even have the items shipped to her. Of course this was the early days of Ebay, and I don't know whether she was looking at pens -- although it's possible, since she apparently collected pens and pencils until losing them in a fire a couple of years ago.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

 

edited for typos

Edited December 24, 2014 by inkstainedruth

[NinthSphere]

And you find, in general, that you don't miss anything?

 

I tend to drill down from broad to narrow. It never occurred to me that people would start their search at the narrow end. I live and learn!

 

I find that there tends to still be so much to dig through that what I'm missing is negligible. Bad photography or mislabeled items tend to be where I score deals more often.