EBay...why would you watch a lorry but not bid?

catembi

catembi

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My V-reg DAF is now having its third and hopefully final week on eBay. My advert has been tweaked by the kind people on here. I've been busily answering questions on it. It has been viewed a record 800 times & is being watched by 35 people, & is due to end at lunchtime tomo.

But...no bids yet. This happened last time...30-odd watchers & no bids. Why would you watch a lorry if you have no intention of buying it? I have set up the auction to also accept best offers, & I've only had one extremely low one.

I really have nothing to hide & there is nothing wrong with the lorry. The advert encourages people to come & see it. I keep an eye out so that I can answer questions. I understand that maybe people with a similar lorry to sell might want to see how it does...but 35 watchers, several questions answered & not a whiff of a sale? I also have a feedback of 97, all +ve, so presumably people can be confident that I'm not dodgy?

Oh well, I suppose that we shall have to see what happens tomo lunchtime.
 
It might be that some of them are thinking of selling their own and keeping an eye on the price! 35 seems a lot though. Also with vehicle sales there are always the scammers, so that might account for some more. And not that I use it a lot, but when I bid I try and do it last minute so it doesn't get into too much of a bidding war. Although there are always those annoying automatic bid programs that ruin it! Good luck....
 
snipers!

Or maybe waiting for something else to end and see whether they win that before bidding.....

Seriously there is no point getting an early bid in, it just drives teh price higher so people will watch and wait.
 
I think a lot of your watchers are people from hho! When you asked for advice on the advert I bet a lot if people looked at it and are watching it out of curiosity.
I did link it to a friend and she commented on seeing it a 9k and it's now 2k lower. She won't be the only one to notice the price drop and 'think' something is amiss with it
 
Generally watching to get an idea of prices. I watched a few for a couple of months to get an idea of prices and get a feel for the market. If I was really interested I made appointments to view the vehicle or at least phone and speak to the owners. TBH in the end I gave up on eBay after finding people where using very old photos and fairytale descriptions and we had many wasted motorway trips.
 
With Ebay, if im looking to buy something in particular, i will search and 'watch' a few items, decide which i like the best, and wait to see how much they are going for nearing the end of the auction. If they are within my budget, i may place a bid, if they get too much, i will either let it end or remove it from my watched items. I'm sure alot of people do this too. I found the best way to sell things is to put them up on a sat/sun evening when everyone is online :)
 
There is honestly nothing whatsoever wrong with the lorry, which is still in full use. However, if no b*gg*r will buy it, what alternative do I have except to drop the price?

Not a rhetorical question...please reply if you can offer any enlightenment!
 
We are toying with the idea of buying a lorry and I must confess I have watched a few on eBay to get an idea of the sort of price they are going for. From what I gather the larger weight lorries seem to have less interest than the smaller ones of a certain age. We are thinking about a 3.5 tonne jobby, older one but they seem to go for quite alot. Guess this is because you can drive them on a normal driving licence. Maybe try advertising locally? A friend of mine tried to sell his car via eBay and had a bit of a nightmare with people bidding, winning and then not turning up! It's all fun and games, good luck
 
catembi said:
There is honestly nothing whatsoever wrong with the lorry, which is still in full use. However, if no b*gg*r will buy it, what alternative do I have except to drop the price?

Not a rhetorical question...please reply if you can offer any enlightenment!
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I'm guilty:o

I've been watching it and others to compare prices etc on ebay and other sites.
Your a bit to far for us to come and have a look and bring a mechanic with us, but that doesn't mean we wouldn't of if it was more local;)
 
There will be people on there like me who watch things intend to bid at the last minute and then forgot they are watching them!
 
Vibella said:
There will be people on there like me who watch things intend to bid at the last minute and then forgot they are watching them!
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Yes I do that too

You say your feedback score is 97% - being honest that would put me off that 3% had been disatisfied with your selling/buying previously.
 
Hi

I am an avid ebayer but for buying a lorry I would want to go and view it. Given a 10 day listing and travelling time/organising a mechanic/working mon-fri I dont know how confident I would be buying a lorry via ebay. It is too big a purchase to do without viewing but to view you would have to be reasonably close - even if I did make a journey before bidding there are no guarantees as I could be outbid.

For such a large purchase I would prefer to take my time.

Also ebayers are generally looking for a bargain so you may get more advertising elsewhere? Not everyone uses ebay. Have you exhausted ALL other advertising possibilities - adtrader, riding club websites, local competition centres, tack shops.

I hope it sells this time - if it doesnt I would be tempted to try another tactic - ebayers will have watched it go round and round without selling and will use that information to beat you down on price - if they were serious would surely they would have been to view it. WOuld you put your horse in a lorry/spend £7k without viewing it?

Good luck
 
People did this with mine too. I put it on auction once, and best offer once. I got one insultingly low offer (the person didn't even ask to come and see it first, wonder if she would have paid if I'd accepted?)
I have pretty much decided to keep it over the winter, get out competing, and try to sell again in the spring when the market might be better.
Hope you have more luck than me :)
 
Big brother I think she means a feedback of 97 people, 100% positive? But do be aware, I for example have feedback of 98.6% because in over 200 transactions one person left neg feedback on a jumper they claimed had a dirty mark on it and was creased- she paid less than £3 for an almost brand new designer label top which I said had been in wardrobe for several years. So do check the feedback comments before assuming anyone with less than 100% is dodgy!
Catembi - I think people watch our of curiosity! And also to guage Market - I've watched several saddles recently as have 4 I need to sell!
Also agree with above that the 3.5t are the popular ones these days and also that I wouldn't ever buy a lorry without looking at it and ideally mechanic checking. Not saying yours is like this but friends did take a risk.... Bought a seemingly ok merc 1997 7.5t, less than 100 miles later it has been condemned as not financially viable to repair the engine!
 
Hi there,

Thank you ecrozier...that's what I meant! 100% +ve feedback on 97 transactions.

I have now had an offer on it & the auction finishes at 2 pm today, so we shall see what happens.

It is also on Horsemart & Preloved. Not sure how successful postcard-in-tackshop sort of advertising would be...at a local affil comp centre, there are 5 similar lorries on the noticeboard & every single one has had the price crossed out & lowered.

The whole thing is quite saddening, tbh, but I s'pose it's the way of the world atm.
 
catembi said:
Hi there,

Thank you ecrozier...that's what I meant! 100% +ve feedback on 97 transactions.

I have now had an offer on it & the auction finishes at 2 pm today, so we shall see what happens.

It is also on Horsemart & Preloved. Not sure how successful postcard-in-tackshop sort of advertising would be...at a local affil comp centre, there are 5 similar lorries on the noticeboard & every single one has had the price crossed out & lowered.

The whole thing is quite saddening, tbh, but I s'pose it's the way of the world atm.
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I think you are lucky it hasnt sold !!! it does the job ?? and yes I know you are determined to buy a trailer and 4x4 but seriously what are you going to end up with a 25MPG 4x4 maybe needs money spent on it and a trailer that isnt as conviniant or safe as a lorry ... buy a cheap run about car and keep the lorry...unless you are giving up your horses .....
 
ecrozier said:
Big brother I think she means a feedback of 97 people, 100% positive? But do be aware, I for example have feedback of 98.6% because in over 200 transactions one person left neg feedback on a jumper they claimed had a dirty mark on it and was creased- she paid less than £3 for an almost brand new designer label top which I said had been in wardrobe for several years. So do check the feedback comments before assuming anyone with less than 100% is dodgy!
Click to expand...

Okay with feedback of 97, as for feedback score, I appreciate that peeps can be unecessarily harsh when scoring others and some folk are in it for a freebe (I been had by this) so I appreciate that comment. I just wouldn't personally buy a horse box from someone who hadn't got a score of 100% feedback (if that was the case) as its far too valuable a purchase to take any risks and I have bought I horsebox and two trailers off ebay in the past.:)

Not saying folk are dodgy with a lower feedback score - just that I wouldn't buy from them as I couldn't be bothered to trawl through all their feedback to find out why>:)
 
I HAVE got 100% feedback, for a total of 97 transactions. Including, somewhere in the dim & distant past, for 2 cheapy lorries!
 
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