Ebay Question.

Hi.

Is there any way i can list an item (auction) to test to see if something would be popular, and then stop the auction before anyone pays (would this result in a warning or suspension?).

Wanted to test a product before buying in bulk.

Cheers

why dont you just look it up on amazon? ebay is pretty shitty now a days compared to amazon. just see if it has any reviews on amazon, if it has more than say 15 then it is probably VERY popular and has sold hundreds of times.

The illustrator said:

why dont you just look it up on amazon? ebay is pretty shitty now a days compared to amazon. just see if it has any reviews on amazon, if it has more than say 15 then it is probably VERY popular and has sold hundreds of times.

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Thanks mate, but it's for a package i've put together myself with 3 different products in a bundle. Wanted to test the waters before i buy loads of stock

buttmonk said:

Thanks mate, but it's for a package i've put together myself with 3 different products in a bundle. Wanted to test the waters before i buy loads of stock

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you can do this, however make sure you cancel 12 hours or more before the auction ends. The only problem is that you'll get skewed results. The majority of auctions get bid up significantly within the last 10 minutes (specifically last 1 minute, aka sniping). I dont remember the last time i had an auction of substance (3+ days, 100+ views, 10+ watchers) that didn't have a bid in the final hours.

You can do this for testing to get an idea of page views and interest, but not final value price - in my opinion.

Best option would be to order a small amount (maybe enough for 5-10 auctions) and find the best days/time based on category and go from there.

But to answer your questions, yes you can. Just remember to choose "cancel all bids" not "sell to the highest bidder"

You can either take the 12hr approach or use another account to overbid and win the item, then cancel the transaction

Globalization said:

You can either take the 12hr approach or use another account to overbid and win the item, then cancel the transaction

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dont do this. it's shill bidding and will get your accounts banned. he needs several auctions to test; so you will have a huge red flag with so many consecutive canceled transactions. additionally, if you mess up any of the ips you'll link all the accounts and lose them all. also, your ebay accounts will all have history of bidding and not paying.

100% not a good option.

Honestly the best advice is to not cancel bids, or do that at all. When you start canceling your bids, or taking down your listing then your account becomes looked at more. Now if this is a personal account then go right ahead, but you really want to stay away from this if its a stealth account. I think the best thing to do is just some research on the product like babypowder said. Look at what the item is listed for on eBay, and Amazon, and make a judgement call. Sometimes I will buy items at full price just to see how they will sell, and either lose a few cent, or break even. That small amount is worth it if i think I have a really good product, service. or niche!

I hope that helps! let me know if you need help with anything else!