The price we bought it: $16
the price we sell: $26
the start price of bidding: $20
free shipment.
posting:
7 days on the E-bay international
10 days on the E-bay Hong Kong(4 hours after we posted, someone bought it)
payment: check
At the very beginning, we chose to focus on the international market. Since we all thought that this product only issued in hong Kong, and special edition of stamp represents historical moments.
Therefore, we didn't see the potential of local market. There were about 7 shops in the e-bay selling "60th anniversary Foundation of China " special issue. The price ranges from $23 to $40.
The period of time we posting our product on the "e-bay international" only one of them sold one piece of the FDC(First day cover) at the price of about 30. Not many people are concerning about our auction, partially due to that we are the new sellers with no reputation, and other factors may be that there have been too many people selling the similar thing.
After 7 days on the E-bay International, and with not much progress, we made a big decision.
It is the last one FDC sold in the post office that I went to. There were more than 40 people lining behind me, who got up early and waited probably for more than 2 hours just like me. One of the middle-age men argued loudly and almost cried. Recalled these details, and after the failure trial in the international market, we put our eye on the local market.
Before we really started the bid on hong Kong market, we tried to search through the Ebay Hong Kong to find some sold or selling items of "Foundation of China 60th anniversary " for reference of pricing. What surprised us a lot is that no one have sold it even selling it in Hong Kong. There is a market for the FDC, and the location of Hong Kong may benefit us for a lower shipment fee.
We post our FDC at the very same price we post in Ebay International. We even worried about not being able to sell it. However, only 4 hours after our post, there was someone from Hong Kong bought it. Then, we got to think over the whole process of selling and find that we may have underestimated its value.
One day after I sent the FDC out, the buyer connected me for sorry about not be able to pay the bill by Pay-pal. Then he told us he could send us check instead. I thought he could be one the most responsible customers in the Internet auction world.
Our Comment for this auction:::
Through our auction, we think that Hong Kong people are building a habit in doing auctions on internet, since our product are sold quickly, just after we have posted the auction on the net for only four hours. It seemed that Hong Kong people are searching for what they want continuously on the internet so that they can reach to our product easily.
We do think that internet auction is really a nice way to sell things, as we can reach to many potential customers from Hong Kong or even other countries. However, we also think that internet auction need a very strong belief, that is, you need to believe in your customer, especially if the product is very expensive, because we may only get our money after our customer have received our product by postage. If the product is too expensive, we do think that it may be quite dangerous since we may not know that will the customer really send money to us. But luckily our customer really sent us money right after he got our set of Datestamped First Day Cover affixed with a Souvenir Sheet. This experience do strenghten our confindence in internet auction.
All in all, we think that internet auction have potential to become more and more common since it is really very friendly for customers to find what they want, especially for some special or limited products like our First Day Cover. And it is also very friendly for people like us who want to sell some products but do not have our own shops. Internet auction is really a nice platform for seller like us. Lastly, we think that if better security can be proven, internet auction may even have a greater potential in its future.
