Buy it Now in Online Auctions
Quick Facts
Buy it Now was developed to
use on ebay and other online auctions in the late nineties, and has been
partially responsible for the tremendous growth of online auction
sites.
When a bidder sees an auction with a Buy it Now price, they
click the button and the auction ends immediately at that amount.
This is usually kind of a dream price set by a seller, but
many bidders don't mind paying it for a high demand item, as they don't
want to risk losing the auction in the final, frantic moments of bidding.
The Buy It Now price disappears when the minimum bid is
entered, unless it is a reserve price auction. In this case, the Buy
it Now price option ends when the reserve is met.
Auction Seller Fee amounts for
Buy it Now:
ebay originally charged a .05 cent for all Buy it Now fees.
It is important to note that this has changed. They use a new tiered
fee structure on Buy it Now auctions:
ebay Buy it Now - Tiered
Fee Table:
| US$0.01 - US$9.99 |
US$0.05 |
| US$10.00 - US$24.99 |
US$0.10 |
| US$25.00 - US$49.99 |
US$0.20 |
| US$50.00 or more |
US$0.25 |
More on:
Auction Fees
•
The BidLab:
Auction Fee Chart
Buy it Now for
ebay Auction
Sellers & Bidders
The main difference between Buy It Now and
regular fixed priced listings at regular non auction, e-commerce sites is that Buy it Now
listings are auction listings that have an optional fixed price set.
This price is usually very close to the
actual retail value of the item, and usually slightly above. If a
bidder uses the Buy it Now feature, the auction instantly ends at that
price, and anyone who may have wanted to place a bid on the item is suddenly
out of luck.
If no one snatches the item at the Buy it
Now amount, the auction continues as normal, and may or may not receive any
bids.
So why would a seller want to use a Buy it
Now price? For several reasons. For hot
auction items, the Buy Now amount may be far above the current market value
of the item, in anticipation of market forces continuing to drive the price
higher. This gives the seller some extra leverage in that they may
realize an astronomical price for the item, without the negative
psychological aspects on buyers of a hidden reserve price.
Also, these auctions help create
excitement in the item! Some prospective bidders out there who may be
waiting until the end of the item to bid using a proxy bidding or a
bid sniper, suddenly have an emotion to work
from: FEAR. They may be afraid that if they don't bid on the item
until just before the auction closes, they'll lose it to a Buy It Now
bidder.
Also, some bidders use
Advanced Searches on ebay where they only
look for Buy it Now items and are excluding other listings from their
search results! They are only hoping to scoop up hard to find, rare deals at bargain basement prices.
If you use the Buy it Now option, your auction will have a better chance of
appearing in their search results pages (SERPS) whereas it most definitely
will not be seen by anyone who does not use this
option.
So as an auction seller, you
definitely should use Buy It Now in at least a few if not all of your ebay
auctions. And remember, the main reason is that Buy
It Now creates added excitement and a sense of urgency to a listing!
Learn more - See our:
Buy
it Now - Expert Seller Tips
Buy it Now - Expert Bidder Tips
See Examples in Practice:
• See
Buy
It Now
auctions on ebay
•
Try
Advanced Searches
on
ebay
See Newly Listed, Buy it Now
examples:
