@cthulhuatemyhamster - I'll happily provide you with a little insight from my perspective regarding your listings and indeed the current environment within this specific type of items. I am probably exactly the type of person within your target market. The fact you have the mighty Cthulhu in your username is of instant interest to someone like me for starters. If you google "DLS Reviews" you'll find my website, which will probably give you an idea of who I am, what I buy and promote, and the communities I'm an active participant within.
This then leads me onto precisely why I, as well as others I liaise with within these communities, are possibly skipping past some of your listings. The subject of ebay's recent changes has been a consistently discussed matter over the last 6 months within bibliophile groups, and therefore I am aware that my opinion is also a shared view held by many within this niche space.
Firstly, any listings which appear to have an odd pricing, say £11.07 or £18.34 will generally be skipped past, unless it's for a particular, often scarce item which we're very keen to get (i.e. so no impulse buys). The reason for this is because we're acutely aware that the pricing was probably originally set at a reasonable market price. Then, and this is the crux, BPF was added on top of that reasonable market led pricing, hence the funny new pricing. This makes us think we're now paying over and above the reasonable market price, purely because it's being offered on the ebay platform. This is straight away something which puts off a knowledgeable buyer in our particular market (we buy a lot, so we're quite a clued in community). Listings which have been adjusted to incorporate the BPF within the price however, or indeed business sellers, therefore have a massive advantage. I therefore cannot recommend enough making such adjustments to the pricing of all your listings.
Secondly, now that SD has come in, having the "buyer pays the postage" is instantly off putting for book/comic collectors too. This is because bibliophiles are inherently precious about the books they collect. So Evri is not a preferred option. However, should Evri be taken off the table, then we're aware we're paying over and above the normal cost for RM postage. Even if you allow both RM and Evri, and we select RM, we're still paying more through SD than we otherwise would. Although I appreciate this is only a small difference, it nevertheless leaves a disagreeable taste in the mouth.
Context however is key. Like many in the book collecting circles I move within, I have a collection of probably c.15,000 books and maybe c.5,000 comics. I still purchase from private sellers, even if they've not adjusted for BPF and/or I pay the higher postage rates of SD. However, I do prioritise my purchases towards those business/adjusted private sellers, and do far less frequent impulse purchases where the aforementioned BPF/SD are not taken into account.
Like many in this area, I also do not actively seek out multiple purchases in the same transaction when I'm paying the postage etc, as this is often not adjusted correctly by the SD algorithms, leading to me paying far too much in postage for multiple purchases.
As a reminder, these are not just opinions held by me, but rather those of many within the book and comic collecting community. The result has led to us venturing outside of ebay more. AbeBooks, private websites, and indeed one-to-one sales within collector forums, have all risen dramatically, as has sharing our collective experiences with these alternative platforms and sellers. We talk a lot! It's a good space to be within.
The outcome is unfortunately, we're buying less on ebay generally now, but especially from sellers who have not adapted their listings to understand these collector grievances. This has all been discussed extensively in our forum groups and at conventions and auction houses. We're adapting to ebay's suicide. You probably need to do the same.
I hope this helps. Some cool listings BTW.
