For eBay gurus: Xbox sale opinion question

Hi-

I need to sell an Xbox 360 4gb console and a (separately purchased, but installed) 250 gb hard drive for it. It was used 2 or 3 times since late November, and is in mint condition.

I can get $124.00 for both (they also pay shipping) at Amazon as a trade-in, but they'd issue a gift card that's only redeemable through them.

I don't buy or sell much on eBay, but I checked today and a similar console sold for $165 plus shipping (without the hard drive upgrade). It had a starting bid of just 99 cents.

If I set a starting bid as high as what I could get for the trade-in + shipping, will that automatically scare folks off? It would be kind of silly for me to sell it for less, OTOH it would be nice to get more, and cash rather than a gift card. Or should I use "Buy it now"?

What do you eBay gurus think? The few experiences I've had selling stuff on eBay have been fine, but I'm no expert on the psychology. This case just seems like kind of a crap shoot to me.

TIA for any opinions!

-Susan

Setting the minimum bid to $1.00 and running it as a no reserve auction is risky but it is POTENTIALLY the best way to maximize the amount of money that you can make on the item. 

If your item is truly desirable, running your auction this way accomplishes 2 things … it starts a bidding war and it minimizes the fees that you will have to pay for selling your item through ebay.

If you set a high minimum bid or a high reserve there is a likelihood that no one will bid on it or it will not reach the reserve. 

I frequently use the $1.00 minimum bid and no reserve with great success.

Make sure you thoroughly research shipping costs.  Usually I figure out what it will cost to ship via Parcel Post to zone 8 and use that as fixed economy shipping to the continental United States.

If the shipping cost of your item is reasonable, another risk you can take to increase traffic to the item and ultimately start a bidding war is to offer the item with free shipping

Again, these ebay sales tactics are risky!

Thanks for the feedback, that helps a lot. The Xbox is definitely not a rare item, although the configuration I have (4gb console + 250gb drive) is a little different from most. Don't know if that's good or bad. It seems like timing is critical, too -- there might be several on sale one week, then a dry spell, which presumably would drive the bidding one way or another.

I'm not feeling very brave right now ;), so I might just go with the sure thing and trade it in. OTOH I was a little surprised the one I saw that sold today went for such a high price, and the seller said it was a relist after the first winner didn't pay. It went for about the same price both times.

I'll look for some other results over the next day or so.

BTW, a friend of mine said it's a good idea to time the auction so it ends on a Sunday evening. I guess that makes sense assuming people have free time then to watch the bidding? Does it matter (generally) if it's listed for 3, 5, or 7 days? Whenever I've bought anything on eBay I've just waited until the end of the auction anyway. I don't really understand why people bid early.

Thanks again-

-Susan

I always state in my auctions that I expect payment within 3 days of the end of the auction, or a lot of people state that they expect payment immediately.  it's not unreasonable to ask that, IMO.

I personally would not be interested in waiting a week for the kid's birthday money to come in!   

besides - if you give him TOO long then the 2nd bidder will have already found another item and won't be interested - he's not required to buy it for his highest bid - it's only an option to him.

Susan - yeah, he shouldn't be doing that and you have the right with eBay's rules to refuse to sell to him if he can't pay in a reasonable time.  I am pretty sure eBay has a set limit of time you have to give him before you can dispute with eBay that he's in "nonpayment" but I don't remember what it is.  I'm thinking that's something like 2 weeks or so.  but if you dispute with eBay over him nonpaying then it goes against him poorly and you end up not having to pay the ad fees, think.  eBay's rules change all the time, tho, and I've not been using eBay a lot lately.
 
EDIT:  and you certainly don't have to hold it for a deposit at all - that's completely up to you, but it's against eBay's policy, IIRC. 

An Xbox?  Oh...  I thought the title said an X1b ox and looked to see if it was blue like Paul Bunyan's.  My bad.