Flogging stuff on eBay

[bitingmidge]

Righto boys and girls, I know it's hard to imagine, but I haven't ever actually bought or sold anything on ebay, so I'd love a bit of advice on the selling side of things particularly.

Firstly: Paypal; good, bad or indifferent? Should I just get people to bank dough straight into my account?

If no paypal, how do you actually pay the miniscule listing fees?

I've also got a few bits and pieces which probably won't sell in a big hurry, but I don't want to throw them out, you know "vintage" software and so forth.

What's the go with re-listing them? Is there a polite interval one should wait?

Any hints appreciated.

cheers,

P

[Poppa]

Paypal is good for overseas buyers. If local, insist on cheque or direct deposit. eBay require bank details or a CC to pay the fees. Not sure about intervals, we've never re-listed anything. We tend to sell things with a low starting price to generate some interest and things usually take care of themselves from there, but sometimes you get burnt selling things cheaply - we just figure that it is nice to give someone a bargain every now and then. We're not big sellers by any means though, just the occasional bit.

[Grunt]

Firstly, buy at least 10 things. This will give you a feedback score. Some people, including myself will not buy from someone without 99%+ positive feedback.

Do Paypal. It makes buying a selling very simple. We only do Paypal, direct deposit or cash on pickup for both buying and selling.

I would put your software up for $0.01. They will sell. Some you will sell for more than you expect and others for less. It'll even out. If you put a higher price on it, you probably won't get a bid.

You can relist things that haven't sold immediately. No one will complain.

When you sell things, list them between 7pm and 9pm on a weekday evening. This way they will finish at that time which is when most people are home and are surfing the net.

When buying, know what the value of the item really is. I once sold a DVD of the original Gone in 60 Seconds for $34 + postage and I bought it at K-Mart for $13. People get excited.

Drink plenty of beer. This doesn't help with eBay but it's fun anyway.

[floobyduster]

My experience is that paypal processes the money faster than the banks, therefore you/they can get the goods faster. :U

A direct deposit (done on line) can take 2-3 days of processing with a bank to bank transfer - they obviously are making interest on your money while it is "in transit". :~ It never ceases to amaze me that they are able to instantly withdraw the money from your account but are unable to instantly deposit it! :~ :~ :~

[Rossluck]

Drink plenty of beer. This doesn't help with eBay but it's fun anyway.

Hello P,

This is the best advice you'll get (above).:U

My experience on Ebay has been pretty positive (Rossluck2). I have one golden rule: it's better to sell on Ebay than to buy. You tend to get pretty good prices for things that are just about giveaway at garage sales. The only things I buy on Ebay are those that intrinsically have a reduced number of people bidding for them, i.e.,

Three-phase stuff
heavy local stuff (I have a small truck)
bits of machinery that others aren't interested in

To give you an example of what I mean about not buying, I can consistently buy tools from our local cash converters for half what I can get for them on Ebay. I've made a few dollars doing this, but it's just a way of getting rid of tools as I upgrade.

Paypal is worth setting up as a quick way of getting paid, but I prefer to use a bank deposit to pay for items.

Ebay is continually cracking down on emails between buyers and sellers, so when you get mail from people asking you to sell things to them early by closing the auction, just ignore them.

My practice is to start low to attract interest. If ever the item you're selling looks like going for a ridiculous price, you can always get a relative or a friend to bit on it to save you. I've never had to do this, but it's always in my mind. Some items don't get a bid for 7 days, and then there's a bidding war in the last few minutes.

Be absolutely honest about what you're selling. Describe it exactly: warts and all.

If you're buying something, leave your bidding until the last possible moment. The last bid gets the item, all of the previous ones are a waste of time.

Last but not least, whether buying or selling on Ebay, always look at the reputation, it's all we have to read the honesty of other people.

Good luck.

[Grunt]

I've bought quite a bit on ebay and have had some absolute bargains. A $5000+ Quantum hot water system for $1400, a $2500 saddle for $800.

Chris

[Shedhand]

I've bought a few things on eBay and never had a negative experience. I've now decided to start my own ebay shop and sold 5 assorted chisels for 200+ bucks first up. I made a small profit and all the buyers have paid up. It's a bit of fun.

My advice is to buy a few things first as most people won't deal with sellers with little or no feedback.
I use PayPal for overseas and direct credit to my bank account for local stuff.
Good luck with it mate. :)

[Robynb]

If ever the item you're selling looks like going for a ridiculous price, you can always get a relative or a friend to bit on it to save you


This is called shill bidding, and it is strictly against ebay policy. If you are caught, you will be deregistered. Having said that, the chance of getting caught is probably small.

There is always a risk in having a small starting price, that you may have to sell at that price. However, it does seem to generate more interest if there is a market for the item. Start it at $50 and you might sell at that. Start at $10 and a bidding war may take it way over $50. All depends on the item - how common and how sought after.

[ozwinner]

Paypal....:~

I didnt know it could happen until it happened to me.

The buyer receives the goods, sets a dispute with paypal without emailing you or contacting you in anyway.

Paypal locks your account and takes the sum of money from your account equal to the goods including postage.

You have to pay the money back or your account is locked for ever.

So, the buyer has the goods, and the money.

Paypal sucks, but until you get caught its the best thing since sliced bread.

There is a website dedicated to it, I found it after I was taken.. :doh:

http://www.paypalsucks.com/

Al :((:((:((

[Robynb]

Have a look on the ebay forums. You'll find heaps about how good PayPal is for buyers and how risky and expensive (fees) it is for sellers. I believe it is now compulsory for new sellers to offer PayPal or merchant credit card facilities. Of course, this is to promote safe buying, but since ebay owns PayPal......

It's a good idea to look on the forums anyway, you can find out about the problems some people experience, what to look out for - lots of useful tips for the new (or experienced) buyer or seller. Lots of irrelevent rubbish too, but you get that!

[Rossluck]

This is called shill bidding, and it is strictly against ebay policy. If you are caught, you will be deregistered. Having said that, the chance of getting caught is probably small.

There is always a risk in having a small starting price, that you may have to sell at that price. However, it does seem to generate more interest if there is a market for the item. Start it at $50 and you might sell at that. Start at $10 and a bidding war may take it way over $50. All depends on the item - how common and how sought after.


Fair enough. Although I find it hard to see how it could be illegal. The relative or friend is just bidding as is their right. As I said before, I haven't done it, but if something that was worth $500 was about to go for $30 or something like that, ring ring....

[Robynb]

If the relative or friend is specifically bidding without intention to buy, and with the sellers knowledge and consent (even encouragement) eBay would see this as shilling. If the seller and the friend make a habit of this, it's not hard to pick the pattern - buyer bids and wins a lot of stuff from the seller and the items are relisted shortly thereafter. Buyer hardly ever bids on stuff from anyone else. If it happens only once or twice, no-one would even suspect, let alone prove. After all, sometimes people do buy from their friends.

Some shillers are dumb enough to bid on their own stuff on a different id, but using the same computer - they get caught pretty quickly.

But I agree, I would do something about it if I was about to lose a heap of money too. I think you can end the auction early if it doesn't seem to be going anywhere

[Gumby]

I'm up to 27 as a feedback score so i've done a bit but not a massive amount. I never use paypal. I direct deposit all the time and find the turn around time is only 24 hours. It's more if you do it on the weekend of course but there's nothing sinister in it like the bank getting interest etc.

I sold a Triton dust mask and then a Triton jig saw attachment, both for more than you can buy them for in Bunnings. Go figure.

[Honorary Bloke]

All good advice. I like PayPal, but have never had a dispute, so I dunno. Best advice above is to buy a few items first to get some rep points. When beginning selling, sell some cheapo items early as buyers will be less shy. I have seen first time sellers flogging expensive items and no bids because people are gun shy about newbies.

I both buy and sell and have gotten some good deals and sold some items for more than I would have thought they were worth. You never know. I actually bought a Festo OF1000 router on Ebay for a decent price, though most of the Festo tools sell for nearly new retail.

SWMBO buys clothes all the time and they can be real bargains compared to stores. [NB: FWIW, we do not purchase from merchants who do not take PayPal.]

Good luck Midge. :)

[rhancock]

I don't see any point paying paypal fees. All the risk is on the buyers side ( we've done a hell of a lot more buying than selling!) and like anything sometimes you lose. You have to try quite hard to not use Paypal these days - every time you list an item, Paypal is automatically ticked.

We've sold a few things for more than retail. People must just be lazy or dumb! We've also had a few things not sell, and you still have to pay the listing fee (usually about a dollar or two) so we don't always relist them, but overall we come out on top. Last month we made about $500 just selling stuff that was lying around the house not being used - old cameras, books, kids toys and stuff. If you want to see my wife and I both use Annabel213: http://myworld.ebay.com.au/annabel213 You will see we got some negative feedback a while back - its very easily done, so take a lot of care checking items over and describing them exactly as they are - warts and all.

Good luck.

[tameriska]

Hi, I've only sold a couple of things on Ebay, but have bought a bit :B.
If you are buying things, make sure that you read the description, and ask any questions before bidding.
Check the postage. There are a lot of items listed really low prices, but the postage can be astronomical.
If I am buying from a high volume seller, I usually check out thier negative/ neutral feedback through http://toolhaus.org/
This will only bring up the negative or neutral feedback for the ebay Id that you enter, but it has on occasion helped me decide not to buy off a particular seller, especially if there seems to be a common problem experienced from buyers, eg item not as described complaints.
Make sure that you read the sellers instructions fully. I have recieved my first and only negative feedback through this, sending off a moneyorder, and not printing of a copy of the invoice to send with the moneyorder to the seller.
When selling I offer paypal, bank deposit and moneyorder. i havnt had any problems with any of these.
For my selling fees, I have my savings account details entered into the sellers tools, payment options thingy, and the fees are automatically taken out of my account.

When buying things to up my feedback score, it looks like that if I buy two items off someone, I get two feedback comments, but only one feedback rating.

If selling, in the selling form you can choose to block certain types of buyers from bidding on your item. You can block bidders that have had more that one unpaid item dispute in something like the last 60 days, block bidders that have a - feedback (eg 1 positive and 3 negative feedback), or buyers from diffeent countries, if you only want to sell to eg australia.

For payment when buying I look for items with paypal or bank deposit.

[bitingmidge]

Thanks all, there's some great advice there!

I'm having a bit of trouble buying stuff though.... TEN items you say? :oo:

I'll just have to keep trying I guess!

Cheers,

P
:D

[munruben]

when I buy on ebay I like to deposit the money direct into a bank account. Its quick and easy to do. Like to read feedback and wont buy from anyone unless they are at least 99.8% preferably 100%

[ozwinner]

I have recieved my first and only negative feedback through this, sending off a moneyorder, and not printing of a copy of the invoice to send with the moneyorder to the seller.
.


wont buy from anyone unless they are at least 99.8% preferably 100%

The problem with that is, neg feed back is some times left for no reason, like the above quote, and it takes ages, sometimes hundreds of transactions to get back into what your comfort zone is (99.8% preferably 100%). :no:

Al :(

[Gumby]

Thanks all, there's some great advice there!

I'm having a bit of trouble buying stuff though.... TEN items you say? :oo:

I'll just have to keep trying I guess!

Cheers,

P
:D

Give me a few minutes and I'll list 10 items for you. Just buy them all and I'll leave you good feedback - after you leave feedback for me first of course. :rolleyes:

To find them put 'Used Crap GMC old tools' in the search box. Happy bidding. I hope you 'WIN'. :wink:

[durwood]

I've been using ebay for about 5 years now and have a feedback rating of over 300.

Not everyone leaves you any feedback as I have bought more than 500 things mostly from overseas.

A couple of points, if you get a friend to bid your article up you risk him being the winning bid so you have to pay him the money he bid and then you also pay the ebay fees so you sold it at a loss to you and you still have it.

The highest bidder wins not the last bidder, if I want something at any price then its easy to get just bid a massive amount. The other bidders don't know how much you have entered so they enter what they are prepared to go to and you get it for the next increment in the bidding. You can bid days before and win if you have bid more than anyone else is prepared to go.

Having said that if you bid late (sniping) no one knows that you are going to and they don't have a chance to rebid because the item has ended as you bid in the last few seconds.

Someone mentioned about cheap prices and big postage fees, there is one company in Canada that sells router bits starting at about $10 but the postage to Australia is $50. !!!!!! I had a set of dado blades posted for $20.

[Gumby]

A couple of points, if you get a friend to bid your article up you risk him being the winning bid so you have to pay him the money he bid and then you also pay the ebay fees so you sold it at a loss to you and you still have it.


Why would you have to pay the friend? He's not out of pocket. :?

[Big Shed]

Just been reading on Ebay about PayPal.

Apparently from June Ebay will no longer provide buyer protection, it will only be available through PayPal. So if you want buyer protection, you have to pay with PayPal.

I must say that as a buyer I like Paypal very much, quick and easy, particularly for o/seas purchases.

As a seller I am not so sure, it does add to your costs, and as Ozwinner has pointed out it seems very much slanted to the buyer, even though the seller pays all the fees!:cool:

[durwood]

Hi Gumby, You are correct I worded it badly, I'm sure you know what I mean.

He's made the bid on your behalf, its supposedly sold, but you havn't actually got rid of it it just looks like someone paid for it.

[Robynb]

Yes, PayPal is great for the buyer - quick, easy and relatively safe. For the seller, it can be expensive as fees are paid on the total transaction inc postage. Lets say you sell a reasonably bulky item (say books or something) for $10, netting you a small profit of say $3.50. Someone from Europe buys it and wants it sent fast airmail at a cost of $60. Buyer pays total of $70 by PayPal. Seller pays PayPal fees (and currency conversion fees?) on $70. Not much left of your profit.

Also PayPal disputes for items not received are often resolved in favour of the buyer, unless the seller can prove postage by providing tracking number. Not many Australia Post services offer a this, and those that do are expensive. Your market shrinks if you offer only expensive postage options. Caught between a rock and a hard place.

Many sellers advocate clearing out your paypal account as soon as payment are received - there is a fee for this, but if your PayPal acct is frozen due to a dispute, there's hardly anything in there to freeze.

If you are thinking of selling, there are a few things to consider:-

- Think carefully about whether you want to sell internationally or just to Australia
- Think about which postage options to offer - especially for higher priced items. If you don't send registered post, posties will sometimes just leave items on doorsteps where they can be stolen or spoiled in the rain. Remember, the seller is considered to be responsible for delivering the item to the buyer. If you use AP, they are just your agent. Think about how you will handle the situation if the parcel doesn't arrive. Familiarise yourself with the procedures AP use to find or reimburse for lost parcels.
- Make sure your descriptions are really clear, give measurements and wieghts. Honestly describe item condition and flaws / wear if used item. Use good clear photos. (You can host extra photos from photobucket with no additional ebay fees) If it's books, give a rundown or a picture of the contents.
- Think about your starting price - you may have to sell at that price

Having said all that, the vast majority of transactions go smoothly. It's just occasionally you will encounter a numpty who can't read, is unreasonable or is just plain mean. It might not seem like it, but I like eBay. I've bought some great stuff, and dealt with some great people. Just have to be careful and mindful of the possible pitfalls

[ozwinner]

And after all the good advise, all I can say Midge is......

DONT DO IT!!

Al :(

[Groggy]

It is risky. Don't put up anything you don't mind losing. Your first trade may go bad, or maybe the fiftieth, but it will happen and eBay (in my experience) have a history of not helping.

[echnidna]

I use Paypal to buy & sell with.

Most aussies prefer direct deposit but paypal is popular for international trading. Its worth having, mine is connected to a Visa debit card with limited funds instead of a Visa credit card. If I buy something o'seas I just pop enough in the account to cover the costs when needed.

Ebay fees can be a big trap for the unwary so be careful trading on ebay.

Ebay lost thousands of sellers a few months ago when they increased their store fees as much as 500%. I closed my ebay store and now sell a bit through Oztion (far lower fees) though most of my sales are direct from my website.
I don't sell anywhere near as much from my website as I did when I sold through ebay but I actually make more money as my costs are minimal

[Burnsy]

Ebay, probably the only site I spend more time on than this site at the moment. I like to trawl for bargains in my local area that require pickup. I have got a heap of things such as a large mirror very cheap - couple of dollars. All things I needed but were unable to be posted so this reduces the bidding pool substantially. Saying this however I have sold alot on ebay, much of it bulky that required local pickup. Plenty of time I have thrown something on for $2 thinking easier to take a photo of it and list it that drag it to the tip and pay tipping fees only to be very surprised by the number of people bidding on it. (which turns a very nice unexpected profit for me for no effort).

Everyone has made good points so far but as far as I am concerned no-one has hit the most important point when selling - USE A DICTIONARY:oo:
If you are at all unsure of spelling check it. Selling on Ebay relies on people searching for and finding your item. If you have misspelt it, it is likely that someone like me will get it for a steal:U I have grabbed plenty of bargains because I have been the only person bidding on an item, not becaue it is unwanted but because it has not been found by the 20 people who do want to buy it.

Likewise if you want to buy something, search for common spelling errors in somethings name or try alternative (US) spelling. For example I play around with old Holdens so if I search for grey motor, I will also do a searxch for gray motor and sometimes grey moter and gray moter. You will be amazed by what you find.

[Purpleheart]

I've purchased plenty of stuff off e-bay over the years, although I've never sold anything (Hate to get rid of stuff). I know plenty of people who do sell though.

Plenty of good advice offered already, here are some of my ideas.

Definately check the "postage" to avoid the hidden sting. You may need to contact the seller first to get a quote.

I agree with the "use visa or similar debit card", which only has enough money on it to cover transaction. Keep account empty at other times.

Only buy things of a value that "life will go on" if you get ripped off.

If the deal seems to good to be true, there is a fair chance that that will be the case. (Although there are exceptions).

Look at feedback, especially people who are good "communicators". This generally means they will answer your questions and reply promptly to your e-mails. If there is negative feedback, read the reply to that negative feedback. No-one can please all the people all the time. Some people just like to have a winge.

Start of small, and if you are inexperianced, tell the person first. That way if there is any bumbeling through the transaction, they should be a little more complient.

Thats about all I can think of for now. Ph.

[Daddles]

Having carefully read all the good advice offered within this thread, and having carefully pondered all such good advice offered within this thread, I have decided that my sanity and associated behaviour upon this forum is most advantageously protected if one of you kind gentlefolk were to offer me an extortionate sum of money for the pile of no longer needed useless goodies I was hoping to flog to morons on ebay.

Any offers:?

Richard