Selling stuff on ebay - RFI

Seriously, thanks for yr help on this.

1) Always be honest (Duh!), and expect honesty.

2) Know your terms well before you place the auction online, and don't forget to outline all of them. These include: where you will ship to (U.S., U.K., Paraguay on Leap year, etc.), how people can pay you (money order, Paypal, personal checks are the big Iffy one), how much s/h you charge and if it's variable depending on what country they want it, how long you are willing to give them to get in touch with you/pay you before you cancel the auction, etc. Also, always state that you won't ship out until *after* the money has been received or has cleared...

3) Always check the winning bidder's feedback; it will give you a good idea for what you are in for...though even a spotless feedback rating does not guarantee that the winner will be a smart person.

4) If you like to sell stuff and are planning to sell for the long term, then think long-term. My own philosophy is to generally give the bidder the benefit of the doubt, should complications arise (unless you have STRONG reason not to). If you are a seller with a faultless reputation, I think that ultimately benefits you more in the end than, say, arguing endlessly with someone over $5-10 (olr whatever) because you thought it was a "B+" and they thought it was a "B".

That was funny.

I sell stuff through Amazon.com Marketplace. It's completely free to list items that they already sell and they give you some money for shipping (usually from $1.99 to $8.99, depending on what you sell, for CDs it's $1.99). Of course they take $1 off and then 15% commission for letting you advertise your stuff on their site, but usually it doesn't affect the price you're trying to sell it at very much.

Amazon.com also has the option of auctions or zshops, if you really have things in bulk or think will sell high. I haven't tried this, but they charge you for listing..about the same rate as ebay.

Most of my buyers have been pretty nice, though I would say one really annoying thing is buyers that don't have properly working email addresses. I don't trust buyers that don't have responses. You get paid anyhow, but still, I think I left some feedback about one of my buyers that didn't have a functioning email address...hm...

No bad experiences yet other than slow responses. There was one guy who bought a book from me for his live-in girlfriend. He wanted it to be a surprise for her, but he told me a little late not to write anything on the outside packaging (you're almost required by Amazon now to say that it is their amazon.com purchase, due to 9/11). But yeah, nothing was ruined.

I haven't had anyone cancel on me yet, so I can't comment there.

Oh, the listings on amazon.com marketplace last for I think something like 90 days. After it's expired they email you and you're allowed to list it again for free if you want, I think for as many times as you want, they don't really care it seems. They get money anyway.

Hope this stuff helped, though I can't say I know too much about ebay.

Never sold anything on there myself, but I might put a few things up tomorrow, I'm tired of only getting a quid or two for all my unwanted cds and I'm desparate to get rid of some because they take up too much space and I'm broke.

Of course for all I know free listings day might make ebay so full of new listings that you'd do better to pay the 15p, but hey. (They seem to keep it fairly low profile, only telling email subscribers at 2am today and - if it's anything like last time - not putting any signs on the website front page or anything, so maybe not, but I really don't know.)

Time to look for crap to sell and type some tracklists in, I guess. And try to cram enticing descriptions into however few characters you get.

I'm selling a bunch of CDs on there now and one CD in particular, a Prince Buster compilation that while out of print is not necessarily that good, is already going for $41 with two days to go!

I sold the kids. Next - Mrs. Dr. C

I've been selling on Am*z*n for about five months now, and as I've expanded from CDs into books, I'm finding a lot of items that don't have A'zon listings. I'm in the process of checking out Alibris and other booksellers, but I need to confront the eBay issue too. My problem is that for every listing I see with bids on it, I see dozens with no bids. Does most merchandise on eBay go unsold? I'm not interested in spending my meager A'zon earnings on eBay listing fees.

Basically, I've gotten a bit spoiled by the ease of selling "on the river," as the 3rd-party sellers call it, and I'm looking for some encouraging words that eBay is worth the increased hassle.

Paperback books are a crappy thing to sell on eBay, but they're a great thing to buy cos they go for bugger all (+ postage).

Basically, don't try and sell crap or stuff where your item is one among hundreds. Search completed listings of things similar to what you're selling to see what price range you can expect. ALWAYS include a picture, and describe in as much detail as possible all the relevant points. Describe the quality/condition of the item too. Format your entry well - take advantage of basic html to make it look neat and classy.

A lot of stuff is put on at over- inflated start values. A lot of people don't understand the principle of the auction system and put stuff on above the market value. I invariably start my stuff at £0.01, firstly to keep the listing fee down and secondly to encourage bids. I mainly sell old computer parts and I seem to do better listing for a penny than people who list a much higher starting price.

I think statistically only about 40% of what is listed on eBay will sell. What I would do is go to the booksellers' board on eBay and read up for a bit.. such as this thread: Advice column.. suggestions on what not to do. Don't throw away $$ listing stuff already on eBay that nobody is buying.

Other sellers screw themselves out of a sale with overpriced shipping - $20 for $5 postage plus a free box? No thanks, I'll buy from this other dude.

Of my 50-60 auctions over the last couple of years (camera stuff, guitar, DVD box sets, old Battletech books), I've only had one or two not sell.

Ed said **A lot of people don't understand the principle of the auction system and put stuff on above the market value**

I do think for rare stuff there is no real concept of the *market value* in isolation from ebay. I think there's an *e-bay value* for some stuff and people will almost knowingly pay a higher amount than they would pay for in a shop. The psychology of 'I might have to search for ages to find another' and 'I've started bidding so I really want to WIN this' come into play. I sometimes put rare stuff out there with an inflated 'buy it now' only (no auction) price. You can guarantee that someone won't be able to resist paying over the odds just to get it NOW!

As you can see I have done a fair bit of this since I started the thread.

I just sold a Sun monitor cable which I got out of a skip, I just put it on to basically up my rating by making a quick sale. It went for £25. I was shocked.

"When your item sells, Amazon.co.uk takes a per item closing fee of £0.86 plus a closing fee of 17.25% of your sale price. The per item closing fee is waived if you are a pro-merchant seller. The remainder is deposited in your account. Amazon.co.uk gives you the address of your buyer and you post the package. To help cover the cost of postage, your buyer is automatically charged a delivery fee on your behalf. The fees differ by product and destination. We pass this amount, minus an administration fee, on to you. All fees listed above are inclusive of VAT. (Learn more about Seller Fees)"

So.. we'll charge you 86p, then take 18p from every pound, then take money out of your postage.

So - if I sell my CD singles for 99p, I lose 5 pence??

Is there anywhere you can sell singles where you DON'T get ripped off?

ive never sold anything on ebay but i'm about to start. actually i've only ever bought two things on it. will the fact i have no feedback hugely affect the prices i get for my stuff? should i hold off on my more expensive items until i've sold some cheap stuff and got feedback?

Prices you get? I shouldn't think so. Hold back on expensive stuff? Probably a good idea, while you get the feel for doing this.

no? you don't think people hold back from bidding if they can't see any feedback? i will probably hold back on the dearer stuff though tbh.

i think it will affect your prices, yes. having 100% positive feedback definitely makes a difference when selling expensive stuff, as does putting up lots of pictures. make sure you use some kind of listing tool - i think there's a decent free one from ebay for PCs, and i love garagesale on the Mac. It'll massively decrease the time it takes to put things up.

I think it'll make a big difference. I know I won't by something expensive from someone with very low feedback. Start with stuff you'll only get a few bob for until your rating goes up.

My top tips for boosting feedback. 1. Ship promptly and securely, within 24 hours if possible 2. Maintain communications, tell them when you've mailed it. 3. Answer any questions quickly. 4. Don't be a dick.

5. Describe accurately what you're selling, include a pic if possible. If your CD has few scratches on, say so.

Watch out for the morons who bid outside the area you'll sell to by registering in a different country.

...

Why yes, I'd love to ship these two 12-pound packages to Australia. That will be $110 shipping. Apiece. For this $15 Nightmare Before Christmas bullshit.

i want to list an item on ebay but host the images on photobucket (or other) so i don't have to pay the ebay charge for additional pictures. i need at least 6 images for this item so do i just insert the images using html tags

<img> url of image </img>

like so? and is it accepted by ebay to insert images in this way?

cheers.

<img src="url of image">

thanks milo.

I'm never going to sell these "Lost in Space" and "Stargate" DVDs, am I?

Hey at least they're DVD's. My sister tried to sell an entire set of Star Trek stuff on VHS. No takers.

These DVDs are worth more as paperweights.

I'm not optimistic about these damn "Quantum Leap" DVDs either.

DVDs should be OK. Videos, forget it unless they're rare or unreleased on DVD etc.

Not the DVDs I've got. They're selling for pennies.

im never going to sell these 90s nerd rap records am i?

You'd think that someone out there would love this shit, but no.

It's because of the wang.

PP I will buy these DVDs direct me to yr auctions

jhoshea i will buy these records direct me to yr auctions

yr auctions dogs, yr auctions

im never going to sell these 90s nerd rap records am i?

-- jhøshea, Tuesday, January 1, 2008 10:34 PM (51 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

nerd rap like tech 9ine and shit or nerd rap like anticon bullshit

btw the most expensive rap record of all time is some anticon garbage that went for like $6500 at auction... http://www.soulstrut.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/oof.gif @ white ppl

what do you think about anticon

are you serious

no

You really want them? I'd be happy to make a twofer ILX special.

Ebay to ban negative seller views

I've never left a negative comment but I feel I should be able to.

Well, it's all a bit pointless, in a way.

Sellers have to build up a reputation to distinguish them from more fly-by-night operations, whereas buyers only have to come up with payment each time. Should a seller neg a buyer, all they would do is to create a new account and start from zero.

Buyers should still have some sort of feedback method, but actually 'red'/negativing is too heavyhanded. Certainly without having some sort of 'explanation' facility, this is not a good thing.

Buyers still will have, only sellers won't.

Some sellers won't sell to buyers with very few feedback. When I started I tried to buy an album (Keith Hudson, if you must know) but the fellow wouldn't sell it to me because I had no feedback. Fool!

no dude, this is a bad move which they will retract in a few months. there's lots of nutjob buyers who will drop negs for any damn reason. and use the threat of one to whine about minute shipping mis-estimates or as a stick for product refunds. it's going to be a total shitstorm.

Dumb! You clearly have taste, and to be honest, if yr Paypal goes through, that's all that needs to happen! (xpost)

I had one neg because the buyer reckoned the p&p was 50p too expensive. Jesus, he got the album for £1 anyway!

One seller I was buying an album from for £14 or so, "FreakOut" zappa (UK orig issue, 1LP version) reckoned he was Just in the process of going to wrap it, when the dog attacked it and rendered it totally unplayable.

Funnily enough, I've not seen him advertise anything since (but I've kept an eye out...)

If they think p&p is too expensive they shouldn't bid on the item. I think they should be able to filter feedback according to price,all very well someone getting good feedback for low value stuff, it's when something may cost a lost that I'm more interested in.

and to be honest, if yr Paypal goes through, that's all that needs to happen!

not true. there's loads of French and Italian buyers that Paypal won't list as confirmed addresses. They buy something, paypal the money, a month later complain to paypal that item never arrived, and even if the seller has proof of receipt usually the buyer is sided with and funds are returned. common chargeback scam.

As a buyer who's never deliberately messed anyone around on ebay, I'd quite like to keep my 9-year-old account and (not huge, but all positive) feedback score, thanks, to the point that I've been worried about revenge feedback and not left any for items which didn't arrive or where the seller never replied to emails saying it was faulty. It's partly an ego thing, mostly a convenience thing, and partly that sellers of more expensive items often refuse to sell to new buyers (oh, and I had been meaning to start selling with that account for some time, too). So it was a deterrent for me but I guess it wouldn't be for the determinedly malicious.

I've sold a couple of things on Amazon Marketplace and I don't think there's any way of rating the buyers there. Does the system seem to work there?

xpost I have seen ads where they will not mail to Italy, did not know why, do now.

I've sent things all over the world, quite literally, and never had anything lost permanently (a couple got returned as undelivered, various reasons)

You can leave feedback for buyers on Amazon Mktplace, but in my experience it's pretty much ignored.

Jesus, he got the album for £1 anyway

I had someone ask me three questions about a 99p CD. I felt like just sending it to him for nothing.

This one's only 1p. Needless to say I'm tempted.

This has to be the most exciting typeface Ive ever seen and Ive seen thousands, so come on and take my challenge and put it on as default font

Ah you missed one of mine:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=120213780646

Member since 25 Jun 97. Wow, you must be one of the first ebayers, I can't remember seeing a user with an earlier start date.

It was great in them days, bargains galore. (The beatles auction page was around 3 pages long)

Thesedays, it's a sellers market.

Mind you, during the dotcom boom/bust days, I should have bought shares in ebay. Instead of cheap VU banana album(s)

Mark, what do you send out LP's in? I'm thinking of selling a few but packaging concerns me.

http://www.sleevetown.com/lp-mailer.shtml

Easiest way: Search "LP Mailers" on ebay!

You see i'm so dense that I didn't even know they were called 'mailers'.

Mailers and Stiffeners. Generally, two stiffeners per envelope mailer.

US people like "Pizza Boxes" type mailers, but to be honest unless you're sending very expensive LPs, it's really not necessary.

Some like the LP outside the sleeve, play it by ear basically.

Does anyone have any experience trying to sell magazines in bulk on eBay? Mainly music publications, nothing rare or desirable that I can think of right now. Just wondering if I'm being absurdly optimistic in expecting someone other than the city dump to take a mainly unbroken run of NMEs circa 1998-2002 off my hands

They'll sell easily and you'll probably get more than you'd think.

you sound like a prophet

what does RFI mean?

request for information

They'll sell easily and you'll probably get more than you'd think.

-- wanko ergo sum, Tuesday, August 5, 2008 2:46 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Well this is basically my experience with all the crap I've tried to sell on eBay.

so I'm gonna try and sell a few things, I haven't done it in like a year and a half. How the hell do I add seller preferences now? do I just have to cut-and-paste into the item description?

Also, are there any other current things I should be aware of in the "Seller Beware" category? Like that Paypal scam from France and/or Italy which is why people don't accept it from those places.

I've never been subject to that scam, and I've sold lots of stuff to those places.

I'd 'beware' if you are selling high-value items, but apart from that, no.

Advice: Check on "completed" auctions to see how much your stuff would sell for, look for same or similar.

Having said that, I'd be surprised if magazines go for owt, but you never know.

I am broke with no job, and also helping my dad move from one of the houses I grew up in, which necessitates going through boxes and boxes of books and video games and toys and other shit that have been in boxes untouched for years now. So I'm trying to liquidate my stuff for cash, seeing as how otherwise I would be throwing it out.

My first round was 100+ items I put up last sunday; lots of books, lots of CD singles, Calvin and Hobbes books, SNES games, etc. Mainly I just want to clear this stuff out, cover shipping, and maybe make like a dollar off each item. Then again I go to thrift stores all the time and have friends that tell me they 'know someone who makes a living doing this stuff'. It seems like it would turn into a full-time job with lot of risk tho, if you wanted to go the Ebay tycoon-route.

Anyone actually do that? Though I guess if you were good at it you wouldn't want your secrets out..

What happened to auctions on ebay? I'll search for some book or CD and get pages of Buy It Nows but no auctions.

It depends on what you want to buy.

There is a dominance of 'new' stuff with CD and book sales. Kids toys/clothes, LP records and etc are still mostly second-hand and 'auctioned'...

Sold 36 items this week, made $150 bucks! Even amount of SNES cartridges, old books, and CDs.

Do you do auctions or set-price sales?

The thing with auctions is:

1) Set initial price to whatever you are 'OK' with selling it at
2) If it turns out to be a 'collectible' and you didn't know, you are safe.

keep in mind when you are doing an auction there are people like me who wait until the last 20 sec to make a bid so the price stays as low as possible. there is the alternative of doing buy it now and having the 'or make an offer' option where people can pick a lower price but you get to accept or reject it.

I do auctions cos I'm basically selling stuff that I would otherwise donate to a thrift store but I dont have a job and need money so i figure i can spend the extra time describing it if someone in the Netherlands wants to buy this thing for 5 bucks I don't mind. I've sold alot of things at 99 cents and a few at 30 bucks so you never know how much it will sell. Plus ebay will let you relist at no extra charge for another week if it doesnt sell.

I mailed 9 packages today and everyone that works at the Post Office has a huge 'tude. At least they have fucking jobs!

^^ cosign

I print my postage off at home to avoid any of that.
I've paid for my family summer holiday from old CDs this year. I put almost everything up for 99p (because it's free) but if i come across something worth a lot (like some classical CDs which have been deleted) I put 'em up on Amazon.

Got a handful of DVDs that I want to sell, haven't done the ebay thing in a while and now apparently the buyer (US seller to US buyer) is only on the hook for $3 for S&H? If so, I'm just going to do this on Amazon.

$3 sounds reasonable for one DVD?

I think Amazon takes a much bigger fee from you. Havent tried it yet tho let us know how it goes!

On ebay UK all dvd sales have to include s&h. Great news for buyers who can pick up some real bargains but not so hot for sellers.

I'm certainly glad I put my old college textbooks online. These are 5+ years old and selling them back to the school bookstore I may have gotten $5-10 apiece for them. On ebay they are taking in twice to three times that.

Just put up all my comic books, wonder what they will make... (Mostly 90s in FN condition).

Oh yeah, and paypal can suck a nut. They take a HUGE cut but it's really a necessary evil these days...

not ebay, but I'm looking to sell a guitar and amp super-quick, and am thinking about Cash Converters or Cash Generator (UK). Anyone know what kind of money (e.g. proportionally from new value) they'd give me?

changed my mind, gonna try changing my rent standing order to £5 (five years w/ no missed payments - cut me some slack Mr Landlord), head to ebay for the big moneys.

Strongly suspect you'll get more on eBay than you will from CC/CG - it's been a few years since I sold anything there, but you'll not get much more than (say) 25% of the original value even if they're in great condition.

ya, thanks, I looked around and the suggestion was from as low as 10% of original value to not much higher than 20%. Which I wouldn't be too happy with. Especially since normal ebay prices after five years of inflation would appear to leave me with almost as much as I paid for them.

How long have Ebay stipulated the max postage you can charge as a seller? I'm trying to sell a DVD box set and it's telling me I can't enter more than $1 as shipping costs. Wtf.

Yeah, so many people say "Ignore the P&P as imposed by e-bay, postage is..."

About two years. Only applies to DVDs/CDs, AFAIK.

books, records and magazines too.

you can click on a thing above the postage costs which says "heavy or bulky item" and sometimes it allows you to stipulate your own price. i don;t know if a DVD box constitutes a heavy or bulky item though.

ebay are ridiculous. i have only one negative feedback in the past year, everything else is positive and my seller despatch time is 4/5 (every thing else is 5/5) and cos of that, theyve barred me from selling completely and wont budge cos they wanted to see a 'big improvement', even though im not a professional seller. pretty fucking frustrating.

i just won an enlarger for 99p and i feel kinda shitty about going to this guy's house to pick it up, he's basically giving it to me. how would you feel idk.

Titchy, did they even give you that chance for a "big improvement"? Difficult to prove you "bettered yourself" (ugh) if you are bumped from ebay.

advice needed:

a few days ago i sold talk talk's laughing stock on ebay for a decent price although the winning bid was the only bid. the buyer paid promply and i posted it quickly. he emailed me today saying:

"i, thanks for the really fast delivery, the LP was received safely today. The LP you have sent is the European international release, not the UK release that I was after. This European release I already have in my collection. I would like to return the LP to you at the weekend for a refund.
Many thanks for your understanding,"

i sold the record basically as not the (recent) re-release or a bootleg. but it WAS the original release. i didn't know the record had separate european and uk releases and so the listing didn't state one way or the other - surely if he was so concerned about euro or british releases he would have asked me before he bought it, right?

so should i:

accept the return and refund him in full?
accept the return and refund him minus my postage costs and saying he has to pay for the return postage himself?
refuse the return based on the fact that he should have asked before he bought it?

cheers

I would go with (1) as the nice thing to do.

it would be the nice thing to do but it will have me £8 out of pocket and i don't think i should be,

Speaking a frequent buyer and seller of vinyl on eBay, that is pretty much 100% the bidder's fuckup. That's exactly the sort of information you ask a seller about *before* you bid, not after. If he knew there were two original versions, and as a collector he clearly did, then it was on him to ask for clarification if you didn't specify in the auction listing. I would (politely) refuse. He can resell it himself on eBay if he truly doesn't want to keep it.

Yeah, but doesn't jed_ then risk having a neg dropped on him?

that's exactly what i think hazel and that's exactly my concern, lpz.

that's always a risk. depends on the amount in question, I suppose. I hate dealing with vinyl shipping so much I would risk the negative rating.

i sold it for £60 which is pretty good but less than half of what you could get a year or so ago before the records were reissued on vinyl. he actually seems like a nice fella who has been a bit rash so i'll just email him with the points above (adding your good points too , hazel, thanks).

He's paying for the return postage, right?

I'd refund the dude what he actually paid you, the rest is his responsibility.

That's what I'd do, and have done.

we had a to-and-fro by email and he relented (nicely) and agreed to incur the postage charges. i'd rather not have any beef in my life right now so it's all for the best.

thanks again for the advice people.

Shameless plug

http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/im_a_circle?_trksid=p2047675.l2559

Buy my records please

Holy hell, this story is nuts!

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/01/ebay-hit-with-3m-fine-admits-to-terrorizing-innocent-people/

Executing the "take down," Baugh and six co-conspirators "put the victims through pure hell," acting US attorney Joshua S. Levy wrote in the DOJ's press release.

The former eBay employees turned the Steiners' world "upside-down through a never-ending nightmare of menacing and criminal acts," Levy said. That included "sending anonymous and disturbing deliveries," such as "a book on surviving the death of a spouse, a bloody pig mask, a fetal pig and a funeral wreath and live insects," the DOJ said. The intimidation also included publishing a series of "Craigslist posts inviting the public for sexual encounters at the victims’ home."

But the intimidation did not stop there. After sending tweets and DMs threatening to visit the couple's home, former eBay employees escalated the criminal activity by traveling to Massachusetts and installing a GPS tracker on the Steiners' car. Spotting their stalkers, the Steiners called local police, who coordinated with the FBI to investigate what Levy called an "unprecedented stalking campaign" fueled by eBay's toxic corporate culture.