Ebay: Cash Cow or Evil Bitch?

Best ever fake e-bay auctions? Runner-Up: Monkey Phone Call (plus transcript). Winner: Thom Yorke, because the seller name was "Thomspimp".

Come and start bidding on mine please...I need the cash.

In answer to the question, I started using eBay's UK site last year which had a trial period of free listings at the time. When they introduced listing fees I moved over to Yahoo (which is completely free), but the truth is there is very little traffic there so I'm currently completely addicted to selling stuff on eBay. I waste more time there checking if I've got new bids than I do here checking for new posts.

Through raking off small fees at every conceivable turn. Each listing costs 0.21 USD, then there are charges on options like 'featured auctions', 'bold', 'gallery' etc. etc. Then if the item sells it's a minimum of 5% of the selling price to eBay.

Nicole: I do that too, bidding out of spite. Cos I totally know someone will outbid me, and they'll have to spend way more than what I bid. It's great.

But I hate auctions that end in the middle of the night, wtf is that about? I bid on the Motown Junk 12" and the auction got stolen from me at the last minute because I was too busy drinking with Otis and Ramon to do something as weak as get online and check my bid. They literally stole it out from under me at the last second. I knew I should've put in max bid $10,000 because who the hell would've drove it up that far, duh.

So that should ease your cashflow :).

"Captain Swing"

It has the perfect combination of 19th Century British countryside revolt and what sounds like the name of some early 1990s German Eurorap type, but isn't. I like that.

Steve: thanks for the link, the Captain Swing Band are actually playing at the Tolpuddle rally in July, which is how I got to hear of them. David: the countryside revolt connotations are explained on another page from that site: http://freespace.virgin.net/mike.griffiths/cscd001.html. Captain Swing was originally a mythical character who was invoked and celebrated by those whose riots led to the 1832 Reform Act, and so heavily connected to Chartism, the Tolpuddle Martyrs etc.

x0x0

Try Tower Records online. That's where I bought my copy not too long ago.

As an even sadder side note, I must note that I'm totally psyched about winning the Tarepanda kitchen timer.

It went for about $450 U.S.

Amazing, right? Even better: I never paid eBay one red cent. And I've never tried to buy or sell anything there again.

The problem is, I really want to make one wall of my bedroom entirely musical memorabilia, just like one wall of my living room is going to be entirely embarassing and/or ridiculous snap shots of friends. It's a theme thing. Ebay is helping with the music theme, but for god's sake, like I need to spend $70 on the Motown Junk 12"

Hey, Otis, wanna come down the Thursday before the Washington trip and you and Ramon take me to Long Island to go buy doors for my bedroom?

Are you people trying to taunt me into offering you money?

(will still pay the money anyhow, god this is awful)

This made me laugh but I know it shouldn't.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=4071538121&ssPageName=STRK:MEBI:IT

when is a good time to put up an auction? i'm selling this autographed hockey picture that got thrown in with my new tv (totally random but apparently it's worth $$). should i put it up now (fri eve) or wait till monday?

I try to have my auctions end Sun-Thurs night around 7pm Pacific. So put it on tonight as a ten-day auction for an extra dime or wait a couple of days.

you think about things that much? if it's something someone wants, I don't think it matters

There are more people apt to be looking at the close of an auction around 5-10pm on a weeknight than there are at noon or 7 in the morning or on a Saturday.

Lately I've been selling things that have multiples on Ebay, it would matter even less for rare items I guess.

Does anyone else snipe? I used to use justsnipe, but it's now down to 1 free snipe per week, which isn't much good. Is there anything better out there?

No, it takes away all the fun and spoils it for the rest who don't use it.

I take your point to some extent, but unfortunately I live in a different country to the one where I need to buy my jeans, and getting up at 3am to bid on them isn't much fun either...

i use snipe all the time. "fun"? "spoils"? it's not a fucking sport.

I thought sniping was basically required at this point to win anything

i do sometimes like to do a manual snipe just to keep my chops.. 10 seconds before the end..

Actually for the things I tend to buy (jeans in strange sizes) it doesn't seem necessary in order to beat other buyers, more to avoid sellers shilling.

i only ever snipe, and manually.

scott is selling a bunch of his CDs now on ebay - lots (literally) of 30 CDs at a time. Username is "snackyfresh". You've got 4 days to get them.

Here's one example:
31 used doom/sludge/death metal CDs all in good shape. A couple might have store stickers on them. Some are digipack. Three of them are promos with cover art inserts and plastic cases, but no back covers. The rest all have normal cover art and booklets, etc. No reserve! We accept PAYPAL only. CDs you will get are:

sourvein - will to mangle (southern lord)

seemless - s/t (equal vision)

jesu - silver (hydra head)

anathema - the silent enigma (mayhem/fierce)

electric wizard - supercoven (southern lord)

mastodon - blood mountain (reprise)

my dying bride - like gods of the sun (mayhem/fierce)

opeth - ghost reveries (double disc cd/dvd set) (roadrunner)

cardinale - 31:13 (arclight)

electric wizard - come my fanatics...(double disc) (music cartel)

atavist - II:ruined (profound lore)

intronaut - null (goodfellow)

sleep - jerusalem (music cartel)

my dying bride - the light at the end of the world (peaceville)

anathema - pentecost III (fierce)

pentagram - sub-basement (black widow)

abominable iron sloth - s/t (goodfellow)

consular - don't cross the swine (shifty/abort the world)

indian - slights and abuse/the sycophant (seventh rule)

the howling wind - pestilence & peril (profound lore)

whitehorse - s/t (double disc) (20 buck spin)

wrath of the weak - alogon (profound lore)

electric wizard - dopethrone (the music cartel)

volition - s/t (promo) (total rust)

highgate - s/t (promo) (total rust)

paganus - s/t (promo) (total rust)

worship - dooom (endzeit elegies)

jesu - s/t (hydra head)

deadbird - the head and the heart (codebreaker/earache)

rabies caste - s/t (dada drumming)

isis - panopticon (ipecac)

OK

I am selling a camera on amazon marketplace

it has been bought by some women in tottenham, london

she is now asking me to send it to 'her dad' in lagos, nigeria

am I right to be suspicious in this? what would happen if I didn't send this?

dont do it

they get the camera and then say it didnt arrive and they get a refund and you lose camera and money is my guess what will happen.

I mean she has paid for it, but with amazon I don't get the dosh until 14 days later

presumably she could pocket my camera in nigeria and then cancel the credit card transaction, before the elapse of the 14 days

"My policy is to ship the merchandise to the purchaser's address period no ifs ands buts or maybes suck it up if you don't like it plus you pay me before I send a damn thing."

presumably she couldwill pocket my camera in nigeria and then cancel the credit card transaction, before the elapse of the 14 days

it's a scam

ja, totally

double checked my actual amazon account on the site and I've had no orders... despite my e-mail 'from amazong payment services'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_YjvC4ndzM

I get the feeling that as soon as a bunch of books appear telling you how to "make loads of money doing x," it's a clear sign that your chance to make loads of money doing x has already passed, hence the glut of people now writing books about it instead.

i have a cd up for auction on eBay. someone emailed me the following series of questions:

HI ! LONDON HERE

can you confirm the postage cost any other RARE ITEMS PLEASE - U TAKE PAYPAL

...

Please can you confirm the cost before I bid

THANKS

...

i would like to buy this item - ENGLAND

...

Please can u confirm the postage costs to ENGLAND

THANKS

(note that I actually answered his question the first time)

thesame guy just made the high bid (100$) and immediately emails me the following:

Please ! can u sell this item to the other bidder please as I bought the wrong item

jesus christ it's been a while since I sold anything on ebay but has that site gotten fucking terrible or what? the forms to list things (cds in this case) are jacked, I used the 'sell a similar item' function after posting one item then rewrote the item names and in every single case, despite it showing up correctly when I listed it, it reverted at some point to the original item name, giving me 10 listings for the same item. add to that the annoyance that most of what I posted over 12 hours ago still doesn't show up under myEbay selling page. Plus their fees are out of control now. Fuck you ebay.

Sellers aren't allowed to give negative feedback now. Which means deadbeat buyers get often get 'positive' feedback with vicious comments as a rider.

A Makaveli CD single in card sleeve I was selling blew out from 99c to $25.99 in the last two minutes yesterday, I am alarmed for the buyer's sanity.

I've listed 167 items in the last few weeks, the most aggravating aspect of the Sell Similar Item form is that you have to re-enter the overseas shipping info every single time. It hiccupped a few times and lost names, tracklistings or photos, but nothing like akm's problems.

So has the new free postage and packing for CDs had any impact on any buyers/sellers on here?

Seems to be a win/win for ebay. No more free 99p CD listings and they get a bigger cut of the final selling price.

I've listed 167 items in the last few weeks, the most aggravating aspect of the Sell Similar Item form is that you have to re-enter the overseas shipping info every single time. It hiccupped a few times and lost names, tracklistings or photos, but nothing like akm's problems.

this got way better since then

if they brought free postage and packing in for .au ebay, I would give up altogether. 99c listings (which aren't free here, either) are what gets people to look at your shit, just-above-cost-price postage is what makes that worthwhile for you the seller.

OK, so how are people still selling CDs for 99p with free P & P? They've got to be losing money after ebay/paypall fees and packaging. Are they just doing it for fun or am I missing something?

It's not like anyone's going to buy this - but it's 30p! If someone buys it - the seller is going to lose about 60p.

Yeah, but

1) It's an auction, so you could get more than one hurrican....

ahem..

1) People would most likely buy a few of his other item, so eventually guy turns a profit

2) Maybe it's just a space clearing exercise, and it's marginally better than just chucking them on a skip or donating them to Oxfam or something?

I guess it must be 1). I've put a bid on one of his 99p CDs just to see what happens/what condition it arrives in. He's saying first class delivery (which is 90p for a CD) so if he just wraps it in some brown paper he's got laying around and sticks a stamp on it he'll make 9p. Minus the ebay final selling fee of...er...9p = 0p.

Maybe he works somewhere where people don't guard the outgoing mail franking machine too closely? Apart from that, no idea.

almost certainly this, plus maybe a loss leader to get people looking at his other auctions? whenever there's a free listing weekend, I try and throw as much useless crap up as possible to get people to have a squiz at my overall auctions (and there's always something that goes for a reasonable price to some nutbag)

I've basically listed CDs starting at 99p exclusively for the last five years and didn't plan to stop any time soon so I'm fairly cheesed off all told. Haven't listed anything since the change but I'm considering seeing what happens if I just list them with free postage and then say in the 'any other info' box something to the effect of, 'I know it says free but we both know this is dumb, it's actually going to be £1.00 so if you could add that on that'd be super kthx' - I have no idea how many ppl would be jerks about it, you can but try :/

I've seen that statement a bunch of times, so who knows...

Basically, just had to *up* my starting prices. Will have to see...

Yeah I'll probably list a handful at £1.99, then a handful with the additional message, and see which is the least worst option

I've put all my 99p ones up for £2.49 whereas before I had them up for 99p + £1.50 p&p (hey, it's a long walk to the post box, ok). And whereas I sold loads at 99p, the £2.49p are very slow to go. I think I've got about 50 up at the moment, 4 of which are selling. Maybe it's the Economic Climate, maybe it's just that there are millions of CDs for sale out there, but I do think, for some reason, £2.49 sounds a lot more than 99p(plus P & P). Like Mark says, we'll wait and see. All I know is that the bag to oxfam is looking a lot fuller these days.

Annoying thing was that you could offer discounted shipping if someone bought more thsn one cd which made things better for all concerned i.e you could rid of the cds and the buyer didn't get stung for postage. don't see how you can offer discounted shipping now.

I gave like 200 CDs to Oxfam yesterday so having done one charitable thing I intend to be a selfish bastard long into my dotage now

Are these people nuts? Maybe no one wants an organ anymore! Granted it's 1983 not 1960s which is my favorite decade for organs. $300!

Sounds like the person truly loves it.

http://tinyurl.com/99ns7wy Whoops, the URL>

yeah, organs like that should basically be free. like pianos.

It has a bid now.

(not me)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-27503290

Ebay has asked users to change their passwords following a cyberattack that compromised one of its databases.

The auction site said that the database contained encrypted passwords and other non-financial information.

The US firm added that it had no evidence of there being unauthorised activity on its members' accounts.

However, it said that changing the passwords was "best practice and will help enhance security for eBay users".