selling on ebay

[bluefury361]

Ebay has really made it tough on sellers in the past few years. Even the slightest complant from a buyer usually results in the seller losing everything including the item sold.

Then ebay collects insertsion fees, final value fees on the item sale, a fee on the shipping and finally PayPal fees. Upwards of 20-24% of your sale.

The dissapointing loss of the chance to purchase a special item, (such as what Stan just experienced), is a direct result of ebays own policys.
A experenced seller learns that private deals can be faster and more profitable then following ebays policys.

I don't list much on ebay anymore and never use the shipping calculator ..... everything I list is "local pick up only" and shipping charges, if any, are posted in my discriptions.
This opens the door to communications from serious buyers and off site deals. A little creative encripted email addy or phone number and fees are avoided.

 

[commando1]

Their business model has shifted to totally promote the guy who buys the course on TV "How to Make Money on ebay"
Buy the course, pay into a drop ship program, run the software, and work out of the basement of your mother's house wearing only your underwear.

 

[mcmlvii]

The small amount I sell on ebay doesn't add up to much but the things I do sell are heavy, so shipping fees are many times half the amount of the final transaction. I *get* to pay ebay a roughly 10% fee just for the shipping charge I collect from the buyer, with no way of recouping it. I could raise my handling fee enough to cover the expense but then a lot of buyers are turned off by high handling fees (they've let me know in the past).

 

[Big_John]

work out of the basement of your mother's house wearing only your underwear.

That was always my business plan.....

 

[commando1]

Thank gawd you're a failure then...

 

[Big_John]

Dismal failure based on that plan....

 

[Wollfen]

I used to sell on ebay every week until a few years ago and i would turn over about 15k per year at about 75 percent profit margin but with the advent of paypal and its fees adding to the ever increasing fees and constant policy changes i gave it all up and only buy from it now. Its just not worth the stress and angst to sell.

 

[polara71]

Its a good thing. Perhaps the parts we need will start coming back to the swap meets and get off e bay

 

[1978 NYB]

I only buy from EBay...... never sold anything... not even a lugnut.

 

[bluefury361]

I only buy from EBay...... never sold anything... not even a lugnut.

Really Bob.... So what did you do with the 10 left hand thread lugnuts & studs you took off your car....? :thinker:

 

[70NPORT]

I've bought a few car parts and things off ebay, but it seems rather cumbersome to try and sell stuff. Probably why I've never considered it.

 

[Samplingman]

I've been on eBay since 1999 selling mostly collectables like comics and toys. Back then all you needed was a quarter and garage sale junk and you could make a fortune. Now small sellers get screwed with every "update". Sellers have had to give up their rights, they can't even leave negative feedback for a dead-beat buyer. However, even with the fees I still make enough to support my hobby interests, but nobody is getting rich off of online auctions anymore. The whole business model is geared to the larger established retailer, mostly new items in quantity. Once internet taxes start kicking in, as they eventually will, I would have to give it up as well.

On another note, I followed Stan's thread with interest, and I can't give a reasonable explanation for why that auction ended the way it did. Sellers on eBay motors pay a flat $60 fee for a sale of $2000 or less and $125 flat for a sale of $2001+ with no insertion fees for the first 6 vehicles they list. Doing a BIN at a lower price online and excepting cash for the balance off line only saved the seller $65 (assuming that's what he did), why not go with the high bidder in the US as opposed to having to deal with international wire transfers? In the end, it's better to not do business with a seller that plays those games, no matter how desirable the item.

 

[commando1]

OUCH. And, the wounds were just about healing from that fiasco.

 

[1978 NYB]

Really Bob.... So what did you do with the 10 left hand thread lugnuts & studs you took off your car....? :thinker:

1978......all of them were factory right-hand threads. LOL!