Questions About Selling Items On Ebay

[Mar]

The last time I sold something on Ebay it was a 8x external CD burner and it cost me 25 cents to sell. At the time all I could think was, "Wow, these guys are making 25 cents off every transaction? They must be filthy rich!" I just checked their fees again and now they charge you 9% of the final selling price plus 9% of the shipping price. WTF? So that's $9 on a $100 sale. Let me get this straight, they raised their prices from 25 cents to nine fucking dollars, I've never seen such a lopsided business model.

Anyway, enough ranting. I'm wondering how you go about selling things. I've got a bunch of smaller items I want to get rid of (Transformers doubles) so I'm assuming I just enter the size / weight of the shipping package and it'll automatically calculate the shipping cost for anyone viewing the listing. So does that mean I have to go buy one each of the post office envelopes and boxes, plus packing material, then put each figure inside an appropriate sized box / envelope, insert packing material and put it on a scale to get the weight? Does it just go by size? I don't own a scale neither so I'm trying to find out if it's worth the hassle of listing them, nobody's biting on Kijiji and the 2 people that said they wanted to buy all of them took a hike when I told them a price.

[spikerS]

I rarely use ebay anymore.

Occasionally there are still some deals on there. But most of the stuff I go looking for on ebay now is more expensive than local shops, and that is before shipping and the difference in the dollar.

It just isn't what it used to be.

[revelations]

With the popularity of Kijiji - ebay just doesent make sense much anymore for the reasons mentioned above.

Now the REALLY odd item, it does make sense to sell because even with retarded selling fees there are enough shoppers out there to make it work and you will likely get more there.

For eg, I just sold a Mac IIc from 1984 (vintage/nerd computing) - 100$ on Kijiji locally here but could have fetched 200$ on ebay.

[msommers]

I've used eBay for buying a lot of things but after I sold a camera at a loss because of all the eBay and Paypal fees, I'm done.

Plus dealing with Paypal is like pulling teeth.

I'd prefer to take a loss and sell to someone locally with cash than I would "securely" to someone in the US, even if I made more money doing it that way.

[Mista Bob]

I wouldn't even waste my time with ebay anymore.
Would sooner firesale something off to some kijiji lowballer than deal with ebay.

High fees and you are 100% fucked if the person you sell to decides to scam you.
They will win and they will get away with it. It's far too easy for buyers to do on ebay and paypal will always side with the buyer.

[woodywoodford]

ebay's a complete last stop for me. if kijiji or amazon don't have it, I MIGHT check ebay but more likely will just stop looking for whatever it is.

[BokCh0y]

I never sell anything on ebay anymore, the fees are a killer, and like others have stated, paypal sucks nuts. Paypal fees + the fact they don't protect the seller is bullshit.

Even buying stuff from ebay is not worth is anymore. Some sellers charge you a stupid shipping fee plus an import fee now too!!!

Not sure if there's another alternative beside ebay and kijiji :dunno:

[taemo]

Originally posted by woodywoodford
ebay's a complete last stop for me. if kijiji or amazon don't have it, I MIGHT check ebay but more likely will just stop looking for whatever it is.

this, I try to sell my items first via other sites first.
Ebay is my last resort or when I know there's not enough general interest.
I'd rather lose 10% of the asked price than none at all.
I also list my auctions at 90% of how much I want to sell it for.

[GTS4tw]

There must be some transformers fan forum? Forums are the best way to buy and sell, if it is a higher priced item you only deal with trusted members, plus everyone there is interested in what you are selling.

[Deville]

Dragons Den had a new company on it that specializes in online sales of collectibles only. Cant remember the name of the site but it looked pretty good.

Apparently they have all the details etc. of every toy / collectible stored on there servers so all u do is type in what you have for sale, all the info pops up for you and your done.

Not sure what the fees are like but it might be worth checking out.

edit: here it is,
http://www.shelflife.net/

[Mar]

I'd do the Transformers forum but I got banned from there long ago. The owner keeps posting news articles to his other website and it's always just a link, which grinds my balls, I don't want to click a link to click another link to click another link. So I was copying and pasting the information to help other people avoid that........ and got banned for it. The guy that runs that site is a total power monger.

So I can't do those forums, I'm banned. I can't sell them here, I don't have access to the Marketplace on both accounts. And Kijiji isn't working out, probably with the huge Expo coming up in April, people are saving their money. Maybe I'll sign up another account on that forum just to dump them.

[A790]

Originally posted by Mar
I'd do the Transformers forum but I got banned from there long ago. The owner keeps posting news articles to his other website and it's always just a link, which grinds my balls, I don't want to click a link to click another link to click another link. So I was copying and pasting the information to help other people avoid that........ and got banned for it. The guy that runs that site is a total power monger.

So I can't do those forums, I'm banned. I can't sell them here, I don't have access to the Marketplace on both accounts. And Kijiji isn't working out, probably with the huge Expo coming up in April, people are saving their money. Maybe I'll sign up another account on that forum just to dump them.
LOL I'm seeing a trend here...

[JRSC00LUDE]

^

What about stores that buy collectible toys and the like? They'd likely just give you next to nothing though...... :dunno:

[Mar]

Originally posted by A790

LOL I'm seeing a trend here...
You could say that but I went out of my way to help other people avoid the headache and got banned for it. He'd rather have everyone on his website inconvenienced just so he can increase his click through rate on his other website. And instead of explaining that to me, he'd rather ban me for trying to help people. I'd only see the connection if I was yelling at people or something.

Although the ban was for only a week, I didn't get the perma-ban until I set up a server script that sent him 1000 emails every day asking why I got the week ban. I was a little angry about it.


Originally posted by JRSC00LUDE
^

What about stores that buy collectible toys and the like? They'd likely just give you next to nothing though...... :dunno:
Ya, I'm trying to sell a figure worth $110 at a price of $90. Any resale store is only going to offer $40 probably. I know I could dump them on Jason at the Hillhurst-Sunnyside flea market if I really had to, just wanted to maximize my profits.

Shelflife is a great idea but it's just not there yet, it's like Ebay back in 1996, I checked it out but nothing I wanted was on there. And I could add my items to it but whom knows how many months it would take for people to buy them from me, especially when they're not competitively priced with others on the internet after factoring in shipping. Selling locally is more preferred.

[Mitsu3000gt]

eBay is garbage now, I haven't used it in ages.

13% transaction fees + % of shipping, and the worst thing of all is absolutely ZERO protection for sellers. Buyer simply claims they never received the item, and they get their money back plus the free item. They side 100% of the time with the buyer in a dispute. There is no incentive whatsoever to ever use eBay as a seller IMO.

[luxor]

Originally posted by Mar
The last time I sold something on Ebay it was a 8x external CD burner and it cost me 25 cents to sell. At the time all I could think was, "Wow, these guys are making 25 cents off every transaction? They must be filthy rich!" I just checked their fees again and now they charge you 9% of the final selling price plus 9% of the shipping price. WTF? So that's $9 on a $100 sale. Let me get this straight, they raised their prices from 25 cents to nine fucking dollars, I've never seen such a lopsided business model.

Anyway, enough ranting. I'm wondering how you go about selling things. I've got a bunch of smaller items I want to get rid of (Transformers doubles) so I'm assuming I just enter the size / weight of the shipping package and it'll automatically calculate the shipping cost for anyone viewing the listing. So does that mean I have to go buy one each of the post office envelopes and boxes, plus packing material, then put each figure inside an appropriate sized box / envelope, insert packing material and put it on a scale to get the weight? Does it just go by size? I don't own a scale neither so I'm trying to find out if it's worth the hassle of listing them, nobody's biting on Kijiji and the 2 people that said they wanted to buy all of them took a hike when I told them a price.

I sell a lot of things on eBay on a regular basis and I'll give you my take on it. If your item can net you $50 or more AFTER shipping cost and final value fees, it's worth it to sell on ebay in my opinion because all these $50 sales can add up. That means your item better be able to sell for at least $80 in either the auction style or buy it now style sale (I always do fixed price, buy it now). I say $80 because for shipping you're looking to spend around $20 for an Expedited service (Canada Post) to the US with tracking and around $10 for within Canada, also with tracking. Always get the expedited mail option that includes tracking and the standard insurance (up to $100 included) because there are guys on there that will take advantage of this and say they didn't receive the package and then you're on the hook with a paypal investigation claim on your ass.

Mind you though, my items are usually much higher priced, ranging from $100-$600, and they sell easier online than locally. I have also sold things that I only made $40 or $50 off from AFTER it was all said and done.

Your item sounds like they can be fragile so in that case you need to bubble wrap the item and box it and tape it up. Once the buyer has paid you, just print the shipping label off your paypal and tape that on there and drop it off at the post office. If you have the original boxes for the item, just bubble wrap them really good and slip two pieces of carboard inside a bubble lined parcel envelope, that's the easiest and fastest way. Get the bubble wrap from dollarama, they are dirt cheap at I think $1.25 per roll and get the bubble lined parcel envelopes (various sizes) at walmart.

http://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/the-office-5-durable-poly-mailer/6000023805466

Times have changed a lot from selling on there a few years ago, the market on ebay is huge now and the only reason I use it is because my items actually get sold in a timely manner. Kijiji is a really good option if you have the market for it and don't mind getting low balled a few times or tire kickers. So if you need to sell your stuff fast, go ebay otherwise I'd recommend something local like kijiji or the classifieds here cause it's less hassle and sometimes you make more money.

Feel free to PM me if you got anymore questions.

[luxor]

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt
and the worst thing of all is absolutely ZERO protection for sellers. Buyer simply claims they never received the item, and they get their money back plus the free item. They side 100% of the time with the buyer in a dispute. There is no incentive whatsoever to ever use eBay as a seller IMO.

True to an extent. If you have a tracking number, you've got something to back yourself up on and paypal does look into it. Usually paypal won't waste their time on a $20 item and will fuck over the seller by taking the money out and refunding it back to the buyer, so you're correct on that especially if the seller didn't provide tracking. Higher priced items will get investigated. Paypal also requires the buyer to send back the item (higher priced) if they claim damaged or missing parts and most of the time scammers won't send it back and the case get closed automatically. The key is to be proactive when selling on there.

[Mar]

Originally posted by luxor


True to an extent. If you have a tracking number, you've got something to back yourself up on and paypal does look into it. Usually paypal won't waste their time on a $20 item and will fuck over the seller by taking the money out and refunding it back to the buyer, so you're correct on that especially if the seller didn't provide tracking. Higher priced items will get investigated. Paypal also requires the buyer to send back the item (higher priced) if they claim damaged or missing parts and most of the time scammers won't send it back and the case get closed automatically. The key is to be proactive when selling on there.
I've heard of sellers sending an empty box with tracking and when Paypal investigates it, they see there was a package delivered so they don't do anything.

[Mista Bob]

They generally will just send back a box with some random worthless crap in it that weighs about the same in place of whatever expensive thing you sent them.
Absolutely nothing you can do about it, it basically becomes your word vs theirs and paypal doesn't care about your side.

[BigMass]

eBay's been garbage for the past 10 years. Still have my ebay account from 1998 but it's completely different. It went from a place where regular people sold used stuff / collectibles etc. To a storefront for big businesses. If you search for an item now you'll get maybe 1 or 2 people selling their used stuff and 1000 other stores selling it for retail. Trying to slog through all that BS is pointless. Plus local businesses now are more inline with what's online so it's not as bad as it was in the late 90s. Most local stores now price match online retailers and you can get a lot of used stuff locally through kijiji.

Another big thing is that ebay has always been US centric. People in the US love it because in the US you can ship a package the size of a house or car for like $5 (exaggerating for effect). Shipping the same package from Canada to the US is like a million dollars. So to be an active ebayer in Canada is a little lame. Also most sellers on ebay refuse to ship outside the US or charge insane prices like "FREE SHIPPING TO USA". "$250 to ship to Canada". Ok thanks. Ebay is trash now for the most part. Sure I still use it once in a blue moon. Maybe once a year now for some item I can't get locally.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by luxor


True to an extent. If you have a tracking number, you've got something to back yourself up on and paypal does look into it. Usually paypal won't waste their time on a $20 item and will fuck over the seller by taking the money out and refunding it back to the buyer, so you're correct on that especially if the seller didn't provide tracking. Higher priced items will get investigated. Paypal also requires the buyer to send back the item (higher priced) if they claim damaged or missing parts and most of the time scammers won't send it back and the case get closed automatically. The key is to be proactive when selling on there.

I even recall at least one case where the guy video taped the boxing up of the item, and the trip to the post office on a GoPro, and PayPal still sided with the buyer. It's a joke. May not be 100% but it's not worth the risk IMO.

[rx7boi]

Go back to the Transformers forum and try again unless your IP has been permabanned.

Yes, you were trying to help forum members, but the site is not yours to run. You went into someone's house and didn't like the rules, so you told his other guests to circumvent them. Then, when he asked you to leave, you stood on his lawn everyday harrassing him until he got a restraining order against you. Now, you are indignant, wondering why you don't have the right to do whatever you want in his home.

LOL irony.

I've been trying to unload some Marvel statue/collectibles for ages on Kijiji.

Buyers on Kijiji don't know shit about value or just don't care.

Most stores won't buy items off of you even if BNIB.

You are fucked until you increase your trader rating here and/or choose one of the other poisons.