Having never (successfully) sold anything on ebay before and hearing all the hassle involved, i'm hoping for some help from some more knowledgeable people.
I tried once before to sell a watch and put it up as 'buy it now'. Twice the sale fell through, once through a scammer trying to get me to ship it to Nigeria, the other from a hacked account. After this i gave up but now I think i'm ready to try again!
Is it better to put the item up as an auction bid rather than buy it now?
If you're looking for £1,000 what would you start the auction at?
Any help much appreciated!
Here's what the Guardian has to say about ebay today:
https://www.theguardian.com/money/20...lectric-guitarOur advice is never sell an expensive item on eBay without demanding the buyer pays cash – in person. The risks are too great of doing otherwise.
Hi Andy,Originally Posted by Andy_G
Ebay is my last resort, however I have and still do list items there.
If it's high value, generally I make it a rule to ship only to the UK.
I also set to allow the item to be searchable only to people with a minimum amount of feedback score.
Then I usually set it at a buy it now price with indefinite timing, against market value.
It takes a while sometimes but everything eventually sells.
You may want to consider other avenues though as the ebay fees are 10% minimum.
I've only just recently started selling bits and bobs I had lying around the house on ebay, so take everything I say with a heavy dose of salt, as I don't have a lot of experience with it either.
That being said, to me, it seems pretty much impossible to guess what an item will go for. It all depends massively on how many others of the same item there are listed at that particular time and how many people are looking for that particular item.
If you must get £1000, then either start the auction at £1000, or put a reserve price.
Not necessarily. I've just received an offer to list up to 20 items for £1 final value fee. And I'm not a big ebayer, I only have around 50 transactions so far
Last edited by asteclaru; 21st August 2017 at 13:25.
I find the ebay phone app much easier to use than the pc version.
Never send the item til the funds have cleared in your PayPal account and never send a refund til you have your item back in your hands.
There are loads of scammers on ebay and they seem to do little to prevent it.
I sell loads of stuff on ebay but always make sure I have moved the sale money from PayPal to my bank account before parting with stuff.
Always send items tracked and signed for even if it costs a bit more otherwise scammers will tell you it never arrived.
Brendan
What's the 'courteous' waiting time for someone to pay for the stuff they've bought?
A couple of days. Then I send a polite reminder :
Dear Sir,
have you forgotten to pay for your item?
Thank you,
Amy.
Seems to work when I use a woman's name !!
Brendan
PS Don't put feedback for at least a couple of weeks in case they try messing you about.
Then you get the last word.
Brendan
You can do Buy it Now with immediate payment. Don't allow Best Offer or they'll still be able to delay payment.
https://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/pay/re...e-payment.html
Good advice. I always do that for anything that has functions.
Thanks for all the advice so far. I was setting up a list, but then i noticed ebay was going to charge £84.42 for me putting a reservation price on the item! Is this normal?
If you are going to auction it then start at 99p...if you absolutely don't want to risk it going for less than you are prepared to accept then put a reserve on it. Personally,when I've sold higher value items,I have put them on a buy it now with a best offer. This also gives you option to discuss options with a potential buyer. For instance,you get an offer and then can chat on the phone to the potential buyer. I did this once and after a good chat the buyer was happy to transfer money to my account and I was happy he wasn't scamming. Make sure you put restrictions on your sale e.g. UK only,don't sell to those with black marks etc etc
In the end only send the watch if you are absolutely happy that the buyer is on the level.
The thing is that there are scumballs out there but the chances of encountering one of them is fairly small and despite some doomsayers EBay is a good place to sell stuff.
Yes but that makes no difference these days as sellers can only leave positive feedback
However,buyers have ultimate protection and basically never lose a claim. Even if you have moved the money from PayPal to your account it makes no difference. If you lose a claim and PayPal award a refund then your account will be debited and PayPal will retrieve the funds.
Normal for ebay to rip you off? Don't be silly :p Next thing you know they'll try to take a cut of the final payment... hang on a tick
Who'd of thought it would be so hard/expensive to sell something! I've changed it to buy it now best offer so at least the listing is free!
Ebay is such a badly organised site considering how much they make per minute !
But practice selling helps you to get used to it.
Brendan
even worse than they make you use paypal who also take a cut (don't ebay own paypal?)
I used it recently to sell all the old baby car seats, push chairs etc and that went well with no massive issues. All the stuff I listed for cash on collection so was no chance of paypal scams and it all went fine.
I purchased a watch last week that came as advertised at a good price, no issues at all.
Many years ago I sold a 3 Breitlings, a navitimer 01LE (wish I never sold that watch) a Bentley 6.75 and a steelfish and all completed with no issues.
Yep.
In my experience, most transactions go without incident.
however when something does go wrong, it's a headache to get it sorted.
A watch collector friend told me of a scam he'd heard of. The watch is sent to a winning bidder (albeit who only has 20 or so feedback score and for low value items). The buyer opens a dispute saying the watch was a fake. Seems on receipt of the watch they replace the real workings with some cheapest and nasty something. Then report their item to eBay. The seller could not prove that he had shipped the item with the real inners so buyer gets a full refund and a nice mechanism and the seller gets a good shafting.
My advice avoid if selling anything of high value
Avoid anything valuable.
E bay is looking to compete with Amazon and as such doesn't really want the hassle of private sellers.
Everything is weighted towards the buyer to the extent it is now a scammers paradise
I suspect that the above is true.
I had a barometer removed recently because it has a mercury thermometer but they won't do anything about a guy who won't return an item I gave him a refund for.
So I've issued a CC summons to the guy.
Brendan
Nice. Let us know how that goes.
Forgot to ask. Are you selling anything interesting?
We have now sold three cars through eBay - a Jeep and two BMW's. We took the time to take lots of photos and described the car in minute detail. As it turned out perhaps we shouldn't have bothered, as all three buyers simply turned up and paid cash. The BMW's went to Eastern Europe, the Jeep to Basingstoke.
On the other side I have bought way too much from eBay - everything from clothes to watches to camera lenses to wheels & tyres. By and large all the deals have gone through with no hassle.
From a buyers perspective I always check the seller's feedback, always look for good photos, and if there are any questions I will use "Ask the seller a question". I also keep in mind that there is nothing that is unique so, if I miss out on an item at my agreed buying price, I know that if I wait long enough it is bound to appear again.
What amazes me are the people who will simply not make the effort to correctly list or photograph their items - filed in the wrong category, spelling mistakes on brand names, etc. Whilst this has often worked in my favour I can't figure out why the sellers can't be bothered to check before listing, as they are minimising their chances of maximising their selling price.
Just one of watches. It is on sales corner, just thought I'd try and have another option. It's a tag and I know there's not a lot of love on here for them!
Thanks for all the advice every1. With not a lot of feedback for myself, selling a high value item probably isn't the best to start off with but no harm in trying (hopefully!)
If you were wanting £1000, I would go with a BIN listing of around £1100-£1200 so the buyer feels that they have got 10-20% off whereas you have got what you wanted. Depending on the item, I would probably offer £900 on a £1100 item and expect to buy it for £1000.
I always take loads of photos/measurements so people get a good idea of what they are buying. RE feedback, I never leave feedback for buyers until they have left me feedback. Hard to say they are a great buyer if they can't be bothered to leave feedback themselves and/or moan about something I would rather have the last word...
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
