Do you have an established seller account/reputation on eBay? What I was saying above, is that eBay seems to be turning things around, and backing up sellers now, whereas there was a problem in the past. They have a new program called eBay Valet, where you ship the item to them, and they do all the work...for a fee, of course. That might be another avenue to consider. Also, there's Bonanza, which is free, for the lowest level shop. I can't say I have a lot of traffic in my shop there, but occasionally, I will get a sale, and there are no listing fees, just a final value fee, when something sells.
I will definitely check out the eBay Valet. I just have a big ticket item I want to get rid of. Even if I had to take a cut off the price, I would still come out ahead rather than having my item collect dust around the house. I've never heard of bonanza. I'll have to check that out too. Thanks!
If you do try it out, let me know what you think. I read it a little, mainly to share with a friend who has several large pieces she is looking to sell. I also have a few larger items, but I'm trying to sell them locally first, to save on eBay (or other) fees. They also have a new program where I believe you can do the domestic shipping (assuming you're in the U.S.), but if someone overseas buys it, you can ship it to an eBay site, and they will take care of the Customs and other paperwork, for a fee, of course. Years back, when I had a small eBay shop, I sold a few things overseas, and it seemed like a pain in the butt, but I had a few sales to Canada and England last year that didn't seem to be a problem. The paperwork seemed minimal to me, so I'm not sure if the process has changed, or that the recent items were lighter weight or lower in value, and that made the transactions simpler.
@Sarah Price (and everyone), eBay is giving away 1 use of eBay Valet to try, for June. Here's a link to the information about it: http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y15/m06/i08/s01
If you do a lot of selling on Ebay, and don't have any complaints, you can qualify for upgrades that include large numbers of free listings. My wife is a super-seller, or whatever they call it, and as long as she plans her sales right, she pays very little in the way of fees. Of course, in order to keep that, she has to be able to resolve any complaints that might come up. I think she has had only one.
I had some experience in selling online my old stuff that I knew they wouldn't be used anymore and I made a failry good amount of money too. I must say, by the way, that if you're going to sell it abroad you're going to pay quite high fees, or at least that was my case.
Thanks. I did check out their valet services but it won't work for me because the item I want to sell is more than 25 pounds. Sigh... I'm just going to have to go the old-fashioned route and take my chances I guess.
I try to sell my heavy items locally, before listing somewhere like eBay, mainly because of the hassles with shipping, since I've never dealt with freight. There's also an option if you list it on eBay for local pickup, you could try that first, and see if you get any bites. I see many of the heavier item listings specify local pickup only. I still haven't listed my larger items on eBay classifieds or filibi.com, but plan to, once things slow down here.
@Tom Locke You could always go through and do some research about how much the more valuable ones could go for, and then try selling them as a lot. That would be much easier, and would involve just one listing, and less pictures. You could take pics of the major ones, and then a group shot or two of the others, and try. I think every seller gets 50 free listings per month, so there'd be nothing to lose.
I swear, I'm really trying to share good information about how eBay has gotten better, and that it's o.k. to use, because so many have been burned in the past, but situations like this sure don't help. When I hear of something like this occurring these days, I have to wonder if it's a mishap, or actually sabotage. http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y15/m06/i18/s03
I considered the idea of selling them as a job lot, but collectors tend to look for individual items, so it's better to do it that way. Initially, I was allowed only ten listings, but they have let me have twenty now. Not that I'm getting far as yet...
Yes, I assumed they would prefer to buy them individually, but I figured if you had something that was really in demand, it might be worth their while to buy the whole lot, rather than you having to list each individually, and end up losing money/time on ones that weren't popular. If they are vintage or antique, you could always list them on Etsy. There is no cost to open a shop, each listing costs $.20 for 4 months, and there is a final value fee, but it's cheaper than eBay's I believe, and you can ship directly from Etsy and receive discounts. Just a thought, especially if you don't want to use eBay.
You're welcome, it's mainly for handmade, vintage/antique, and crafting supplies, but there's a huge built-in audience, so it might be worth a shot.
I was looking at my eBay account fees earlier, and noticed that there's not only a final value fee on what we've sold, but there's also a final value fee on shipping costs. WTH? Not only do we pay out the ying yang for shipping, but on top of that, eBay bends us over for another fee.