I have toyed around with the idea of selling stuff on Ebay. I just chicken out everytime I make plans to do it. With my luck I wouldn't sell a single item, and end up losing my entire investment.
For one reason or another, I never succeeded to sell on eBay, firstly because I didn't understand a word of all the blah, blah, blah I had to read before they activated my account, later I thought to have gotten it right and neither. It's said that three's a charm, so once again tried out but by such time eBay had earned reputation to house rascals, money-rippers and similar "fauna" that didn't contribute to get me making a cent. However by that time I was already knowledgeable in PHP and other web development aspect, and therefore I set up my own e-shop using Paypal as a payment gateway, which proven to work better than try eBay and offering the same payments options. Even though, problem when it comes to run one's own shop is that loads of advertising or other promotional methods are require to drive enough traffic that converts in sales.
Bonanza is similar to ebay and they will not hold on to your money when the buyer pays you get your money right away. You dtill have to pay fees on both sites. Also if the person has a low feedback I would think very hard about selling to that person to protect yourself,
I've been lost through a good bit of this thread. Maybe this explains why I have never been successful at making money online.
I don't know much about e-bay for selling and have learned a lot reading your posts. I did get started for selling at e-bay, but decided to learn about it first. I tried selling my things at soldster.com. Soldster.com buys selectively and not everything you have for sale will they buy from you. Soldster.com has very good shipping methods and has a very good reputation too from the BBB. I would like to sell my things on e-bay and worry about the shipping. I will research more before I go and get an e-bay account to sell my things. It seems good to be a seller on e-bay when I read your success stories. Something keeps holding me back from getting started to sell on e-bay though.
Sold some tools and a large collection of 1920-1930's catalogs and magazines of all kinds on ebay. Did ok. bought lots of stuff on ebay too. Got beat once, on a pistol. If you buy on ebay, check the sellers past record for complaints.
I haven't gotten cheated yet but I have had people try to cheat me on eBay. Only a week or so ago, I ordered a three-book set. One of the selling points was that it came in the original box that held the three. The seller was already asking a higher shipping charge than seemed reasonable but I decided to bid anyhow. Then after I had paid for the order, he messaged me to say that the books wouldn't fit into the if-it-fits, you-ship-it container, and that it would cost considerably more to ship the box along with the books. First of all, it was advertised as a boxed set and now he was telling me that either I pay another $7 and something or he would ship just the books, without the box. He was already charging considerably more for shipping than the USPS charges for the you-ship-it box, so I canceled the bid and made a complaint with eBay. My payment was reimbursed so I wasn't cheated out of anything, but it was irritating. This guy had a 100% favorable rating, so I don't know if people generally pay the extra amount that he's asking for.
@Ken Anderson Did you copy/paste the convo to eBay? They need to kick him off the site for something like that. It sounds like a scam to me. BTW, I know you and your wife sell on there a lot, do y'all know where the 'non-paying bidder/buyer' area of a person's profile is? Supposedly one of my non-paying buyers was dinged for that, but it didn't seem to have affected his feedback rating, so I was wondering where it was shown.
@Tom Locke Have you checked into collector sites online? You might have better luck with that than eBay, since you don't want to go through and individually catalogue and photograph each item. Perhaps you could find someone locally who'd be interested in buying some or all. Another thought is to pay someone to go through and photograph them for you, or maybe check with a consignment shop.
If there's a big enough surface, I've seen a lot of people lay them out and take one picture. The buyer can see what you have without individual pictures.
I've reached the point where I've given up on eBay. It's costing me more in selling fees than I'm getting for what I sell.
Thats the kind of luck I would have with it, I'm afraid. What has worked for me in the past is selling on the different "for sale" groups. on facebook. Its free, and a lot of the time you can get them to come pick it up, if they're close enough, instead of mailing it.
I have a distrust of these mega companies like amazon and eBay at the best of times. They make vast profits, avoid taxes and pretend that they are on your side. In short, what's to like?
Amazon.com -- There is the convenience of being able to buy pretty much everything from the convenience of my home, at prices that are usually much cheaper than I could find them at a local store (which, by the way, is a 70 mile drive, each way), and have them delivered to my home within two or three days. There is also the fact that if anything should go wrong, Amazon.com is very quick to either replace the item or refund my money. Case in point, I ordered a live trap a couple of years ago. When it did not arrive on the day it was scheduled to arrive, I checked the tracking and found that it had been in the same location for three days. I reported it to Amazon.com and they shipped another one out, next day delivery, at no charge to me. Both live traps arrived the following day, and Amazon.com told me I could keep both of them, without an additional charge. Plus, I earn a few hundred dollars a month in Amazon.com associate commissions. eBay -- I am able to find things, such as out-of-print books, historic photographs and postcards, or things that I can remember from my childhood, and bid on them, often getting fantastic deals, and rarely feeling cheated. Rather than discarding junk that I have around the house, or going through the inconvenience of a yard sale, I can offer it for sale on eBay, and often sell it at an honest price, sometimes at bids that are far higher than I had dreamed. As a power seller, I can put up a set amount of items for sale without paying a fee unless the items sells. What's not to like?
Has anyone ever heard of other places like ebay.com where you can sell your items? I guess it's easy to mail things you've sold on e-bay or other sites. It's good to know all the ins and outs of being a business person making a profit selling at e-bay. Can you tell me the pictures you post for selling your items have description like any flaws to note? Is it easy to really sell your stuff for profit on e-bay? What is the percentage you pay e-bay when you successfully sell your items? Looking forward to hearing any replies.