I know that Goodwill sells used books on Amazon. I have scored some real deals on gently-used books without leaving my recliner.
I posted elsewhere that my coffee grinder is shot. I decided to look on the Goodwill auction site to see what they have, and there were 2 New-in-Box grinders on the auction block. One auction is complete, the other is still open. -Baratza Encore 485 conical burr grinder. Amazon price $118. Winning bid $88+handling+shipping. -Cusinart DBM-8 conical burr grinder. Amazon (and others) price $55. Current bid $88+handling+shipping. That Cusinart is the same model I have. Right now the bid price is $33 (almost 40%) higher than Amazon PLUS handling PLUS shipping. I've been at live auctions and have seen this bidding frenzy first-hand. But one would think that if you're on an internet auction site, you would be researching this stuff...unless those bids are faked, just to drive the prices up.
Shills. I was looking for a manual Omega watch on ebay. There are a few legitimate sellers and then there are those with shills. Why do so many people, besides crabby people like me, want watches when everyone carries a phone.
There was a thrift shop in a small town near where my mother lived. It was run by a crabby ancient lady who, if she decided she didn't like you for some reason, wouldn't sell you anything. I'd bring something up to the front and she'd say, "That's not for sale." Or, I'd get someone out of a box that said "Everything $1" and she'd want to charge me $3. Even if something had a price tag on it, she'd say that wasn't the right price. If you complained, she'd tell you to go shop somewhere else. You could tell that everything in the store had been there for years. She even had a shelf-covered wall full of old rusty cans of food and ketchup bottles that had turned black. These were for sale. After the first visit, I didn't go back for a couple of years. Same old crabby lady, same old crabby treatment. Later I learned that she was the matriarch of the family who ran everything in the county, business and politics. This apparently was her thang.....running a store and yelling at people. It's not like she had to make any money off it, the family was loaded. Everybody for miles around knew what would happen if they went in there, so it was mostly innocent tourists who wandered in.
Shopping for bargains in Thrift stores is one of my favorite pastimes. I have four thrift stores in this area, Salvation Army, AmVet, Good Sam Hospital, and St Joseph's. I also do garage sales, estate sales, eBay, online. For example Haband is merging with Blair a sister company everything in their warehouse right now is 80% off use the promo code in there ads. For example I got a pair of Skechers sneakers for $13 and change, tote boots for $11. If you try it the price you see is not the price you'll pay until after your checking out with the promo code. EBay today is not what it was when I first joined when it first opened. I was a seller for a lot of years haven't sold there in the last couple of years but I still have a seller account with them.
Seems like using a shill on Ebay would be a gamble. Don't they report the seller's sales for income tax purposes or at least sales tax? If the bidder is a fake there's a good chance they will "win" the auction and then a payment transaction would have to happen. Of course I have no idea what I'm talking about so there you are.
There were people who would buy and never pay however eBay has a rating system where they would be kicked off the site with a low rating and has a system where you can block them out so they never buy from you again. Sometimes you block people not because they don't pay of course they're just pains in the..... I once had my account stolen I tried to sign on and couldn't had to get in touch with eBay and explain found out somebody was using my site to sell a phony Lamborghini. Today you have to pay taxes on anything you sell, there was a time selling was free from taxation especially for people like me who sold used stuff. For a while I taught night class about eBay, it was rewarding especially when people would come to class and say "I sold something".
I have no idea on this stuff, either. But imagine the Seller having someone set up a new Buyer account (or even doing it themselves) in an effort to bid up the price on one of that Seller's auctions. -If the scam is a success, the Seller artificially jacked up what an honest Buyer ended up paying. -If the scam failed and the shill won, all the shill has to do is not make the payment, and no liability (reporting) of revenue exists. I don't know what happens with EBay's Failure-to-Pay policy/process and how it is monitored. If the Seller does not report it, then they get away clean. If the Seller does report it, then the "Buyer" gets banned...but all they have to do is set up a fresh Buyer account. The other twist might be if EBay has a process to monitor this stuff through which a Seller with too many default Buyers might get the boot. But again, they may be able to set up a new Seller identity. When I first set up my Buyer account, you could go into the Buyer and Seller chat areas to see how both sides of the process perceived things. I did that to get myself up to speed. It seems that the larger theft has always been on the part of Buyers, and in order to keep the business running, these days EBay throws Sellers under the bus; after all, giving thieving Buyers the benefit of the doubt does not cost EBay a dime. There are some real horror stories out there. That is what has prevented me from trying to sell stuff...I would have to hunt someone down if they did to me what I've seen done to others.
I used to sell stuff on eBay, and my wife has done a lot more of that than I have. At one time, I did pretty well re-selling books that I bought at yard sales, second-hand stores, and library sales. Once, I sold a book for $30-40 that I had bought for a nickel in a library sale. Even now, I sometimes buy books to research topics I am writing about for the Aviva Directory, then re-selling them afterward, sometimes for more than I had paid for them. Other than the occasional book, I haven't sold much on eBay lately. A problem that my wife was having was eBay's policy of refunding the money for all requests. Thus, she might accurately describe and picture an item that someone buys and then files a complaint without basis, at which time eBay refunds their money, so they end up with the item for free. I know that eBay lost some sellers around that time.
When you sell on eBay and the process goes smooth it's a fun and interesting way to sell your stuff and make a few bucks. Trying to find stuff that will sell, that you either own or just purchase to sell is the challenge. I too have sold a lot of books on eBay, it can be difficult to predetermine if it will sell or what it will sell for. I had one book I sold that I purchased at a garage sale for 25 cents, it was a very old children's book which I thought I would read to my grandchildren they weren't interested so I put it on eBay knowing nothing about it, within 15 minutes of it being listed there was a bidding war going on it got up to $75 and had six more days before it closed. When the bidding ended it sold for close to $175. Of course that's the exception not the norm. EBay has a form you can fill out online that you set your limits for how long you want to wait before it's reported to them for non payment, you can set the limit for customer rating, plus a lot more, I can't recall all of the protection settings. They're always those that try to get around the system but eBay in my opinion is pretty good in catching them.
I rarely participated in an EBay auction without using eSnipe, and I bought a lot of stuff that way. These days, I'm with you and just buy it. I looked at grinders on the Goodwill auction site and knew I did not have the patience to follow the thing and track bids as it ended. The thrill is gone...
"Buy it now" is certainly the easiest way to go, bidding is chancy but in some cases you save a lot of money. When eBay first started I made some very profitable purchases by bidding, as Ebay became more popular it was more difficult to get a good price.
We have charity shops here, everything is donated and used. I've bought jackets and tops from them, I always wash them before wearing. I've also bought furniture too. Lately though some charity shops charge more for their goods, so I'd sooner go to shops to buy new stuff. I picked up a jacket and it's price tag said £7.00, it was tatty and not worth it. Sometimes though I can pick up 5 dvds for £1.00 so it's still worth a visit.