[KeriVit]

I see so many bitter threads abou eBay. But, I am desparate and need to sell some Mac stuff. What can you tell me as a seller to look out for? Ebay has so many listing options, what shall I partake in? Tell me what I should I be aware of.

[KeriVit]

Thanks in advance

[centerchannel68]

Don't ship out of country. Ever. Try to sell everything locally on craigslist first. Less hassle, no shipping, less pay cut taken from paypal/ebay. Block bidders with negative feedback. Reject any bidders with zero feedback. Take lots and lots of high quality pictures of everything, and point out all the defects of anything you're selling. Always leave feedback.

[Mrjinglesusa]

Just do a simple 7 day auction. Set a reserve if you don't want to let something go for too little if it gets minimal bidding. Pictures always help as does a good, clear description. Indicate in the description that you will cancel bids from people with 0 or negative feedback. Limit buyers to US only - it helps minimize the scammers (i.e. people wanting to buy outside of the auction). Accept PayPal - it protects you and the buyer. Don't take personal checks. PayPal and MO only.

[brassplayersrock²]

get out. get out now! seriously..... so many bad people on ebay now, it's useless to sell on it. talking from experience

-a

[alligator]

I found a way to sell my last laptop where the buyer had to pay to win the fixed price auction. That worked well. No payment, no laptop.

[wallinbl]

What do you have?

[memory-minus]

As mentioned above, don't ship out of the country. Ever. Under any circumstances. There will be absolutely no recourse should you be scammed.

I disagree with selling things on craigslist first. Even taking into account eBay and PayPal fees, you will never get as much on craigslist as you can on eBay, especially if you are going to be dealing in Apple products. People go on craigslist looking for a deal, people use eBay looking for something they want. There's a difference. Also, and DEFINITELY if you are dealing in high-ticket items, avoid craigslist because you generally meet in person and we all know how that could end.

Ban those with negative feedback. Carefully scruitinize the bidding habits of bidders with no feedback (can be done via search). Only accept PayPal from verified accounts and ship only to confirmed addresses. Make that clear in your auction description. Require signature upon delivery for any item over $250. Do not accept even money orders, these can be faked as well.

Take lots of pics and be honest about describing your item.

[KeriVit]

Scary stuff. We'll see how it goes.

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by centerchannel68 

Don't ship out of country. Ever.

Originally Posted by Mrjinglesusa 

Limit buyers to US only

Originally Posted by memory-minus 

As mentioned above, don't ship out of the country. Ever. Under any circumstances.

That crap pisses me off. Especially when I'm trying to get hold of some rare items, most of which are in the US.

[centerchannel68]

Yeah, sucks doesn't it? I'd like to ship to other countries, but if I get scammed then I can't do anything, short of buying tickets, flying to another country and kicking someone's ass with a pushbroom.

[Doofy]

Require payment cleared via a more sturdy method (i.e. international money order) before you ship goods then. It ain't that hard to figure out.

[memory-minus]

Originally Posted by Doofy 

Require payment cleared via a more sturdy method (i.e. international money order) before you ship goods then. It ain't that hard to figure out.

The scams are getting better every day. I've heard of cashiers checks and money orders that "clear" complete with money in the seller's account but come back weeks later as fraudulent, well after the seller has shipped the item. The banks go after the easiest target and that's the seller.

PayPal has its faults and people DO get screwed but if you reject payments from unverified members and only ship to confirmed addresses you won't have any problems. And if you do, you're covered under PayPal's Seller Protection Policy -- just have to follow the rules. I've never had an issue with close to 300 transactions.

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by memory-minus 

The scams are getting better every day. I've heard of cashiers checks and money orders that "clear" complete with money in the seller's account but come back weeks later as fraudulent, well after the seller has shipped the item. The banks go after the easiest target and that's the seller.

You guys have problems then. If my bank clears a payment to me then I expect them to honour it - it's not my problem if they don't do enough checking to make sure it's valid... ...that's part of the reason they exist, ain't it?

Originally Posted by memory-minus 

PayPal has its faults and people DO get screwed but if you reject payments from unverified members and only ship to confirmed addresses you won't have any problems. And if you do, you're covered under PayPal's Seller Protection Policy -- just have to follow the rules. I've never had an issue with close to 300 transactions.

So, all the folks not shipping overseas just haven't read the PayPal instructions then?

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by Mrjinglesusa 

Set a reserve if you don't want to let something go for too little if it gets minimal bidding

Do not set a reserve on anything. Set the minimum bid at what you're prepared to let it gor for.

[Gossamer]

Originally Posted by Doofy 

You guys have problems then. If my bank clears a payment to me then I expect them to honour it - it's not my problem if they don't do enough checking to make sure it's valid... ...that's part of the reason they exist, ain't it?
So, all the folks not shipping overseas just haven't read the PayPal instructions then?

Wasn't there a post on here a while back about somebody's mom/grandma cashing a check for $5000 or so and getting it pulled from her bank account?

[typoon]

This past Summer I was scammed 6 times by a "potential winning bidder" One thing I learned is to make sure in your auction it says Buyer must have paypal or soemthing like that. That's help me to reduce the scams. Also Ebay returned about 40 dollars worth of credits to my account because of the scams. So I haven't had to pay any seller fees in a few months.

[RAILhead]

I ship overseas all the time with no problems.

I've used eBay for years with no problems -- buying and selling.

For every negative experience, there are multiple hundreds of positive experiences.

Just use your brain, set limits, and do do anything until money has cleared -- part of which is to NOT accept anything buy PayPal or CC.

[memory-minus]

Originally Posted by Doofy 

You guys have problems then. If my bank clears a payment to me then I expect them to honour it - it's not my problem if they don't do enough checking to make sure it's valid... ...that's part of the reason they exist, ain't it?

I'm not taking any chances with cashiers checks or money orders, period. I've heard horror stories about fake ones coming back to haunt sellers weeks after the merchandise is long gone. This is America, banks can pretty much do whatever they want.

Originally Posted by Doofy 

So, all the folks not shipping overseas just haven't read the PayPal instructions then?

I went back and re-read the PayPal Seller Protection Policy, and it states that transactions from US, UK or Canadian sellers to US, UK or Canadian buyers are eligible. So I may in fact change my personal policy for those countries.

http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr...ide#spp-policy

[KeriVit]

1- Why no reserve?

2- So if I receive funds in my Paypal, they may not stay there?

3- If I have no Buy It Now and someone asks for one and there are bidders, what do I say?

[Railroader]

Originally Posted by KeriVit 

1- Why no reserve?

If I bid on something and I am under the reserve I will not bid on that item again no matter what. The few items I listed with a reserve did not ever reach the reserve and when I re-listed without the reserve they went WAY above the reserve. I have sold a few used items over retail prices.

Here's what I do:
1. AWESOME pictures. Lots of them. Set up a home made light tent and take pictures of EVERYTHING from EVERY angle. And document all scratches and flaws. I also pay for my listing to have larger pictures in the search results and listings.

2. 7 or 10 day listing. the longer they are up the more exposure.

3. Paypal ONLY!

4. No reserve. Opening bid of $1 no matter what. It's a risk, but I have never been disappointed

5. USA sales only. But that's just me. I am in a tiny town and the post office here is pretty lame. I don't ship enough to have a rep with UPS or FedEX.

6. Not too detailed listings with text. I will link to manufacturer's sites where they can get more info, but most people know what an item is already, that's why they are looking at your listing. I also leave the page format simple. I hate complicated listings that make it hard to find the details.

7. I have the item packaged BEFORE I list. That way when I receive payment I ship within hours.

8. Leave feedback! Promptly!

YMMV

[wallinbl]

Originally Posted by RAILhead 

For every negative experience, there are multiple hundreds of positive experiences.

That ratio changes when the stuff you're buying or selling is Apple related. I've been in 6 auctions for Mac laptops, and 2 of them have involved scam of some kind. Luckily, my credit card company happily refunded me. I had to relist one I was selling several times because some junk buyer bid at the last second and left me with a closed auction and no buyer.

Originally Posted by KeriVit 

1- Why no reserve?

Fewer bidders. Bidding on eBay seems to gain momentum. Two identical listings for the same item at the same price with the same amount of time remaining. The one with the most bids will end up having the highest bid at the end. It's odd, but it's almost like people find some level of comfort in the idea that a bunch of other bids on it must mean it's legit. Start at $1 - it will make it's way up to where you want. It will make up a lot of ground in the last few minutes.

2- So if I receive funds in my Paypal, they may not stay there?

Don't allow PayPal to take money from your bank account. They try to get you to set this up, but don't. As soon as you get funded, move the money out. Don't leave them with anything they can take away from you.

3- If I have no Buy It Now and someone asks for one and there are bidders, what do I say?

Tell the buyer to bid like everyone else. They're either trying to scam you, or they know what the item is likely to get up to in bidding and they want to pay less than that.

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by wallinbl 

Fewer bidders. Bidding on eBay seems to gain momentum. Two identical listings for the same item at the same price with the same amount of time remaining. The one with the most bids will end up having the highest bid at the end. It's odd, but it's almost like people find some level of comfort in the idea that a bunch of other bids on it must mean it's legit. Start at $1 - it will make it's way up to where you want. It will make up a lot of ground in the last few minutes.

OK, question about this.

Let's say I want a minimum of $1,000 for an item. Do I stick a reserve on it or is there some other way to ensure that it doesn't get sold for $500? You have to honour the final bid, right?

[Powerbook]

Originally Posted by memory-minus 

As mentioned above, don't ship out of the country. Ever. Under any circumstances.

"I find that remark... insulting." (Spock, ST6)

20% of my eBay purchases have been international, mostly with the U.S. Also I have a few international sales. Everything went well. I just advise to use some COMMON SENSE, that seems to be something a lot of people are missing today. Phone the guys, ask specific questions about the items or the payment, you should get a picture of what's fishy and what's legit.

Regards
PB.

[RAILhead]

Reserves rarely get any bids form me, and I'm often buying $1000s for art and stuff. At the same time, though, I'll start bidding at $1200 if that's the minimum -- but I refuse to get stuck into trying to figure out a reserve.

[RAILhead]

Originally Posted by Doofy 

OK, question about this.

Let's say I want a minimum of $1,000 for an item. Do I stick a reserve on it or is there some other way to ensure that it doesn't get sold for $500? You have to honour the final bid, right?

Start bidding at $1000. Simple. If someone wants it, they'll buy it.

[wallinbl]

Originally Posted by Doofy 

OK, question about this.

Let's say I want a minimum of $1,000 for an item. Do I stick a reserve on it or is there some other way to ensure that it doesn't get sold for $500? You have to honour the final bid, right?

Depends a lot on the item. I'd feel safe putting a MacBook up for $1. Plenty of interest and there will be plenty of bids. I'd start a painting at $1000 due to the possibility of limited interest (taste in art, small market, etc).

Reserves just annoy buyers. Why not just tell them your minimum instead of making them play a stupid guessing game? It's a way to run up your bid count and make your item look popular, but in reality, none of those bids were valid because you would not have accepted them.

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by RAILhead 

Start bidding at $1000. Simple. If someone wants it, they'll buy it.

Originally Posted by wallinbl 

Depends a lot on the item. I'd feel safe putting a MacBook up for $1. Plenty of interest and there will be plenty of bids. I'd start a painting at $1000 due to the possibility of limited interest (taste in art, small market, etc).

Reserves just annoy buyers. Why not just tell them your minimum instead of making them play a stupid guessing game? It's a way to run up your bid count and make your item look popular, but in reality, none of those bids were valid because you would not have accepted them.

Ahhh. Right, so you can start the bidding at $1,000 if you want to? Sorted, thanks chaps.

(You can tell I've never used eBay, eh? )

[RAILhead]

Yeah, you can start bidding at any price -- but the higher the start price, the higher the fee for listing.

[Railroader]

Originally Posted by Railroader 

Here's what I do:
1. AWESOME pictures. Lots of them. Set up a home made light tent and take pictures of EVERYTHING from EVERY angle. And document all scratches and flaws.

This is what I mean by detailed pictures:



And by documenting flaws/scratches:



More examples can be seen at my flickr account.

Flickr: Photos from mybuddypete

[KeriVit]

wtf kinda camera do you have?

I'm trying to take a pic of a little crack in the bezel of an iBook I'm selling and I can't do that.

[Buckaroo]

Buy some stuff first to get your positive rating up. I get concerned about buying from someone with 0 rating.

[Buckaroo]

Use the search tool to search for completed auctions of things you want to sell to see what they sell for. Some items aren't worth much. Books are one example. You can't get much for books. Your better off donating them and getting a tax right off.

[Railroader]

Originally Posted by KeriVit 

wtf kinda camera do you have?

I'm trying to take a pic of a little crack in the bezel of an iBook I'm selling and I can't do that.

I took those pictures with a Canon S2 IS. It's not that expensive of a camera. Actually, I think you can find it for $200-$250 on eBay.

The secret is a LOT of light and a tri-pod. Use a light tent. Do a search for "diy light tent". It also helps to have your white balance set perfectly.

[driven]

I used to sell a ton on ebay. Sometime over the past two years it's turned into scam central. Seriously about 50% of what I try to sell now turns out to be a scam. Be *VERY* careful. Unfortunately there aren't very many good alternatives to e-bay. e-bay themselves seem quite oblivious to this problem as they keep collecting their "cut" of the action.

Good luck ... it's a great venue but don't trust anyone and don't believe anyone's sad story. Get the money up-front before shipping. (NOT a western union money order, but real hard cash.)

[KeriVit]

So, once the funds are sent to my Paypal, I can ship it, right?

Or is there STILL a chance I get ripped off?

[OwlBoy]

Once you get confermation there is money in your PayPal account you should be safe to ship it.

At that point I would also recomend transferring the money out of PayPal to your bank account right away. That gets it out of the hands of PayPal as soon as possible.

-Owl