After being a buyer for so long, I recently decided to become a seller. I've been meaning to get rid of some things but never really made any effort to put them up on Ebay. Since I got bitten by the bike building bug again and on a silly spending spree, I thought I'd sell some things to recuperate some of my play money. First two items I put up were ties that I had hanging in my closet. All Ralph Lauren Polo ties. I sold one individually and the three as a lot. The lot got sold quickly because I had a "But It Now." Second auction was cancelled by Ebay because apparently I put "not accepting PayPal at this time." The reason the first auction didn't get closed by Ebay was that it got sold before they could do it! Ah, heard about Ebay's new policy but wasn't aware that it was in effect already. I had to update my PayPal account to some premium or whatever it's called account. I now have ten items up and have three bids and all except one have "watchers." Lately I've been finding myself going to My Ebay and checking on the auctions's status quite frequently! Sorta fun to see your items being bid on. Completely new to the selling aspect, so I find it quite fascinating.

Don't you find doing the listing takes too long?

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1998 C230 330,000 miles (currently dead of second failed EIS, yours will fail too, turning you into the dealer's personal human cash machine)
1988 F150 144,000 miles (leaks all the colors of the rainbow)
Previous stars: 1981 Brava 210,000 miles, 1978 128 150,000 miles, 1977 B200 Van 175,000 miles, 1972 Vega (great, if rusty, car), 1972 Celica, 1986.5 Supra

I started just as you did. I started by cleaning out closets and the such, now I do 2-3 auctions a year with 20-30 items listed per auction, mostly fishing gear. I have to get rid of some of the old stuff to pay for the new gear.

It is kind of addictive, counting the watchers and watching the last minute bid run ups. I thought I lived a frugal life....but I've been seeing around $5-600.00 per closet cleaned out.

I can't say I care much for the new Ebay Policies, and I am sure fed up with the fees. I really wish Google or Yahoo would take them on head to head, right now its almost a monopoly.

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1993 190E 2.6 135k
1989 Ford Thunderbird SC 5 Spd 79K

Agreed, they need some competition. Then there is Paypal, which is just another method whereby ebay takes even more of your money! It is convenient as a buyer, but as a seller, it takes longer than receiving a money order in the mail to actually get your money because of the transfer time.

I think by the time it is all over, between listing fees, the final percentage, and paypal, ebay has about 10-15% of your auction money.

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I get mine direct transfer to the bank in a couple of days.

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

I just leave my profits in the PayPal account. I use it as my hobby money. I know I'll spend it on something in e-bay. A lot of internet vendors are starting to accept PayPal also. I guess the PayPal fees are comparable to charge card fees for the seller.

There was a time when I did that, but not any more. Any time I receive money by PayPal now, I transfer all of it to my bank account. When I make any payment by PayPal now, I fund it entirely with a credit card.

Two advantages to this:

1. I get whatever goodies come along with use of the credit card (typically 1% cash back).

2. If I were ever to have serious problems with a transaction, I would have the option, as a later resort, of going to my credit card company to try to resolve it.

Keep in mind that the folks at PayPal absolutely love it when you fund a payment with an existing PayPal balance! They get to hold onto the money all the while (intere$t), and then they charge the recipient the same fees they would if the payment had been funded by a credit card - without having to pay a cut to a credit card company.

I used to do quite a bit of selling, my wife did a lot. I've got a fair amount of stuff to put up on it so I'll probably get around to doing some again.

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

What the heck? Someone sent me a question from S. Korea asking how much it would cost to ship to there. I said I don't accept international bids. My shipping is only for the US, and it's stated. Next thing I know, the person places a bid! What do I do now? My shipping is $5.00. Do I cancel the person's bid? How do I do that? Or do I adjust the shipping cost? And how do I do that too since it's already set in my auction?

Oh, woke up this morning and I see more bids! Even on a lot of two shirts that I stated are in "fair condition."

Now that I am retired, I rely on Ebay to help make ends meet.
Since Ebay changed some of their policys, for those of you setting up a sale and want to accept PayPal only, I caution you on a little sneak Ebay does.

When you are listing and get to the types of payment you will accept, pay close attention to the checked boxes. Ebay has already checked the Paypal box and the Money order/cashiers check box.

Because of the delivery business I was in for 20 years, I saw alot of counterfeit money orders and cashiers checks floating around. I even got charged back for of a few myself.

So because of bad experiences, I have chosen to uncheck the money order/cashiers check box. Now when I do, Ebay rechecks the box a couple of seconds later. I then have to re-uncheck the box.

Just FYI for those who have had similar bad experiences.

You see, with money orders and cashiers checks that are bad,and I realize a larger percentage of those are good, several days and up to two weeks go by before you even know you have been screwed.

I can not afford to take that kind of risk right now.

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Selling used Mercedes parts on Ebay...always changing...
cdplayer51 take a look!
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Sellers won't have to worry about that kind of risk for very long now. Those sorts of "paper payments" will soon no longer be available at all on eBay for most item categories.

you can cancel bids and modify settings so that you accept bidding from the us only. search 'buyer blocks' and there are 6 or 7 ones incl blocking people from countries to which you don't ship. or you can add to your item description w/ requirements for and international s&h charges

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0o==o0

James 4:8

"...let us put aside the blindness of mind of those who can conceive of nothing higher than what is known through the senses"
-Saint Gregory Palamas, ---Discourse on the Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ


Centrally located in North East Central Pa.

Please pay attention to this post, especially the bolded text, if you don't believe Eskimo (or me), check out...

paypalsucks.com

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Cheers,
Robert

Yup... I unverified myself when they automatically took money out of my checking account for a nonexistent payment. Thankfully, it wasn't alot of money, so not a hard lesson.

I do quite a bit of selling, and have pay pal mail me a check before my balance gets above $500.00.

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1985 500SL Euro w/ AMG bits 130k
1984 300SD Turbodiesel 192k
1980 240D Stick China 188k
2001 CLK55 AMG 101k
2007 S600 Biturbo 149k Overheated Project, IT'S ALIVE!!!

Woohoo, all my stuff got sold! Even two shirts that I sold as a lot and which were listed as in "fair" condition" got sold! Okay, I've learned some things as a first-time seller. Some items I actually lost money based on the their value. I was trying to be reasonable with shipping yet started all my auctions at $0.99. Bad idea. My other mistake was entering some of the auctions very late at night, so you don't get people watching them at the last few minutes. Two pairs of new name-brand socks got sold for basically a song! After shipping, I only made about $2! Eh, not a big deal. They were in my closet and really not my style or color. Also, someone got a steal on two Ralph Lauren long sleeve rugby shirts. Definitely could have made more had I started the bids over $0.99 and entered them between 6pm and 9pm. Ship shirts in big envelopes and not boxes! After shipping for two shirts in a recycled Amazon box, I only made around $3! Ah well, I made a little over a $100 and that paid for a rigid bike fork for my little project.

Lessons learned.