|
I've been told that ebay doesn't charge anything to advertise and that they make their commision through PayPal. Is this correct?
|
How does ebay charge sellers? - Too Much
AFAIK, you pay a fee to "sell" and you have to pay whether you sell it or not - i beleive they used to do a free re-list if it didnt sell, and you have to pay for extra's such as addtional photo's (but you can get round that by hosting your own)
Last edited by: Redviper on Thu 12 Aug 10 at 13:16
|
|
An absolute bargain. Your local auction house will take at least one third of the buyer's money by way of commission.
|
Slight drift - in tidying up my office the other weekend I found about half a dozen items to eBay (is it now officially a verb?), including a couple of broken laptops.
I've been surprised how many people have offered money to Buy It Now - which I've resisted as I think you can get banned from eBay for ending early.
Also how few people seem to be able to read the two line description. I out something like "drink spilt but worked OK except sticky keyboard and no onboard network, but OK with dongle" and two people have asked me if it boots up...
|
>> I've been surprised how many people have offered money to Buy It Now - which
>> I've resisted as I think you can get banned from eBay for ending early.
The 'Buy It Now' facility (with capitals) is something you include in your listing for an extra price, and allows you to sell 'officially' before the auction ends. I've just put a few items on with Buy It Now prices of between 3 and 10 quid, and it cost an extra 10p at most IIRC.
One item sold within a minute!
Last edited by: Focus on Sat 14 Aug 10 at 11:11
|
|
By the time you pay the listing fee, commission, PayPal commission (if used), and often take the hit on postage (since eBay limited postage charges at an unrealistically low level by category in order to force sellers to add it to the item price so it becomes commission-able), eBay can be a ridiculously expensive way to sell. Add to that the disproportionately high number of con artists using it, and their highly ineffective dispute resolution system, and I concluded it was way more hassle than its worth. A good idea appallingly implemented IMHO.
|
|
I take DP's valid points BUT, I've sold tons of stuff that I regarded as junk. I've always stuck to actual postage costs and not yet come unstuck. Like many other people, you wouldn't believe the crap I've sold plus the stuff that's worth a few quid, but I just didn't know anybody that would want it. E-bay solves that problem by opening you up to a huge market audience. For that, it's worth the listing fees. I've sold kids clothes, old hi-fi speakers including one pair that someone bought for the cabinets only at £20 (drivers not working), numerous kids toys (an incomplete set of Mr Men books just made £12.50!). I had one kids toy set still available in toys r us and mine sold for more than new.... The B & W Zepellin ipod dock in the kitchen is wholly from junk sales. I just bought new rubber feet for the Thule roof bars to go on the new car (£22 on line including post) and sold the old ones on ebay for £19! If I had a disputed sale over some piece of junk I probably wouldn't even bother arguing the toss. I could bore you senseless with teh stuff I've sold that I would otherwise have chucked out were it not for a friend persuading me to give it a go. Well, give it a go!
|
i resisted the urge to sell anything via ebay until about 3 months ago
then tried it to see what i was missing
i get charged monthly
the charges are transparent
and ive learned to put a reserve on stuff
ive yet to be robbed (i withdrew the article that nearly sold for 99 new pence)
so
so far quite pleasant for me
|
I sold a new, boxed motorcycle helmet for £165. Sent via Parcelforce with tracking (and insurance). Got a delivery receipt from Parcelforce with a signature.
Buyer left it two weeks and then claimed not to have received it. Spoke to Parcelforce. They have a signature on it which they say proves delivery. Got eBay involved. I sent them proof of despatch, and proof of delivery. Despite all our documented evidence that we'd done what we were supposed to do, and on nothing but the buyer's word, eBay found in favour of the buyer and took £165 back out of our PayPal account the same day as sending us an e-mail notifying us of their decision.
Lost the money for the item, the postage, the eBay commission, and the PayPal commission. Would have been cheaper to have left the item out in the street for someone to steal.
Similar things have happened to friends of mine selling all manner of stuff. The site is full of scammers because eBay make it easy for them.
If you're going to sell anything on eBay, make it stuff you can afford to lose, or stuff that involves the buyer collecting it from you and handing over readies.
Last edited by: DP on Sun 15 Aug 10 at 09:15
|
When unauthorised withdrawals were made on my debit card, Barclays asked if I had a PayPal account.
I did.
I don't now.
|
Similar experience here - sold a Red Letter Day which I won in a raffle some years back, still had 6 months to run. Price was a little under £200, sent it by Next Day signed for, and spent the money.
Then Red Letter Day went bust. Buyer claimed against her credit card. The reason I was told was that the item was not delivered, although she said to me that wasn't what she'd reported it as (to Barclaycard).
I'd long thrown away the racking number. eBay (PayPal) said they would have refunded me if I could have produced that, with proof of delivery, but I couldn't so they stole the money back from my account.
The process was really quite unpleasant. Their call centre was in Europe so communication was difficult. I had only a very short period of time (5 days IIRC) to respond, whereas they had 60 days. I went to the Ombudsman but all they did was send me a form to fill in, which I did and sent to eBay/PayPal - I don't know if the Ombudsman was suppose to do more but in the end I just gave up.
Having said that I still buy on eBay about one a month and have had no problems. However I have a few items up for sale at the moment - first time in ages - and am really hopeful that they don't go wrong.
|
Currently at 567 feedback 100% but you have to answer all the daft e mails you get and be fast at posting which i do for instance i list my items so they finish on my days off through the week so i can post as soon as you receive your cash.
Sold a tow bar last week guy picked up i said pay me in cash on collection, this stops the greedy pay pal getting there bite but e bay got there's but i did ok.
It's fun and bargains can be had you can limit your search to your area when you want to collect stuff & when you sell postage prices can get expensive i use the Royal mail only due to it been easy for me post office around corner there is cheaper ones but stuff it thats easy for me.
|
Smokie
You should go after your buyer through the small claims court. Do you have any proof that they received the item? Positive feedback for instance?
Whilst people don't mind lying to paypal by clicking a button, lying to the court is not so amusing.
|
|
This was some years ago. I mailed the lady and also spoke to her - she seemed nice enough and sent me n email confirming she'd receive the voucher. Still PayPal wouldn't play, or my time had expired or something. Sometimes I just prefer to move on.
|
How does ebay charge sellers? - Redviper
