Thread: Done with ebay

Yes, ebay is expensive. It's even worse for me as I sell in $US and when I withdraw funds it has to get converted to $AUD and the exchange rate they use has no bearing to reality. Between ebay, Paypal and currency fees I usually budget for losing 20% of the sale price. On the plus side, it gives me access to buyers all around the world that are interested in buying what I'm selling. Without ebay I wouldn't be in the game so I also look at the fees as the cost of doing business.

Over the Christmas Holidays i sold off 5 of my straights on Kijiji. 2 of them i mailed off with no issues. The others i met with the buyers and got to talk about one of my favorate topics. I havent seen them turn up here on this website yet but im sure they will.

Originally Posted by gugi

That's pretty simple: https://www.google.com/search?q=online+auctions

And before I get accused of being a smart ass, just think about it for a second - in the internet world dominated by a couple of search engines why would you look for something that is not highly visible and highly rated by those?

Hey!!...I resemble that remark.
Stingray

Im not a big ebay fan, but I try to find other places as well. I don't sell much on it, but when I am looking for old parts to the motorcycles I work on for a hobby it's sometimes the only thing in town. Most of the old shops have disappear. Getting into SR has been fun but very limiting to where I can go to put hands on them. The Net in trying to make thing simple to get, but at times it makes it hard for a guy like me that likes to put hands on something before he buys it. Enough from me ranting. I just guess I am older minded on things.

Eric

I just sold my first items on e-bay, the wife and I put up some extra Christmas Collectable Bears, I just got the e-bay invoice today not really happy about it but we sold a few so I guess that is a plus..
I really did not like that they charge me for shipping charges too that didn't sit well

If your working with small profit margins the fees can be a killer for sure.
But ebay can also be very addicting.Sometimes You get a huge hit on a sale and thats what keeps you going back,besides the buying audiance is the worlds largest.

I guess you have to look at the average, some of the bears sold at opening price which was what we bought them for, a couple sold for double that and one sold for quadruple, so as an average it was OK We made a couple of bucks and cleaned out the extras..
Just the fact that they made money on the shipping charges really is still bugging me, the more I think about that the more it bothers me

Fellas it's a matter of perspective. If you want $20.00 for something in your hand then you have to add 20% to get it. There are ways to do this on e-bay like using Reserve price or just starting the bid at what you set it at. If it doesn't sell then the market won't bear it. Personally I think e-bay is going to evolve. Right now it favors the buyer and I believe it is because of seller perspective. I have seen sellers say outright that e-bay is charging more for shipping and so they have to pass this along to the buyer. I suspect they are doing the same at their starting bid price. It sucks that they get so much for what they do but the big money ticket on computers is traffic. And that is what you are buying from e-bay. Traffic.

Yer right of course, it is a great tool and they deserve their share

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Just the fact that they made money on the shipping charges really is still bugging me, the more I think about that the more it bothers me

Glen, ebay began including the seller's shipping charges in the final value fees as an attempt to prevent sellers overcharging for shipping. At least that is their rationalization for the policy. Shortly before that was instituted they tried to enforce 'fair shipping charges' on a case by case basis if the buyer complained. They also instituted a policy of insurance being totally the seller's responsibility.

If you see an ebay description saying insurance is optional and at the buyer's expense that seller is violating ebay rules. Anyway, like the way they stopped allowing sellers to leave anything but positive feedback ..... not really fair but it was the only solution they could come up with the prevent retaliatory feedback by sellers who had received a negative. Anyway .......