selling on eBay

[xane]

Anyone here had good experience selling stuff on eBay, if so I'd appreciate your wisdom on what to do ?

I moved house about a year ago and in doing so got rid of a load of junk, but some of what is left is in good nick and might be worth selling, as last night I finally decided I could actually let some things go. In particular are my remaining board wargames, I have a number that I kept because they are in such good condition and have hardly been played.

Just to investigate, I did a search on eBay and found some auctions for the same games, nearly all were for games in worse condition than mine. Two of them, Imperium Romanum II (West End Games) was at £40 and Titan (Avalon Hill) was at £35. I also found a used copy of Junta (West End Games) for £18 but my copy is unopened and mint condition.

I've bought a few items from eBay, but never sold, any clues on what happens and what pitfalls to avoid would be appreciated.

TIA

 

[Zey]

I haven't sold anything on there myself, but a mate of mine does. As far as i've seen you set a time limit, the starting bid, and the lowest amount you'd sell it for.

EBay charge a %'age of what you sell it for but most contact is between you and the person buying.

He's made a shite load selling computer parts and he thinks it's really good.

Give it a go...

Funniest thing i've seen on there is a girl who wanted to loss her virginity before she turned 18. So she was auctioning her self and letting people bid for her so she could make money out of doing so...

She was smart and the bid was up to £400...

Bet Wolfeeh was one of them

 

[Scooba Da Bass]

I've been told using Palpay is a good idea, get's your money quicker or sommat.

 

[echo]

I've sold a few of me old vinyls on ebaycouk, so I have a bit of experience in it,

first off it pays to sign up for a paypal.com or nochex.com account, it lets people pay for the kit immediately by credit/debit card, saves pissing about waiting on money being delievered, and no risk of it being lost in the post, especially if you're talking quite a bit of cash.

you set up your page on ebay quite quickly, it's painless enough, make sure you have photos / scans if possible, auctions where folks can see what they're bidding for tend to be more popular than just text descriptions, for obvious reasons.. (it costs a few pfennigs more to put piccies up)

when you're sorting your auction out you set a starting price, a buynow price (if you want one) and a bid incriment

the starting price is just the minimum anyone can win the auction on, the incriment is how much each bid goes up by (example: a 12" didlo is currently at £12 with a £1 incriment, the next bid must be £12.50, no lower), the buynow price is the price you'd accept straight off for the piece of kit, ending the auction, but allowing the bidder to guarantee winning the auction...

That's about all i can think of at the moment..

Now fook off and get rich selling your wares

 

[old.SuperFLY]

Originally posted by Scooba Da Bass
I've been told using Palpay is a good idea, get's your money quicker or sommat.

nochex is a good one as well

theyre nice and fast.. plus offer sum kind of security, rather than sending a cheque through the post.. which can b easily lost, accidently not signed, etc..

 

[xane]

Thanks for advice, but I'm a bit reluctant to use PayPal because of certain stories.

If I insist on a cheque or cash equivilent, what is the accepted method ? Do I wait until I get the cheque, or wait until it is cashed, before sending out the goods ?

 

[echo]

You can decide the terms of the payment, just make it clear before any money/goods are sent and it'll be sorted

Not experienced any problems with paypal myself, cheque is always a good one i suppose

 

[xane]

I'd probably insist on a cheque, but do I dispatch when I get the cheque or wait until it is cashed in my account ?

 

[Will]

Wait till it's cashed, you'll never see any money if it bounces.

 

[Skyler]

Unless its a Building Society cheque, which is guarunteed

As for those wargames cama, my dad has shitloads of them, I should get him to ebay the sodds

Infact he even produced a game for The Gamers

 

[old.twilight]

I've sold a few things on ebay- think they're quite good for things that aren't too heavy -you have to remember that the buyer pays postage and packing costs...

 

[xane]

Originally posted by ItchyTrigaFinga
Wait till it's cashed, you'll never see any money if it bounces.

Will eBay cover you for this ? If I've got the cheque and sent the goods by recorded post, don't I have a case to complain, or am I on my own ?

Originally posted by Skyler
As for those wargames cama, my dad has shitloads of them, I should get him to ebay the sodds

Infact he even produced a game for The Gamers

I had shitloads before my clearout, the point is the ones I want to sell are mint or excellent condition, unless the game is desireable (like Talisman Second Edition, see a previous post), you wont really get much, the guys looking for them are normally games dealers trying to make up a partial game they have with better pieces.

 

[Will]

Originally posted by camazotz
Will eBay cover you for this ? If I've got the cheque and sent the goods by recorded post, don't I have a case to complain, or am I on my own ?

I honestly don't know, since I've never used on of these sites, but I really doubt eBay are involved at any point after the auction has been closed, since it just means more overheads with no chance of any profits.

 

[Mellow-]

If any of you read the daily victim stories on gamespy.com you'd find an assortment of stories that are all linked to one guy and his company "who play everquest all day long" just to sell ingame characters off on eBay. Just to keep the cash cheques coming in.

(brilliant business plan eh )

 

[Munkey-]

wasnt that banned?

 

[Penry]

I sold quite a bit on ebay(.co.uk) - always ask for cheque's rather than use paypal or anything ! -

there can be loads of odd charges though - ebay let you owe them upto about a tenner, or till the end of the month without having to pay, and give a detailed invoice of each and every cost !

main cost 1 : listing an auction minimum 15p - increases if you set the minimum first bid higher than about £5.00 (and doubles if you add your auction to more than one category) - it also costs to set a reserve (minimum you are willing to sell for)

other listing options you can select - like making it a private auction so no-one can see who the bidders are - having it highlighted, or listed at the top of the category etc.
(If you use your own webspace for pic's you can them to the auctions without extra cost!)

main cost 2 : they take a % cut of the ending price - currently 5.25% of the first £15 - then less for anything above.

see
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sellerguide/selling-fees.html

best bet it to read through the sellers guide first though !
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sellerguide/

The only trouble i've had was when i sold a Flight Sim PC game, which was really heavy - the game sold for £5.00 and the postage came to over £4.00 the highest bidder refused to pay! - so since then I've always worked out the postage before and included that within the auction. (by saying buyer to pay p&p of £4.00 etc, rather than just bump up the price which ebay gets a cut of)

 

[Mellow-]

Originally posted by Munkey
wasnt that banned?

Probably, but they're only stories