eBay selling advice?

[robert.]

eBay also has a new policy for transferring money to the buyer. It is no longer a simple PayPal transaction. You give them access to your bank account and they always take several days before transfer (think float).

I am pretty much done selling on eBay. It's too much hassle for the seller and the amount of vig they charge is outrageous.

...gregg

eBay keeps raising fees and is pretty expensive to sell (10%) and with the PP fees (13%) total. PP has my bank account and AMEX CC info, but I'm thinking twice about that and not about to give it EB this info with all the ID theft these days. I started selling on EB in 1998 and I was spoiled, as fees back then were 3%.

eBay is the cheapest game in town. Most auctions charge 18 percent to the seller and 20-28 to the buyer. Plus more if you pay buy credit card. With more added on if they have to pack it for you.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

eBay is the cheapest game in town. Most auctions charge 18 percent to the seller and 20-28 to the buyer. Plus more if you pay buy credit card. With more added on if they have to pack it for you.

Yup. True. eBay has not raised its fees for many years (probably overdue). In fact, lowered them a bit by eliminating listing fees. Listing is free. 13% is cheap and gets you nationwide exposure. Add up the costs to travel to Chicago, stay there for 2 days, maybe a hotel on the way there and again on the way back, gas, food, tolls........ All the stuff that I have been unable to sell at shows, sells on eBay and sells for more than I was asking for at shows. Shows and meets are pretty dominated by bottom feeders....

As for the managed payments thing - cuts Paypal out of the loop and I get my funds directly deposited after 48 hours. I had to go into Paypal to move money to the bank.

As for eBay having your bank info, if you use Paypal then Paypal does, too.

In any case, you should always set up a separate isolated bank account for on-line buying & selling and then adjust it (draw down or deposit) from outside that account to a level that you are comfortable with operationally. Build and maintain your own buffers and walls!

[herronpeter]

If it were me, Rufus, I’d try the O scale yard sale first. I’ve had decent luck there. Also, it it is unopened the buyer can’t complain at you if it is screwed up somehow as it “came from the factory that way”!

Peter

[rogruth]

IMO lots of really good info in the above posts.
Thanks to all.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

If it were me, Rufus, I’d try the O scale yard sale first. I’ve had decent luck there. Also, it it is unopened the buyer can’t complain at you if it is screwed up somehow as it “came from the factory that way”!

Peter

I did make that suggestion; only issue that might exist with O scale yard sale is that you are completely unprotected in every way.

[up148]

If it were me, Rufus, I’d try the O scale yard sale first. I’ve had decent luck there. Also, it it is unopened the buyer can’t complain at you if it is screwed up somehow as it “came from the factory that way”!

Peter

I did make that suggestion; only issue that might exist with O scale yard sale is that you are completely unprotected in every way.

Could be, but O scale is a pretty small community and Yard Sale seems to be a lot of people who know each other or know of each other. Seems to have a pretty good sale percentage too, but no coverage like EB.

I have a little game I play almost every Saturday on eBay. Some POS person/group, who steals other sellers ID's, lists nice, extremely hard to find OMI turbines & locos almost every Friday night. I go in every Saturday morning and turn them in as fraudulent and within minutes or hours the listings are gone. One time I happen to check their other items, which they have a lot and all are premium hard to find watches, bicycles, home decorations, cameras, etc., and all starting at stupid low prices with no reserve.

They'll give up posting turbines, before I tire of shutting them down.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I have a little game I play almost every Saturday on eBay. Some POS person/group, who steals other sellers ID's, lists nice, extremely hard to find OMI turbines & locos almost every Friday night. I go in every Saturday morning and turn them in as fraudulent and within minutes or hours the listings are gone. One time I happen to check their other items, which they have a lot and all are premium hard to find watches, bicycles, home decorations, cameras, etc., and all starting at stupid low prices with no reserve.

They'll give up posting turbines, before I tire of shutting them down.

Good

[herronpeter]

When, oh when am I ever going to learn to stop skimming over posts!!!! I thought Rufus posted the original question when in fact it was Bob Turner!

Reminds me of another stupid thing I did yesterday. The back story is I was going to swap engines with a guy and we went back and forth with emails with him replying on average in 5 days each time and never answering most of my questions. Originally he was going to mail me a decoder and speakers to install as I had the the locomotive apart. When I asked him how much he usually pays for an install (hinting I wasn’t going to do it for free) he decided he’d have his son do it. So no problem I put the engine together took a short video of it running back and forth and asked him to send me one of his running, which he did. I asked him the 3d time for his address which he never supplied as I wanted to pack the engine up. I get an email back stating he was sorry but had found the engine was damaged, had several broken solder joints and a bent frame. He stated he was sending it back to the importer who is a friend of his to be repaired. Bear in mind the 3 to 5 days between emails-this process started in early February-and ended like this was quite frustrating. I copied all the emails and sent them to a modeling buddy to see what he thought as I thought the man was either a flake or had dementia! Imagine my surprise when I received an email from the gentleman starting out “I understand that you might think I’m flaky or suffering from mental illness.........”. Yup, I somehow sent him a copy of what I sent my friend!!!!! So, I fessed up and told him exactly why I felt the way I did and that early on I had sent him my phone # so we could talk to each other. The lack of communication and 2 months of dicking around to end up by him finding major damage at the last second was frustrating to no end. Another life lesson learned.

I apologize for bending your ears and to Bob for not realizing he was the OP. I’ll try to do better.

Peter

[bob turner]

It's a forum. Can go anywhere you want. We need pictures!

[herronpeter]

Bob, I’d love to post pictures but apparently the server is full so there is some rigamarole way of doing it that I can’t figure out! Only thing I can post are videos from you tube.

What would it take to get someone to “empty the trash” in the server? Money? I’ll gladly start the donations at 20 bucks. Where do I send my money. I would love you guys to see some of the stuff I’ve done. Plenty of cannon fodder for the thread drifters. LOL

Peter

[De Bruin]

I have had less than optimum results buying on OSYS on at least two occasions, as in sellers did not follow through with the sale after confirming my offer. I later discovered from a fellow club member that one of the sellers was also a serial squirrel when it came to buying as well. My only sale on OSYS turned out great though.
I'm no fan of Fee-bay either but have had far less frustration with them as a buyer, as a seller on Ebay my biggest problem was with Paypal but now that I'm on that managed payments deal (mentioned earlier) Paypal is no longer involved.
For now I'm sticking with Ebay for its structured process as it helps when you do a lot of listings per month.
I likely would try listing on OSYS for the occasional high-end brass sale though.

[Chris Webster]

Time to unload some pristine Overland.

My advice is do not auction it on ebay unless you have plenty of recent positive feedback as a seller.

For pristine Overland pieces, you best option may be consignment with brasstrains.com. I've never sold thru them, but I suspect 75% of what they can sell your mike for is going to be more than what you will get for it on ebay as a unknown seller.

[Chris Webster]

OMI boxes are never sealed like Lionel, but the items inside are wrapped in plastic with OMI stickers. It's normally pretty easy to tell if an item has been unwrapped (even once) and re-wrapped.

I hate to break this to you, but one of the more reputable brass dealers on ebay used to sell reproduction OMI stickers.

[E7]

Time to unload some pristine Overland.

My advice is do not auction it on ebay unless you have plenty of recent positive feedback as a seller.

For pristine Overland pieces, you best option may be consignment with brasstrains.com. I've never sold thru them, but I suspect 75% of what they can sell your mike for is going to be more than what you will get for it on ebay as a unknown seller.

I thought you were the guy that wouldn't let that nasty old Overland stuff on the premises!

First thing to consider is the cost to ship the thing from CA to FL. After that, their commission is 25%. Another little tidbit: If the buyer chooses the layaway plan AFAIK your payment is delayed until the buyer pays off the item.

Maybe you got a buddy with a table at OSW?

Maybe we can stir up some interest. Is it painted, if so what road name? Any idea what you would like to get apart from the max possible? There are a ton of guests that seem to "haunt" this place. Maybe one will show some interest.

[bob turner]

I have been trying to make OSW for a while. They hold it on Memorial Day weekend, so my favorite drive sounds more like a nightmare. Got the airplane all gassed up two years ago, then got a head cold.

I like to wander around at OSW - not sell stuff.

The reason I am selling this piece is that I am not enamored with Overland, and really not interested in high end brass as a hobby. This locomotive was a gift, which I politely accepted.

It is bare brass, wrapped in factory Saran-Wrap. I want a minimum of $600, and if I put it on eBay I will probably start there. I have a poor feel for the value of these things.

But I am not sticking it on eBay until I have explored income tax considerations. I may not have to pay FICA on long term capital gains. If that is true, I am probably home free.