Off Topic: Is eBay Selling Worth It?

[guilfordrr]

Up untill this point, I haven't sold anything on eBay, or even set up an account, for that matter. It seems that after paying a percentage of the price on items you sell, shipping and handling, and the $8 a month to keep the account, it really isn't worth it. Does anyone have experience on eBay selling? If so, am I wrong on this matter?

[Anonymous]

You also have to pay for the post, pictures, and anyother thing you add to it. Otherwise it is just one small picture one seven day auction and no other frills. I sold one item so far, I lost money on the deal. I think if you are honest it isn't really worth it unless you buy cheap and sell it regular price. Sometimes the sellers off set the 10% by charging wayy too much for shipping. I mistakenly purchased a repair cd set for $8. It was a 2 cd set sent in a manilla evelope. I paid 5 bucks for shipping, no padding, no newspaper nothing, boy was I mad. I went to leave the seller a feedback and the site said that the auction never existed. Keep you calculator handy, add your expenses to the ammount you are offering it for. If the price to sell is more than what you will get... Well, I guess you know the answer to that.

There is a self help book on ebay selling. Good luck, hope I could shed some light.
Angelo

[Anonymous]

Well, my wife and I are POWERSELLERS on eBay. We're "treasuresofyesterdayandtoday." We make our living selling on eBay. We have managed to PAY FOR a house, car and we keep our child at home with us so he has never seen the inside of a daycare center. Yes, eBay is good for us! We are trusted sellers and we have a 100% refund policy if you don't like the items you win. No questions asked. Check out of feedback. 100% positive. BTW, all of my Athearn stuff is going up this week from the days when I was into HO (it's plugs like this that keep us going![;)]

Also, this subject should really be labeled [#offtopic]

[nblum]

This $8 per month fee is news to me. Please expand upon this. I thought the only fees at eBay were for listing items and as a percentage of the selling price.

Most auctions, the buyer pays the shipping (their choice of method) and insurance. I don't charge for packaging as I have enough boxes and styrofoam peanuts for a lifetime from things I've ordered. The keys to auctioning as a seller are having a good item, well described, a decent photo, a low opening bid (keeps the costs down too) and no reserve.

[Anonymous]

guilfordrr:
The costs you posted for doing business on eBay are way off base. Here's the actual costs:

Insertion Fees for items listed between: $0.01 - $0.99 is $0.30; $1.00 - $9.99 is $0.35; $10.00 - $24.99 is $0.60; $25.00 - $49.99 is $1.20; $50.00 - $199.99 is $2.40; $200.00 - $499.99 is $3.60; $500.00 and up $4.80.


Closing Value Final Value Fee $0 - $25 5.25% of the closing value $25 - $1,000 5.25% of
the initial $25 ($1.31), plus 2.75% of the remaining closing value balance ($25.01 to $1,000) Over $1,000 5.25% of the initial $25 ($1.31), plus 2.75% of the initial $25 - $1000 ($26.81),
plus 1.50% of the remaining closing value balance ($1000.01 - closing value). Certainly no where close to the 10% as you stated. As far as I know there is no $8 monthly account fee?


Ebay fees are quite reasonable when considering the great exposure you get on eBay. Just think of what percentage you would have to pay your local train shop if you wanted to put some of your trains on consignment in their shop. Most likely you would pay at least 15% of the selling cost to the store owner. And if you wanted to sell them your trains, you would be lucky to get back .50 cents on the dollar.

Check out eBay. They have a great tutorial and can walk you though the selling end of it quite easily.

Bill
www.modeltrainjournal.com

[guilfordrr]

Thanks everybody [:I] I completely messed up everything, tells you what speed reading will get you.


By the way I have BOUGHT things on eBay, but not SOLD things.

[NH_Chris]

nblum is right on the mark. I too have had (mostly) good experience selling on Ebay. Most of the items I sold were things I bought there, so I usually make a little profit when all's said and done. The fees are low enough that I don't mind if I make a profit of more than $10 or so for a $150 item.

I recently was fleeced, though, by a fraudulent buyer who stopped payment on his check after I had shipped. My mistake, of course, in trusting that he would not do that. Ebay has few protections in such a situation.

Another more common problem is winning bidders who never pay up. This is not only annoying, but can be costly, as the fees add up whe you relist.

My approximate track record so far: about 20 items sold, 15 no problems, 4 no payment/relist, 1 total loss. Even with the total loss, I really love the ability to get rid of things that I no longer want. One recent sale was of a digital camera that I used for three years. I got $250 for a camera that originally sold for $600, which helped considerably in paying for my new $400 camera.

NH Chris

[Anonymous]

I think it is. I have sold one item. I lost a little money on it, but it was a rail car I never used. I had no plans of using it. So for me, It was the right move. I have a couple other rail cars I plan on selling on Ebay, sometime in the future.

[jmpmap]

I have been using eBay since 1998, buying and selling around 180 items. There is no $8 account fee. You only pay a small fee when you list and sell an item. I usually have the buyer pay shipping. As for making money. The only time that I have really made money on sales were on Post war items that I bought at local auctions and sold. I have periodically sell off my old Lionel TMCC engines every few years just to upgrade to newer railsounds, and to keep my excess down. I sell for considerably less than I paid because I run the trains and do not consider them mint . No, I probably do not make any money on this, but my experience has been that I can sell on ebay and get a lot more money than I have when trading or selling at a local hobby shop. I believe my best sale so far was on the CTT Premier issue. I sold it a few years back and got almost $80 for it. Ebay is fun and there is usually someone who wants what you have to sell....except the PRR monkey wrench and the blueprint of East Enola Yard that I could not give away.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the education about eBay, very interesting.....[:)][:)]

[4kitties]

My nearly 6 years' experience with eBay has been overwhelmingly positive. It has been a haven for me in expanding my vintage small appliance collections. I have happily bought many O gauge trains on it. eBay has given me a way to sell items that I doubt would ever have sold if advertised locally - for example, a camcorder that needed repairs. Compared to the cost of running want ads in the newspaper, I find the fees to be very reasonable. I once held over 100 auctions in 2 months to sell my entire inventory of HO scale trains - cars, locos, power packs, structures, even the track switches. In all this time I have had only 2 buyers not follow through. I have bought many, many items and I can only think of 2 or 3 that were a disappointment. In all but one case the buyer took the item back. No venue like this is perfect, but in my experience you'll do fine if you trade with members who have solid feedback records.

[Anonymous]

When my wife had brain surgery and had to quit work quite suddenly, i had to liquidate quite a bit thru ebay. I had to choose carefully and make some hard choices, however i kept my "must have" locomotives. I found from about 10 high end locomotive sales that i got roughly half to 60% of what i paid for them. However in an emergcy i was able to raise soem serious capital when i needed it. Still, for the most part, i shop a little on ebay, but mostly i give it to the LHS.
BTW, wife is fine and back working, and i'm looking at a nice Lionel FA-2 A-B-A set. So i'm ready to get started again. LOL My advice, is find a friend who loves the loco you have. They will normally always give you a better price.

Bill

[Anonymous]

There us a lady in town who in opening an "EBay Drop Shop". If you want to sell something on Ebay, you just drop it by her store and she takes care of everything - research for best price; best listing category; pictures; list it on Ebay and if it is sold will package and ship it. You come by and pick up the check. I wonder how it will work if she has a lot of items that don't sell.

[Anonymous]

I think that all of you should be selling on EBAY.

I just want all of you to stop buying[}:)]

Everytime I try to get a good deal on something, like the super o track I'm trying to accumulate for my layout, someone gets it at the last minute.

I think there are some local shops out there that are buying stuff at the last minute and then selling it at retail.