been a longtime purchaser on e bay! is it me or have they screwed up the site again? I would switch away from them in a hartbeat if Icould find an alternative. So if anyone can recomend I'd welcome the info. LHS is shut down do to china virus so i'll take all recomendations,,thanks Tommy
I haven’t noticed a change, I buy fairly often off eBay. They did add an annoying add divert that requires a reload to get rid of it. Mel My Model Railroad http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/ Bakersfield, California I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
tomytuna is it me or have they screwed up the site again?
They update the site constantly. Can you be more specific about what is bothering you about a recent change?
Since I do not have any income, I buy infrequently now. I just bought a Mantua caboose, and I did not notice any noteworthy changes.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
I haven't noticed any significant changes from a buyers' view, but when I sell very occasionally, of course the fees continue to climb.
As for alternatives, good luck. I did find eBid.net, based in the UK. There are some US sellers, but many are outside the US. In their Model RR and Trains category, there are currently about 3,600 listings, as compared to over 1 million in the same category on eBay. So yeah, not much of an alternative.
Ed
I've been a buyer/seller on Ebay since 2001.........
In my experience, from a buyer's point of view, the only change is that some sellers take paypal and some don't (having you pay via Ebay and CCs.). Also, Ebay now collects taxes on most sales.
From a sellers point of view, it seems like every year they change the process somewhat. They have made it easier, but if you are away from it for a year or so, there is a new learning curve.
Ebay has worked extremely well for me, and I have no complaints. While the seller's overall fees tend to average up to about 30 percent overall (depending on selling price, etc.), I'm OK with that. After all, where else could I get the service and security for all the different stuff I've sold over the years.............
Caveat here...... the "30 percent" is from prior years when I would have up to 104 auctions at year end. I recently sold 18 auctions, and when I get the Ebay/PP numbers I will recalculate.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
mobilman44 Ebay has worked extremely well for me, and I have no complaints. While the seller's fees tend to average about 30 percent overall, I'm OK with that. After all, where else could I get the service and security for all the different stuff I've sold over the years.............
Ebay has worked extremely well for me, and I have no complaints. While the seller's fees tend to average about 30 percent overall, I'm OK with that. After all, where else could I get the service and security for all the different stuff I've sold over the years.............
Rich
Alton Junction
It has been a while since I sold anything, but I remember the fees ranging between 15% and 25%. This includes the insertion fee, buy it now option fee, final value fee, and PayPal fee.
SeeYou190 It has been a while since I sold anything, but I remember the fees ranging between 15% and 25%. This includes the insertion fee, buy it now option fee, final value fee, and PayPal fee. -Kevin
I sold a lot of used golf clubs over the summer and my only fee was a 10% final value fee. Another 3% went to PayPal. That was it!
richhotraineBay has been waiving insertion fees and BIN fees for a long time now.
That is interesting.
When I was selling, the insertion fee was based on the initial bid price. Auctions $1.00 or less were almost free. Maybe that is why we are seeing fewer "true" auctions with a $1.00 start and no reserve.
I was always surprised how many shoppers used Buy It Now on items with a $1.00 starting bid. I might have something with a $1.00 start and a $65.00 Buy It Now, and pretty often the Buy It Now would be used.
thanks for all the replys. what's you feelings bout shipping charges?
First, note that my extensive experience involves listing some leftover items as first time seller this past week and making one whole $18 sale thus far. My goal was to learn the EBay system in advance of a day when I might want to whittle down my loco fleet.
I feared that shipping would be complicated by having to work with USPS, so I was pleased that I can select the mode on EBay and get a significant discount and just print the label. It took me awhile to understand all the options but some online videos and a bit of experimenting did the trick. Of course, shipping supplies and cost are a significant add-on to small, inexpensive items and make them relatively hard to sell (at a reasonable total cost) is my take.
Of course, one pays the 10% fee on the shipping so sellers do not up the shipping cost and lower the sales price to lessen the EBay take.
It took some effort to get the right supplies in place: padded envelopes, small boxes, etc. USPS flat rate boxes are free but expensive shipping cost unless the item is pretty heavy. I did order some free Priority Mail shoeboxes for the future as those might be right for diesel locos.
It was an interesting process to learn the system.
One thing I wonder about is visibility of my items when posted. If someone is looking for Rix xyz, they will find my item easily with a search. But I presume many browsing buyers just scroll through newest postings to see what is newly available. (I often search for HO Union Pacific and sort by newly listed.) If my Rix xyz was posted days ago, no one is likely to be scrolling back that far as very many new items are posted, say in Model Railroads & Trains / HO scale, per day. I wonder if my posted items will get any attention after initial posting unless someone searches for that specific item (or brand).
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
I haven't sold on there for about 2 years, I'm going to have to check it all out, again, as I will have many things coming up that need to be gone.
As far as shipping charges, no matter where you go to buy or sell, there are shipping charges. As they say, it is what it is.
Mike.
My You Tube
peahrens One thing I wonder about is visibility of my items when posted. If someone is looking for Rix xyz, they will find my item easily with a search. But I presume many browsing buyers just scroll through newest postings to see what is newly available. (I often search for HO Union Pacific and sort by newly listed.) If my Rix xyz was posted days ago, no one is likely to be scrolling back that far as very many new items are posted, say in Model Railroads & Trains / HO scale, per day. I wonder if my posted items will get any attention after initial posting unless someone searches for that specific item (or brand).
mbinsewi As far as shipping charges, no matter where you go to buy or sell, there are shipping charges. As they say, it is what it is.
Some fees have been eliminated, and I never use a reserve price anymore because they rob you on that one. If the bids are way too low as to be completely unacceptable, I just end the auction early and say the item is no longer available for sale. Piece of cake. You can even relist it later. It's one way of getting around the reserve price listing fees.
The Paypal fee is 3%. The Ebay selling fee is still generally 10%. They want you to offer free shipping, so they will take that 10% out of any shipping charge you apply, also. I just sold a bunch of stuff in the last two weeks, netting myself $1300 in cash. I did better than $125 per diesel unit and was relatively happy. Some were brand new in box, and some were mint/test run only.
Yes, I like to try new things. Sometimes I am disappointed and blowout the ones I don't like or don't really need to keep on Ebay. The buyers are getting a good deal from me.
I have not found any other site or group that offers the same ability to move product. The key is to set a reasonable enough starting bid so that people will bid. Since I am forced to offer free shipping by their fee structure, that means I avoid selling a single freight car anymore. Instead, I group them into pairs of like things: either both road numbers of a given item or two very similar items.
Also, invariably if/when I tried to charge shipping, the buyers complain as if somehow I had the ability to set USPS shipping rates. It forces one to just offer free shipping if you don't want your ratings damaged by shipping cost comments. I never charge anything for boxes, tape, bubblewrap, etc. The buyers complain about straight up USPS shipping costs. I just make the shipping cost "free" and set my minimum bid price accordingly.
Before anyone comments about boxes being "free", there are certain HO diesels whose manufacturer supplied boxes do not match USPS Priority Mail box sizes very well, and whose engines can be damaged during shipping if one is not very careful. That forced me to buy extra special boxes 16" in length to provide end-of-box cushioning.
John
Good write up, John.
As a seller, I was always puzzled by Ebay's calculation of shipping fees and thought they were in error. My DiL clued me in, Ebay has a deal with the Post Office and you can ship Priority Mail, in a non priority box, cheaper if you buy postage thru Ebay, that you can if you go to the Post Office yourself.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
PRR8259 Some fees have been eliminated, and I never use a reserve price anymore because they rob you on that one.
Some fees have been eliminated, and I never use a reserve price anymore because they rob you on that one.
I have never sold anything on Ebay but was thinking I should try. Can you explain the reserve fee issue?
Rick
A reserve in any auction is the price, below which, the seller can refuse to accept the highest bid.
If you want at least $700, and that is you reserve price, for your brass Big Boy, and the highest bid is 699 or 300, you don't have to sell. Ebay charges you $5 or 7.5% whichever is greater, up to $250.
It's really not worth doing for less expensive stuff. But suppose you want at least, pick a price $15 for something. On a good day it may sell for $25, but you see that some similars have sold for $10. You decide it's not worth your time to box and mail it at $10, so start the auction at $15.
hbgatsfI have never sold anything on Ebay but was thinking I should try. Can you explain the reserve fee issue?
I never use reserve, and started all my auctions at $1.00 opening bid.
My experience has made it seem that if you get a lot of action early, with low bids bringing the price up, you will get more action at the end. All you need is two snipers to get a good final price... attract them early with an enticing low bid.
Plus, this is more fun.
For fun... search ebay for model train item auctions that are $1.00, and bid on a few of them. Watch what happens over the next 7 days, and see if this is for you.
CHECK SHIPPING COSTS! You don't want to bid on something with a $1.00 opening bid an $50.00 shipping. That happens.
BigDaddy As a seller, I was always puzzled by Ebay's calculation of shipping fees and thought they were in error. My DiL clued me in, Ebay has a deal with the Post Office and you can ship Priority Mail, in a non priority box, cheaper if you buy postage thru Ebay, that you can if you go to the Post Office yourself.
This might explain why I received a Hamburger Helper box with a mailing sticker.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
I understand what a reserve is. I was asking about what appeared to be a reference to a special fee when using one as a seller.
hbgatsf I understand what a reserve is. I was asking about what appeared to be a reference to a special fee when using one as a seller.
I still use ebay, In fact I earn ebay bucks when I purchase a locomotive in the $100 range.
Many of us will not bid on anything with a reserve.
I'm afraid I don't totally understand. Here is a real world example: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Atlas-Ho-U23B-Milwaukee-Road-5001-DCC-n1/383847365340?hash=item595f15fadc:g:rr8AAOSwAEJfzrxH.
It is for a used Atlas U23B.
Currently there are 6 bids and the currently bid price is $44.21. Looking at the bids, the starting price was $24.99. Where did the $24.99 come from? Was that the "reserve" price?
I've seen some Ebay auctions where there are bids on an item along with a "reserve price not met" statement. But no information as to what the "reserve price" might be. Is that the same reserve price as the $24.99 in the above example?
On those items with a buy it now price, does anyone ever bid on them? I understand that I as an individual would not bid more than the BIN price. But suppose someone really wants the thing. Would/could they bid higher to make sure they got the item? And suppose everyone thinks the BIN price is too high. Are bids lower than BIN allowed, or does the BIN price actually serve as a reserve price?
And on the subject of shipping, the shipping cost for the example above is shown to be $12.55. Is that set by EBAY, or does the seller determine that amount?
Looking at the bidder list and looking at the automatic bids, I see that there are several cases where it appears that a bidder has an automatic bid followed directly by another automatic bid. Why/how does that happen?
From what I read above, there is a 3% fee for using paypal. I presume that the seller pays that fee. Correct or not? Is there any rule that someone is forced to use paypal? And is there any advantage to doing so?
Thanks for taking the time to explain all this.
Dick
rrebell Many of us will not bid on anything with a reserve.
maxman I'm afraid I don't totally understand. Here is a real world example: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Atlas-Ho-U23B-Milwaukee-Road-5001-DCC-n1/383847365340?hash=item595f15fadc:g:rr8AAOSwAEJfzrxH. It is for a used Atlas U23B. Currently there are 6 bids and the currently bid price is $44.21. Looking at the bids, the starting price was $24.99. Where did the $24.99 come from? Was that the "reserve" price? I've seen some Ebay auctions where there are bids on an item along with a "reserve price not met" statement. But no information as to what the "reserve price" might be. Is that the same reserve price as the $24.99 in the above example?
On a reserve price auction, it will be indicated to bidders, but the actual reserve price is concealed from bidders.
maxman On those items with a buy it now price, does anyone ever bid on them? I understand that I as an individual would not bid more than the BIN price. But suppose someone really wants the thing. Would/could they bid higher to make sure they got the item? And suppose everyone thinks the BIN price is too high. Are bids lower than BIN allowed, or does the BIN price actually serve as a reserve price?
It is possible to combine the two so that the listing will be an auction type with a Buy It Now price. Inevitably, the Buy It Now price will be set higher than the starting bid. If a potential buyer wants the item bad enough, he will exercise the Buy It Now option rather than risking losing the auction to a higher bidder.
Should the bidding reach the point where the high bid exceeds the Buy It Now price, the listing continues as an auction type listing and the Buy It Now price becomes null. The Buy It Now price is not a reserve price. That's because the listing may end up as an auction with the high bid winning.
maxman And on the subject of shipping, the shipping cost for the example above is shown to be $12.55. Is that set by EBAY, or does the seller determine that amount?