Ebay users

[Calhoun07]

This has been a rather popular topic on the neverending thread, so I thought I would carry it on over here (and let the neverending thread get back to it's topic of the day feel.)

I had some more questions for some of you, especially those of you who sell on ebay. Some of you, especially Frozen, seem to do rather well at that. What do you sell? I keep thinking I should do more selling on there. God knows I've spent my share of money on there.

[Clayface]

I do a ton of selling on e-bay. My current feedback rating is 254, but I've sold probably twice as much as that. You name it, I sell it - comics, toys, VHS tapes, DVDs, collectible cards, books, posters, CDs, tapes, anything and everything that I don't want anymore, basically.

[Calhoun07]

I am too much of a packrat to do that too often. But I should sell off my old VHS tapes.

[Clayface]

Actually, I'm a huge packrat too. That's why I've got so much junk to sell! I collect new junk, and have to sell the old junk to make space.

[Calhoun07]

I have several things to sell on ebay that I have collected. Hopefully, the value of them will increase as I hang on to them.

[Frozen]

Well, we (as in my wife and I) mostly sell toys and miniatures (y'know, the Warhammer kinda toy soldier thingies), and, very occasionally, comics (although we mainly find actual comic marts are best for comics and trading cards...). We have 100% positive rating of 249 at the moment, and our profits have paid for our PC, our van, and a good percentage of out toy collection. Ebay is sweet...

[Calhoun07]

That's sure not too shabby! I need to sell more, I know, but I also need to get a scanner and a camera so I can post pictures of the stuff I have. I don't know if I could buy a van with what I have to sell, but it's worth a shot!

[Mr. Eye]

I have a question. How does ebay actually work? I hear that it's very safe. How is it so? I have some stuff I'd like to sell there sometime too.....

Mr. Eye

[Clayface]

Originally posted by Mr. Eye
I have a question. How does ebay actually work? I hear that it's very safe. How is it so? I have some stuff I'd like to sell there sometime too.....

How does it work? That's a rather broad question. Can you narrow it down a little? One good thing to do is check out their FAQ pages - that should help answer some of your questions.

[Calhoun07]

http://cgi.ebay.aol.com/aw-cgi/eBayI...tem=1168026188

[Failure]

http://cgi.ebay.aol.com/aw-cgi/eBay...item=1168026188

lol. That's funny.

I sell mostly cd's I dont want. Sometimes guitar things like pedals, that I decide I no longer want. Basically anything that I dont want and which I think is worth the time to put up an auction.

As for safe, I've personally never had a problem selling or buying anything. However, it's basically up to the 2 parties involved in the deal. ebay has some insurance policies so people don't get screwed, but it doesn't protect you from unpleasant transactions. Basically you have to look at people's feedbacks and hope for the best. Yes, it's a leap of faith, at least a small one. Hmm, maybe a hop of faith.

[Mr. Eye]

Say I want to sell something. The person sends me the money. Then I send my package to the buyer. Right? Also, what if it went missing?

Mr. Eye

[Clayface]

Originally posted by Mr. Eye
Say I want to sell something. The person sends me the money. Then I send my package to the buyer. Right? Also, what if it went missing?

Yeah, that's generally how it works. As far as lost items, you can just have the packaged insured at the post office - then you don't have to worry about paying the person back if it gets lost. Generally, I tell all my buyers that I'm not responsible for the package once it leaves here - so if they're worried about it getting lost, they should buy insurance. If you're selling/buying something really expensive, you can use an escrow service - its an In-between man that makes sure the transaction is going ok - the buyer sends the escrow service the cash, and the seller sends the escrow service the item, and once the escrow service has them both and oks the condition of the item, they will send the money to the seller and the item to the buyer.

[Mr. Eye]

Oh that's cool. I might start doing this soon. I have a few expensive comics that I'd like to get rid of. I just need a credit card....

Mr. Eye

[Clayface]

Originally posted by Mr. Eye
I just need a credit card....

Yeah, that's a tough one on some people. I was lucky - I joined the e-bay community back in its early days, when you didn't need a credit card to sign up and/or sell stuff there. Of course, I now have credit cards, so I'm set anyway, but it was nice to be able to join up and not have to give them that sort of info.

[Clayface]

Originally posted by Frozen
We have 100% positive rating of 249 at the moment...

Wow! That's pretty impressive! My feedback rating is at 260 right now, but its not all positives - my items always seem to attract idiots.

I've got one neutral. The guy got the item, and sent me an e-mail saying he was incredibly pleased with it, etc. THen he left me feedback saying the same thing, but instead of making it a positive, he made it a neutral! Doh! I think maybe he mis-clicked or something, because he didnt' say anything bad about the transaction at all.

And I've got two negatives - both from completely idiots.

The first negative I got was this, and I quote: :(.

That's it - an unhappy smiley face. What happened? The guy was a new user, and won one of my auctions. I e-mailed him several times over the course of 3 weeks, and got no response. SO I sent out a Non-paying bidder alert. His response, instead of e-mailing me to clear things up, was to immediately leave me a negative. Never did find out what that was all about, but he's now no longer a registered user.

And the second negative I got was from some loser out of the country. He won the auction, and kept trying to get me to send him the item on the "promise" that the money was already on the way. I, of course, wouldn't. So, he seemed ok with it, and I waited. And waited. And waited. And got nothing. At first he would give me excuses: "Payment must have got lost or stolen", etc. But then he stopped answering my e-mails all together. So, I filed a non-paying bidder alert. A couple days later I notice the guy is getting all sorts of negative feedback. So, I go and leave one for him too. A couple days after that, he leaves ME a negative, claiming I "didn't take care in packing the item - arrived in a horrible state!". Funny thing is, I never sent the item, it was still sitting on my frontroom floor. Gotta love those types of bidders.

So, because of a couple of idiots, my perfect record was tarnished. Ah well, I still don't have any problem selling stuff, so it didn't hurt me much.

[Calhoun07]

I got a negative once from some jerk (sasha23) who never sent me my CD (and it was a Christmas CD, and I finally got in in January. Thanks, thanks alot!). I negged her because she took so long to get it to me and sent me harassing emails when I'd send simple inquiries on the progress of the transaction. She finally got banned or suspended, I believe. I stated all the facts in my negative feedback, but she had to make stuff up on me (drdanamos on ebay!) just to come up with something negative on me. It was the worst experience I ever had on there. But that is far the exception than the rule on Ebay, thank God.

[Trent Lane]

I share an account with my dad, he mostly does selling, I buy CD's and posters. Our feedback just cracked 300, and we too have had to deal with people who leave negative feedback. Most of them have now been banned, so it kinda all makes sense...

And why would someone sell a gerbil corpse? That's a little sick, shouldn't it be banned since these people who try to sell assorted oddities (ie souls, virginity, body parts) usually get kicked off too?...

[Calhoun07]

Not to mention I thought it was against the rules to sell animals on there, period. I don't think Ebay polices these auctions, but relies on people reporting offending auctions to Safe Harbor. That's why sometimes bootleg videos and CDs go on the site and sometimes the same auctions get shut down. I reported one seller who was selling bootleg CDs that differed from how he advertised them, and he got shut down, but until I reported him, Ebay didn't know he was selling this stuff.

[freebooter]

I only order on E-bay when I must. For the second time in two years, I've had to order a graphing calculator off of E-bay to replace one I lost. My high school is holding my diploma hostage until I hand one in.