General > General Technical Chat
Would you really sell on ebay ?
<< < (34/37) > >>
Simon:
Well basically you save 3.4% on the paypal fees but as I have already noticed the ebay fees are likely to rise. As a business seller I was offered it by them so signing up was relatively painless considering the mess that their website is.
james_s:

--- Quote from: AndyC_772 on March 15, 2021, 01:56:02 pm ---For all its flaws, I can't say I've ever regarded Ebay as a race to the bottom in terms of selling price.

It's interesting - IMHO! - to compare the comments that come up when people compare pricing of used items on Ebay to prices on forums like this one. The unwritten rule seems to be that selling prices on forums should be absolutely rock bottom, always a good deal for the buyer at the expense of the seller.

Open a discussion on the topic and responses are along the lines of "Ebay prices are crazy, your <item> isn't worth that" - conveniently ignoring the fact that if something will sell at the higher price on another platform, it is worth that higher price, by definition.

--- End quote ---

Ebay takes a significant cut, and their system is strongly slanted in favor of the buyer. In exchange for that you get a huge audience and typically get top dollar for your item. Obviously people are going to expect lower prices on a forum like this. The audience is far more limited, there is no protection on the transaction, the forum isn't taking a ~20% cut on the sale price, and it's typically a transaction "among friends" of sorts, rather than a random ebay bidder. I offer stuff on forums when I just want to get it into the hands of someone who can use it and get a few bucks for my trouble. If I want top dollar, I sell it on ebay and put up with the requisite hassle.

In recent years I've seen people selling stuff at hamfests and such basing prices on asking prices on ebay. My attitude on that is if you want ebay prices, sell it on ebay, if I'm at a hamfest I'm looking for bargains, if I wanted to pay ebay prices I could do that without leaving my house. Not to mention there is a LOT of stuff sitting on ebay at absolutely absurd asking prices. It sits, and sits, and sits, waiting for that one sucker who either doesn't know any better or absolutely needs that specific item and is willing to pay. Ebay BIN prices are a useless metric, it only matters what stuff actually sells for.
DrG:

--- Quote from: james_s on March 17, 2021, 09:17:13 pm ---
--- Quote from: AndyC_772 on March 15, 2021, 01:56:02 pm ---For all its flaws, I can't say I've ever regarded Ebay as a race to the bottom in terms of selling price.

It's interesting - IMHO! - to compare the comments that come up when people compare pricing of used items on Ebay to prices on forums like this one. The unwritten rule seems to be that selling prices on forums should be absolutely rock bottom, always a good deal for the buyer at the expense of the seller.

Open a discussion on the topic and responses are along the lines of "Ebay prices are crazy, your <item> isn't worth that" - conveniently ignoring the fact that if something will sell at the higher price on another platform, it is worth that higher price, by definition.

--- End quote ---

Ebay takes a significant cut, and their system is strongly slanted in favor of the buyer. /--/

if I'm at a hamfest I'm looking for bargains, if I wanted to pay ebay prices I could do that without leaving my house.

--- End quote ---

It seems that they do favor buyers, and maybe unscrupulous buyers as well - or maybe they are just open to such exploitation. But not always. In the earliest days of the pandemic, I was certain that it was going to get worse and quickly and I sent relatives packs of face masks.

One pack of something else was sent, and to make matters worse, it was sent to the oldest relative. Instead of masks, some kind of cut letters, like you might use to make a sign, were sent. Being of a different generation, she was adamant that I get my money back and she schlepped the package to PO and sent it back to me (I couldn't convince her otherwise and could not lie to her - I was tempted to because the last thing I wanted was for her to go to the PO).

I get it, I photograph it, including a tracking # and I write the seller. Look, I am fine with language barriers and they work both ways, but if you are selling on an English speaking site, you need enough English to communicate. All he would say is that 'I sent the package and here is the tracking number'...this is like 3-4 messages with pictures. I knew he sent me a package, it just didn't have what I bought - not even close (and the same seller had successfully sent the right items to several people, for me). I got nowhere and went to $bay, writing a long appeal or dispute or whatever it is called, including all the info and also said I was fine returning the item as soon as the buyer sent me the address and funds (I knew he was not going to do that). - Shortly afterwards, I get a robo email saying it was denied because 'he sent the package'.

Then on to $ay$al. Sent in the complaint, pictures, all the info. While they were more attentive, they said that it would take something like 6 weeks (I don't remember exactly, but it was a long time) and they give the seller a long time to respond. I was like wtf? Why am I messing around with this crap?

I contacted the CC card, sent them the info and within 24 h they issued me a temp credit which turned into a permanent credit within a couple of days.

Get this - 1-2 days after the permanent credit, the buyer writes me (with vastly improved English) and asks if I want a refund.

So, not always favoring buyers.

As for hamfests, which also included computerfests, back in the day - do they even exist anymore? Apart from pandemic issues, I thought they were long gone and had given way to flea markets where everyone thinks they have 'valuable antiques' because they watch TV.

I should get out more and see what is out there (maybe in not too long we can).
james_s:

--- Quote from: DrG on March 17, 2021, 10:28:24 pm ---As for hamfests, which also included computerfests, back in the day - do they even exist anymore? Apart from pandemic issues, I thought they were long gone and had given way to flea markets where everyone thinks they have 'valuable antiques' because they watch TV.

I should get out more and see what is out there (maybe in not too long we can).

--- End quote ---

Probably not during Covid, and they are far more rare than they used to be but they're not entirely gone. I haven't gone to one in about 10 years though because I know if I do I'll just end up with a bunch of "junk" following me home.
Simon:
ebay tends to favour the buyer but I have had a few instances where they have been pretty good and let me deal with the buyer and not stepped in to appease them. There is this attitude from many buyers that ebay is this faceless conglomerate of sellers and they are owed nothing by the customer and it's fine to rip them off. The last good one I had the ebay customer services person was very good as while she admitted that the situation was not fair on me she explained the best course of action which was to call the buyers bluff and accept the return that he would have to pay for. She was right, the guy backed down and actually bought another batch of the parts he had just declared totally wrong and not useable in his design.

Amazon on the other had would not talk to me and just took the money of 2x BM235's and gave it back to the customers, one got to keep the meter and was whinging about import duty the other apparently refused the parcel but I have not had it back yet......
Navigation
Message Index
Next page
Previous page
There was an error while thanking
Thanking...

Go to full version
Powered by SMFPacks Advanced Attachments Uploader Mod