My ebay experiment Year One - Page 3

Originally Posted by nuttingbutjunk

IMO .... Ebay use to b a great place to sell where u were a small seller or a big seller ... Now with all the new rules and changes they have made its for tha big dog .. As for Craigslist its got to where its wish washy ... It's like everything else in the business world it's got to b either u r a big dog or nothing ... I use to b in the used car business back in the 60's,70's,80's it was a pleasure to b in business then the government started getting their nose stuck in everything going thats when as the saying goes tha hockey hit tha fan ...

That's exactly right NBJ. If it isn't Ebay rules change, then it's government regulations, or as my aunt Roseanna RoseannaDana used to say, "that just goes ta show ya, it's alllllways somethin!"

Funny thing is, although I made some mistakes that I could have done better on, the only neg I ever had was actually from a seller who was gouging on shipping, promising combined shipping discounts which were non-existent, and it was solely a retaliatory strike, and completely undeserved. It would have been removed if I had watched the clock for 45 or 90 days, whatever it was

That is why it is best to have One ID for selling and another ID for Buying

It's too bad folks won't just deal on the up-n-up both ways John, buying or selling, but they all too often don't. I knew he'd neg me back when I did it, but felt I should expose it for the scam it was anyway. The account was shut down not long after that but I wasn't watching close enough to have the neg removed in the time allowed

This is the kind of eBay thing that would be bad for my health. I'd fret about the the whole thing for the rest of my conscious days. That's sounds extreme, but that is where my Anxiety Disorder kicks in.

I just prefer to find and dismantle the goodies, than work with people.

Originally Posted by Jillyenator

This is the kind of eBay thing that would be bad for my health. I'd fret about the the whole thing for the rest of my conscious days. That's sounds extreme, but that is where my Anxiety Disorder kicks in.

I just prefer to find and dismantle the goodies, than work with people.

haha yeah, you'd never be able to keep any usable bubble wrap on hand anyway ; )

Bubble wrap is fun to annoy people with. I have more fun popping the bubbles.

Must be the kid in me. lol.

Sirscrapalot - I don't wanna grow up, cause if I did, I couldn't be a Toys R Us kid...

Originally Posted by Bear

haha yeah, you'd never be able to keep any usable bubble wrap on hand anyway ; )

True. Bubble wrap is perfect for people with OCD! I can just sit there and pop, pop, pop. It's up there with Slinkies and Etchasketch.

Some people knit. I like to remove screws and take apart electronics.

I've actually had a good experience so far with eBay. Ive only been doing it for a month and a half, but I made over $1300 in February. everything that I think has resale value I'll look up on eBay, and if I think I can sell it for$30 or more, I'll list it. If it doesn't sell, oh well I'll just tear it apart. For some things that I know work properly, I'll offer returns, but some things I just sell as is. I have only been to the scrap yard one time, and I think I only got $140 that time. Im still working on a load of escrap to ship off, but I doubt that it will be as profitable as what I've done so far on eBay. so far the only thing that I've had returned is a wireless mouse, and I just scrapped it once I got it back. I think this works better for me because my volume of electronics that I get is lower than some people here, I'm thinking that everything I have right now would be under $500 if I shipped it off. and I've been escrapping since beginning of January. I also do shipping and receiving at my main job, so this is kind of second nature. I could possibly try and sell some things for some people on here, I'm not sure exactly how to go about it but if anyone's interested send me a pm we can try to figure out out.

I've been back on eBay (after about a 10 year break) for 53 weeks exactly. I've bought about 160 items (stamps, coins, and an occasional marble) and sold about 130 (mostly stamps and coins, but everything from a baseball cap to a desk-top pencil sharpener). It is annoying for all sorts of reasons, but... it mostly works, so there you go. I mostly use it to sell off duplicate stuff from my collections so that I can have a little pocket change to buy new old stuff- it's hard to imagine making a living on it, but people obviously do. I'm kind of stuck selling low-value, small-margin items since that's pretty much the only kind of stuff I own (and want to get rid of). It adds up to peanuts per hour, but a) I'm getting rid of stuff (which the wife likes) and b) am supporting my hobbies (which I like). I haven't sold any computer bits or e-scrap, but will likely get around to selling my HD platters and magnets via eBay as I don't know what else to do with them.

Most recently I've been learning the ins and outs of selling comic books- a friend of mine is allowing me to sell off his collection on commission. I haven't had anything returned so far, but the comic book folks are a tough crowd (as are the baseball card fanatics), and shipping the things properly is *expensive*. So far the profit per hour is looking pretty dismal so I'm not sure how far I'll get into his 1,700 book collection before calling it quits. It would be easy to cherry-pick his collection- probably 75% of the value of the collection is tied up in 5% of the books, but I promised to make an honest stab at selling a bunch of the cheap stuff before picking off the real goodies.

Just this week I received another good eBay lesson- as I ramped up the comic book sales I went over my maximum free listings and wound up paying half of my meager net take for the week back to eBay in listing fees. Pretty disheartening, but lesson learned- you have to watch every penny when operating on such a razor-thin margin....

Every now and then I think to myself that I should take an ebaycation and take a month or two off. Then I start jonesing for that awesome cool new marble someone put up for sale...

tbg

Yep, comic collectors are crazy about their stuff. As you said just like card collectors.

Good on you for helping out your buddy. It took me awhile to find some one I was comfortable enough with selling for me. It's rare but I at lest now have someone if I get the bug to sell there. Less hassle an stress for me.

Glad it's working out for you guys. Hope it continues to.

Sirscrapalot - I was sleeping the other night, alone, thanks to the exterminator. - Emo Philips

Bob an weave, bob an weave! Zig an zag! Zag an zig!



Good luck, keep a supply of your favorite beverage on hand(adult or otherwise), it helps to deal with the idiocy..on either site.

Sirscrapalot - I kept a diary right after I was born. Day 1: Tired from the move. Day 2: Everyone thinks I'm an idiot. - Steven Wright

Originally Posted by mikeinreco

well craigslist was working great until all the spam and haters kicked in so back to ebay for a while..........LOL........I just keep switching back and forth trying to shuck and jive

What haters?

Burly

Your link can only be seen using your account
Could you provide the general link?

My only trouble with Pick Up only items on eBay are people that don't read >> Don't understand they have to pick the item up at it's current location
Should (when) this happen be sure to Open Unpaid item dispute at day 4 and close 4 days later to get eBay final value fees refunded
I am dealing with that now for a 2nd time with a 96 Mustang GT that sold for $678.90