Ebay sellers thread (other platforms too)

[QuarterMillionMan]

You called it DS. I paid $4 extra for liability insurance to cover the declared value of $234.50 (sold iPhone XR). I charged $10 for shipping so I'm actually eating about a $3 loss but next time I know to think ahead and factor in the extra liability above the included $100 value (live and learn). But for peace of mind the extra $3 is worth it as a green-horn seller but it's all growing pains on the way to getting better at it. And by using eBay to print the shipping label I save $1.20 (bottom left corner).

[disneysteve]

Sounds good QMM. If you or anyone ever has any other eBay questions just let me know.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Electronics sells very well on eBay. All these items I started at .99 cents auctions. I'm not the least bit afraid that I'd get stuck with low bids, quite the contrary I am over-confident the items would sell at market prices or I'd take my lumps, lol.

[skimom]

Just found this thread - I always tell my husband that I'm going to sell on Ebay when I retire. I piddle with it here and there now, but nothing serious. I love estate / yard sales, so hope to do more shopping at those one day.

My husband sometimes buys phone lots on ebay and sells them on our local facebook selling groups. Our area has some spots where only US Cellular works, so he has done well focusing on those. He makes more on his sales, but I'm the one who really likes it lol! He would enjoy it finding a good place to source the type of items you sell, QMM. We will probably be retiring in 4-ish years, so will have more time to figure it all out then!

[QuarterMillionMan]

This morning the buyer of my $24 SanDisk 256 microSD memory card said it doesn't work which was working fine when I sold it but I instructed the buyer to send it back and I'll fully refund the buyer. Occassionally, this happens from time to time.

[disneysteve]

This morning the buyer of my $24 SanDisk 256 microSD memory card said it doesn't work which was working fine when I sold it but I instructed the buyer to send it back and I'll fully refund the buyer. Occassionally, this happens from time to time.

The problem is there are too many scammers out there who will buy an item to replace a broken item they have. Then they claim the one you sent is broken, keep the one you sent which actually works fine, and return the broken one to you.

It's a risk you take when you're in retail, online or in person. At least in this case it wasn't a high dollar item. Still sucks, though.

Make sure they request the refund properly through the ebay system.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Hum, I didn't know that but yes at least it wasn't an expensive item. And good call about properly going thru eBay's system. I was wondering how eBay would know. I will make the buyer go thru the resolution/dispute center.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Disneysteve good call, this was the buyers reply;

No, I'm good. I just got the SD card yesterday. I tested and it appears to have the GB it claims to have. No need for me to file a refund claim.

[disneysteve]

Disneysteve good call, this was the buyers reply;

No, I'm good. I just got the SD card yesterday. I tested and it appears to have the GB it claims to have. No need for me to file a refund claim.

Glad that worked out well.

[disneysteve]

This may or may not be an ebay sale but I went for a walk last night. It happened to be trash night in the neighborhood. A house down the street had a full size slot machine at the curb along with a tub full of tokens. I went home, got the car, drove down the street, and picked it up. Got it home and plugged it in and it works fine. The only fault is it didn't have the key. I dropped a note in their mailbox today asking if they might still have it. Either way, I did a little research last night and these machines sell for $250 or so. I'll list it on ebay for local pickup as well as on Marketplace and Craigslist for $300 obo. If someone offers me $250 or $225, they can have it.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

This may or may not be an ebay sale but I went for a walk last night. It happened to be trash night in the neighborhood. A house down the street had a full size slot machine at the curb along with a tub full of tokens. I went home, got the car, drove down the street, and picked it up. Got it home and plugged it in and it works fine. The only fault is it didn't have the key. I dropped a note in their mailbox today asking if they might still have it. Either way, I did a little research last night and these machines sell for $250 or so. I'll list it on ebay for local pickup as well as on Marketplace and Craigslist for $300 obo. If someone offers me $250 or $225, they can have it.

Was it free? Or did you have to pay for it? Sigh you always finds gems.

[disneysteve]

Was it free? Or did you have to pay for it? Sigh you always finds gems.

Sorry, I neglected to respond to this. Yes, it was free. They put it out at the curb for trash pickup. I'm not entirely sure it works properly. Haven't had a chance to mess with it as it's been too hot to spend any time in the garage.

[disneysteve]

I did something today I haven't done for probably almost 20 years. I went to an auction. There is an auction house about 15 miles from us that has been there forever. I drive past it all the time as you see it from the highway but they only hold auctions on Mondays and until 2 weeks ago, I've always worked on Mondays (and just never thought about it when I happened to have a Monday off). The auction starts at 8:30 am and runs all day. We got there around 8:45 (my wife came with me but I drove her home around 11:30 and went back by myself). I ended up buying 7 lots and spending $111. I haven't researched everything yet but there will be some winners and some duds amongst what I bought. I won't lose money on the duds but probably won't make much either, but overall, I should do fine for the day.

I'm still working on listing stuff I bought at sales on Saturday. I want to finish that stuff before I dig into today's purchases.

This place has an auction every other week. I don't think I'll go that often but maybe one every 4 or 6 weeks. It's a big time commitment as I was there for about 6-1/2 hours today and didn't stay to the end but there wasn't really anything left that I was interested in.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I'm curious if you are more successful among the auction than the garage sales.

[disneysteve]

I'm curious if you are more successful among the auction than the garage sales.

It will really vary week to week and month to month. Some days I go to multiple estate sales and yard sales and come home with nothing. Other days I come home with a bunch of great stuff.

If yesterday's auction was pretty typical for this place, I can't see myself ever coming home empty handed. I'd bet that at least 90% of the people there were resellers. The same people were winning lots over and over throughout the day. There's no way they were buying all that random stuff for themselves. One young guy from Brooklyn probably won 30-40 lots. A woman (who kept bidding against me) probably won 25-30 lots. I only won 7 but I was being pretty conservative. I was there more to learn the lay of the land and see how things functioned. Now that I'm comfortable with how they do things, I'd have no trouble buying a lot more next time. Quite a bunch of lots sold for $5 or $10. It would be tough to not make a decent profit when you can pile up merchandise at those prices.