Ebay sellers thread (other platforms too)

[QuarterMillionMan]

Never mind false alarm, my apartment manager held it for me. I'm grateful.

[disneysteve]

Never mind false alarm, my apartment manager held it for me. I'm grateful.

Glad to hear it.

[disneysteve]

Just to show that reselling isn't all wins....

I sold an item today. I listed it for $13.99 with free shipping (which I don't typically offer). I got it packed in the smallest possible box. I actually resized the box to fit the item perfectly. When I went to print the postage, ebay said it would be $11.25. After ebay fees and cost of the item that meant I would lose a couple of dollars on the transaction. Then I checked PirateShip which is an alternative shipping option. I was able to buy postage that way for $8.85, a savings of $2.40. The end result was still a net loss of 15 cents but at least I didn't lose $2.55.

Onward and upward.

[disneysteve]

Decent morning at an estate sale. I bought a lot of 38 Christmas Around the World books (one book for each country). Those go for about $3-4 each. I bought 7 vintage children's books (Lassie, Tarzan, Mark Twain) that go for $6-8 each. I bought two sets of nesting gift boxes worth about $20-25 each. And a Tommy Bahama mug worth about $60. I spent $65 for everything and should triple my money after expenses. Nothing with a 10x return but some good bread and butter sales items heading into the holiday season. All good gift items.

[disneysteve]

October 22 wrap up

45 sales
$1,730.85 gross
$1,097.08 net

My standing goal is to make at least $500/mo net. My reach goal is $1,000. I managed to hit that on the last day of the month. Profit margin of 63% which is great. Average sale price of $38.44 which is up nicely from $22.91 last month and $24.89 the month before.

I also had a goal to get to 200 items listed and ended the month with 223 so I hit that goal, too.

[ua_guy]

DS - a question for you, or anyone who knows:

Theres a classic car on eBay that is local to me. If I were to look at the car and work a deal with the seller before the auction ends, and if the seller decides he wants to work with me instead of following through with the auction, can he remove the listing?

This is a weird one. It was listed once before and I threw a couple thousand dollars at it because it’s a value, but someone “sniped” the auction as it closed.

The seller had his contact info listed so I sent him a message and said hey, I was your next highest bidder, and I’m only about 2 miles away, if it falls through, here’s my number. His buyer wanted to transact through PayPal and he wanted none of that, so it’s been re-listed.

[disneysteve]

Theres a classic car on eBay that is local to me. If I were to look at the car and work a deal with the seller before the auction ends, and if the seller decides he wants to work with me instead of following through with the auction, can he remove the listing?

It's a violation of ebay policy to use the platform to arrange off-platform transactions. The seller could be banned for doing that. That's why ebay doesn't allow you to exchange contact information through ebay messaging. If you try to send a phone number or email address, they automatically block the message.

All of that said, it happens all the time. There's always ways to get around the restrictions, ways to bury an email address or phone number in a message in such a way that the bots don't catch it. The seller is just taking the risk that if ebay does catch it, they could lose their account permanently.

When you say he had his contact info listed, does that mean an email address or phone number? If so and you've got that, then you can certainly contact him outside of ebay. And yes, he can end the auction and sell it to you off-platform as long as it doesn't have any bids yet. Sellers can cancel bids but it's frowned upon and can also trigger a suspension if they get caught/reported.

[ua_guy]

It's a violation of ebay policy to use the platform to arrange off-platform transactions. The seller could be banned for doing that. That's why ebay doesn't allow you to exchange contact information through ebay messaging. If you try to send a phone number or email address, they automatically block the message.

All of that said, it happens all the time. There's always ways to get around the restrictions, ways to bury an email address or phone number in a message in such a way that the bots don't catch it. The seller is just taking the risk that if ebay does catch it, they could lose their account permanently.

When you say he had his contact info listed, does that mean an email address or phone number? If so and you've got that, then you can certainly contact him outside of ebay. And yes, he can end the auction and sell it to you off-platform as long as it doesn't have any bids yet. Sellers can cancel bids but it's frowned upon and can also trigger a suspension if they get caught/reported.

Interesting. Yeah, he has a phone number embedded in his ad text, which I assumed was borderline in terms of policy, but how is that really different from messaging the seller to ask questions. I won't bid on the auction again, but I have half a mind to reach out to him to see if I can see the car in person and try to get a sense of where he's at with the sale. I just didn't want to have any liability if he decided to sell the car to me outside of the auction.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Ask him to see the car in person. If I were the seller I’d agree to it.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Money talks and bring cash. Make offer and ask seller to take it down with a sweet offer.

[ua_guy]

Money talks and bring cash. Make offer and ask seller to take it down with a sweet offer.

Cash *and a trailer. The car doesn't actually run, and even if it did, it shouldn't be driven. I'm a little shocked that bidding went as high as it did because the other guy was going to have to pay shipping costs as well, which is why I thought I could knock him out of the running. I can drag it home at virtually no cost.

[disneysteve]

Ask him to see the car in person. If I were the seller I’d agree to it.

I'm not sure if the rules are different for ebay Motors but they certainly ought to be. I'm sure people don't want to buy a car without seeing it and driving it (if possible). But that would require exchanging contact info somehow. Maybe it's okay in those cases.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Has anyone noticed on eBay after searching for the lowest price and making the purchase later a lower price appears out of nowhere. It is sort like eBay programs it that way so after making the purchase, now you are enticed to buy another item at a lower price.

[disneysteve]

Has anyone noticed on eBay after searching for the lowest price and making the purchase later a lower price appears out of nowhere. It is sort like eBay programs it that way so after making the purchase, now you are enticed to buy another item at a lower price.

I'm not sure what you're saying. Are you saying you've bought an item and then later see the same item selling for a lower price?

Do you have a search set up with notifications? If so, once you've bought the item, cancel that search so you won't keep getting notified when the item is for sale.

[QuarterMillionMan]

1) yes upon buying an item at the bottom of the webpage it'll show the same item (different seller) at a lower price.
2) before buying an item I'd add the lowest prices into my watch list where I'll have maybe 5 of the same item from different sellers in my watch list. When ready to make my purchase I'll go into my watch list and choose the lowest price. Then immediately after purchasing the item at the bottom of the webpage I'll see the same item that I purchased for a lower price which leaves me scratching my head, lol. Where I thought I had found the lowest price when making the purchase subsequently a lower price appears.