Ebay sellers thread (other platforms too)

[disneysteve]

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.

I guess I've never really paid attention to the ads at the bottom when I've made a purchase (or any other time for that matter - I generally ignore ads).

Before you go back to your watch list and make a purchase, do you first repeat your search to see if any cheaper options have come along?

I will say that ebay's search is notoriously finicky. People complain all the time that they will do a search to find their own listings and they won't show up. Or I'll search for something pretty specific and the first few results will be for something that doesn't match my search criteria at all. So it could just be that when you are doing your search, it isn't showing you every available item.

[disneysteve]

I just made another sale of something I got free from the Freebie Alerts app. It’s the full set of course materials for Dave Ramsay’s Financial Peace University. Made $20 from somebody else’s trash. Can’t beat that.

[ua_guy]

So I went to look at that car and the whole thing was pure entertainment, a story for another day. But the seller told me an eBay sale fell through on this car once already. His buyer wanted to use an escrow service or PayPal to make payment and he said he refuses to because he's been scammed too many times. I wonder if it's not so much "scammed" as having payment withheld because the product wasn't as advertised. Which is more likely?

[disneysteve]

So I went to look at that car and the whole thing was pure entertainment, a story for another day. But the seller told me an eBay sale fell through on this car once already. His buyer wanted to use an escrow service or PayPal to make payment and he said he refuses to because he's been scammed too many times. I wonder if it's not so much "scammed" as having payment withheld because the product wasn't as advertised. Which is more likely?

I think a seller refusing to use a secure third party payment processor is a big red flag.

[QuarterMillionMan]

I guess I've never really paid attention to the ads at the bottom when I've made a purchase (or any other time for that matter - I generally ignore ads).

Before you go back to your watch list and make a purchase, do you first repeat your search to see if any cheaper options have come along?

I will say that ebay's search is notoriously finicky. People complain all the time that they will do a search to find their own listings and they won't show up. Or I'll search for something pretty specific and the first few results will be for something that doesn't match my search criteria at all. So it could just be that when you are doing your search, it isn't showing you every available item.

Yes I think your last part nailed it that my search doesn't match precisely my search criteria. After adding let's say 5 items to my watchlist, I don't search anymore and buy the lowest priced item on the spot.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Ua_guy at least you got the out of the way, lol. I'm OCD like that as well and once my mind is set on something I get tunnel vision like a racing horse with blinders and ready to run that race.

[disneysteve]

I dipped my toes into a new category last week: remote controls. I've read a number of things in the ebay groups saying that remotes sell pretty well. We went to a new-to-us thrift shop last week and they had a bin of remotes for $1 each. I picked out and bought 4 of them (tested them in the store) and listed them that night. The first one sold today.

I don't think I'll sell them regularly because most don't sell for a lot. I more than doubled my money, but that's not saying much on a $1 item. Not worth my time unless I come across ones that are of greater value. Some can sell for quite a bit. If I can make $10 or more on them, I'd do it but not for a couple of dollars.

[disneysteve]

Sometimes this job gets interesting. About a month ago, I bought a tote full of LEGO Bionicles at a yard sale for $20. For whatever reason, it just sat there until yesterday when I finally decided to attack it. There are about 20 figures in the tote. The problem is that many of them are missing one or more pieces and there is a pile of loose parts at the bottom of the tote. I started with one figure and looked at a bunch of photos online to determine what was missing, and then sorted through the extra parts to find the missing parts. Then I did the same with a second figure. I listed one of those for sale last night and the other tonight.

I figure that with each one that I complete, the task will get easier as there will be fewer loose parts remaining. I did two more tonight but haven't listed them yet.

These resell for anywhere from $10 to $60 or so each depending on the figure. Even at $10 each, that would be about $200 on my $20 purchase, but many are higher than that. The two I worked on tonight are actually a set and the pair sells for $75 or more. I'll probably get them photographed and listed tomorrow.

Since I got the lot so cheap, I can be very flexible on pricing, so hopefully I'll find a bunch of interested buyers.

[disneysteve]

One thing that many sellers rave about in the ebay groups is a thermal label printer. Rollo is the top brand. People love them. I looked into them before and they run about $200 which I thought was way too much for my needs. I came across one today at an estate sale and got the printer and a roll of labels on a dispenser all for $25. I've already hooked it up and it works perfectly. I'm not 100% sure if I'll keep it but I'll use it for a while and see what I think. If I decide it's not really a benefit, resale value on them is about $150 and they sell very well. So it's a win either way.

[disneysteve]

I hit a milestone today. Year to date, I've now surpassed $11,000 in gross sales from items bought this year to resell. That's over $1,200/month because I didn't buy my first item until February 19th so only 9 months ago. Not bad at all.

[disneysteve]

I hit a milestone today. Year to date, I've now surpassed $11,000 in gross sales from items bought this year to resell.

On a related note, yesterday I hit $12,000 in overall gross sales for the year. The difference between those two numbers is items I already had that I've sold as well as items I've gotten for free along the way.

[QuarterMillionMan]

My recent auction listed last night starting at .99 cents, 11 watchers thusfar. I estimate maybe it'll top out at $100. I bought a new Dell core i3 11th gen, so selling out with the old. I rather not wait until the wheels fall off and sell now while it's still good rather than waiting until the wheels fall off and only sell parts.

[disneysteve]

My recent auction listed last night starting at .99 cents, 11 watchers thusfar. I estimate maybe it'll top out at $100. I bought a new Dell core i3 11th gen, so selling out with the old.

Good luck on that.

Just a suggestion, but rather than excluding buyers in parts of the US, which I assume you did due to postage, why not use calculated shipping instead of fixed and let the buyer decide if it's worth it to them. If they pay the cost, you ship it. I don't believe in limiting my buyer pool for no good reason. I've made several sales to Puerto Rico recently in fact. There are a lot of things they just don't/can't get there so they turn to ebay and are more than happy to pay the postage to get what they want.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Thanks for the suggestion, will look into it next time. I have only used fixed shipping and never tried calculated shipping. I went to Fedex's website and inputted my dimensions and weight and it showed $25 for the 48 states so to be safe I'm charging $35 shipping which the buyers will factor into their bids. Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico ran into the $100's so I excluded them as well as international shipping which I don't have a clue how to do.

[disneysteve]

Thanks for the suggestion, will look into it next time. I have only used fixed shipping and never tried calculated shipping. I went to Fedex's website and inputted my dimensions and weight and it showed $25 for the 48 states so to be safe I'm charging $35 shipping which the buyers will factor into their bids. Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico ran into the $100's so I excluded them as well as international shipping which I don't have a clue how to do.

I probably wouldn't mess with international shipping on something like a laptop regardless of cost. For other stuff, though the Global Shipping Program (GSP) is pretty seamless. You ship to ebay's hub in Kentucky and they handle it from there.

Keep in mind that if you buy your postage through ebay (or Pirateship or Shipstation), you get a considerable discount off of the retail counter rates for USPS, UPS, or FedEx (I don't think Pirateship handles FedEx). So the quote you got at their website is likely a lot more than you'll actually pay. It's important to know that because it allows you to charge less for shipping and make your items more attractive to potential buyers.