Calling all eBay users
 

I'm working on a new article for my website about buying and selling stuff on eBay.

If you have any good tips for buyers or sellers, let me know. I'll include your eBay name by your tip if I use it in my article.

Or if you have horror stories or anything, I may put a couple of those in too!

my only suggestions is to smother your Add with information about what you are selling. There is no such thing as too much info. The more info in the article, the less work of replying to questions you will have to do.

Even if something is broke, if you fully describe the problems, someone will buy it.

Pictures. Lots and Lots of GOOD pictures. Park the bike in front of the nicest house in town and snap away.

more than one picture, yes! Even if its a small item. Dont go and snag a pic online! HUndreds of people view your auction, SOMEBODY will know.

Sniping is your friend. Yeeeeessss.... :D

*rubs hands together, grinning menacingly*

For some reason, hotmail will not accept people with aol email addresses. It goes straight to spam.

I won an auction, and I emailed the guy for 2 weeks, then finally, I left a bad remark about him because he never responded. Well, he left a bad feedback for me, saying he'd sent numerous emails to me, and I never responded. After we both calmed down, I got the idea to check my Junk email, and there were all my emails from the guy. I sent him an apology and offered up my compuserve account to send emails to, but he declined. Oh well.

For some reason, anyone I know with aol accounts never get through on my hotmail account. I now give out my gmail address for people with aol accounts.

Koffee

Ok, here's a stupid ebay question. I'm bidding on something I'd kind of be into having, and have the high bid. However, I haven't met the reserve.

What typically happens in these situations? Does it get relisted?

It only gets relisted if the seller chooses to relist. Otherwise, poof! It's gone!

Koffee

Oh well. Good thing I'm not too attached to the idea of owning it.

I contacted this guy once when I didn't meet the reseve but still wanted the product after I'd won the auction (had there not been a reserve). We ended up doing business on the side, and I got my stuff after all for the price I wanted all along.

Koffee

I have not had the aol/hotmail problem yet...as far as doing business outside of ebay it's asking for trouble, I avoid it at all costs.

"More than one picture, yes! Even if it's a small item. Don't go and snag a pic online! Hundreds of people view your auction, SOMEBODY will know."

hehe :)

A year ago I listed an Airstream trailer 4 sale on E-Bay, had great pix, detailed info etc

My experience with E-Bay and questioners, NOT BIDDERS, leads me to NEVER EVER buy or sell anything thereon.
Thru an error on E bays part, I was charged for 2 listings same item, at least ten tries later trying to speak with a humanoid, and never connecting with one, I gave up, went to the card company and was told tuff luck guy, they have your money and we can't recover it.

Then the questioners,NOT BIDDERS, about drove me up the wall with questions about how I had priced the item at said asking price. Did I not know the last similar item was only priced at X amount?. To those I never responded. The nonsense ?s went on and on, and after the first period I just didn't renew the process.
Lead me to observe and believe many Bidders(?) are stay at home types who have little way of communicating with the world cept on a putr and delite in driving listers nutz with stupid ?s

Several told me to say that when the auction was over and I still hadn't sold the item, I should contact them to see if they might be interested , To those I never responded, these came to me while the auction was still continuing

I went directly to an Airstream message board later and sold the unit to the 1st caller at my desired price, no questions, no haggling, no telling me I was overpriced.

E-Bay buyers........Know the price of every thing and the value of nothing,in my very prejudiced but personal opinion,never fails to amaze me how folks can put out money ,sight unseen for anything

Sold a very nice bike for a bud leving the country, put an ad in the local paper classifieds, and put a sign at front of house.
I barely had time to get back inside the house when my fone rang with an inquiry about the bike, when I asked how he seen the ad so fast he said, "I'm parked out front and can I see the bike now?"
He looked, liked, rode it,went to bank got cash for price I asked. We became rideing buds till he left for the west coast

I've had nothing but good luck with eBay. One thing I consider noteworthy when buying or selling off eBay is shipping cost. Some people will sell an item at a cheap "Buy It Now" price, only to charge you more for the shipping than the price you paid for the item itself. I tend to not even bother looking at ads that have a shipping calculator link because the chances are good that the seller is padding the shipping charge with a high handling charge. NEVER buy anything from someone with says they'll provide shipping cost after the auction is over...you're at their mercy. Average cost to ship a bike in CONUS is $40. FEDEX Ground is the cheapest option...they use contract drivers, which keeps cost down. UPS is reliable, but I've found a lot of variability in their shipping charges, depending upon the destination and box size.

With bike components, generally I've found that you can do better buying them from Nashbar, especially if you're buying several items because the combined shipping charge is lower than paying for individual shipping charge of several items, and there's usually a Nashbar 10% off coupon (that'll usu. cover the cost of shipping) floating around out there. The things that are good to buy from eBay: cycle computers (usually I find them at half the cost of Nashbar), shorts, complete bikes, and shoes.

I agree about the shipping cost. Haven't bought bike stuff, but many times I've refused to bid on something because the seller jacks up the s/h way beyond what it would actually cost--easily verified by looking at similar items and their prices.

Otherwise, no real probs buying stuff and I've even ventured into selling. Right now am trying to decide what to do w/'82 Schwinn Superior--basically a "baby Paramount" w/90% campy gear, etc. But that discussion is going on over in the classic/vintage forum! :)

I'll echo what everyone has said about pictures. Lots of good quality pictures, and be honest about any damage or blemishes. Beyond that I also think it's helpful for a seller to say why they are sellling something such as a bike part. Did you upgrade? Wrong size or color? Got it as a gift and don't want or need it? If you include those details people are less skeptical. This doesn't apply if you are selling collectibles or overstock type stuff, but if you were selling for instance a wheelset or saddle for a bike, people will want to know why you don't want it any more. Make sure you list it in the right catagory, and don't use the misleading, attractive titles, like so:

"Specialized seat post. Not Trek, Giant, or Orbea"

People do that to get hits on searches for Trek, Giant, and Orbea, and it's deceptive. I absolutely won't deal with someone that does that crap.

After the sale, whether you are a buyer or seller, be quick with communications, payments or shipping, and feedback. Feedback is your credibility, you want it spotless and positive.

As a buyer, you should have some idea what the item is worth on the market, and then decide what it's worth to you. Put your highest bid in and be done with it. You'll beat a sniper that way, unless they are going higher than what you are willing to pay, and save yourself a lot of time and worry. Remember, the price will only go that high if someone drives it that high, putting in say $25 as your high bid for a $12 item will only take it to $12.50, but will keep up with the bids automatically up to your price. Even if you don't want to do that, stand on your high price. It's easy to get into a bidding war and take an item well above it's value.

Always watch a couple of auctions to find out the going price for what you want before you bid,

Don't use hotmail, something always goes wrong, you either don't get the message, it gets over filtered, or you can't log in all together cause of their HIP (human identification process) which btw doesn't work very well if you have zone alarm.

And never get into a bidding war, if you're max bid is more then 75% of the cost of something new, then just buy it new.

Hmm, you sound like one of those ... not so nice sellers that we discussed about in a thread not too long ago. With that exact same quote.

I live in an apartment complex; my family does a fairly high amount of online shopping.

We have been burned by FedEX Ground a number of times.

Typical problem is that driver claims the apt number wasnt on the label, so he left item at apt 1 (an empty unit; item was, of course, gone by the time we went over there to look for it). Or, nobody was home so he left item at our door (my wife is stay-at-home mom, she's home if we know a package is coming). Essentialy, we've decided the 'contract' driver on this route is a thief. We've spent many hours working with vendors and FedEx about our problems with delivery through them. That's how we learned 'Ground' is basically a franchise operation.

Through one large online shopping site, you don't have the option of requesting signature on delivery. They use the 'cheap' option of allowing the package to be left at the door; even for jewelry.

I won't accept a package to be sent FedEx ground. I think FedEx is taking a huge risk with their good name by going with these contract outfits.

Beware FedEx Ground!

/rant

Ah, I didn't know Fed Ex Ground was contract... is that in teh states only, or Canada and the rest of the world, too?

I actually like Purolator best. If you're not home to receive the package, then it goes to the closest Purolator depot, of which there are two or three in my city. I never have to worry about not receiving a package.

Haha high shipping charges reminds me of this one instance when I found some judy butter on ebay. I dont need it but figured what the hell its good to have for when i do. And the seller was located not even 30 miles from my house. This is a 1 oz little jar and he wants 5 dollars. I email him saying it will cost no more than a dollar to ship (which it wont). He said he will do it for 4.

Hope it wasn't used.