Tips for the 1st time Ebay user.

[Doc]

Sushi was asking in another thread about how to use Ebay. Sounded like a great idea for a topic.
Experienced ebay users how about sharing any tips or good things for a newbie ebay user.
Has anyone ever been ripped off on Ebay? I haven't. I've had very good luck. I'd guess I've done 50 to 75 transactions.

 

[California]

I'll start with a simple one.

In some categories such as year-old models of cameras, look for the one where the seller has photographed the camera (or whatever) on his own dinner table or carpet and posts his own unique photo. Beware the opposite, the Power Sellers unloading hundreds of customer returns of the same model. Read the description and appraise if the seller is really unloading it to buy the next year's model like he said he is. A seldom used camera from a fanatical enthusiast is likely to be as-new with all the manuals and accessories, and the price will be better, than a customer return from a Power Seller that is missing the charger or lens cover etc. Exchange some emails with the seller and size up if he is sincere.

I'll let someone else describe how to read feedback and identify good quality sellers. That is another skill you need to learn before bidding more than say $20 on ebay.

After a while you develop an intuition. Over on TBN today I said I identified a bogus auction as soon as it was listed and MrJimi, of course, was the first to argue with me. I was right. Massey MF 240 on Ebay - Scam?

Here's another pointer for the first timer. Do some serious searching in Completed Auctions to learn features and prices then never bid more than the average recent winning price. Also search Google, Altavista, etc for price comparisons. Soemtimes ebay prices are higher than retail for some reason.

And never bid until right at the end of the auction. The last thing you want is a price competition as the days go by. When no interest is revealed, other bidders are more likely to bid low. Bid once, a fair price that *you* can live with if you have to pay that much, and then hope you won. Also, with a little experience you can watch with two windows open and bid in the last moment, so no one has an opportunity to counter your bid.

My background: Joined Ebay 5/1998, feedback 230 all positive. I was a Power Seller during 2001-2002 when I sold about $15,000 of network backup tape drives, with the rest of my transactions just occasional hobby stuff. Never been scammed.

 

[California]

Selling on Ebay: Doc, I just noticed Sushi's post re ebay and I see he wants selling tips, not buying tips.

Here's what I found -

You can liquidate your own leftover hobby stuff but don't expect to make a profit. As I noted above, a unique photo taken in your home will help distinguish that your stuff is in better condition than the Power Sellers' customer return or pawnshop stuff.

To make any money on ebay you need to find a product with a good markup, ideally $50 or more. And you should sell identical items. If you are offering all unique stuff then the effort to photograph each one, do the research to find a good description and a good starting price, and then answer questions will be overwhelming. It's easy to fall into the trap of churning a lot of work that ends up earning $5/ hour. By selling identical items, you only do the marketing research once.

Look at the range of prices for completed auctions on similar items, and set your starting price to at least the 70th percentile or higher. Many times there will only be one bidder and you never want to sell for a $1 starting bid. I used a buy-it-now price around 80th percentile or even higher and was surprised that about half of my tape drives sold that way, usually higher than what people bid the other ones up to. For commercial stuff there seem to be buyers who only look at the BIN and buy immediately with cost a secondary consideration. And a high starting price avoids questions from people who don't know what the item is. You want to sell to someone who can put it in service without your assistance, and if they should make a warranty claim, you respect they know what they are talking about.

There's a lot more, but this shows it is harder to make money on ebay than it appears. Most who try selling on ebay quit when they realize there isn't the opportunity for a good markup because they can't find a source for a unique and profitable product.

Making a dollar or two on a huge volume is a specialty that few people can master. That is probably the hardest way to do ebay, I don't recommend it.

You need to find a reliable source for merchandise. Here is what worked for me, maybe you can find something comparable: A local shop specializes in bidding surplus electronics auctions, including government and high-tech. - Apple, Intel, HP, Chevron Labs (petrochemical) and many Silicon Valley upgrades or (in 2001) company failures. The Y2K fear caused firms to dump perfectly good stuff and I specialized in finding the tape backup drives in his pallets of widely varied stuff. My cost was $50 each, then typical auction price $175 for one model and $275 for another.

The place where you make money is by finding stuff well below what it will sell for on ebay. You can control cost, but you can't control sale price when others are selling similar items.

Anybody want a 35-70gb DLT drive? I'm down to my last two!

[this should have been a link, not an included photo. I don't see how to do that.]

 

[California]

Ok, since I seem to be doing all the talking ...

If you want to study Ebay as something to be learned and mastered, read the Usenet Newsgroup alt.marketing.online.ebay.

Don't bother with the Google version, it's cluttered and the links of a topic don't work very well. Rather, get a real newsgroup reader (Forte Agent, or better) and spend a couple of days reading several months of a.m.o.e threads. After that you will understand more that 90% of the ebay participants know. There are some real wise gurus posting there.

There are also user forums within ebay. I don't know anything about them but in a few visits I wasn't impressed.

Junk, Bob, who else has ebay experience? Does anyone on here make a living at it? Comments?

 

[Doc]

In the 90's I made a few extra bucks buying lots from a local surplus store. The store bought damaged truckload goods. Most items were in good working order but the packaging was not perfect.
As a new user you have to find something you can sell a few of to get some transactions under your belt. Even buying a few cheaper items can help get your rep boosted up to start.

 

[XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq]

I sold a bunch of posters on eBay a while ago. It took three weeks for me to get the pricing to the point of interest. I started high and kept lowering my pricing until I got some action. In the end I got $550 for some posters that I paid $30 for around 10 years ago.

These posters were considered collectible so it is was worth the expense for me to keep re-posting them and paying the fee. If I was selling something more common then I would have put more effort into getting my pricing right.

PB

 

[Deadly Sushi]

DOC!!!! my MAN!!!!
Wow! I JUST found this thread! Thanks for bringing it up!
Im reading it all after I write this. This is almost a present for me!

I owe you!