The EBay thread.
 

Buying? selling? Tell the Dwellars all about it here.


Sent by thought transference

I'm selling this:
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item...d=201353638486
I find I get all hung up on the value and search incessantly for the top price that "my item" could fetch. And then come down with a bump when I see that its twin sells for feck-all. So I pick a starting price with a pin.


Sent by thought transference

You have a good eye when it comes to collecting things.
I'm lucky if I get 99p for anything I sell!

That a cool looking bell. And it's some sort of love token.

Brings Anita Ward's Ring My Bell song to mind.

I like the photos. The bell looks all rustic and old, and having it sitting on the old weathered wood shelf with the stucco looking wall as a background is the perfect setting.

When I was taking pictures of my blu-ray player, I had a difficult time finding a nice, clutter free location to do the shots. I didn't realize just how much crap we have in the house until I tried to get a picture with no crap in it.

My expired listing for the blu-ray player. I tried to make it sound really good without sounding like I was too full of bullshit. But I did say "audiophile delight" in the title. That's some USDA Grade A bullshit right there.

I buy stuff I like, keep it for a while and sell it when I'm fed up with it. I've seen an identical bell listed on a Russian site for around £250, but I doubt I'll get that much. I have another bell of a similar age to list. Should I do it now, or wait until this one has sold?
And yes, Glatt, finding the right background makes a difference. I don't always bother to do it, but that bench is just outside the kitchen door so if it's not raining it's an easy choice.

This.

It's tedious and exhausting:mad:

I'm trying to do that less ... It all started when I Ebayed stuff for my mum. Part of the symptoms of her Parkinson's (with hindsight I see this) was a sort of paranoia of losing her good selling name on Ebay (and fixating on the Perfect Description, honing it for days, nay weeks, and picking the Perfect Time for an auction to end ...) so I was urged to do lots of research on her behalf ... It's a habit I'm trying to divest myself of.
At the end of the day, as with any auction, it depends who is "in the room" at the time.
My dad had a sort of "good luck to 'em" attitude to people picking up lucky bargains and my mum did too, when she was well. I try to think "Well, if it goes for a song and someone can sell it the next day for a fortune, they got lucky." Better than footling about wasting time trying to find EXACTLY the right combination of words to draw in the perfect buyers and never getting rid of anything!

You should do it now and link the auctions to each other, because anyone interested in the first one might also be interested in the second one.

You could click on the HTML tab while writing the entry, and you'd put something like

<a href="http://www.ebay.com/itm/201353638486">See the listing for my similar bell</a>

OK. I'm always afraid that I'm setting myself up to compete with myself for the one buyer with the money and desire to buy the item ... If that one buyer were me I'd probably decide to buy neither bell if I wanted them both and they were both available at the same time. I'm ornery like that :)

I also think about myself and what I would want to see as a buyer when I'm writing my listing. What else can you go on?

I know what the listings I hate look like. And I try to avoid looking like them, but maybe they are effective and I should copy them?

Listed bell no 2 and cross referred them to each other.

I've considered listing everything at $1.00, and letting the market work.

My favorite way to buy is to look at the history of a type of item, so I know what it should go for, and then look for a Buy It Now that's at that price or a little lower, and then just buying the damn thing.

My least favorite way is to bid on something where there are 7 days left to the auction. Who wants to wait 7 days for a sale? And then another week for the shipment?

It also annoys me when the going price for an object is, let's say $20, and the market is flooded with people trying to get $30 and there are no bids, so you have to wait for the sane person to list one at the proper price.

There are a number of bells which keep getting relisted at around the USD 130 mark, which makes me think that that's not the price. I like to set an auction of around a week so that people get a chance to see it. I suspect that not everyone is online 24/7 like what I am.

As an EBay virgin, I'm having difficulty comparing EBay with Craigslist, which I have used several times as a buyer, not a seller. What say you?

I was on a huge gem stones kick for a while. I gave them as gifts. eBay has 800 carat emeralds (extremely poor quality but pretty) for under $20.00. :-)

I just posted another one. I re-taught myself some basic HTML to post better and more pictures.

I would use that camera all the time, if I could easily get film for it.

You can order film online very easily and send it out for processing with pre-paid mailers.

Here's another auction I just posted.

I still have a Speedlight SB-15. It's been the filler flash and backup to the more powerful Vivitar 292 on my F2A as well as the primary flash on my FTN when I was working two cameras. The SB-15 is a really nice unit.

I was a little sad putting this stuff up for auction. It's a bunch of really nice equipment. Too bad film is such a hassle and expense. But putting it up for auction was the first time I touched it in a decade.

And here's one last one for today. My FIL's 35mm camera. It's nice, but not worth much now. Maybe the flash will generate some interest.

I'm monopolizing this thread. Sorry.

I have a question.

I sent the blu-ray player with tracking, but no signature required.

It was delivered on Friday afternoon. The buyer sent me a message this evening claiming he didn't get it.

What happens in this situation? Will ebay make me give the money back?

That, I don't know. I've never been the one taking care of shipping and everything that happens after the listing.

The buyer can't seek restitution from the carrier you chose and employed. The buyer can only seek restitution from you (unless it was covered by the eBay protection plan).

Besides, the buyer needs that money so he can order pizzas to eat while watching movies on his new Blu-ray player that he didn't have to sign for.

I've bought tons of stuff on eBay and never had to sign for any of it. Are you supposed to require a signature?

For any purpose, including eBay sales, it depends on the value of the item, the ability of the carrier to prove (without getting a signature) that they not only delivered it; but, to the right address and how much you can afford to lose for the sake of not inconveniencing yourself; or, your customers with that requirement.

In this kind of situation, buyers can use what sellers call "feedback extortion" to make you act quickly, before you can even contact the carrier and coordinate with eBay, to give a refund or else they'll leave negative feedback and ruin your eBay rating. EBay rules prohibit sellers from leaving negative feedback on buyers so that's no deterrent. Once they leave negative feedback, the onus is on you to prove that they actually got the item in order to get that negative feedback expunged.

Hopefully this buyer isn't corrupt, demanding, or suspicious of you and will give you time to investigate and it will all work out. You may want to start requiring signatures on higher dollar value items so you don't have to sacrifice them to save your ratings and fight with carriers for restitution.

Buyer was apparently out of town for the holiday weekend. On Sunday, he checked the tracking of the package to see when it would arrive, and saw it was left at his door Friday afternoon. He called his son, who went over there, and there was no package. The Post Office delivered it 5 days faster than they said they would.

I care about my 100% feedback, but I'm not sure I care to the tune of $280.

I wonder what the right thing to do is? I held up my end of the transaction, but the buyer has every right to be unhappy. Should I offer to split the loss with him? Give him a full refund, even though I didn't do anything wrong? Take the money and run?

That sux. Damn I dislike some people.

I'd say the really, really, proper thing would be to give the dude his money back, IF you think he's being straight with you.

But, like you, I'm not sure about $280 worth of proper. Offer to go halfsies, if he gets too shitty about it, tell him to take a hike and talk to his neighbors.

You do have reasonable proof it was delivered, after all.

I'm out about $60 on shipping and eBay fees, plus a $250 player. So I'd be eating $310 to give him a full refund. $60 of that is real money.

I think he's being honest, btw.

I'm going to offer to go halfsies on our actual losses, which would mean sending him about $120.

If there is an official method/direction of eBay problem resolution, you should go that route, I would expect?

Like, did he go through the resolution center to say what happened, or did he just contact you directly? He could very well accept money from you and then open a problem against you...

That's reasonable. If he's on the up & up he should go for that.

Very good points. My brief poking around leads me to believe it would be a slam dunk win for me with eBay. I have proof it was delivered.

But I need to research this more.

And according to this page at eBay, I win. I have proof it was delivered. So any money I give him is because I'm a nice guy.

And crunching the numbers:
Auction total was for $280.77 (which includes shipping)
Paypal took $8.44 and sent me a payment for $272.33
Ebay will take 10% and after I pay I'll have $244.25
Shipping was $31.77 so we're down to $212.48

If I go halfsies with him, he'll get back $106.24 of his $280.77

And I'll get $106.24 for my troubles.

Hopefully a neighbor took it in for him so it wouldn't get stolen and it will still turn up.

If he gives me negative feedback, I'll still have 96.9% positive feedback.

I've seen eBay listings containing seller statements saying that they are not responsible for lost shipments; but, will follow up with the carrier as best they can.

This provides for a good rebuttal in the event of negative feedback. The seller can state that the buyer knew the policy and made the purchase anyway so there's no foul.

BTW, If a seller's rating is below 99.7%, I read the negative and neutral feedbacks. If the seller hasn't successfully rebutted them and done so in a professional tone, I don't buy from that person.

YMMV and perhaps it would be a good subject for a Cellar poll: What percentage of eBay seller positive feedback is your threshold before becoming wary of buying? 100%, 99.9, 99.8, 99.7, 99.6, 99.5, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 90, 85, 80, 75, I throw caution to the wind.

The pawn shop is 99.3%. That is a good rating for a pawn shop, because pawn shop items do often have issues that could not be found. A first-hand seller knows everything that's wrong with an item, but a second-hand seller can often only know that it switches on and all the controls are not stuck. Alan is a good packer of items and manages everything very efficiently. I'm sure that's about the best possible in his situation.

The tweaker was running a 98 for a while, he had to learn a few things about how to pack and how to manage the operation. He's actually at 99.2 right now.

Since you like crunching numbers, what's the dollar value of your feedback?

Let's say it's going to cut your returns by 5%. (That seems high, but let's run with it.) Are you planning on selling $2000 worth of items in the next 12 months?

I think that feedback is an imperfect measure of how trustworthy a seller is. The only time I had someone flatly try to scam me they had great feedback.

I would play it by the books. If a week after the official ebay resolution comes down you still have trouble sleeping, donate the $106 to a local charity.

Well, I'm doing a bunch of selling now in large part because my FIL died last Fall and we inherited a lot of his stuff. Our house got extremely cluttered in a short period of time, and we've figured out what stuff we'll be incorporating into our lives, and what stuff is just extra. Some of that extra stuff is worth a lot, and I want to work up to unloading it on eBay.

With that expensive stuff, I'll be much more careful about insuring and requiring signatures, and even building a crate out of plywood and maybe even looking in to expanding foam packing systems.

I expect that if I prepare the packaging before I actually list the auction, photograph it, and explain what the careful shipping will entail, any negative feedback about a missing item won't hurt me much.

For big and heavy stuff, you should really try craigslist first. If no one's interested, you haven't lost anything but time and can post it on eBay. But if you can get someone local who can just come pick it up, it will be way easier for you, and there won't be any fees taken out.

Craigslist isn't really a thing here in the UK

Sent by thought transference

Why, because you guys are too smart to set yourself up for murder or robbery or combinations thereof? Seriously craigslist isn't safe, unless you are meeting in a neutral location and you're willing to stab some one in
the face if need be.

I wonder if it's because people are less willing to travel? Car travel is much more expensive here, what with tax, compulsory insurance, higher petrol prices, limited free parking and Congestion Charges.

If you live in London you'd have to be getting something free to make it worth getting in your car.

Craigslist personals aren't safe, sure. That's weirdos trolling for sex. But selling low-dollar used shit? I mean, if someone wants to rob me, why don't they just rob anyone in a random store parking lot? Would be a lot faster than exchanging three emails and then driving out to my house specifically. Why don't they just pick a house and knock on the door? That person's just as likely to be home and victimizable.

I mean yeah, don't drive out to a backwoods warehouse location at night with your grandmother's diamond ring. But if a guy gives me his home address in the suburbs to sell me a table for under $100 during normal daylight hours? That's safer than eating at Taco Bell.

Taco Bell. Funny. My last Craigslist exchange took place at Denny's, it was for under $100, and it was during normal daylight hours.

eta: I bought a string trimmer. And no, that's not what the kids are calling it these days.

NEVER go to their home, and for damn sure NEVER bring them to yours. ALWAYS meet in public places, preferably under video surveillance. Whether from Craig's List, or the classifieds, makes no difference. Nuts is nuts, after all.

I've bought a few things off CL, and since I was meeting a complete stranger, I went armed. Of course, I go most places armed. Because people.

But it makes it so much easier to dispose of the body.

And don't meet them to buy a vintage car off them because they may be tryin' to thieve ya and when it all goes awry they'll murder you, even if they have 'little or no criminal history."

http://abcnews.go.com/US/bodies-vehi...ry?id=28526184

Glatt, I would ask him to make a police report and send you a copy before I refunded anything. But then I probably wouldn't refund anything.

So the first bell (which was the second one I listed, but for a shorter "auction" time) just sold for £11.70. I thought that it had some interesting features, notably the original (as far as I could tell) clapper ("It still has a clapper consisting of an iron ring fastened to the bell with a leather strap. I was told when I bought the bell that this type of clapper was found in the bells used for express post horses. If fresh horses were needed at the next posting station the bell was allowed to ring out, but if it was night and no new horses required, a strap was passed through the rings in the clappers preventing the bells from sounding").
The Russian dealer who has one listed for around £250 may have to wait a while to get that amount, as may the sellers of various other similar bells on Ebay at around £35 to £85 ... These are the ones that keep getting re-listed.

Was that the one with the love inscription? Cause I thought that was neat.


Somebody finally bid on one of my cameras. I thought the Mamiya would get a lot of attention, but it's the Nikon that got a bid. And nobody cares about the Minolta. It's been viewed a handful of times, and I bet that was you guys.

yeh, probably. I took a look at them. Emailed my niece about the Mamiya as she's a photo buff.

No, Glatt - you've still got time to bid on that one for your sweetheart ;)

Thanks. If I were keeping it for myself, I'd replace the seals with one of these kits.

But instead of chasing film, I'm staying with digital. I just bought a new digital camera with some of my earnings on eBay. It's basically the camera I've had for the last 8 years or so except instead of a 12x zoom, it's a ridiculous 60x zoom, and it's 2.5x the resolution with better noise reduction.

So I can go to a baseball game and take pictures of the faces of the people on the other side of the stadium.

Or move to Boston and steal signals. ;)

.

Gosh them's some gold-ass warches.

You're welcome.

Nice! You could also take close up pics of birds ... My brother has a similar camera. He gets some fantastic shots.

Woo hoo!

Buyer just got back into town yesterday (Dude, you should not order expensive shit from eBay if you don't plan to be home for a week) and I received this message and positive feedback from him today.

He found the package!

All my positive and professional communications with him paid off and I got good feedback. :jig: