Is it worth all the hassle selling on Ebay

[Tay Bridge]

I have sold a number of locomotives and other 00 stuff on e bay without any problems. I always use special delivery. factor it into postage. Never even had a breakage. Wrap it well and make sure you have money first!!

 

In fact i have sold some items for well over £100n to fund new stuff. Worked for me

 

 

Chris

[Dieselbob]

I recently sold a Hornby class 58 Loco on ebay for £23.00 inc post, I sent it 1st class signed for post, about 10 days later it was returned to me by the post office because they tried to deliver but could not, and the buyer failed to collect in the alloted time (I think 8 days).

That was 4 weeks ago and I have emailed the buyer through ebay twice since then but have got no reply.

My point is that you never know what could have happened in the time the buyer paid, to the time the package arrives, I hope he's ok.

Bob

[big jim]

noticed the new ebay restrictions the other day, come into force in june, you can only do 100 99p listings a month for free now then after that you will get charged a 10p listing fee

 

i list a lot of my stuff for 99p purely because its free to list, books, kids clothes, fancy dress headgear (deely boppers), most of the time they get bid up to decent prices so i'm happy, ebay are happy because they get their fee's, if they don't sell then its cost me nothing to list and i continue to relist for free until the item is sold (or packed off to the charity shop!)

 

with the new restrictions we will end up having to pay ebay for listing any items over the 100, so will be out of pocket if they don't sell, add to that the final valuation fee's and paypal fee's then selling is becoming far less attractive by the month, granted its far better than doing car boots etc but i'm getting a bit cheesed off with it now

 

i've got a 100% feedback of 3100+ now but i got a warning the other day saying my postage fees feedback had dropped below the required standard, their suggestion was "offer free postage"....

 

so, if i listed say a hardback book for 99p to avoid the listing fee and it sold, from the 99p i take out the selling fee, the paypal fee, cost of the envelope, postage cost and cost to go to the post office then i'd probably be a good £4 down

 

if i listed it for say £4.99 then ebay get their fees from the listing as well as all the above and i'd be lucky to break even

 

another thing that is grating me at the moment is maximum postage costs, my wife has been selling some of her old clothes, some sold individually, some have been going in bundles which poses the problem, the bundles cost £8.75 to post and individual items cost around £4 recorded for say apair of jeans (not inc packaging) but the maximum we can charge postage is £3.50 so we are down before we start

[hayfield]

noticed the new ebay restrictions the other day, come into force in june, you can only do 100 99p listings a month for free now then after that you will get charged a 10p listing fee

 

i've got a 100% feedback of 3100+ now but i got a warning the other day saying my postage fees feedback had dropped below the required standard, their suggestion was "offer free postage"....

 

another thing that is grating me at the moment is maximum postage costs, my wife has been selling some of her old clothes, some sold individually, some have been going in bundles which poses the problem, the bundles cost £8.75 to post and individual items cost around £4 recorded for say apair of jeans (not inc packaging) but the maximum we can charge postage is £3.50 so we are down before we start

 

Big Jim

 

For most people a hundred free postings a month would be far more than they would ever use, and we must remember that Ebay is there to make its owners money. For small low cost items free listing is a boom however I still use higher starting list prices as I feel that the small listing cost is good insurance to ensure an item makes a minimum price.

 

My postal charges vary, and as most do I charge for post and packing, the costs are always stated up front, most of us use P&P to off set some of the charges, on the odd occasion where my estimates have gone wrong I have sent refunds. There is always the odd person who moans about these charges. It may well be that the model railway fraternity are used to paying the appropriate postage costs. When buying if I think the postal costs are too high I either avoid the item or reduce my maximum bid.

 

Ebay has produced a vehicle where we can sell our unwanted items / services. For selling model railway items car boot sales are no good, there are no local model shops any more, auctions are for higher value items and dealers pay a pittance (they have to make a living). Ebay in fact has opened up a whole new oppertunity to sell items which otherwise would have no value and or maximise the amount we recieve for our items.

 

As for your own problem with ratings for posting charges, it may be in the way you are presenting the postal charges on your listing, or the goods you are selling attract those who want something for nothing. If you want to continue to sell they you will have to alter something. But free postage with a low start price is not the way forward.

['CHARD]

Jim, I had exactly the same email/ warning from eBay regarding my P&P rating falling below standard. This despite a 100% rating across approx 2000 feedback, and only glowing comments from buyers. I suggested in reply that eBay had conveniently forgotten that they actually imposed a freeze on that particular detailed rating during the postal strikes last year, which lasted for a few months. This has the effect that your postal score is artificially depressed and there is nothing that the seller can do about this, apart perhaps from making some statement to that effect in the item description.

 

Of course, I got no reply, but the threatened restrictions on my activity didn't materialise either.

 

EDIT by the malingering punk at 0738 Brutish Simmer Time:

 

the above should refer to Dispatch Times, obviously. In the categories that I sell primarily (best of British old school punk rock) the P&P charges have just been relaxed - we can now actually charge people what it costs to send items, rather than mandatory Free P&P imposed by eBay at the height of the recession.

I would describe some of their policies and communications with sellers as at best contradictory.

[big jim]

.....the goods you are selling attract those who want something for nothing

 

that seems to be the problem, i've never had a problem with people complaining about postage with my railway stuff, when we sell clothes/shoes etc we have no end of problems with people wanting something for nothing or wanting stuff sent abroad, we don't send abroad because of previous dishonest buyers.

 

we've just had a neutral from someone who queried the postage after buying then demanded a discount and what can we do about it, nothing

 

In the categories that I sell primarily (best of British old school punk rock) the P&P charges have just been relaxed - we can now actually charge people what it costs to send items, rather than mandatory Free P&P imposed by eBay at the height of the recession.

I would describe some of their policies and communications with sellers as at best contradictory.

 

i gave up selling records on ebay when they did the free p+p because of the same reasons i highlighted above, to cover the postage AND packaging on an album/12" single i'd have to start the listing at £5 which costs me money (25p) whether i sell or not

 

i use discogs now instead for buying and selling