E bay truth

Personally, I find eBay to be a great outlet for the odd and unusual (like the item Gus showed). I think old, rare, unusual, discontinued and other hard to find items are best sold on eBay. I have not had much luck with items that are fairly common and in high demand, but if you can make a living out of selling those things more power to you. It would come down to volume and percentages, as PTS described. Ebay has its problems, but compared to other options it isnt so bad. I wish all my transactions on ebay and elsewhere were as easy as going to the scrap yard (bring in a pound of copper and walk out with cash), but that isnt reality. Good luck to you with it.

Originally Posted by shendog

Personally, I find eBay to be a great outlet for the odd and unusual (like the item Gus showed). I think old, rare, unusual, discontinued and other hard to find items are best sold on eBay. I have not had much luck with items that are fairly common and in high demand, but if you can make a living out of selling those things more power to you. It would come down to volume and percentages, as PTS described. Ebay has its problems, but compared to other options it isnt so bad. I wish all my transactions on ebay and elsewhere were as easy as going to the scrap yard (bring in a pound of copper and walk out with cash), but that isnt reality. Good luck to you with it.

It can be addicting too, specially if you start out strong, you're hooked
My first sale there was an experiment in more ways than one, firstly attempting to find a suitable camera for clean, clear shots. Of the first few cameras I tried, I only acquired one decent photo, the wooden face of an old sewing cabinet drawer, which became my first listing.
I'd bought this drawer, filled with old cabinet knobs at a yard sale for a buck. The drawer alone sold for $15 plus shipping. I was hooked yep, and proceeded to list, and sell, worldwide, each and every cabinet door/drawer pull/knob. If my memory serves me anywhere near correctly, I believe I made about $50 on it all, shipping some as far away as Thailand

Here's a funny one, counterfeit sports cards, under another account I have proxy bid $20,000.00 the guy who's auction it was shilled me to my limit.

He emailed me asking me to remove my bid, I told him since he figured out how to shill my bid it was up to him to remove my bids. True story.

Another, one time you could also raise the price on your auction, I had an old chainsaw a two man Mercury with an 8 ft bar listed with a $250.00 starting bid. I wasn’t getting any action so I upped the price to $500.00 then shorted the auction time down to where there was 24 hours left.

What I did not know is that i had a sniper using auction bid software hiding in the weeds, one closing bid - $500.00.

It did not take ebay long to remedy that problem, yes big brother is watching, I may have personally been responsible for some of the changes made to ebay.

Not necessarily changes for the better.

Here's a funny one, counterfeit sports cards, under another account I have proxy bid $20,000.00 the guy who's auction it was shilled me to my limit.

He emailed me asking me to remove my bid, I told him since he figured out how to shill my bid it was up to him to remove my bids. True story.

Another, one time you could also raise the price on your auction, I had an old chainsaw a two man Mercury with an 8 ft bar listed with a $250.00 starting bid. I wasn’t getting any action so I upped the price to $500.00 then shorted the auction time down to where there was 24 hours left.

What I did not know is that i had a sniper using auction bid software hiding in the weeds, one closing bid - $500.00. It did not take ebay long to remedy that problem, yes big brother is watching, I may have personally been responsible for some of the changes made to ebay.

Not necessarily changes for the better.

Monster two man chainsaw, same as the one I sold. Too bad the guy does not know how to sharpen his chain.