e bay co-op - Page 2

I was a powerseller 10+ years ago, and I am on track to become a top rated and powerseller again at the March evaluation in a couple weeks.

In the last year I got 2 negative feedbacks. One was from a guy who admitted to not reading the description before buying that was later removed, and the other one is from a computer I sold on commission for a friend. Buyer didn't like the battery life left in a 5 year old laptop, I had to give him a refund in exchange for changing his feedback, I ended up losing money on the deal when all was said and done.

Computer components are especially difficult to safely sell on eBay right now because the buyer's protection process so heavily favors the buyer. To illustrate: A buyer has a computer that won't turn on. It is actually a bad power supply but he thinks it is bad RAM, so he buys a RAM card from someone. They pop it into their computer and it doesn't work. Under eBays rules they can either demand a full refund as much as a month later, or file a claim against you for sending them a broken item (even though the RAM works fine and the powersupply is the real problem) and 99% of the time eBay will side with the buyer. Also if they hit you with a negative or neutral feedback even a single bad feedback can knock a seller out of powerseller status and possibly cost them $100s in reduced fees.

There is no way I would ever sell something on eBay without it being in front of me, and being able to inspect it since my reputation would be on the line. And having sold many items on commission in the past there isn't much money to be made without absolutely ripping off the consigner. I'm happy for PTS, if he doesn't mind working on smallish margins then more more power to him. I'd suggest either selling to him, or cracking down and selling the items yourself. Doing the consignment thing in general is opening a can or worms and doing it long distance without both parties inspecting the item in person is opening up Pandora's Box.

I have been selling on ebay for over 14 years now. Used to do a lot of consignments @25% but those days are long gone. Now with the higher fees, Free shipping, frequent charge backs. It makes it really hard. Unless your taking in higher end items, you need to be at around 40% to see any profit that is worth the risk. Like Midnight said, unless you are getting $50+ Items its not worth it. Most people will show up with a truck full of junk and get POed when you tell them its not worth anything!