Ebay - Pros and Cons

With Ebay getting mentioned throughout the threads, I thought we could share our individual experiences both good and bad.

I’ll start with the bad since it happened recently. I sold a turntable with the plastic dust cover. It went for about $50 + shipping. Dust cover was cracked during shipping. I worked it out with the buyer and refunded the shipping. I didn’t loose money on the deal but I will be spending a bit more time on packaging in the future. Buyer was content and left positive feedback.

The only other “con” would be a couple winning bidders not paying (items didn’t ship).

My “pros” for Ebay include several items selling for way more than I would have ever expected. I had a pair of weighted (filled with cement/sand/etc.) silver salt and pepper shakers that I bought for something like $4 at a thrift store. The actual silver weight was probably only an ounce or two (silver was around $35oz). They sold for $240.

I also had some scrap “components” that I determined to have approx 6lbs of copper when cleaned. I shipped a 40 lb flat rate box for $38 + shipping. $6 lb for copper I didn’t have to harvest!

I list my items in batches so I can take all the pictures at one time, post descriptions at one time, and ship at one time. I have 115 positive feedbacks and I feel the exposure your items receive is worth the fees you pay.

Ebay is a pain, always favors the buyers over the sellers, when selling computers no matter what you do/say, people hold you accountable for software issues!
... not to mention the fees
ebay is nice to move some items like you had mentioned above though.

I am using E-bay a lot less right now since they started sucking a chunk of my shipping as well. they really push that free shipping crap.

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they really push that free shipping crap.

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My take on that is if my item has a buy it now price, then I raise the price of the item a little and reduce the shipping,or mark it free depending on what it is.
I've had a couple that didn't want to pay for different reasons, Ebay resolved it, no problem there, and I have a 350+ feedback at 100% so that helps also on the sales. I don't like the fee they added to the shipping but with the huge exposure, it makes up for it. I can Google something close to what I have listed and if I hit on one of the keywords then my listing will come up on Google in the top part of the first page.

I broke through 1000 a couple months ago and still at 100%. I have never had a negative and only a very few neutrals. Usually the neutrals are for stupid stuff. I was swelling coins and the buyer asked if I had more of that particular coin and I did not. She left me a neutral stating (too bad he didn't have more of these).

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She left me a neutral stating (too bad he didn't have more of these).

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I'd have cried like crazy to Ebay about the unfair feedback and someone there might have reviewed it and reversed it/ or just canceled it out.

I make more off ebay than scrapping. I sell alot of stuff that at first seems like it's scrap on ebay. The other day they were installing all the cash registers in a new "Micheals" they were building and threw the extra credit card machine mounting brackets in the trash. On a whim I put them on ebay for about $6 each and sold them. I got $36 for less than a dollars worth of steel.

Ebay keeps raising their fees but I can deal with it. I don't like how they have made it so easy for people to rip off sellers though, I've had that happen a few times.

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I was swelling coins

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How do you do that?? LOL

I hate feebay, the fees are high, the buyers don't understand about the fees the sellers have to pay so they don't want to pay higher prices to help cover them. I make more money selling on my website then I do on feebay without the **** fee's.

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Originally Posted by Mechanic688

How do you do that?? LOL

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Soak them in water.

My feedback is over 1800 right now. I have left around 3000 feedbacks, so you only get rated on half of what you do. :) I have been there a while.

I have changed to free shipping on most things. It has helped me achieve the top rated seller, which along with power seller helps reduce your fees.

I have had to deal with crooks and returns... but that's just a part of doing business. One of the costs of doing business.

Without Ebay I would be sitting on more crap then I have right now.

I guess I'm a little different then most. I'm a Ebayer getting into scrapping, not the other way around.

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Originally Posted by wdaddy

I have left around 3000 feedbacks, so you only get rated on half of what you do.

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After some debate I decided to leave feedback only after they have left feedback. I make that clear in my post so they know what to expect and I have got better results.

I guess for me feedback isn't as important as it was when I first started out. After 1800 positives you would think no one would think I am trying to scam them. That's the reason for the feedback in the first place. Now it's all about making a sale and finding more to sell.