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 Replies: 19 / Views: 2,905 |
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
Reup you don't need to have free shipping to get the tracking number free. But for the ops questions 1. Just make sure you're passwords are protected and use a different one for the paypal account. Enabling the text message security is good too. 2. I've gotten a lot of my coins online. For ebay I usually only buy slabbed coins for assaurance, even cheap coins you can sometimes find slabbed. You can always break them out if you collect raw coins. If you're going to buy raw though find trusted sellers Whether it be sellers you've bought from before, or larger sellers there are some reputable sellers on there. A lot of the bigger coin websites like david lawrence ect have ebay stores which I would be very comfortable buying from. 3. For selling just have good pics and good descriptions. If you're just selling small things like wheat lots ect its pretty straight forward. For larger lots of them the usps prepaid boxes can be great to save on shipping. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1054 Posts |
Another handy selling tip - avoid "reserve" auction formats and if you're going to do a "best offer" buy it now auction, be reasonable with the expectations. The ultimate goal is to sell lots of quality items and make customers happy.
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Valued Member
 United States
131 Posts |
Thanks for your responses. A couple of follow ups: I hear a lot of issues with shipping costs. How are they supposed to work? How much do I expect to pay for shipping in general? How much does ebay get? So a hypothetical: Let's say I buy a coin for $5. How much am I really going to pay for it? Let's say I sell a coin for $5, how much will I actually see? Thanks again members, your time is appreciated. |
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Valued Member
United States
299 Posts |
Shipping costs are announced right on the description page. Anything over about three bucks for a coin is something to avoid. A coin can be mailed for less than two bucks. Many sellers offer free shipping. If you buy a coin for fivebucks and two dollars shipping, you pay seven bucks for it. Generally where I see outrageous shipping costs are heavy tool items or junk that is not worth owning. The sellers of junk use a high shipping fee to discourage returns. Suppose you find a 'great deal' on a widget for only 99cents, but the shipping cost is ten bucks. When you realize you have bought krap after holding it in your hand or having it break after using it one time, you can get the 99 cents back, but not the shipping fee so you just toss it and not bother pursuing a claim. So I see high shipping osts for lightweight items as a signal to avoid that item and that seller. I also look to a seller's other items. For instance, I saw a rather nice looking Morgan dollar the other day, but the camera focus was not real clear. So I looked at the other items this seller had for sale. Every single one of them had the exact same sheen, a tip-off that he was cleaning and polishing them. Same with one well known seller who has rainbow toned Morgans all the time. It is clear that he is artificially toning them. Occaisionally when I look at other items, I see a lot of household junk and only a coin or two. This can be a person who has no knowledge of coins I have never sold on ebay, but it is the sellers that pay fees. As I understand it, those fees vary according to what sort of account and history they have. |
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
Quote:
Anything over about three bucks for a coin is something to avoid. I disagree. Theres no magic shipping cost where you shouldnt then avoid it. Shipping cost should be all about the method. If they charge 4 dollars for first class mail yes its a rip off. If they charge 5 for priority mail its actual cost. For shipping from good seller you should be paying basically what it says on the price was on the shipping label when it arrives at the door |
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Valued Member
United States
299 Posts |
Well true dat, but what I am getting at is that if you are paying a premium of five bucks or so just to have the seller put the coin in an envelope, I avoid it. The shipping ost is posted right out front before you bid,, so you know. It IS something to take note of.
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Valued Member
United States
230 Posts |
I believe ebay currently takes 8.25% out of the total selling price (including shipping) + the insertion fee. PayPal takes a few cents as well. So, taking all that into account, if I sell a coin for a total of $10 and ship it with First Class Mail w/ Delivery Confirmation (a must IMO), I expect to be left with no more than $7 in hand, probably closer to $6.50. Hope this clears up the selling fees. |
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
Quote:
if you are paying a premium of five bucks or so just to have the seller put the coin in an envelope, I avoid it. Agreed. Coin shipping supplies just arent that expensive its not like they have to buy a protective tube or something for a poster or bat. I think when its said and done the final ebay and paypal fees are between 10-13% and probably closer to 13 for sellers. |
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Valued Member
United States
131 Posts |
Thanks for all the help guys, I actually made my first (very small) purchase today. Looking forward to the mail for the first time in a long time...
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
nothing better than getting a coin in the mail, very dissapointing when you realize youll have to wait for monday though lol
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Valued Member
United States
131 Posts |
I got my first purchase in the mail today - it was exactly as advertised. Awesome! I followed many of your tips, and will certainly do so in the future. Thanks again, folks. Much appreciated
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New Member
United States
23 Posts |
(I know this thread lost steam a couple of weeks ago, but I just came across it.) One thing to remember with ebay is that while it is a convenient venue for small volume sellers, the costs can add up. Here are a few tips to save some money along the way: 1) Each month they give you 50 auction style listings with no listing fees. 2) ebay generally charges for each picture after the first that is uploaded to their servers, so save money by uploading your pics to a third party site. I run my own business and have an internet-accessible server that I've set up a picture folder on, but there are some free picture hosting sites as well. and... 3)Generate some volume so you qualify for the 20% final value fee discount for "Top Rated Sellers". All they require to qualify and maintain is that you have 100 transactions and $1000 in sales in the trailing 12 months, that you have excellent feedback, and that on all transactions after the 100/$1000 minimum is initially met, you offer 14 day money-back (minus shipping of course) returns. You then get your final value fee reduced from 9% to 7.2%. I've seen people say that items that sell for under $10 aren't worth the effort. I would say that you SHOULD do a lot of these transactions up front to get to the 100/$1000 threshold and THEN move to higher priced items where you can qualify for the discount. A bit of work up front will save you a lot on the back end, especially with them bumping the final value fee cap up recently. |
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
Quote:2) ebay generally charges for each picture after the first that is uploaded to their servers, so save money by uploading your pics to a third party site. I run my own business and have an internet-accessible server that I've set up a picture folder on, but there are some free picture hosting sites as well. They actually just revamped the rules quite a bit. Now you get 8 or 12 free pictures with every listing and in the near future every listing will have to have pictures. And  |
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New Member
United States
23 Posts |
Cool, hadn't seen that. I'll probably just keep self hosting since it's pretty easy with Turbo Lister.
Thanks for the welcome! I've been lurking a while, researching things here and there as I help my parents inventory and re-focus their collection. Have also gotten into picking up a few rolls here and there to CRH thanks to the site, mostly just hoarding silver and copper.
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
The fees on ebay for a sell are still pretty brutal, but at least the ability to have a quality listing free is now there. I would much prefer to sell on a craigslist or somewhere that has no fee but there much more risk involved with cl. I lurked for quite some time too before finally posting. Really is a great site. Fell free to ask whatever questions you may have in postings, tons of very informed members here that are willing to help out. I think most of us have some sort of silver collection too. I've been thinking about searching pennies for copper myself, usually bring back a pretty good premium on ebay if you get a good sized lot together |
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Posted 07/31/2012 5:15 pm
