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 Replies: 31 / Views: 5,144 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2077 Posts |
I listed 5 BU Jeffersons on a buy it now for $3. Didn't sell so I relisted. When it sold, the total fees with paypal and ebay came to just under $2. Good thing I charged for shipping. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
819 Posts |
yeah, I agree....I have been killed on some items I sold on ebay due to my listing free shipping instead of packing it up, taking to Post Office and then listing with actual shipping weight...should get me a good scale to make an estimate instead. Just sold some chevy hubs and after ebay and paypal and shipping I made 73 cents, not worth the trouble except I hated to throw them away when I know someone needs them. Overall I have done ok on ebay but wish there was an alternative. |
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
Oldskool thats why I always list with auctions. You usually get 50 free a month and they will do promotions like list free for a week almost every month. The listing fees on BIN only objects are almost always higher than an auction with a BIN as well.
Basicbob I made that mistake when I first started too. The free shipping is really only something the bulk sellers can afford. For valuable items I always just use some form of the prepaid priority mail boxes so I know I wont get an unexpected price when I go to ship it, if you print online they give you free tracking as well. If its an old movie or something I am just trying to get rid of and happy to make any money I just list it with no shipping and no tracking. If someone really tries to defraud me over a .99 cent item I'm willing to risk having to refun that instead of losing money from the get go adding tracking
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Moderator
 United States
23522 Posts |
ebay is not going to be viable for low-cost items, ever again. It's that simple. And for higher-dollar items, they still aren't at the size of the hit you'd be taking from any other major auction house.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10982 Posts |
Like SuperDave stated, items under $20 usually aren't worth the trouble and items under $10 definitely aren't. I always include free shipping in my ebay auctions and figure an even 15% for eBay/PayPal/shipping/packaging fees on typical $100 to $200 sales. The only auction house that comes close is Great Collections. Not coincidentally, Great Collections got my first ever coin auction consignment last month. Edit: My 15% figure should have included packaging & shipping expenses that I forgot to type. : ) Edited by BH1964
07/18/2012 05:30 am
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
2077 Posts |
What I didn't know is that "good until canceled" doesn't mean that ebay will list it forever. It means that after 30 days, they automatically relist it and charge you insertion fees all over again. Crooks. |
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Locked
822 Posts |
Makes perfect sense, you don't understand, so ebay is a crook. I get it. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1659 Posts |
Paying my ebay fees each month doesn't rank real high on my Favorite-Things-To-Do list, but I'd be hard pressed to find another venue with the amount of traffic and exposure to potential customers. With the fees considered, it's not worth the time to mess with items under about $20. |
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
Quote:What I didn't know is that "good until canceled" doesn't mean that ebay will list it forever. It means that after 30 days, they automatically relist it and charge you insertion fees all over again. That is pretty misleading. Actually didnt know that which is good to know |
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Locked
822 Posts |
Actually it's not misleading, when your going through the listing process.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1590 Posts |
Just because a marketing strategy is legal doesn't mean it is ethical. Marketing strategies are developed all the time that take advantage of human nature. Rebates are a good example. The reason you have to mail your rebates in, instead of receiving them at the Point Of Sale ( POS) is that some smart person figured out that most people (estimates are all over the place but at the retailer I worked for it was around 70 percent) will never file for a rebate. So just because it is legal does not mean it is ethical OR that the company is not trying their hardest to seperate you from your money. And lets face it, one day some really smart person is going to found ebay 2.0 and make a ton of money...mostly by stealing the selling base away from ebay. |
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
Quote:
Actually it's not misleading, when your going through the listing process. Actually it is misleading. Good till canceled means exactly that not we will recharge you every 30 days. I even just did a sample listing with it to see and at no point while you are listing is that mentioned anywhere. But if you want to just be a jerk to everyone and try and come off as somehow superior by all means go for it |
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Valued Member
United States
279 Posts |
I agree with scubu, (although his wording was a little more blunt than I would put it) it is pretty clear, click the "?" next to duration, and you get this, "Select how long your listing will run. Good' Til Cancelled renews automatically every 30 days until the item sells or you end the listing."
It might just me, but I try to always read things like that.
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
Brian fair enough and I usually do too. But at the same time theres no reason to believe that that would be any different then the other BIN listings.
For what its worth if you dont have your listings set up in the advanced listing format there is no "?" or anywhere where you could read that throughout the listing process if you use the normal setting for listings which makes it anything but clear in that format
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2150 Posts |
Scubu, after all these years I have to ask. Do you work for ebay? |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2077 Posts |
Quote:Scubu, after all these years I have to ask. Do you work for ebay? LOL- Yes scuba, I should have read all the terms. Still they charge way more than they used to. If there were viable competition, things would be different. I like the BIN/Best offer concept. Not sure why ebay considers this to have a higher value. Think I'm going to stop using it. I've noticed that no matter the auction duration there is almost no activity except on the first and last couple days. For the rest, your item goes into a page 25 netherworld. The only thing I don't like about BIN for regular auctions is that it disappears as soon as someone places a regular bid. Used to put "Free Ship with BIN" in my titles and would constantly get messages asking what happened to the BIN price. |
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Replies: 31 / Views: 5,144 |
Posted 07/17/2012 6:22 pm
