EBAY-selling/buying insights

Tom Dunlap

Tom Dunlap

Here from the beginning
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Retired in Minneapolis
Over the past few days I've been straightening up my shop. There are pieces of gear, not all tree gear, that still have life in them but I don't need them. Time to lighten my load.

I've bought a few things from Ebay and had good experiences.

Does anyone sell via Ebay regularly? Can you direct me to a how to primer on getting setup?

How about cautions to avoid hassles?

I'm bidding, in fifty cent increments, on a $90 ascender. The bid is up to $10.50 with two days left.

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I don't know too much about selling on ebay, but I can say that ebay is one of the best international thrift shops around.

I just recently bought two nice outdoor shirts that were lightly used (very lightly) for 2.50 a piece, and have bought many other pieces of clothing for very cheap.

jp
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tom--dont get nervous yet---there are a few snipe systems out there--and they dont bid until the last 7 seconds or so of the auction---so--it may get frantic in the last 15 seconds or so----
 
Tom don't keep bidding...put it on your watch list and at the end of the auction,if it's in the price range you want to pay, snipe it! SNIPE means to bid at the last second and steal it away from the other bidders. I used to snipe engine parts for the stockcar on E-Bay in the late '90's ;-)
Also remember that "slightly used" could mean "we only used it to pull the stuck bucket truck out of a yard a couple of times"!! I once heard a story of two guys taking another climbers harness out of the box and placing the D-rings over the balls of 2 trucks to pull out a stuck truck and hanging the saddle back in the truck and never telling the climber what they did with it...
 
And ah...what was that auction number anyway...you know...not that I'm interested or nothing...but you know so I can watch and see how I.. I mean how YOU do on it...
 
i got it--bit confusing the way you wrote it--thought you was SELLING--excess off!!! my bad---watch it for the last minute--and be ready to bid your max--and hit the enter at 10 seconds left---if it goes for more--you didnt want to pay more anyway----
 
I think he was talking about selling things off but let it sneak out on the ascender...E-bay has a video you can watch on your computer on how to sell. E-bay has changed a LOT over the years. The selling and listing fees have greatly increased. If no one bids or meets your reserve you still have to pay to have it listed. If you accept Pay-Pal(owned by E-Bay) they geta good chunk of change for the payment fee. It looks like Pay-Pal is about to become the ONLY payment option soon. To be honest Tom, I think you are really better off using the Tree-Bay selling page on Tree-Buzz for tree gear and using E-Bay for the non-tree stuff.
 
Kman,

You're right...some tree gear to sell. It'll go onto Treebay first. Then, lots of other stuff that should have value to someone and give me space...and less to move too.

Ha! You think that I'm going to let a $90 ascender get away from me? The bid stays at $10 until snipe time. I wish that it was a more convenient time of day.
 
Tom,

Set your selling auctions to end on a Friday or Saturday night/evening. This will give most bidders time to participate in the last second action!

Keep your reserves reasonable and be brutally honest in your descriptions. Believe it or not, your online reputation goes a long way once you have selling history.

Figure the shipping as best you can and keep it simple. Sometimes you'll make a buck or two on shipping sometimes you'll lose the same. It all comes clean on wash day!

Good Luck,


Tony
 
[ QUOTE ]
Tom,

Set your selling auctions to end on a Friday or Saturday night/evening...

...be brutally honest in your descriptions. Believe it or not, your online reputation goes a long way once you have selling history.



[/ QUOTE ]

Tony is absolutely correct. but I would also ammend that to say:Any weekend day before 10:00pm EST...

I have sold tons of stuff including a chipper, a truck, computers, chainsaws and bunches of other stuff.

First and formost, trust in the market. Don't monkey around with the "reserve" price. Set your opening bid to the lowest you are willing to accept and let that be your reserve.

When you set a reserve you are more than likely to turn off serious bidders. There are several reasons for this: A reserve 1) makes it look like the seller is not serious about selling 2)makes it look like the seller thinks the item is worth much more than it actually is, 3) makes it appear the seller is obviously trying to start a feeding frenzy and doesn't want to sell if it fizzles out.

Either way, many bidders look at a reserve price and wonder why the price is hidden and then wonder what else the seller might be hiding.

Sell at absolute auction and you will usually have plenty bidders.

If your item is decent and worthwhile don't be afraid to have the opening bid be $1.00. Thats right one dollar. The market will drive the price to what it is truly worth. It is odd some times as I have had multiple items end within minutes of each other and have quite varied final bids. But they all sell.

Otherwise, search on ebay for completed sales of similar items and see what they have sold for. If the stuff aint selling at a good price for you, wait a while and see if it does. Also, if you have a widget for sale and there are 1000's of widgets up for auction, yours won't bring a great price.

Bottom line with auctions is that people will bid if they think it is a bargain. More people will then bid just to beat the guy that has bid before them. That is how a lot, and I mean TONS of USED stuff often sells for more than retail!

Just as important, as Tony said, be brutally honest. Tell of every ding, scractch and deficiency you can think of. If it has special features or upgrades mention that as well. But if you are honest to a fault, you will have a great rep and great feedback makes selling stuff easier.

And lastly, don't be afraid to say that you don't know something about the item when you list it. Such as

[*] "I got this MaCullough saw used and have no idea what the history is, We've run it for 6 months and yesterday it would pop but not run. I don't have time to look at it or even try to figure out what is wrong...Maybe you'll be able to fix it real easy, but I just don't have time right now. Please bid accordingly"

Any you know what? That item will sell.

Now, all of this will help to eliminate the theives and whiners, but some will still come through. Be fair, honest and helpful, but stick to your listing terms and conditions.
 
Great insights, Thanks a lot!

I missed the ascender by a few seconds. I really don't need another one..but, I did see something else that I have space for...hmmmm...
 
Quick selling update Tom,

I just had an item up for sale, very unique and not in high demand. I had to get a minimum amount for it because of what I had into it and I was selling it because I really have no need for it any more.

Long Story short, I don't need to sell it, but if someone else could use it then it should go to a good home. Anyhow, my opening bid was more than anyone wanted to bid so the item did not sell.

However, the stats showed that almost 30 people were watching it so there was some interest.

Now, I have three options: a) relist immediately as it was previously listed b) lower my opening bid to encourage someone to start bidding c) put it back into storage and list it again later.

That's the beauty of the auction, sometimes you sell, sometimes you don't. There have been times an item didn't sell but when I relisted it there were people bidding it up immediately.

Go Figure?

Anyhow, good luck with your selling!
 
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