Selling stuff on eBay/Amazon.com

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DISCLAIMER: This is NOT, in anyway, a thread about soliciting money, which is against WP.net rules, but rather talking about experiences about selling stuff online. With that said, here goes.........
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Lately, I've tried my hand at selling some stuff I don't need on eBay. For me, it seemed like I didn't know what to do at first, but once I started shipping off the first of the items I sold (as soon as I got payment from the buyers), it seems like it's a snap to deal with.

When I went to the post office today in Seattle, all I did was give the packages to the post office attendant at the desk (the shipping label is prepaid), and they said they would take care of everything else. It was that simple. A very seamless process.

Let's hear about your experiences of selling things online.

My past experiences with selling things on ebay weren't particularly pleasurable. I ran into two different types of customers, though I've heard of more. The ones I encountered were those who were respectful to the buyer and knew what they were getting was worth more than they were paying as I sold relatively hard to come by collectible things for a fair bit less than their true values. Then there were those who see ebay as a massive garage sale, and employ rude bartering techniques and try to bring the price down to the ground through personal messages... some even resorting to hollow threats toward your reputation, make loud noises as they figuratively stomp off while saying they'll never look at your listings ever again and advise their friends to do the same, and then you have to address the care package to them the next day as they win the item anyway. The rude ones made the experience too stressful to warrant regularly selling on ebay, and of course you can't send them the box of rocks they deserve for their blatantly rude behavior.

Also, I learned never to bother watching a bid, and to just expect to take loss of receiving the lowest possible bid gracefully, or that the item may not move. I on occasion got a fair bit more than my expectations, but for the most part, people just toss pennies around to outbid each other like they're just there for the thrill of winning something more than they even want the item. Bracing yourself before hand in expectance of receiving nothing makes any damage not really sting.

I'm that jackass who throws a twenty on top of something inexpensive to surpass any likely bids at the last second if I'm actually trying to grab something off ebay. Generally because if I'm wading through the stressful waters of ebay, there's something I can't just buy under a normal transaction based circumstance. If I could, I'd rather just pay for it traditionally even if it costs more >_>

My other experience, was that on things that didn't sell, most things where there are many buyer options like non-vintage video games, really don't sell all that easily, or at least on first listing. So if you only get so many free listings per month (don't remember how that works, it's been a long while), and have a bunch of things to sell, the game or whatever common collection that wont fetch much per piece really isn't worth the effort if you have things that are more obscure to get rid of. I just sold my games at a huge loss to gamestop in the past because I was in a hurry to get rid of stuff and couldn't really take the time to list them... with the work to list them, I'd probably not have changed my action considering the amount of listings and addressing separate transactions that would have had to have been made and re made.

Also, as an obvious note, if you don't sell in volume, or don't sell more valuable items, the items you have to ship off may not even be worth your time and trip money to the post office.

My mother used to run a lot of sales off ebay selling wares from home as a seamstress. So I've seen her stress about it and deal with difficult folk far more than my couple hand full of auctions she helped me with at the time.

I have sold two items on ebay and I find it difficult because of the packaging and not knowing the cost to ship it. It's hard to figure out the cost if you don't know how you are going to package it. I didn't get much money when I sold a couple things. Paypal charges you for getting money and plus you have to pay for the shipping and it was more than I thought so I didn't have much money left over I made. It's better if the winning bid was high but mine didn't go high and it didn't go higher than the winning bid because I only had one bidder. Plus it costs money for the auction and to attract bidders you have to make it all fancy and it's like gambling money because not everyone will bid on it so money is wasted when the auction ends and there were no bidders. Selling on ebay isn't my forte.

My dad has been a successful seller since I was born.
Says he has never had any major problems with it.

That was a problem for me at first too. Here is my workaround:

1)Before you even list something, package it. This will require buying/finding the appropriate cardboard box or padded envelope. It is a good idea to save cardboard boxes from things you buy to re-use them. You might discover that something is so cumbersome to package that it's not even worth listing while other things fit easily inside a standard 9x11 padded envelope.

2)Buy a food scale- the kind dieters use. These are just great for weighing small boxes or envelopes. Larger boxes can be weighed on a typical person-weighing scale. Weigh your packaged item and use this website to calculate shipping charges:
http://postcalc.usps.com/

Do the above before even listing something. That way you will know in advance how much it will cost to ship and will also have packaging supplies on hand so you won't have to scramble around to find the right packaging in a hurry when somebody orders your item.

I've sold through Craisglist before but never Ebay. I have a few things to get rid of now. Since I've been having bad luck with Craigslist, I may look into something else. If Ebay seems too problematic I'll probably just sell my gear to a local pawn shop.

yep, in my experience Craigslist is pretty much a scam - most people who I tried to buy stuff from were cheating, and any time I did try to sell through it (due to shipping to being worth it) the people would refuse to pay fair price, they would run the price down in emails and then run it down again in person AND act like they were doing me a favor.

for ebay - I have sold either 6 or 7 items mostly stuff that from a collection my partner had (after she died) - it worked out very well, decent money and honest people.

^ I've been doing well selling eBay, not bad for a first-time seller like myself.

You can request flat-rate boxes from USPS online. They will ship them to you for free, and you can just keep them in your closet. The price rarely changes. For instance, I know that the small flat-rate box costs a little more than $5 to ship. I think the medium-sized box costs about $8 to ship, and the large box costs about $15 to ship.

I buy bubble wrap from FedEx Office. They have giant spools of it for less than $20 per spool. Then I keep it in my closet, so it's always available.

On Amazon.com I purchased some half-page sticky labels for ~$8. They can be put into your printer so you can pay for postage through ebay's website and then print the labels from ebay right onto said labels instead of having to go to the post office to buy postage or address labels by hand.

Then you can just apply the label to the flat-rate box, and can just drop the box into any one of those blue USPS receptacles around your neighborhood. You don't even have to take the box to the post office. After you buy postage, print the postage and address onto the label, and attach it to the box, it's read to ship.

For shipping costs I charge whatever the cost of shipping the box is, and round it up to the next dollar, to pay for the cost of the bubble wrap and the small cost of the label. I don't have to have a scale or go to the post office, either.

Having the boxes, the packing material, the labels, and the exact knowledge of how much it costs to ship things even before I list an auction makes it much easier.

That is kind of schmarmy. I would prefer if it was included as a built-in price of the item purchased. Nothing more annoying than seeing you overpaid for shipping when you look at that little price label and it says €3,99 when you ended up paying €6,99
Of course, you can just pretend it is the built-in product cost.

If the actual charge of shipping the box is $5.15 and I have to pay $5.15 plus the cost of the label, the cost of some bubble wrap, and the cost to transport the box to mail it, it's "schmarmy" for me to charge $6 and to list $6 shipping within the auction itself?

If the amount I'm charging to ship is within a few cents of the actual amount it's costing me and if I mention the cost of shipping within the item description I don't think that's schmarmy at all.

I also don't print the postage cost on the shipping label. If it's $5.15 to ship but it costs me closer to $6 including the cost of packing materials, I don't think it's any of the buyer's business, and I don't think they have any right to think that they got cheated when the amount I charged them is so close to what it actually cost to ship. From the time any of my auctions start, in the item description the shipping price I'm charging is listed, and I don't include additional shipping costs I didn't actually have to pay.

Most people who purchase things online are used to the idea that unless an item explicitly says otherwise there are going to be shipping charges. I don't hide that fact or try to mislead anyone. I've been using ebay since the 1990s, and I have 100% positive feedback.

"shipping" implies cost to ship

not postage cost, it can even include handling charge (labor to pack the stuff and walk it to the office to get it shipped, there is even gas/wear tear on vehicle to get it there)

I hope your business goes well.

A week ago, I did have a buyer fail to pay for the item I sold. eBay customer service was very nice and helpful towards me; the non-paying buyer now has an unpaid item on her record. So, eBay's a great company.

Well, almost one month into my first foray into selling stuff on eBay, and I find it quite fun.

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