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Thread: ebay questions

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    Featured Member southstbabe's Avatar
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    Default ebay questions

    Does anyone here have any experience posting items for sale on ebay? I have a complete Snap-on tool set that was my first husbands that I need to unload. I'd say the whole set up is worth at least 10K. It's currently being stored in my parents garage but their house is up for sale and I need to get those tools out. I have no room in my garage at my house. Which leads me to ebay. I've never even bought anything from ebay much less sell something there. Any advice, guidence, expereince would be greatly appreciated.

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    Default Re: ebay questions

    PM and I will forward you to my auto mechanic boyfriend Joe... he has more tool specific knowledge then me and is a snap on EXPERT. Like in the $50000 worth of buying experience. Plus has web knowledge of auto buff forums that would jump all over each other to buy your ex' s tools.
    Last edited by Classic'sMontana; 12-21-2006 at 01:00 PM. Reason: Ex's Tools, as opposed to Ex's Tool. HA! Spelling.

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    Featured Member cameronfl's Avatar
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    Default Re: ebay questions

    Set up an account with ebay...also, set up an account with paypal so it will be easier for people to pay you.

    For something worth that much...decide now whether you are willing to take whatever to just get rid of it, or if you wont sell it for less than $x. If you arent willing to let it go for less than $x...set a reserve for that much ...that way even if someone wins the auction...if they dont meet the reserve price, you dont HAVE to sell it.

    Use the calculator so you wont have to deal with figuring out how much shipping is to everywhere...and decide whether it will be worth it to sell to other countries(with something that bulky..the shipping price is usually so high it isnt worth it).

    Also...look on ebay first to see what similar items are selling for. If you arent willing to sell it for less than say....$10,000..and you see that the same things are all going for less than $2000...you can be pretty sure you arent going to get what you want for it.
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    Featured Member Sinder's Avatar
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    Default Re: ebay questions

    Not to rain on the parade, but I have sold stuff on ebay for the last 6yrs, and it has gone down the shitter lately. Meaning people are bidding and then either not paying, which leads to alot of hassle to collect your fees back from ebay. Also Ebay will try to "mediate" when you lodge a "non-paying bidder" complaint....what a bullshit process this can be. AND I have even had some buyer try to scam me by saying that they never recieved their item( even though I always have delivery confirmation and tracking#)...so they try and get their money back. I dunno, ebay used to be a good idea, but it has turned to crap because of people like this. I hope your experience is better.

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    Veteran Member sensuality's Avatar
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    Default Re: ebay questions

    Some other advice: if its worth that much, you might want to try a buy it now option, and if you cant sell for that price, break everything down into seperate auctions. Only sell 1-3 items together
    With all the stupid things guys will say, stay cool.

    "Her apartment is littered with soggy G-strings and cheap 8-inch heeled shoes, along with empty tubes of body glitter, mascara, prescription drugs, zit cream, Aqua Net and Polaroid pictures of her and her "friends" engaged in some drinking and dancing on St. Patrick's Day last year. " My God....

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    God/dess Bridgette's Avatar
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    Default Re: ebay questions

    FYI, you generally won't get as much for it on ebay as it's really worth. Ebay is more bargain hunters than anything else. If you try to price it on ebay at anything close to what it's worth, you'll get dipshits emailing you offering you half the price for "cash today"

    BUT, if you post on ebay there are ways to get better bids.

    Price it WAY low to start out, no reserve. I've watched it in live auctions when I was an auction clerk, and online auctions as a longtime ebayer. Auction buyers will jump all over something when the starting bid is low with no reserve, and they'll bid the price up because then you'll have them hooked and fighting over it. But if you put a reasonable price on it and/or a reserve, nobody will even take a second look at it.

    Take lots of excellent (large) pictures, host them on photbucket or something, and paste them into your ebay listing page so they'll show up nice and large. Not so big they take up the whole screen. But big enough to show up and look good. Buyers love pics, and they'll pay more when the pics look good.

    Also upload one main photo to ebay's gallery option, and select "gallery" on your listing - that will make the little thumbnail show up in search listings and attract more shoppers.

    Put as much info about the stuff as you can. Brand, model, included parts, etc. Good descriptions = good bids.

    Start it on a Friday and run it 5 days, so it ends on a Wednesday. You'll get the most traffic that way. Also start it in the late afternoon/early evening. More people will be surfing and shopping then - you want to time the start/stop when the most people are online.

    Get a paypal account if you don't have one, and accept that PLUS checks and money orders as payment. Put on your listing that you will ship when payment CLEARS THE BANK. You'll attract maximum buyers by accepting all forms of payment. And if you get someone who wants to mail a check - you just deposit the money and wait for the check to clear your account before shipping.

    Post your shipping information on the listing. How it will be shipped and for how much. MAKE SURE YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THE SHIPPING WILL COST SO YOU DON'T GET SCREWED LATER. Know the weight and dimensions of the package so you can get accurate shipping estimates.

    READ the listing page carefully when you're creating the auction, and fill in as much info as possible. Ebayers are generally pretty savvy buyers, so the more info you give them the better.

    Use a good title with good keywords. Use the whole line allowed for the title. The more keywords you put in the title, the more traffic you'll get. Also use keywords in your description. It helps to surf some other listings for what you're selling to see what kind of keywords they use.


    These are the most important tips I can think of right now. If I think of more I'll post them later. Got errands to run now

    Quote Originally Posted by pheno View Post
    When you lead a nontraditional life don't try to measure it with traditional milestones.

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    God/dess Bridgette's Avatar
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    Default Re: ebay questions

    Quote Originally Posted by sensuality View Post
    Some other advice: if its worth that much, you might want to try a buy it now option, and if you cant sell for that price, break everything down into seperate auctions. Only sell 1-3 items together
    This is good advice too. Put them in smaller lots - put items together that go together for better bids.

    Quote Originally Posted by pheno View Post
    When you lead a nontraditional life don't try to measure it with traditional milestones.

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    God/dess Emily's Avatar
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    Default Re: ebay questions

    you could try craigslist too, but the drawback is that you'll have people coming to your house to check it out....and they'll try to bargain with you. So set your price higher than you're willing to accept. And be ready for lots of scammers (they are easy to spot though since none will ever actually meet you in person, but want to send money orders.)

  9. #9
    smartcookie
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    Default Re: ebay questions

    I've been selling various dust-gathering items in my closet lately, and I have to say, I had no idea that deadbeat bidders (ones who win the auction and completely FLAKE OUT on paying) were so darned common. You can require a verified PayPal address, and also check out previous seller feedback, but I did both, but I still ended up with late and deadbeat sellers. You have the benefit of eBay processes to deal with this, but don't expect a hassle-free experience.

    *Edited to say*: I've never NOT paid for an eBay item within the official timeframe...what is it with all of these fucktards?

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    Featured Member southstbabe's Avatar
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    Default Re: ebay questions

    Thanks so much for all the advice and experience stories. CM I'll send you that PM as soon as I can.

  11. #11
    Sitri
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    Default Re: ebay questions

    Don't start it out way low. SNAP ON is like the ultimate man's orgasm. This is what all of the professional mechanics use.

    I ebay all of the time and the first thing you have to do is find the retail prices of each tool and add them up.

    The next step is to divide the tools up into logical sets and list them separately. If you list them all at once, you are going to limit the number of people who can compete at the $10,000 level. You may only get $2000 for the whole set.

    But, if you have 20 listings at $500 target, you will get more revenue. Because you will be able to appeal to a lot more buyers at that level.

    Good luck.( I am so F*cking jealous) I love Snap On.

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    Featured Member southstbabe's Avatar
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    Default Re: ebay questions

    Quote Originally Posted by Sitri View Post
    Don't start it out way low. SNAP ON is like the ultimate man's orgasm. This is what all of the professional mechanics use.

    I ebay all of the time and the first thing you have to do is find the retail prices of each tool and add them up.

    The next step is to divide the tools up into logical sets and list them separately. If you list them all at once, you are going to limit the number of people who can compete at the $10,000 level. You may only get $2000 for the whole set.

    But, if you have 20 listings at $500 target, you will get more revenue. Because you will be able to appeal to a lot more buyers at that level.

    Good luck.( I am so F*cking jealous) I love Snap On.
    What you said about finding the retail price and listing everything is exactly what I've been putting off. I guess I just need to get my ass over to that garage and get to work. But I do have pictures of the set! That's one step taken.

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    Default Re: ebay questions

    There's obviously a variety of thoughts on this matter so here's my 2 cents.

    - Set the opening auction price low but create a high reserve price. This protects you from having someone bid $500 on a $10,000 item and winning.

    - Search through ebay for auctions selling similar items to what you are selling. This will give you a range of what it is actually worth. The more accurate values are going to be the auctions that are really getting bids.

    - I completely disagree with the mindset that people are just bargain hunters on ebay or that items never sell for what they are worth. That's pure nonsense. I've been buying and selling on ebay for years and in many cases, I've sold items for way more than what they are worth. Most recently, I just sold a used PDA cell phone for just a few dollars less than what they sell for brand new. When people get into the auction frenzy, it's amazing what they will do to make sure the "next guy" doesn't win. Remember, auctions pray off of emotions, not logic. Also remember the very first item ever sold on ebay was a broken laser pointer which sold for 40% more than what a working, brand new one, sold for of the same brand and model.

    - You never know what you're going to get bites on. My advice would be to sell the entire lot of tools in one huge lump sum first at a little lower than what collectively the individual items are worth on their own. Be sure to add up what they would be worth individually and how much the buyer would save by buying the whole lot instead of individual items. Ebay is viewed by tens of millions of people every day and for all you know, there could be some mechanic three states away who is looking for EXACTLY what you have for sale. Also, by selling everything individually, you'll be magnifying your work-load tremendously to sell them all off. My suggestion would be to run a 5 day auction with the entire lot of tools first and see what kind of bites you get. If it sells, awesome. If not, split it up a little and run two auctions...one of all wrenches and one of all screwdrivers etc.

    - As for payment, don't sweat it. There are tons of horror stories out there of customers not paying but what you don't hear are the non newsworthy stories of the people who do pay on time regularly who outnumber the deadbeats 1000 to 1. Ebay stories are like airplanes. You always hear about the plane that crashed but what didn't make news was the thousands of planes that landed safely all day. In all my years of being on ebay, I've only had one dispute with a buyer and his account was frozen by ebay just days after he won one of my auctions so it was no biggie. The best way around this is to be extremely clear in your auction about payment methods. I always state, "Paypal payments required (sorry, no checks, money orders or other forms of payment) and payment must be made within 48 hours of winning the auction or negative feedback will be left and the auction re-listed." If you use the Buy It Now option, the advantage is payment must be made immediately. Just make sure you are very clear about everything and you won't run into any issues.

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    Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle. ~Abraham Lincoln

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    God/dess Emily's Avatar
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    Default Re: ebay questions

    see, I'm of the school of thought that low opening price and NO reserve is the best.

    As long as you properly promote it (put in good pictures, in the right category, etc), people will see it. I don't know much about tools, but if people are paying $10,000 for an item over and over, it's not suddenly going to sell for $500 because you have no reserve. Bidders in the know just won't let that happen.

    If anything, people will be more interested in your auction because they think they can get a better deal. They will be more likely to be paying attention during and at the end of the auction and get a good bidding war going. I also think if you set a low initial price, you'll get people to bid on your items that might not otherwise. It will keep them interested in watching throughout.

    I don't sell much on ebay, but I do a lot of buying, and I'll ignore many auctions that have a reserve because I love a good bidding war.

  15. #15
    Sitri
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    Default Re: ebay questions

    you
    Quote Originally Posted by southstbabe View Post
    What you said about finding the retail price and listing everything is exactly what I've been putting off. I guess I just need to get my ass over to that garage and get to work. But I do have pictures of the set! That's one step taken.
    Can you post the pictures and let me know when you list it..?

    Daddy needs some new tools.

    But seriously, I have ebayed quite a bit as a seller when I sold my business I had a lot of crap like Cisco routers and AV stuff to sell. I didn't put a "blind" reserve on it, but I put a reasonable starting bid on them so I know I would get the price I wanted.

    The other thing was to list certain items with a "Buy it Now" price for items that someone would want now.

    First, search for Snap On Tools and click on ADVANCED SEARCH.
    check the "completed listings only" box

    These results will give you all of the Snap on tools. Best of all, it will give you access to click on a " view similiar active items" and "sell an item like this"

    This will give you an idea on pricing and how hot the item is.

    I would also list a few batches at a time so you don't flood the market.

    Another strategy would be to put the entire listing on for a week with the retail prices and a starting price of $4500 or something. But, most mechanics acquire tools piece by piece and don't have the money to purchase them all at once.
    Last edited by Sitri; 12-26-2006 at 04:16 PM.

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    God/dess Bridgette's Avatar
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    Default Re: ebay questions

    I'm in agreement with Emily and (mostly) Sitri too on this one. From my experience, a reserve price scares off the buyers (it also increases ebay's listing fees). Setting the price lower draws more interest, gets more people 'watching' the auction, and eventually into a bidding war when it's closer to end time. I have sold things for way more than I thought I'd get for them this way on ebay, and witnessed it happen over and over in live auctions when I worked as an auction clerk.

    Also agreed that smaller lots of logical groups, with only a few lots listed per week, will get more buyers. If you add the whole shebang in some 30 lots or something, you'll oversaturate the market.


    I haven't had much problem with deadbeat bidders - 9 times out of 10 the buyers have paid and come through for me. In the rare cases they didn't, I was able to get my ebay fees back.

    Quote Originally Posted by pheno View Post
    When you lead a nontraditional life don't try to measure it with traditional milestones.

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