How to sell on eBay

[theLIBERTARIAN]

The good old adage Nictoe.

Or sell as high as you can. eBay charges a listing fee that must be aid whether or not the item sells. We have also run into problems selling store returns and quit doing it right away. The price was right but there were tons of complaints and returns. More darn losses.

eBay is so competitive. The margins can become nil. Then take a loss on a damaged shipment and a seller can begin to lose. Today we had a damaged grandfather clock (that was the first one, but FedEX has really gotten sloppy lately) and another call about a problem with a MIG welder. The welder is past the return period, but it is a bummer just the same.

The main thing a seller needs to do is avoid losses, I think.

[Nictoe]

Considering all the dotcom busts, that happened lately, eBay seems to have staying power. Only time will tell that it too will succumb to the all powerful culture of greed. The one particular peculiar issue I have with eBay...is this so called FEEDBACK thing. Seems like people there,are more obsessed with getting their keisters kissed, then they are with getting paid, or receiving the auctioned item. Unfreakinbelievable

[bestsynd]

Have you ever thought about selling some of your items on ebay, but found that you just don’t have the time to do it?  You might want to consider selling them through a drop off store and have them list, sell, and ship your items for you on Ebay.  One franchise called I-Sold-It offers these services. There are currently 164 stores open across the country with 600 more signed contracts to open soon. 

I-Sold It stores will sell your stuff for you on Ebay

[Nictoe]

With all these 3rd parties taking commissions, I would have to borrow money from the bank just so I could sell stuff on eBay.

[theLIBERTARIAN]

[Nictoe]

I'm not sure if this is true or not, but I heard where if you reach a certain level on your feedback...then eBay and PayPal will also take a certain percentage fee from that as well. Now if thats the case, then FOGETABOUDIT

[Nictoe]

A used...pink bathrobe
A rare...mint snowglobe
A Smurf...TV tray
I bought on eBay

My house...is filled with this crap
Shows up in bubble wrap
Most every day
What I bought on eBay

Tell me why (I need another pet rock)
Tell me why (I got that Alf alarm clock)
Tell me why (I bid on Shatner's old toupee)
They had it on eBay

I'll buy...your knick-knack
Just check...My feedback
"A++!" they all say
They love me on eBay

Gonna buy (a slightly damaged golf bag)
Gonna buy (some Beanie Babies, new with tag)
(From some guy) I never met in Norway
Found him on eBay

I am the type who is liable to snipe you
With two seconds left to go, whoa
Got Paypal or Visa, whatever'll please ya
As long as I've got the dough
I'll buy...your tchotchkes
Sell me...your watch, please
I'll buy (I'll buy, I'll buy, I'll buy...)
I'm highest bidder now

(Junk keeps arriving in the mail)
(From that world-wide garage sale)
(Hey! A Dukes of Hazzard ashtray)
Oh yeah...(I bought it on eBay)
Wanna buy (a PacMan Fever lunchbox)
Wanna buy (a case of vintage tube socks)
(Wanna buy a Kleenex used by Dr. Dre)
(Found it on eBay)
Wanna buy (that Farrah Fawcett poster)
(Pez dispensers and a toaster)
(Don't know why...The kind of stuff you'd throw away)
(I'll buy on eBay)
What I bought on eBay

(parody of "i want it that way by the backstreet boys)

[theLIBERTARIAN]

[Scott]

Great ideas. I have not sold on ebay in a while, but I'm about to start again. I had two accounts in the past. One I used to buy computer equipment and anouther to sell the computer equipment.

[Nictoe]

Couple Puts Itself, Family Up For Lease On eBay

WARWICK, R.I. -- Jojo Gator and Jackie Kidney want a new lease on life and they're taking that phrase literally.

The engaged Warwick couple, along with six other relatives, have put themselves up for lease on e-Bay -- $1.5 million for five years of service.

"It's two families for lease," Kidney said. "We all have different skills –- cooking, cleaning, auto service and landscaping."

Jojo and Jackie want to become someone's private staff in a tropical location. They got the idea after vacationing in Aruba when they realized they wanted a slower pace of life and an experience for their children.

They have five children from the ages of 1 to 17.

"I'm from Rhode Island and I've spent many, many winters up here," Gator said. "I'm done. I can't afford to live here anymore. It's really gotten that bad."

They've had a few serious inquiries.

"I got one e-mail from an agent,” Gator said. “The agent represents an entertainer and they might be interested in talking with us. If nothing else just for the publicity of an entertainer of buying this family.”

Gator and Kidney are serious about their offer and have even consulted a lawyer to come up with a service agreement.

"It spells out the payment plan," Gator said. "It spells out medical. It spells out room and board. We don't have to go anywhere that's not safe."

If their plan doesn't plan out, the couple has a back-up plan. They will leave Rhode Island in June and move to Shreveport, La., where Jackie has family.

Though Jojo and Jackie want to make one thing is clear.

"We're not for sale," Kidney said.

The bidding ends Tuesday, Jan. 17.


2 Families for Lease

[TaiShan]

I like the idea of having someone else sell my stuff for me. Maybe that way I will get rid of all my stuff!
_________________
Politically speaking I am a little ant in the ant pile paying my taxes and doing my job.

[Nictoe]

Demystifying the eBay Selling Experience

Short Cuts

By ALINA TUGEND
January 21, 2006

THE two collectible "Star Wars" light sabers - authentic sound effects! glowing bright blue blade! - had been hanging around our garage for months. They were a present from a well-meaning aunt to our 7-year-old son, who, unfortunately, had outgrown his "Star Wars" phase a few years before.

I knew they sold for over $100 each at retail, so I didn't want to toss them or give them away. Why not try eBay?

I had bought a few items off eBay before, but never sold anything. So one evening I logged on, scrolled around to find information about selling and after about five minutes gave up.

This happened several times, until the obvious dawned on me - I didn't want to spend the time to learn how to post something on eBay. It was never going to happen.

What next?

Well, it turns out there's practically an entire industry devoted to helping people like me.

I could, if I had the inclination, attend eBay University. Those are day-long seminars, held in different locations around the country, to introduce people to "Selling Basics" or "Beyond the Basics" in eBay speak.

For $59, I could get tips like creating "eye-catching listings," or, for the more experienced, "bulk selling tools."

On the other hand, I could avoid leaving my computer altogether and take a similar course online - free for the basics and $19.95 for the more advanced course.

Tempting, but I didn't think I'd be enrolling in eBay University anytime soon. Next option?

I could hire my own trading assistant. These are self-styled experts who also will post your item for you, then pack and ship it once it's sold. Depending on the person and what you're selling, the trading assistant might pick it up from your house. The commissions these assistants charge vary widely.

The eBay site lists trading assistants, and you can easily find one near you by typing in your ZIP code. The criteria are pretty loose: to be included in the Trading Assistant Directory, a person must have sold at least 10 items in the last 90 days; at least 100 different people must have left positive feedback on different transactions, with 97 percent positive feedback or higher; and the eBay account must be in good standing.

Aficionados of eBay, I've learned, follow their feedback score like investors watch the stock market.

"I have 4,000 feedbacks," was one of the first things George Salzano told me. Mr. Salzano, 56, became a trading assistant a few years ago, after having been an avid eBay player for some time.

He specializes in sports memorabilia (except cards), especially Japanese papier-mâché bobbing head dolls that can go for thousands of dollars.

Unlike many trading assistants, he has a set commission - he's raised it to 10 percent from 5 percent over the last year.

Mr. Salzano, who is on disability because of a stroke, has rejected items he believes are forgeries, and he also has helped people buy items to ensure they're getting a good deal.

His big sale as a trading assistant? A Harley-Davidson motorcycle that went for $2,999.99. Fortunately he didn't have to ship it - the Tennessee buyer drove up to get it.

A personal trading assistant was an option. But so was what is known as a bricks-and-mortar eBay shop - a store where I could drop off my items, and the sales personnel would do all the work.

In exchange, of course, the shop takes a pretty hefty commission - usually around 30 percent. It seemed less risky, however, than trusting "daisyface" or "crazyjo" - the user ID's of some of the trading assistants.

Those who run such stores are also considered trading assistants, said Hani Durzy, a spokesman for eBay. EBay has no more of a relationship with them than with any other trading assistant listed on its site, he noted.

"We put down a few parameters and then get out of the way," Mr. Durzy said. "If you like them, you'll use them again; if you don't, you won't."

There are thousands of such stores around the country, Mr. Durzy estimated. Some, like Auctiondrop, are in United Parcel Service stores. If the item is worth over $75 and weighs less than 25 pounds, you can leave it at Auctiondrop, where it is boxed and shipped to a central processing center. It is then photographed and listed.

Under its basic service, which costs nothing, Auctiondrop starts all bids at $1 and lists for seven days. Its commission is 38 percent on the first $200, 30 percent on the next $300, and 20 percent on the remaining amount.

Premium service, which costs $19.99, includes the basic service, but you can set an opening bid at more than $1. The fee is then credited toward Auctiondrop's commission if the item sells.

Others, like iSold It - the biggest eBay drop-off chain in the country, with about 500 branches - are individually owned franchises that complete the whole process internally. Typically, its commission is 30 percent of the first $500 and 20 percent of the remaining amount, which includes eBay listing fees.

Anyone who sells on eBay has to pay a listing fee based on a percentage of how much the item is initially put up for auction - the fees range from 25 cents up. The final value fee, based on what the item is sold for, is 5.25 percent of the first $25, 2.75 percent of any amount from $25.01 and $1,000, and so on.

I had little preference except for convenience, so, after finding an iSold It nearby, my oldest son, Ben, and I dug out the lasers (still in their original packaging) and took them to the store.

The saleswoman did a little online research, checking out what other "Star Wars" sabers sold for previously (sadly, I noted, there was no shortage of those on eBay) and suggested a listing price of $89.99 for each. That seemed reasonable.

About a week later I received an e-mail notice that our saber was on the auction block, with a link to check it every day for the seven days it was up for sale. I called my son over and we admired how nicely our product was presented online.

The box was photographed in focus, which was already a plus. The ad copy was sparkling. I would have bought it.

I eagerly checked the link every day. By Day 3, my hopes were dimming. Zero bids.

"Don't worry," friends knowledgeable about eBay told me. "People don't bid until the last day."

But, there were no bids with less than 24 hours left. It didn't seem like a good sign, and I was beginning to feel rejected.

The laser didn't sell. But, the iSold It rep didn't give up. She offered to post it again for $39.99.

That seemed a little pathetic, but what else was I going to do? If the item doesn't sell, the store will either give it back or donate it to charity. It was worth one last go-around.

After my last dismal experience, I didn't check the saber's status for a few days. Then, when I finally did, I saw two people had already bid the price up to $50. I was psyched.

The saber ended up going for $77, after a fierce bidding war in the last hours of the auction.

The next saber went on for $39.99, and never sold. I blamed a post-holiday market flooded with used "Star Wars" collectibles. However, iSold It proposed lowering the price to $29.99, and surprisingly, that did the trick. Although bidding didn't even start until the final day of the auction, it ended up going for $69.08.

The grand total? Well, we haven't received a check yet, since it usually takes 30 to 45 days to be paid after dropping off the item. But it'll end up being around $90.

I felt satisfied, if briefly. But then I started calculating how much we could have pocketed if we had done it ourselves. Is it too late to sign up for eBay University?

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/21/business/21shortcuts.html

[bestsynd]

Ebay announced recently that they are lowering the lowest listing fee from .25 cents to .20 cents. It comes at a time when people are looking to earn a couple extra dollars to pay higher double minimum credit card payments.

If you have a shortage of funds coming in from the new credit card crunch and you are short of time, you should consider selling part-time on Ebay. You can search around the house for things that you don’t need any longer and see how much you can get for the items.

Selling on eBay to make Extra Income

[Nictoe]

Someone has got to be a complete lunatic to do business on ebay.

[Nictoe]

Is eBay a facilitator of fraud ?

Seeing Fakes, Angry Traders Confront EBay

By KATIE HAFNER
January 29, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 28 — A year ago Jacqui Rogers, a retiree in southern Oregon who dabbles in vintage costume jewelry, went on eBay and bought 10 butterfly brooches made by Weiss, a well-known maker of high-quality costume jewelry in the 1950's and 1960's.

At first, Ms. Rogers thought she had snagged a great deal. But when the jewelry arrived from a seller in Rhode Island, her well-trained eye told her that all of the pieces were knockoffs.

Even though Ms. Rogers received a refund after she confronted the seller, eBay refused to remove hundreds of listings for identical "Weiss" pieces. It said it had no responsibility for the fakes because it was nothing more than a marketplace that links buyers and sellers.

That very stance — the heart of eBay's business model — is now being challenged by eBay users like Ms. Rogers who notify other unsuspecting buyers of fakes on the site. And it is being tested by a jewelry seller with far greater resources than Ms. Rogers: Tiffany & Company, which has sued eBay for facilitating the trade of counterfeit Tiffany items on the site.

If Tiffany wins its case, not only would other lawsuits follow, but eBay's very business model would be threatened because it would be nearly impossible for the company to police a site that now has 180 million members and 60 million items for sale at any one time.

Of course, fakes are sold everywhere, but the anonymity and reach of the Internet makes it perfect for selling knockoffs. And eBay, the biggest online marketplace, is the center of a new universe of counterfeit with virtually no policing.

EBay, based in San Jose, Calif., argues that it has no obligation to investigate counterfeiting claims unless the complaint comes from a "rights owner," a party holding a trademark or copyright. A mere buyer who believes an item is a fake has almost no recourse.

"We never take possession of the goods sold through eBay, and we don't have any expertise," said Hani Durzy, an eBay spokesman. "We're not clothing experts. We're not car experts, and we're not jewelry experts. We're experts at building a marketplace and bringing buyers and sellers together."

Company officials say they do everything they can to stop fraud. The company says only a minute share of the items being sold at any given time — 6,000 or so — are fraudulent. But that estimate reflects only cases that are determined by eBay to be confirmed cases of fraud, like when an item is never delivered.

Experienced eBay users say that the fraud goes well beyond eBay's official numbers, and that counterfeiters easily pass off fakes in hundreds of categories.

"EBay makes a lot of money from a lot of small unhappy transactions," said Ina Steiner, the editor and publisher of AuctionBytes.com, an online newsletter. "If you've lost a few thousand dollars, you might go the extra mile to recover it. But if you've lost $50 or $20 you may never be able to prove your case, and in the meantime eBay has gotten the listing fee and the closing fee on that transaction."

The Tiffany lawsuit, in addition to accusing eBay of facilitating counterfeiting, also contends that it "charges hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees" for counterfeit sales.

In 2004, Tiffany secretly purchased about 200 items from eBay in its investigation of how the company was dealing with the thousands of pieces of counterfeit Tiffany jewelry. The jeweler found that three out of four pieces were fakes.

The case will go to trial by the end of this year, said James B. Swire, an attorney with Arnold & Porter, a law firm representing Tiffany. The legal question — whether eBay is a facilitator of fraud — is a critical issue that could affect not only eBay's future but Internet commerce generally, said Thomas Hemnes, a lawyer in Boston who specializes in intellectual property.

"If eBay lost, or even if they settled and word got out that they settled, it would mean they would have to begin policing things sold over eBay, which would directly affect their business model," Mr. Hemnes said. "The cost implied is tremendous."

But eBay members like Ms. Rogers have little desire to wait for court decisions; they say that the uncontrolled flood of fakes is driving down the value of the authentic goods.

For the past few months, Ms. Rogers and three women she met on eBay who are also costume jewelry buffs have banded together to track the swindlers they say are operating in their jewelry sector. "People have faith that eBay will take care of them, but it doesn't," Ms. Rogers said. "EBay has done nothing."

Carrie Pollack, who sells jewelry from her home in Sudbury, Mass., and is part of Ms. Rogers's group, said an authentic Weiss brooch of good quality could command $150. But she said the profusion of counterfeits has confused the market and diluted the value of such a pin to as little as $30.

"It's a situation that's facing all of us in the jewelry world, and I suspect other decorative arts as well," said Joyce Jonas, an antique jewelry specialist in New York. "It's totally out of control."

Over the past few months Ms. Rogers and her team have reported to eBay more than a thousand jewelry listings they believe to be fakes; only a few listings have been removed.

The women say that by watching the listings they have uncovered a ring of a half-dozen or so counterfeiters, most of them living in Rhode Island within a few miles of one other. They say the sellers supply one another with fake jewelry, conceal the fact that they are buying from one another to boost their seller status, and regularly dole out positive feedback to each other to fool potential buyers.

Ms. Pollack was unaware of the abundance of counterfeit pieces on eBay when she paid $360 for what she thought were genuine pieces of Weiss jewelry. She demanded a refund from the seller, who refused.

Ms. Pollack said it wasn't until she filed a formal complaint with PayPal, eBay's online payment system, that the seller offered to refund her money. Since then, she has sent eBay officials a raft of evidence pointing out the presence of the counterfeits, including an independent appraisal from Gary L. Smith, a gemologist in Montoursville, Pa., who declared the five brooches Ms. Pollack sent him to be unmistakable fakes.

This reporter, too, sent a butterfly brooch with "Weiss" stamped on the back, purchased for $12.99 recently from one of the alleged counterfeiters, to Mr. Smith. He determined that there was nothing vintage about it — certainly not the very new glue used to hold in the glass stones. (In a subsequent phone conversation, the seller, Garnet Justice, who lives in Leesburg, Ind., said she had "no idea" whether the pin was authentic, and offered a full refund.)

Antoinette Matlins, another gemologist, also purchased five vintage pieces from the sellers tracked by Ms. Rogers's group to determine their authenticity. She found them to be cheap knockoffs worth less than 10 percent of their sale prices.

But she was not surprised. Whether online and off, she said, "fraud is rampant in any venue where you are looking for a steal."

EBay's feedback system that allows buyers to post negative reviews of bad sellers is supposed to protect customers like Ms. Pollack. Yet all of the alleged counterfeiters had consistently positive ratings.

Ms. Steiner of AuctionBytes.com said this situation was not uncommon. Buyers and sellers are often reluctant to leave bad reviews, lest their own reputations suffer.

EBay does not allow members to contact other potential buyers to warn them of possible fraud. Otherwise, said Mr. Durzy, it would be too easy for someone to try to ruin the reputation of a legitimate rival.

Ms. Rogers said she had no qualms about breaking the rules by contacting buyers about fakes she spots. In November, she even put up a listing that advertised a fake Christmas tree brooch from Eisenberg Ice, a vintage costume jewelry maker, just to make people aware of the fraud.

"The reason I am doing this is because eBay won't," the listing read. "Let's stop this madness — these fakes are pushing down the price of authentic jewelry."

"The frustrating part is that eBay just stands back and lets these people make thousands and thousands of dollars" while taking a fee for each transaction, said Ms. Rogers. (The company's profits rose 36 percent in the last quarter from the year before, to $279.2 million.)

After the spectacular case in 2000 when a fake Richard Diebenkorn painting was nearly sold for $135,000 on eBay, the company put in place a handful of safeguards like the PayPal buyer protection plan, an improved system for spotting eBay policy violations, and improved detection of fraud in general. But when it comes to counterfeit goods, the problem has gotten worse.

Artwork is particularly vulnerable to counterfeiting. "The majority of things that appear on eBay are fakes," said Joel Garzoli, an art gallery owner in San Rafael, Calif.

Mr. Durzy argued that "if we began to automatically pull listings for things reported to us as fake, we could be pulling listings that are legitimate." He added that the company had to rely on trademark owners to "tell us something is counterfeit." Yet trademark owners like Tiffany say they have gotten no relief.

Ms. Rogers and her team say their efforts may be working. The number of bids on the fake vintage jewelry pieces has dropped sharply since they went into action, they say. Nonetheless, the seller who sold Ms. Pollack the knockoff is still in business, and recently put up for sale a "beautiful Weiss brooch with lots of sparkle and shine." Starting bid: $9.99.