Selling on Ebay - it's getting weird.

[vestcoat]

I recently listed a bunch of 99¢ Turbografx auctions on ebay.  It's been a few years since I've sold much on there and the changes in culture and policy are surprising:

1) I've got a bunch of offers to close listings early.  To be honest, one offer is pretty tempting.  Are these scams?  I never saw this in the past. 
2) An extra fee for 10-day auctions. This has been in place for a while, but it still pisses me off.  Price gougers can eat up ebay real estate for months or years with their "good-till-sold" BIN items, but I have to pay extra to extend my auction by three measly days.  And since 10-day auctions usually end higher, ebay takes a bigger closing fee as well.  :p
3) Seller education.  I was amazed by how much ebay tried to help me price things.  How is anyone supposed to find a good deal when ebay tells sellers what everything is supposedly worth?  And just like price guides, sellers tend to ignore the condition grading and focus on the $$$ when listing their beat-up, incomplete items. On the flip side, buyers are even more clueless as the searchable time frame for completed listings seems to be shorter.
4) More resellers.  I used to take steps to discourage ebay parasites from bidding on my auctions, so when good ol' Assmaster immediately placed bids on my current sales, I went ahead and blocked him. A few days later, I realized this was a lost cause - more than half of my bidders are currently stores and resellers. We've reached the pinnacle of consumerism: people's whose livelihood consists of buying things they don't need to resell at inflated prices.

[DragonmasterDan]

I recently listed a bunch of 99¢ Turbografx auctions on ebay.  It's been a few years since I've sold much on there and the changes in culture and policy are surprising:

1) I've got a bunch of offers to close listings early.  To be honest, one offer is pretty tempting.  Are these scams?  I never saw this in the past.  
2) An extra fee for 10-day auctions. This has been in place for a while, but it still pisses me off.  Price gougers can eat up ebay real estate for months or years with their "good-till-sold" BIN items, but I have to pay extra to extend my auction by three measly days.  And since 10-day auctions usually end higher, ebay takes a bigger closing fee as well.  :p
3) Seller education.  I was amazed by how much ebay tried to help me price things.  How is anyone supposed to find a good deal when ebay tells sellers what everything is supposedly worth?  And just like price guides, sellers tend to ignore the condition grading and focus on the $$$ when listing their beat-up, incomplete items. On the flip side, buyers are even more clueless as the searchable time frame for completed listings seems to be shorter.
4) More resellers.  I used to take steps to discourage ebay parasites from bidding on my auctions, so when good ol' Assmaster immediately placed bids on my current sales, I went ahead and blocked him. A few days later, I realized this was a lost cause - more than half of my bidders are currently stores and resellers. We've reached the pinnacle of consumerism: people's whose livelihood consists of buying things they don't need to resell at inflated prices.

I've been watching a certain auction of yours about a game that involves exploring Dungeons that I don't have. Which might help you with avoiding resellers if I wind up winning it.

But yeah, ebay changed quite a bit over the years and resellers are doing a large amount of the buying and then waiting for someone to come along and do a Buy It Now on your item at a higher price.

Added in edit: I have suspicions about which resellers are bidding and offering to close auctions early as well.

[Necromancer]

... and that's why it's better to sell your stuff here first.

[Black Tiger]

Sucks trying to sell games from Canada since eBay limits the amount you can charge for shipping a game to $4, but the cheapest shipping by Canada Post to the U.S. starts at $10.

[SMF]

Yea eBay has become a I WANT IT NOW AND CAN'T WAIT place to sell. If you are trying to get the most for your money let it ride till the auction ends, OR if you do take a BIN offer ask the seller if he wuld want to go thru PayPal and save on some fees that way. Paypal is still gonna back the buyer and seller and it will give you some extra change in your pockets. The way complete rare games are selling tho you might get a $300 and up fr certain games.

[jperryss]

1) I've got a bunch of offers to close listings early.  To be honest, one offer is pretty tempting.  Are these scams?  I never saw this in the past. 

Usually the seller that insists you end the auction early for them is someone that knows the price will end up going higher than they want to pay, so they hope you haven't done your homework or just have no idea what the item is worth. They will sometimes make up some BS excuse about why they need that item right away (I get it ALL the time with car audio gear). For example, you might have a listing that's bid up to $50 with a week left, and they will offer you $100 if you sell it to them right then, but the item normally sells for $130.

And yeah, eBay will nickle-and-dime the shiat out of you through the entire process, because they can. You get charged to list your item, you get charged if you want more than one picture to go with your auction, you get charged to add a BIN option, etc. Then they take a cut of whatever your item sells for. Then PayPal (owned by eBay) takes another 3%. I recently sold a bunch of stuff over the course of a month or so (no Turbob stuff ) and total sales were around $595. Then PayPal took their 3% leaving me with $575. Then a month later I had to shell out $67 in eBay fees. So when all is said and done, eBay/PP got almost 15% of that pie.

[_joshuaTurbo]

Just bidded on Falcon!!!


.....why the hell did I do that?

[nat]

Sucks trying to sell games from Canada since eBay limits the amount you can charge for shipping a game to $4, but the cheapest shipping by Canada Post to the U.S. starts at $10.

Yeah, when the hell did this start?

I sold something not TOO long ago and it wouldn't let me put down shipping as more than $3.99 or some shit. I used to be able to put whatever I wanted for shipping. I can't buy a box, packing, cover gas to the post office, and ship the item for $3.99. Hell, depending where it's going, $3.99 probably doesn't even cover postage. Maybe back in 1995, but not in 2012.

[vestcoat]

Are you guys trying to use flat-rate shipping?  Have you tried calculated shipping and then using the handling feature to cover supplies and shit? It's added invisibly. 

[nat]

Are you guys trying to use flat-rate shipping?  

I guess. In the past, I always just entered in a blanket rate that was reasonable and usually covered shipping and packing no matter where I sent it in the U.S. As of the point in time I sold that last item, this feature seems to have been removed and there are now (unreasonably low) ceilings on what you can charge if you do it this way.

And no, I've never tried the calculated shipping option. I guess I've never been able to place enough faith in the system to accurately figure out for me what it'll cost me to ship something somewhere (the $3.99 ceiling would just seem to reinforce this assumption). If that's the only way to do it now, though.... I guess I have no choice next time.

[vestcoat]

Yeah, it kind of sucks because you have to buy a scale.  Once you do, it works pretty well and I've never had any problems; you just have to pack and weigh everything as you prepare the listings and it's always good to factor in an extra ounce buffer - you don't want them to reject a package because you put an extra piece of tape on at the post office.

[SMF]

Whenever I can I use Flat Rate boxes from the post office. The Medium ones cost $10.85 to ship I charge $11 even. I don't even run it up to the post office I go online and schedule a pick up. If I HAVE to use a scale to weigh something I use my cooking scale and I always add 4oz t the final tally for that much needed buffer. I'm lucky cause my post office is open 24\7 365 day a year. Self service machine and a drop box inside makes life sooooo much easier. Walk in drop off and walk out and wave to the sckers that don't know how to work a computer or touch screen lol.

[esteban]

Just bidded on Falcon!!!


.....why the hell did I do that?

Energy would have been a far wiser purchase!

[Necromancer]

Energy would have been a far wiser purchase!

But what if Cook wants to challenge you to a dog fight on a pair of 'Expresses? 

[bust3dstr8]

Nat...it doesn't matter what you charge for shipping since ebay now takes fees on that too.
Since most buyers calculate what they want to pay for shipped items....you might as well just put free f*cking
shipping on everything.

http://lisasuttora.com/ebay-to-charge-final-value-fees-on-shipping-costs