I Just Finished My Last ebay Sales

[Michigan Badger]

For my type of goods, ebay has gone to the potty.
I just lost about $73 on a sale.

I had $80 in the items and when all fees were paid and my shipping charges paid, I cleared $7.

Lots of buyers today don't realize how high postage is today.

The facts are ebay is going down and even ebay admits it. They once towered over Amazon.com and Craigslist but today they tie with Craigs.

Ebay auctions are now only 30% of what they were in 2006.

5 years ago I'd get 300 hits on coins I posted. Today even the best are doing well to get 30 hits.

From now on I'll keep my account only for those rare items I might want to buy. As for all my electronics and major buys I go to Amazon.com.

 

[spartacus53]

Or, you can just offer free shipping. All you need to do is build in the price of mail and handling into your product. Not too many will try and break down the cost, if they want the item, they will purchase it. Many sellers offer free shipping, believe me, you're paying for it one way, or the other

 

[Michigan Badger]

Or, you can just offer free shipping. All you need to do is build in the price of mail and handling into your product. Not too many will try and break down the cost, if they want the item, they will purchase it. Many sellers offer free shipping, believe me, you're paying for it one way, or the other

Actually he did get free shipping. I charged $10 for shipping and it cost me almost $20 to ship it to California.

This is about the 3rd or 4th time this has happened to me. I've tried setting prices higher but then people won't bid and the ebay charges just pile up.

Precious metals and other specific collectables still sell on ebay but not much else. The bay has gone to the dogs.

This should help garage sales to improve in the future I do miss the old days before ebay when one got super bargins at garage sales and thrift shops.

 

[kuger]

Yep,I quit selling on there too,there fee's were getting ridiculous!!!

 

[Michigan Badger]

Yep,I quit selling on there too,there fee's were getting ridiculous!!!

Right. My family mostly shops Amazon and buys and sells off Craigslist now. But personally I never did well with CL when I tried it. All I got was a lot of spam. But at least it's free and that means a lot.

The odd thing is, if you do a search online you'll discover that ebay knows it's going down as far as auctions are concerned. They're now down to 30% of what they were at their peak and they say they'll go lower.

My question is, why then don't they lower posting/selling charges? They seem bent on running themselves out of business.

Ebay has a feature whereby one can have one's item posted until sold or cancelled. I've tried it but very few people ever click on the listed items. I've had normally hot items posted for months.

 

[kuger]

Yea,another thing I dont like is the ability to see peoples screen names.I have a lot of associates interested in the same items I am and often find out later we bid against each other.
Just thinking of the $ E-Bay robbed from me last year angers me all over again!

 

[baspinall]

It's risky but I think if you start you auctions at .99 the fees are a whole lot cheaper.

 

[kuger]

It's risky but I think if you start you auctions at .99 the fees are a whole lot cheaper.

Yea,I wont do that again,I have takin it hard doing that,and of course they charge ya to set a reserve

 

[Michigan Badger]

The .99 cent thing worked years ago when there were a lot of bidders. Today you'll lose your shirt doing that.

Between ebay fees and postal charges (which are nuts), my days of selling through them are over.

It's a shame though. Back in the early days of ebay it sure was great. Back when they still allowed certain types of guns (BB guns, black powder, etc.). Their charges were low for selling. I make a killing back them but turned around and spent it all on ebay. It was great fun but nothing lasts forever.

I messed-up on some great items back in those days. They once had this cool super early flintlock musket for like $75 and I didn't big! It was an original and not a repro.

 

[Detectingfreak]

Since there are a lot of fakes on coins for ebay, whenever i want one I make sure to go to a coin shop. That's probably why people are not viewing your coins. I am not saying your not an honest seller, but there are a lot of people out there who are their to scam you and make a buck. When people get hit hard by that, they take their business else where. Good luck I only use ebay to buy action figures now.

 

[kuger]

The .99 cent thing worked years ago when there were a lot of bidders. Today you'll lose your shirt doing that.

Between ebay fees and postal charges (which are nuts), my days of selling through them are over.

It's a shame though. Back in the early days of ebay it sure was great. Back when they still allowed certain types of guns (BB guns, black powder, etc.). Their charges were low for selling. I make a killing back them but turned around and spent it all on ebay. It was great fun but nothing lasts forever.

I messed-up on some great items back in those days. They once had this cool super early flintlock musket for like $75 and I didn't big! It was an original and not a repro.

Boy,I hear ya,I used to do the same thing!The whole in bed with PayPal stinks too,it is a shame,it was a great tool!

 

[Michigan Badger]

You know I wish back then I'd kept better records and photos of the early ebay. But back then I thought it would be that way forever.

I once bought 7 or 8 $1 U.S. gold coins for $40-$65 each! They all had issues of one sort or another but what a deal! Once I got a near mint $5 gold for about $100.

Another time (ca. 2006) I bought about 25 silver pieces of eight (8 reale cobs ca. 1670's) from a shipwreck for $20-$25 each! I sold all of them for $65 to $150 each.

Back in about 2000 ebay had a model tall ship that was made by a real X pirate while he was in prison ca. early 1800's. The ship model was 6 feet long and had awesome detail! It went for about $100 as I recall with about $100 shipping charge. I'm still kicking myself over that miss.

 

[Michigan Badger]

Since there are a lot of fakes on coins for ebay, whenever i want one I make sure to go to a coin shop. That's probably why people are not viewing your coins. I am not saying your not an honest seller, but there are a lot of people out there who are their to scam you and make a buck. When people get hit hard by that, they take their business else where. Good luck I only use ebay to buy action figures now.

Yes you're right. China and others have filled the market with bogus coins. I have fakes I bought for personal uses and they have no COPY on them and are exact copies of the real thing. I can tell by the slight color difference they're fakes but lots of people couldn't.

I heard the Chinese went so far as to use the silver from real U.S. cull silver dollars to make SOME OF their rare U.S. silver dollar coin fakes. I read that some of these coins are in private collections and are so good they will fool the top experts. But most they turn out are pretty easy to ID as fakes.

I know of a man in California who for years made a living by making fake shipwreck Spanish cobs. He did this during the 50's to 60's as I recall. To my knowledge his fakes were never discovered.

 

[kuger]

You know I wish back then I'd kept better records and photos of the early ebay. But back then I thought it would be that way forever.

I once bought 7 or 8 $1 U.S. gold coins for $40-$65 each! They all had issues of one sort or another but what a deal! Once I got a near mint $5 gold for about $100.

Another time (ca. 2006) I bought about 25 silver pieces of eight (8 reale cobs ca. 1670's) from a shipwreck for $20-$25 each! I sold all of them for $65 to $150 each.

Back in about 2000 ebay had a model tall ship that was made by a real X pirate while he was in prison ca. early 1800's. The ship model was 6 feet long and had awesome detail! It went for about $100 as I recall with about $100 shipping charge. I'm still kicking myself over that miss.

Again spot on!!I used to buy Bows (a special kind of hunting bow)on there all day for $100....now you cant touch em for less than $250,and relics I have missed!!!I still do that!!!Thats why it such an awesome tool,stuff from all over!

 

[Michigan Badger]

You know I wish back then I'd kept better records and photos of the early ebay. But back then I thought it would be that way forever.

I once bought 7 or 8 $1 U.S. gold coins for $40-$65 each! They all had issues of one sort or another but what a deal! Once I got a near mint $5 gold for about $100.

Another time (ca. 2006) I bought about 25 silver pieces of eight (8 reale cobs ca. 1670's) from a shipwreck for $20-$25 each! I sold all of them for $65 to $150 each.

Back in about 2000 ebay had a model tall ship that was made by a real X pirate while he was in prison ca. early 1800's. The ship model was 6 feet long and had awesome detail! It went for about $100 as I recall with about $100 shipping charge. I'm still kicking myself over that miss.

Again spot on!!I used to buy Bows (a special kind of hunting bow)on there all day for $100....now you cant touch em for less than $250,and relics I have missed!!!I still do that!!!Thats why it such an awesome tool,stuff from all over!

Relics are a sweet deal. Ancient coins and many other relics are dirt cheap. If you get away from the known big sellers you can about name your price. I bought a whole box of arrowheads from a guy in Wisconsin for like $8. I sold them to a collector and they were all genuine.

 

[bigscoop]

I was actually buying on Ebay and selling those items on other websites at a good return, may start doing it again? Ebay has allowed themselves to become too buyer focused and as a result they feed their sellers to death & forced ridiculous seller rating platforms down their throats. I can understand them needing to protect buyers but in doing so they've completely burdened the seller to death, this on top of the mounting fees.

 

[Michigan Badger]

I was actually buying on Ebay and selling those items on other websites at a good return, may start doing it again? Ebay has allowed themselves to become too buyer focused and as a result they feed their sellers to death & forced ridiculous seller rating platforms down their throats. I can understand them needing to protect buyers but in doing so they've completely burdened the seller to death, this on top of the mounting fees.

Yes, this is exactly what has happened. Back a few years ago it was slanted too much toward the sellers. Buyers often didn't post negative feedback for fear of retaliation from the seller. For this reason I let many crooks get by with taking me something awful.

One fellow advertised an "original painting" and many of us bid on it. I got it for like $125 and when it arrived it was a cheap thrift shop piece of crap. I've been on ebay for many years and always kept 100% positive feedback and I didn't want to throw it away for $125. So I let him get by with it. This happened at least 5 or 6 times on small to very large items. Back in those days I lost at least $2000 to dishonest sellers.

Today, with Paypal rules, I lose nothing other than the return postage. I've filed about 3 claims in the last year and won all of them. One guy sent me a broken PI detector and in his ebay pictures you could see how he hid the broken area. The whole machine had been dumped into salt water and was totally dead and beyond repair. I lost $25 on return shipping but got back my original cost with shipping of $175.