First time eBay purchases.

[Madmick]

You got me. I have never sold anything on ebay. Not because i didn't want to, but because i could not get my money if i did sell over ebay (paypal was not avaliable in Croatia at that time, and lately, i don't have/need to sell things).

With data you wrote (i'll take your word for it), a seller is looking at minimum of circa 9-10% going to ebay and paypal. 10% is a lot, is all i'm saying, in terms of profit margins.

granted, i may have formulated my sentence poorly. Selling anything that has no added value to you for any amount is consider profitable (i know this is not the standard definition of profit, but i think you know what i mean in this case). What i meant to say is that, selling your stuff on ebay, with A LOT of competition (if it is a standard consumer product), does not yield as much profit as one would hope for. Especially not as much as in the early days of ebay.

Do you consider your specific case to be a rule or an exception to the rule? Would you (as a reasonably smart guy) buy a 2 year old Xbox for $215 when you could get a new one for $250 (game included)? Count in the fact that older Xbox consoles used to break frequently, and (i presume) you didn't give a guarantee to the buyer (which he would have in case of a purchase of a brand new item), would you label him as a stupid or a smart person?

I consider my case to be the rule. I've sold tons of stuff on eBay. That was just one example. You should have just stopped after the first paragraph. Is there more competition on eBay these days from other sellers? Sure. But there's a disproportionately much greater amount of competition between buyers. You fail to understand that it's an auction site; competition is shared between buyers and sellers alike. What does it matter if the buyer was a "stupid" or "smart" person? That was the winning bid. I don't care if they all ride the shortbus or if they're all rocket scientists. Pay me.

Ten years ago sucked- relatively- for sellers. It was basically a massively marked down flea market. I've been a high volume buyer on eBay since it was founded. Take shoes as an example. I used to buy signature line Nike basketball/xtrainer shoes in college. I bought over three pairs of VCIII's (a shoe that retailed at Foot Locker for $150): all three pairs I got for under $70. I got numerous pairs of other Nikes that retailed for $120+ for anywhere from $25-$50. At any given time there was over a hundred pairs of a dozen different shoe models going for 30%-70% off the retail price. It was ridiculous. There was no competition among buyers for anything but Jordans. Good luck scoring deals like that now. I go onto eBay and I can barely find a single pair of full length Air Max basketball shoes for less than I could get them off Zappos, or an Eastbay sale, or a dozen other places online.

The point is that it introduces your item to a virtual mall where your product gets thousands more sets of eyes than it would on your local Craigslist or Facebook "Needs & Wants" page. I never would have found a buyer inside of 100 miles of my location that would have paid $170 flat for that. Not a chance. Go ahead and try. You can simultaneously list there. If it sells on eBay, you can always tell CL or FB people that "it already sold". They're just glorified Classified ads, man. They suck compare to eBay. You're paying a 10% fee for that virtual foot traffic. That's why "Location, Location, Location" demands such a premium in the real estate business, and that's why eBay is well worth the fee for sellers.

 

[Frylock]

Ebay works fine as long as you aren't a dumb dumb

 

[Caution]

All this for a pair of gloves?

 

[Long Dark Blues]

First and last time I bought anything from ebay was probably 1998ish. I bought Cypress Hill's entire catalog up to that point on CD, including every single and all imports. The sale also included a baseball hat, a snow cap, and a bucket hat all with the Cypress Hill logo on them, a bunch of stickers, and posters.

I think I paid $30 for all of that, not including shipping.

Yeah, I was a big Cypress Hill fan back in the 90's.

My buddy made a killing ripping people off on ebay back then. Which is why I never really got into buying stuff from ebay.

 

[taurus]

I consider my case to be the rule. I've sold tons of stuff on eBay. That was just one example. You should have just stopped after the first paragraph. Is there more competition on eBay these days from other sellers? Sure. But there's a disproportionately much greater amount of competition between buyers. You fail to understand that it's an auction site; competition is shared between buyers and sellers alike. What does it matter if the buyer was a "stupid" or "smart" person? That was the winning bid. I don't care if they all ride the shortbus or if they're all rocket scientists. Pay me.

Ten years ago sucked- relatively- for sellers. It was basically a massively marked down flea market. I've been a high volume buyer on eBay since it was founded. Take shoes as an example. I used to buy signature line Nike basketball/xtrainer shoes in college. I bought over three pairs of VCIII's (a shoe that retailed at Foot Locker for $150): all three pairs I got for under $70. I got numerous pairs of other Nikes that retailed for $120+ for anywhere from $25-$50. At any given time there was over a hundred pairs of a dozen different shoe models going for 30%-70% off the retail price. It was ridiculous. There was no competition among buyers for anything but Jordans. Good luck scoring deals like that now. I go onto eBay and I can barely find a single pair of full length Air Max basketball shoes for less than I could get them off Zappos, or an Eastbay sale, or a dozen other places online.

The point is that it introduces your item to a virtual mall where your product gets thousands more sets of eyes than it would on your local Craigslist or Facebook "Needs & Wants" page. I never would have found a buyer inside of 100 miles of my location that would have paid $170 flat for that. Not a chance. Go ahead and try. You can simultaneously list there. If it sells on eBay, you can always tell CL or FB people that "it already sold". They're just glorified Classified ads, man. They suck compare to eBay. You're paying a 10% fee for that virtual foot traffic. That's why "Location, Location, Location" demands such a premium in the real estate business, and that's why eBay is well worth the fee for sellers.

lol, why u mad, bro?

I don't know why you got all defensive, like i attacked ebay and said they suck. If anyone makes any money selling his stuff on ebay, go for it, regardless of the percentage ebay and paypal takes.

you're comparing apples and oranges (10 years ago ebay and footlocker, now ebay and other online places).

"You should have just stopped after the first paragraph"?? Get off your high horse.

 

[BJJ NINJA]

Ebay gives you the goods.