Ed Rooney Posted June 4, 2014 Author Share Posted June 4, 2014 I feel I should say that Lastrega's post is one of the most useful and well-written I've seen on this forum. She has just joined us early this year and is already a big asset. I see that she's been given 6 green tickets so far. Brava! Edo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ann m Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 Some years ago on ebay, a scam was attempted on one of my listings, but it was easily resolved, I've also had a couple of time wasters - which was irritating more than anything. Other than that, I've used ebay fairly happily over the years to fund upgrading. Most buyers are pleasant to deal with even when I made an error (!) & as with all things, good communication is key. I response to an earlier post on this thread, sellers leaving negative feedback was ended, quite rightly, a few years ago as it was abused by rogue sellers. I now use 'buy it now' with 'immediate payment required.' With a bit of research, I've found it quite straightforward to set a price, do not accept offers & the buyer can get the item faster. It also cuts out non payers. As the UK market is large enough, I do not send abroad - purely to avoid any hassle with valuable items. I also set my buyer preferences to exclude those without credit card on file, those with strikes to their account & postage abroad. ann Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted June 4, 2014 Author Share Posted June 4, 2014 "I now use 'buy it now' with 'immediate payment required.' With a bit of research, I've found it quite straightforward to set a price, do not accept offers & the buyer can get the item faster. It also cuts out non payers." -- ann m How does that cut out non players? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 The legal minimum is seven days from the day after they received the item, but ebay insists on 14 days. If you do not specify a time, then the buyer is entitled to return the item any time in the following 3 MONTHS! So, worth taking the time to specify a limit. Lastrega, these regulations don't apply to Ed in the US. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lastrega Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 Oh, thanks! I was worried that I'd blabbed far too much...... I've found tips and information from people here on the forum that has been invaluable to me, so it's nice to be able to contribute a bit. Ed, on your question about how immediate payment stops non payers - that only works on the 'buy it now' listings, not auctions. Ebay will not allow the transaction to be completed until the person makes the payment, so the item is technically still for sale until the payment has been made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linda Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 A lot of great information, people. It's wonderful to see things working so well in far-off Thailand. I guess if I'd only heard from Lastrega and Linda I'd have enough solid info . . . but again, thanks to all. I have bought items on eBay myself, but I've never sold anything, and the details of selling are very different. On principle, I try not to see anecdotes as rules to follow. (We all have been guilty of using anecdotes to find a path for selecting subject matter when shooting stock.) Linda seems to have bought and sold more gear than Bloomingdales sell clothing. And meeting someone in shot-'m-up modern Chicago takes guts. (I sold my handgun to the police last year.) I won't be selling to anyone outside the USA and perhaps Canada. If I still lived in Europe, I would probably have to sell beyond the border, but sending costly items across the seas seems impractical on so many levels. Thank you again, everyone. (Please read my blog.) I won't sell overseas for a few reasons. Shipping overseas is expensive! Not only that,once the package is out of US hands,tracking becomes difficult and if it's lost you could get screwed. I have "USA BIDDERS ONLY" in my description as well as my ebay preferences. BTW-When shipping cameras with Lithium batteries,the Post Office at least here won't accept them so I ship UPS. Insured and packaged well it's sooooo expensive. I just spent appx $60 to ship my Canon 6D. Pre-internet I use to sell my gear by sending a list to the photo colleges and putting an ad in the local weekly free paper. If I were to do that now I'd give my google voice number and not my traceable landline or cellphone number. I also list in my auctions ALL SALES FINAL and check off the ebay'No Returns accepted.' L Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betty LaRue Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 How are the prices on Nikonians, Betty? I used to belong. I find I usually have to discount prices a bit...$50 or so to get a sale. That's compared to prices I find on eBay for a like item. I don't mind that, because I feel comfortable with those folks. I give them my Paypal info, they send payment, I immediately send off the insured camera/lens. I actually sold my D70 two years ago! I think I got $350 or so out of it. And the sensor needed cleaning. I figured all I could do with it is use it as a doorstop. After all...6.3mp? Noisy? I did get some fantastic images from that camera, but they needed to be at low ISO and well exposed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lastrega Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 The legal minimum is seven days from the day after they received the item, but ebay insists on 14 days. If you do not specify a time, then the buyer is entitled to return the item any time in the following 3 MONTHS! So, worth taking the time to specify a limit. Lastrega, these regulations don't apply to Ed in the US. Yes, there are quite a few differences in the rules between countries. I can't claim to be an expert, but it applies for sellers based in the EU, I don't know the rule for the US, or whether that rule exists in the US, but I think it's a good idea to communicate your own policy to buyers anyway. It is also worth noting that some rules and legal obligations only apply to business sellers and not private individuals. Ebay also have a forum that has a lot of experienced sellers who are only too happy to help other people avoid some of the pitfalls of trading on ebay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linda Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 I have a business account on ebay and sell thousands of pounds worth of goods each month. My average price item is around £100, but I have sold many items for around £1000 each and I sell a lot to USA, Canada, Japan, Australia etc., as well as in the UK. I have virtually given up on auctions - 99 % plus of my items are sold as fixed price. This is primarily to ensure that I get the price I want and also to eradicate the utter hassle of dealing with auctions and non payers etc., Here are my tips / rules: Research the prices that other people have sold items for. Discount the odd really high or very low prices - they are often flukes - in the case of very low prices, the seller has often little feedback or they have ended their auction at a really daft time e.g. 4 am on a Saturday. Work out what you think you can get and be sure to take account of the ebay fees and the paypal fees. I allow roughly 15& to cover fees - paypal is between 3 and 5 percent, at the higher end if you sell to someone abroad which results in paypal having to do a currency conversion. I don't know about USA and Canada, but I believe there is now a cap on the ebay fee for photographic equipment - I think that if it sells for more than £200 you only pay a max of £10, but you would have to check that. Be aware that ebay and paypal fees are calculated on the TOTAL cost the buyer pays - yes, ebay take a fee on the amount of postage you charge, even though they do nothing to earn that. This means that if you sell something to someone in Japan and the postage costs £30, ebay will take £3 from you in fees, so your postage is, in effect, costing £33, but you cannot charge the buyer. It is strictly against ebay rules to charge the buyer anything on top to cover your fees, you must do all those calculations before listing. I find it is worth putting the prices to various countries into the listing in the postage and payments section. That way people can buy and pay immediately without having the faff of messaging you. In the preferences, I have it set up to reject any customers who have 2 or more non payment strikes against them. I also do not sell to China, India, Africa, South America and Russia and the middle East. This is not a reflection on buyers from those countries, it is because the postal services in those countries are slow or unreliable or the customs & excise process is very slow. It is my experience that packages 'disappear' for weeks and by the time they do arrive, ebay has already insisted on refunding the buyers. They now have your item and their money back and you are unlikely to trek to Iran to knock on the door and demand your money. Ebay only allow about 45 days for an item to arrive before refunding, it can take 60 days for an Indian shipment to arrive..... Also set up in the preferences whether the buyer pays for postage for returning an item. Again, I don't know about American ruiles, but for European sellers, there is a legal requirement to refund the postage that a buyer has paid if the item is returned. The postage to actually return the item must also be paid by the seller, UNLESS they have specified that the buyer pays it. You should also state cleary how long the buyer has to return it. The legal minimum is seven days from the day after they received the item, but ebay insists on 14 days. If you do not specify a time, then the buyer is entitled to return the item any time in the following 3 MONTHS! So, worth taking the time to specify a limit. When listing, I always tick the 'immediate payment required' box. This is one of my main reasons for doing 'buy it now' listings. Part of 'buying' is 'paying', I don't see any reason for someone buying an item and then having me wait two weeks while they scrape the cash together. Bricks and mortar auction houses don't allow that, so why should ebay? If you do an auction, then you can file for non payment in about two days, but I just don't need the hassle. Ticking that box means that the buyer will pay immediately and you are able to get the item sent off. I also onloy accept paypal as payment. I don't want to hang around for 8 days to post the item, I certainly don't want to have to drive to the bank to deposit a cheque and I don't want to have to pay the bank the percentage that they take for cashing the cheque in my business account. Again, a paypal payment means they can pay immediately. List your item as a fixed price item 'Buy it Now' or do a 'buy it now or best offer' listing. You can set the minimum that you will automatically accept and ebay will reject all offers below that. ONLY use tracked / signed for shipping. The seller is responsible for the item arriving safely. Having a proof of postage is not enough, the proof of actually delivery will be required by ebay / paypal, otherwise they will pretty much just refund the buyer. You won't have a leg to stand on. You will get buyers who will try to contact you outside of ebay and negotiate a sale. It's up to you if you want to do this - it's against ebay rules and it leaves you vulnerable to scams, so I don't do it. Much as I hate the ebay greed on fees, they are providing a service and are entitled to their fee, just like photographers are entitled to the licence fee for their work. The 'buy it now' listings can take a while longer to sell, but I find that I can get about 30% more than the average auction price for a 'buy it now' item. It costs about 30 pence to re-list, so it's cheaper to re-list than take a stupidly low offer. If you are not in too much of a hurry to sell, it makes sense to hang onto the item and re-list a couple of times - spend 90 pence on listings, rather than dropping £100 ! You can list for 3, 7, 10 or 30 days. I find that a lot of buyers watch my items and only buy when I re-list it at the same price as before - they must be waiting to see if it sells and if I will re-list at a lower price. when I don't drop the price, they just go ahead and buy. On that thinking, I'd say maybe list for either 7 or ten days. Sunday evenings are the optimum time for finishing listings, if you are doing auctions, but by the same token, they are a good time to start your listing as loads of people are on ebay looking at that time and will see your offerings. Once the items sells, I send an ebay message to thank the buyer for the purchase and tell them when I will be posting. This is partly courtesy, but partly so that they know that i know the item needs to be posted. I get scarily annoyed at sites where I buy something and then hear nothing until it either arrives or doesn't. Check that paypal is telling you it is safe to post and only send to the confirmed address on paypal. Post immediately, or as soon as possible - delays just make people jittery. When you post, add the tracking number to the listing and this will automatically mark it as despatched. If the buyer contacts you about non arrival, then re-assure them that you will sort it out and do so. It is your responsibility to get the item to them and they will be a lot easier to deal with it you take ownership of the problem. People who say they don't have a paypal account can still pay by paypal - it works the same as any other payment system - they can just pay with their bank card or credit card through the paypal portal, just as if they were swiping their card in a shop. I find that a lot of buyers buy one thing, see what your service is like and whether you are honest and then they buy more, so it is worth taking the trouble to resolve problems amicably. Sorry, this is not directed at anyone personally and I don't mean to patronize. Do not give feedback to the buyer until they leave it for you. It is up to them to say if they are satisfied with your service and item. I find most buyers are pleasant and honest. I find a lot of them are surprised to be getting a good service, which tells me that that is not the norm. As a buyer, I have bought loads from ebay, but I only buy from people with good feedback and I never go outwith ebay to do deals to save the seller the fees because it negates my buyer protection. Sorry to have gone on and on..... I just thought that some of this (and the reasons behind it) might be useful to anyone starting off selling on ebay. Not quite the potted guide I had intended, but I hope there are some tips that are of use...... Ebay takes 10% commission from camera equipment plus Paypal takes 2.9% I have a business account as well. The fee calculator is here: http://www.fees.ebay.com/feeweb/feecalculator I also have an APP on my iphone and iPad for this that shows the price I'd pay for commission for fixed price sales vs auctions L Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ann m Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 "I now use 'buy it now' with 'immediate payment required.' With a bit of research, I've found it quite straightforward to set a price, do not accept offers & the buyer can get the item faster. It also cuts out non payers." -- ann m How does that cut out non players? because the item remains on sale until paypal payment has been made. ann Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lastrega Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 I have a business account on ebay and sell thousands of pounds worth of goods each month. My average price item is around £100, but I have sold many items for around £1000 each and I sell a lot to USA, Canada, Japan, Australia etc., as well as in the UK. I have virtually given up on auctions - 99 % plus of my items are sold as fixed price. This is primarily to ensure that I get the price I want and also to eradicate the utter hassle of dealing with auctions and non payers etc., Here are my tips / rules: Research the prices that other people have sold items for. Discount the odd really high or very low prices - they are often flukes - in the case of very low prices, the seller has often little feedback or they have ended their auction at a really daft time e.g. 4 am on a Saturday. Work out what you think you can get and be sure to take account of the ebay fees and the paypal fees. I allow roughly 15& to cover fees - paypal is between 3 and 5 percent, at the higher end if you sell to someone abroad which results in paypal having to do a currency conversion. I don't know about USA and Canada, but I believe there is now a cap on the ebay fee for photographic equipment - I think that if it sells for more than £200 you only pay a max of £10, but you would have to check that. Be aware that ebay and paypal fees are calculated on the TOTAL cost the buyer pays - yes, ebay take a fee on the amount of postage you charge, even though they do nothing to earn that. This means that if you sell something to someone in Japan and the postage costs £30, ebay will take £3 from you in fees, so your postage is, in effect, costing £33, but you cannot charge the buyer. It is strictly against ebay rules to charge the buyer anything on top to cover your fees, you must do all those calculations before listing. I find it is worth putting the prices to various countries into the listing in the postage and payments section. That way people can buy and pay immediately without having the faff of messaging you. In the preferences, I have it set up to reject any customers who have 2 or more non payment strikes against them. I also do not sell to China, India, Africa, South America and Russia and the middle East. This is not a reflection on buyers from those countries, it is because the postal services in those countries are slow or unreliable or the customs & excise process is very slow. It is my experience that packages 'disappear' for weeks and by the time they do arrive, ebay has already insisted on refunding the buyers. They now have your item and their money back and you are unlikely to trek to Iran to knock on the door and demand your money. Ebay only allow about 45 days for an item to arrive before refunding, it can take 60 days for an Indian shipment to arrive..... Also set up in the preferences whether the buyer pays for postage for returning an item. Again, I don't know about American ruiles, but for European sellers, there is a legal requirement to refund the postage that a buyer has paid if the item is returned. The postage to actually return the item must also be paid by the seller, UNLESS they have specified that the buyer pays it. You should also state cleary how long the buyer has to return it. The legal minimum is seven days from the day after they received the item, but ebay insists on 14 days. If you do not specify a time, then the buyer is entitled to return the item any time in the following 3 MONTHS! So, worth taking the time to specify a limit. When listing, I always tick the 'immediate payment required' box. This is one of my main reasons for doing 'buy it now' listings. Part of 'buying' is 'paying', I don't see any reason for someone buying an item and then having me wait two weeks while they scrape the cash together. Bricks and mortar auction houses don't allow that, so why should ebay? If you do an auction, then you can file for non payment in about two days, but I just don't need the hassle. Ticking that box means that the buyer will pay immediately and you are able to get the item sent off. I also onloy accept paypal as payment. I don't want to hang around for 8 days to post the item, I certainly don't want to have to drive to the bank to deposit a cheque and I don't want to have to pay the bank the percentage that they take for cashing the cheque in my business account. Again, a paypal payment means they can pay immediately. List your item as a fixed price item 'Buy it Now' or do a 'buy it now or best offer' listing. You can set the minimum that you will automatically accept and ebay will reject all offers below that. ONLY use tracked / signed for shipping. The seller is responsible for the item arriving safely. Having a proof of postage is not enough, the proof of actually delivery will be required by ebay / paypal, otherwise they will pretty much just refund the buyer. You won't have a leg to stand on. You will get buyers who will try to contact you outside of ebay and negotiate a sale. It's up to you if you want to do this - it's against ebay rules and it leaves you vulnerable to scams, so I don't do it. Much as I hate the ebay greed on fees, they are providing a service and are entitled to their fee, just like photographers are entitled to the licence fee for their work. The 'buy it now' listings can take a while longer to sell, but I find that I can get about 30% more than the average auction price for a 'buy it now' item. It costs about 30 pence to re-list, so it's cheaper to re-list than take a stupidly low offer. If you are not in too much of a hurry to sell, it makes sense to hang onto the item and re-list a couple of times - spend 90 pence on listings, rather than dropping £100 ! You can list for 3, 7, 10 or 30 days. I find that a lot of buyers watch my items and only buy when I re-list it at the same price as before - they must be waiting to see if it sells and if I will re-list at a lower price. when I don't drop the price, they just go ahead and buy. On that thinking, I'd say maybe list for either 7 or ten days. Sunday evenings are the optimum time for finishing listings, if you are doing auctions, but by the same token, they are a good time to start your listing as loads of people are on ebay looking at that time and will see your offerings. Once the items sells, I send an ebay message to thank the buyer for the purchase and tell them when I will be posting. This is partly courtesy, but partly so that they know that i know the item needs to be posted. I get scarily annoyed at sites where I buy something and then hear nothing until it either arrives or doesn't. Check that paypal is telling you it is safe to post and only send to the confirmed address on paypal. Post immediately, or as soon as possible - delays just make people jittery. When you post, add the tracking number to the listing and this will automatically mark it as despatched. If the buyer contacts you about non arrival, then re-assure them that you will sort it out and do so. It is your responsibility to get the item to them and they will be a lot easier to deal with it you take ownership of the problem. People who say they don't have a paypal account can still pay by paypal - it works the same as any other payment system - they can just pay with their bank card or credit card through the paypal portal, just as if they were swiping their card in a shop. I find that a lot of buyers buy one thing, see what your service is like and whether you are honest and then they buy more, so it is worth taking the trouble to resolve problems amicably. Sorry, this is not directed at anyone personally and I don't mean to patronize. Do not give feedback to the buyer until they leave it for you. It is up to them to say if they are satisfied with your service and item. I find most buyers are pleasant and honest. I find a lot of them are surprised to be getting a good service, which tells me that that is not the norm. As a buyer, I have bought loads from ebay, but I only buy from people with good feedback and I never go outwith ebay to do deals to save the seller the fees because it negates my buyer protection. Sorry to have gone on and on..... I just thought that some of this (and the reasons behind it) might be useful to anyone starting off selling on ebay. Not quite the potted guide I had intended, but I hope there are some tips that are of use...... Ebay takes 10% commission from camera equipment plus Paypal takes 2.9% I have a business account as well. The fee calculator is here: http://www.fees.ebay.com/feeweb/feecalculator I also have an APP on my iphone and iPad for this that shows the price I'd pay for commission for fixes vs auction L Yes, I think I have confused things a bit there. I think it is if you have an ebay shop.... I can't find the news announcement for this, but I have found this relating to ebay shops. http://sellercentre.ebay.co.uk/fees-business-sellers-0 You have to look in the final value fee by category link. Apologies if I have been misleading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Endicott Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 My last purchase on eBay was for a Vivitar 285 at $35 (plus $10 shipping). When I received it, it didn't have the battery carrier. I gave the seller a mediocre review instead of the 5 stars. He got upset and asked why - I told him because he sold an incomplete product and didn't disclose it had missing parts. He threatened me because I refused to pay another $10 to ship it back to him for the $35 refund. My last sale attempt on eBay was for an extra battery for a Canon 1Ds MK II. I clearly stated in the description that I would only ship the item - my time is valuable and I don't want to wait around at home for someone to show up. Someone a couple of cities over bought it and refused to pay the $5 in shipping I was charging (despite it costing that much to come to my home in gas). I pointed out in the sales description that pickups were not available. He hadn't sent any money at this point so I told him I would award it to the next highest bidder since he wasn't willing to agree to the terms of the auction. He threatened to send his girlfriend that was a police officer to my home. Both sellers are currently blocked from seeing my account per eBay customer service. I have had similar experiences on Craig's List. I can remember selling a slide in camper for my truck for $500. Someone called me and told me they were on their way. A second person called me and I told them it was no longer available pending pickup. That was on a Friday. Sunday morning I got a call from the second person at 5:30am yelling at me because I caused him not to go on his camping trip because I had sold it to the other person. Another Craig's List experience - I sold a flat bed utility trailer. I stated my price was firm in the ad. I stated my price was firm when they called and asked to look at it. The person came to my home to buy it and tried again to negotiate. I told him as the ad stated the price was firm. He paid me. As I was handing him the receipt he started to chew me out for not negotiating. I told him if he didn't feel he got a fair price, I would gladly give him his money back and sell it to someone else. He left angry (with the trailer). I guess it was a fair price These days I just resell back to Adorama, B&H or KEH. I also buy from their used sections. It's not worth the hassle for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linda Posted June 5, 2014 Share Posted June 5, 2014 I have a business account on ebay and sell thousands of pounds worth of goods each month. My average price item is around £100, but I have sold many items for around £1000 each and I sell a lot to USA, Canada, Japan, Australia etc., as well as in the UK. I have virtually given up on auctions - 99 % plus of my items are sold as fixed price. This is primarily to ensure that I get the price I want and also to eradicate the utter hassle of dealing with auctions and non payers etc., Here are my tips / rules: Research the prices that other people have sold items for. Discount the odd really high or very low prices - they are often flukes - in the case of very low prices, the seller has often little feedback or they have ended their auction at a really daft time e.g. 4 am on a Saturday. Work out what you think you can get and be sure to take account of the ebay fees and the paypal fees. I allow roughly 15& to cover fees - paypal is between 3 and 5 percent, at the higher end if you sell to someone abroad which results in paypal having to do a currency conversion. I don't know about USA and Canada, but I believe there is now a cap on the ebay fee for photographic equipment - I think that if it sells for more than £200 you only pay a max of £10, but you would have to check that. Be aware that ebay and paypal fees are calculated on the TOTAL cost the buyer pays - yes, ebay take a fee on the amount of postage you charge, even though they do nothing to earn that. This means that if you sell something to someone in Japan and the postage costs £30, ebay will take £3 from you in fees, so your postage is, in effect, costing £33, but you cannot charge the buyer. It is strictly against ebay rules to charge the buyer anything on top to cover your fees, you must do all those calculations before listing. I find it is worth putting the prices to various countries into the listing in the postage and payments section. That way people can buy and pay immediately without having the faff of messaging you. In the preferences, I have it set up to reject any customers who have 2 or more non payment strikes against them. I also do not sell to China, India, Africa, South America and Russia and the middle East. This is not a reflection on buyers from those countries, it is because the postal services in those countries are slow or unreliable or the customs & excise process is very slow. It is my experience that packages 'disappear' for weeks and by the time they do arrive, ebay has already insisted on refunding the buyers. They now have your item and their money back and you are unlikely to trek to Iran to knock on the door and demand your money. Ebay only allow about 45 days for an item to arrive before refunding, it can take 60 days for an Indian shipment to arrive..... Also set up in the preferences whether the buyer pays for postage for returning an item. Again, I don't know about American ruiles, but for European sellers, there is a legal requirement to refund the postage that a buyer has paid if the item is returned. The postage to actually return the item must also be paid by the seller, UNLESS they have specified that the buyer pays it. You should also state cleary how long the buyer has to return it. The legal minimum is seven days from the day after they received the item, but ebay insists on 14 days. If you do not specify a time, then the buyer is entitled to return the item any time in the following 3 MONTHS! So, worth taking the time to specify a limit. When listing, I always tick the 'immediate payment required' box. This is one of my main reasons for doing 'buy it now' listings. Part of 'buying' is 'paying', I don't see any reason for someone buying an item and then having me wait two weeks while they scrape the cash together. Bricks and mortar auction houses don't allow that, so why should ebay? If you do an auction, then you can file for non payment in about two days, but I just don't need the hassle. Ticking that box means that the buyer will pay immediately and you are able to get the item sent off. I also onloy accept paypal as payment. I don't want to hang around for 8 days to post the item, I certainly don't want to have to drive to the bank to deposit a cheque and I don't want to have to pay the bank the percentage that they take for cashing the cheque in my business account. Again, a paypal payment means they can pay immediately. List your item as a fixed price item 'Buy it Now' or do a 'buy it now or best offer' listing. You can set the minimum that you will automatically accept and ebay will reject all offers below that. ONLY use tracked / signed for shipping. The seller is responsible for the item arriving safely. Having a proof of postage is not enough, the proof of actually delivery will be required by ebay / paypal, otherwise they will pretty much just refund the buyer. You won't have a leg to stand on. You will get buyers who will try to contact you outside of ebay and negotiate a sale. It's up to you if you want to do this - it's against ebay rules and it leaves you vulnerable to scams, so I don't do it. Much as I hate the ebay greed on fees, they are providing a service and are entitled to their fee, just like photographers are entitled to the licence fee for their work. The 'buy it now' listings can take a while longer to sell, but I find that I can get about 30% more than the average auction price for a 'buy it now' item. It costs about 30 pence to re-list, so it's cheaper to re-list than take a stupidly low offer. If you are not in too much of a hurry to sell, it makes sense to hang onto the item and re-list a couple of times - spend 90 pence on listings, rather than dropping £100 ! You can list for 3, 7, 10 or 30 days. I find that a lot of buyers watch my items and only buy when I re-list it at the same price as before - they must be waiting to see if it sells and if I will re-list at a lower price. when I don't drop the price, they just go ahead and buy. On that thinking, I'd say maybe list for either 7 or ten days. Sunday evenings are the optimum time for finishing listings, if you are doing auctions, but by the same token, they are a good time to start your listing as loads of people are on ebay looking at that time and will see your offerings. Once the items sells, I send an ebay message to thank the buyer for the purchase and tell them when I will be posting. This is partly courtesy, but partly so that they know that i know the item needs to be posted. I get scarily annoyed at sites where I buy something and then hear nothing until it either arrives or doesn't. Check that paypal is telling you it is safe to post and only send to the confirmed address on paypal. Post immediately, or as soon as possible - delays just make people jittery. When you post, add the tracking number to the listing and this will automatically mark it as despatched. If the buyer contacts you about non arrival, then re-assure them that you will sort it out and do so. It is your responsibility to get the item to them and they will be a lot easier to deal with it you take ownership of the problem. People who say they don't have a paypal account can still pay by paypal - it works the same as any other payment system - they can just pay with their bank card or credit card through the paypal portal, just as if they were swiping their card in a shop. I find that a lot of buyers buy one thing, see what your service is like and whether you are honest and then they buy more, so it is worth taking the trouble to resolve problems amicably. Sorry, this is not directed at anyone personally and I don't mean to patronize. Do not give feedback to the buyer until they leave it for you. It is up to them to say if they are satisfied with your service and item. I find most buyers are pleasant and honest. I find a lot of them are surprised to be getting a good service, which tells me that that is not the norm. As a buyer, I have bought loads from ebay, but I only buy from people with good feedback and I never go outwith ebay to do deals to save the seller the fees because it negates my buyer protection. Sorry to have gone on and on..... I just thought that some of this (and the reasons behind it) might be useful to anyone starting off selling on ebay. Not quite the potted guide I had intended, but I hope there are some tips that are of use...... Ebay takes 10% commission from camera equipment plus Paypal takes 2.9% I have a business account as well. The fee calculator is here: http://www.fees.ebay.com/feeweb/feecalculator I also have an APP on my iphone and iPad for this that shows the price I'd pay for commission for fixes vs auction L Yes, I think I have confused things a bit there. I think it is if you have an ebay shop.... I can't find the news announcement for this, but I have found this relating to ebay shops. http://sellercentre.ebay.co.uk/fees-business-sellers-0 You have to look in the final value fee by category link. Apologies if I have been misleading. I do not have an ebay shop;never did. The calculator link above is for everyone that does not have a store. http://www.fees.ebay.com/feeweb/feecalculator L Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fotoDogue Posted June 5, 2014 Share Posted June 5, 2014 The legal minimum is seven days from the day after they received the item, but ebay insists on 14 days. If you do not specify a time, then the buyer is entitled to return the item any time in the following 3 MONTHS! So, worth taking the time to specify a limit. Lastrega, these regulations don't apply to Ed in the US. I haven't sold anything on eBay in several years but when I did I'd always state my terms and conditions: buyer pays shipping and handling, payment must be received via PayPal within 72 hours or I can either relist the item or offer it to the second highest bidder, no returns. eBay now offers a guarantee but I think that only applies to sellers who have opted in. Oh and I've NEVER given my address or telephone number. I don't mind shipping internationally since the buyer pays shipping and I've found that offering items internationally often brings a higher price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted June 5, 2014 Share Posted June 5, 2014 Lastrega, apologies. Those right to return regulations don't apply to private sellers at all. A professional photographer's trade isn't selling equipment so, as long as he is just selling off surplus kit, he's a private seller as far as the law is concerned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 5, 2014 Share Posted June 5, 2014 Never been scammed with Ebay, I have had a few of those attempted scam emails in the past. They are easy to spot as they aren't replicated in the Ebay system. I've had no issues at all with items, bought or sold. I do have fairly strict criteria on who can bid on items - I think that's important and also check out the history of anyone whom I am buying from. Most power sellers will have the occasional problem but I always check out how they deal with the problem via feedback. I've bought a scanner for over £2k and no issues at all, 'met' some really nice people on Ebay - one seller sent me the goods (ink cartridges) even though my Paypal payment was delayed. However, I now really cannot be bothered with selling larger items via Ebay. I sell lenses etc using Ffordes (nice TS-E lens for sales at moment...go on, treat yourself!!). The 20% commission sounds a lot but when you take into account how much Ebay+paypal will eat in costs, it's pretty good value IMO. My other half uses Ebay a lot and her biggest item cost.....returned postage probably. A bargain it isn't if you are spending so much on returning goods that are not as described. I simply don't use Ebay any more, time being the major factor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted June 6, 2014 Author Share Posted June 6, 2014 These days I just resell back to Adorama, B&H or KEH. I also buy from their used sections. It's not worth the hassle for me. I see that Ffordes is in the UK, Geoff, so. . . . And then there's Ed's comment on selling used gear to B&H etc. I don't know what the percentages are in a retail camera store these days, but it used to be that a B&H would make 50% over their wholesale cost. So, in days gone by, the max you could get from selling a used item (even right out of the box) was about 25% of the price we paid. Am I wrong about this? I mean if I were to sell a $2,000 lens in mint condition to one of these big retail stores the max I could expect is $500. I can understand not wanting to go through all the hassle eBay and such calls for, but are you guys willing to give away your gear? I'm interested in turning this equipment into money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 6, 2014 Share Posted June 6, 2014 Edo, Ffordes is one example, don't know if you have a similar set-up in USA where you can sell on commission. I never sell back or trade in on cameras/lenses these days. I would rather use Ffordes, or their like, who sell at shop rates - above the rates you are likely to get on Ebay. We have a local shop which does the same thing in Norwich. So in effect I get 80% of the market rate for the camera or lens. As a trade in I would get much less, around 25% less. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted June 6, 2014 Author Share Posted June 6, 2014 That's interesting, Geoff. Thanks. 50%-80% is what I hope to get. B&H has a large, active 'used' department. Perhaps I'll bring one item up there and see what they offer. Ffordes is a bit far away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Bell Posted June 6, 2014 Share Posted June 6, 2014 Ffordes is a bit far away for me too and I am on the same island. Allan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fotoDogue Posted June 6, 2014 Share Posted June 6, 2014 50%-80% is what I hope to get. B&H has a large, active 'used' department. Perhaps I'll bring one item up there and see what they offer. Ffordes is a bit far away. It really depends on exactly what you're selling. 35mm film bodies are going for $100 or less on eBay but lenses hold their value a bit better. Generally speaking, you can probably sell a lens for more than B&H will pay you but less than B&H would sell it for. Earlier this year I got a Nikon 10.5 fisheye, in excellent condition, for $425 on Ebay. ($699 new) That's $100 less than a similar used one at Adorama. I also bought a couple of Nikon lens shades for older lenses and paid close to what they would've gone for new. Since neither B&H nor Adorama carry them anymore and didn't have any used ones in stock I considered it a good deal. On the other hand, if I were to sell my Nikon Coolscan LS 5000ED I could probably get twice as much as I paid for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted June 23, 2014 Author Share Posted June 23, 2014 FYI: I took one premium item up to B&H today: an as-new Nikkor 14-24 f/2.8 G ED. The lens cost me just under $2,000. They bid $1,000. I know I can get $1,400 - 1,500 on eBay, but the cost of doing that will be about $200. So I would have taken $1,200, but they would not go above the thou. Disappointing. And I hate going up to 34 Street; it's a zoo. But there it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted June 23, 2014 Share Posted June 23, 2014 FYI: I took one premium item up to B&H today: an as-new Nikkor 14-24 f/2.8 G ED. The lens cost me just under $2,000. They bid $1,000. I know I can get $1,400 - 1,500 on eBay, but the cost of doing that will be about $200. So I would have taken $1,200, but they would not go above the thou. Disappointing. And I hate going up to 34 Street; it's a zoo. But there it is. There's always craigslist. I always have good luck with them, and there is no cost (except time and patience) with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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