e-bay question - your experiences with selling

[OneFinger]

I have bought and sold on eBay for several years. I've generally had very good experiences and have found some great one-of-a-kind deals. In fact, I bought one limited edition picture which I framed and gave to my sister as a gift. Her kids are already fighting over who will inherit it when she dies.

 

But, when it comes to video and DVD stuff, I've not been real happy. Can't begin to tell you the number of tapes I bought that were cheap (and illegal) copies. I stopped buying those items.

 

I usually limit my purchases to unique or hard-to-find items.

 

Another thing I'd caution is to be sure and use your ID for both sales and purchases. I do NOT buy anything from someone that has a new ID or doesn't have an eBay history.

[bigguyinpasadena]

This is so funny,I just won my first auction on ebay!

[ValleyDwellerNorth]

I have a ton of crap I would love to sell. Well, one man's crap is another man's treasure.

 

Is it easy to sell one's ex-treasures e-bay? Do any of you have pleasure or terror tales to give this novice? How fast do you get the $$?

 

Basically, I have a ton of VHS tapes and music equipment I would like to sell. I also have the entire "Star Trek: The Next Generation" on VHS I would like to off load as I am going to buy it all on DVD. I am a media minimalist.

 

I look forward to your advice, stories and suggestions.

 

VDN

:*

[Guest Utopia]

Three maybe four years ao you would have had no problem selling your junk. Today you will as everyone and their escort is selling the same junk on EBay. Do a search, for exaple, on VHS tapes and scroll through the pages with no bids or 1.75 bids. Seems like more trouble than it will be worth.

 

You get paid when your auction ends. The winning bidder has a few days to confirm and get the money to you. This is between you and the bidder, not EBay.

 

Unless you are selling something unique you won't hav much luck.

[Guest lookin4lust]

You might consider http://www.half.com which e-bay owns. You can see what everyone else lists items at, and undersell them. I've unloaded a lot of books that way.

[Luv2play]

Ironically, what you are trying to "offload" is the "last generation" of media technology! You and everybody else's uncle. In such circumstances, prices are highly depressed (economics 101).

 

Now, if you had one of those 3-D picture contraptions that amused the Victorians, along with a set of picture cards showing naughty Victorian ladies and gentlemen in various states of undress in their parlours on a rainy afternoon, it would fetch a fortune on e-Bay.

 

E-Bay is an auction process and a very efficient one for relatively high value, smallish items that are relatively cheap to ship great distances. The larger and heavier the item, the more restricted geographically is your market, and hence chances of finding a buyer. Ideal items are antiques, because of their relative uniqueness. You would be surprised what items produced as recently as the 1950's will fetch. So look in your garage or attic, there may be something there truly valuable to sell on e-Bay.

[Guest tango]

I'm wanting to do the same thing (although with slightly less junky

stuff perhaps). Apparently lots of Americans want to, and there's

a guy in California--who's going to make millions--who's begun a

franchise of places that will sell stuff on eBay for you. Somewhat

like MailBoxesEtc. in format. You bring in the stuff, write the descriptive text, leave it there--where it's also displayed for on-site sale--and they take pictures, post it, follow the auction, etc. Unfortunately, I can't tell you the name of the franchise or

how much commission they ask.

 

If I did, I'd be using them myself.

[ValleyDwellerNorth]

Thank you for all of your input and advice.

 

I am having a good old fashioned yard sale.

 

Y'all stop by now.