Is ebay worth it anymore?

scotty365 · 31 Dec 2009 at 01:13

Sold a bunch of computer bits and didnt get the £100 I wanted I got £85 then ebay took their bit and paypal (owned by ebay) took their bit...

Wish I'd just kept them as spares - last time I sold something the fee's were a lot less.

NEVER AGAIN

"andy" · 31 Dec 2009 at 01:13

i just mazumad my old phone for a tenner more than they seem to be selling on ebay for. i was amazed tbh

Glaucus · 31 Dec 2009 at 01:15

scotty365 said:
Sold a bunch of computer bits and didnt get the £100 I wanted I got £85 then ebay took their bit and paypal (owned by ebay) took their bit...

Wish I'd just kept them as spares - last time I sold something the fee's were a lot less.

NEVER AGAIN

That's you own fault, check the fees and put a reserve or buy it now. I nearly exclusively use buy it now with offer, when selling.

SlugForAButt · 31 Dec 2009 at 02:25

TBH, I only use Ebay for buying used, low value items.
Look on there right now for an Antec 900 with a buy it now of £115 inc delivery (the guy has over 25000 feedback as well).
Ebay is a place for idiots to buy from scammers. Simple.
People just think thy're getting it "on the cheap 'cos it's from Ebay" when really they are getting scammed.
Oh, BTW I've got 2Gb OCZ HPC Reaper PC8500 on there atm if anyone fancies bidding for 'em. LOL.

Lethagized · 31 Dec 2009 at 06:48

Mobile phones are a huge magnet for nigerian scamsters mate trust me on that one. I know someone who used to make a living selling old phones in joblots on ebay ans she had so much trouble and the turnover was weaker and weaker, she packed it in.

Like everyone else has said, Ebay used to be a decent place, but now it's own popularity and greed has been its biggest downfall. Granted it's still the first place i look when buying anything, but selling on there is just too much hassle these days and i've sold hundreds of stuff on there since 2003.

Give it a try, you won't find nowhere near as much exposure as you will on there. Just set some buyer requirements in the settings (min 5 feedback, uk only etc) and only post to verified and confirmed paypal address using special delivery on items with a value over £35

Saundie · 31 Dec 2009 at 07:32

RobRX-7 said:
Give it a try, you won't find nowhere near as much exposure as you will on there. Just set some buyer requirements in the settings (min 5 feedback, uk only etc) and only post to verified and confirmed paypal address using special delivery on items with a value over £35

This is sound advice. I set similar requirements on my last few auctions and had no problems. As long as you post only to the confirmed paypal address and use a recorded delivery service, you should be fine. Take lots of pictures of the items, especially if they have any damage, so that you can cover yourself in the event of a complaint. It costs nothing to upload them to photobucket or imageshack, and then dump them into the auction listing. I got far more for my items than I would have done on the member's market or on gumtree, even after ebay and paypal too their cut, so I personally think it's worth it.

Lakeland · 31 Dec 2009 at 07:45

I've sold a few things but vow never to do it on ebay again, just isn't worth the hassle / risk. You are not covered for everything by paypal so ignore that comment which I guess was sarcastic but not exactly helpful, dry humor doesn't work on forums without using emoticons

Glaucus · 31 Dec 2009 at 09:17

SlugForAButt said:
Ebay is a place for idiots to buy from scammers. Simple.
.

.Lethal · 31 Dec 2009 at 09:19

I rarely use ebay but in the last month or so I have even began selling items.

There are so many restrictions sellers can put in place there is no reason to be scared at all.

There are heaps of ebay threads here with problems but in most cases it was because the OP of said thread/s are idiots*

*Note I said MOST people not all, don't cry now if you made an ebay thread

Feek · 31 Dec 2009 at 09:43

What irritates me most about eBay now is the way the fees have escalated in the last year. I sold my old iPhone for a decent price but the 10% final price fee is a killer. Unfortunately there's not a lot of choice, they really do have a monopoly.

DampCat · 31 Dec 2009 at 09:48

I will never sell on eBay again. It's just too easy for a buyer to rip you off, and I came very close on my last deal. If someone is willing to do it for a £60 W/C radiator, then they're willing to do it for anything.

Thank the maker for the MM.

Edit:
And you don't have to be an idiot (as per .Lethal) for the buyer to write to you and say "it never turned up" or "its broken", for PayPal to then automatically withold all the money and automatically side with the buyer after he takes a photo of an identical, broken item, and get all his money back.

Glaucus · 31 Dec 2009 at 09:50

DampCat said:
I will never sell on eBay again. It's just too easy for a buyer to rip you off, and I came very close on my last deal.

But did you follow basic rules? Like doing uk bidders only, only shipping Special delivery to a Verified paypal account and the rest of the seller protection rules.

But yep MM does rule, you might not sell if for as much, but you make about the same by the time you factor in fees.

DampCat · 31 Dec 2009 at 09:51

Yes, it was UK, he had verified address, verified paypal and signed recorded delivery.

daniel_owen_uk · 31 Dec 2009 at 10:01

Got a better price than I could have sold it anywhere else on the web, even after the fees for my i8910.

That said I got that for free and was able to cancel my contract with orange (technicallity), so can't complain at a free £300 either way.

Greebo · 31 Dec 2009 at 10:02

Shop around the other big sites which will buy mobiles. When I sold my nokia n96 8gb a couple of months ago I found that "3" gave me £20 more than mozumoo (or whatever its called) and was almost the price they sold for on ebay before fees are deducted with no risk. I was quite amazed they gave me £129 for it tbh and all you had to send was the phone, no box, accessories etc.

I later sold the chargers,leads, unused earphones on ebay for a few quid as well.

What phone is it out of interest?

Wang Computer · 31 Dec 2009 at 10:15

I wish some sort of real alternative to eBay would appear. Preferably one that didn't rip you off so much because I believe the fees are just plain exorbitant when you factor in PayPal as well.

Anyone used or had success with Gumtree or even Craigslist for selling?

Danm54 · 31 Dec 2009 at 11:15

A little tip for paypal.

If you've sold something on ebay paypal will only release your money once the buyer has confirmed they have recieved the item, then it takes 5 days to get into your account.

If you refund 1p they release it straight away, it still takes 5 days to get to your account but its quicker. Just be prepared to refund them it you've sold a dodgey item!

DampCat · 31 Dec 2009 at 11:17

Unfortunately doesn't work anymore

At least not in my experience. Tried it when i had a large sum of money withheld and it did nothing, except confuse the buyer.

PhillyDee · 31 Dec 2009 at 11:19

Wang Computer said:
I wish some sort of real alternative to eBay would appear. Preferably one that didn't rip you off so much because I believe the fees are just plain exorbitant when you factor in PayPal as well.

Anyone used or had success with Gumtree or even Craigslist for selling?

eBid.

However, suffers from too many sellers and not enoguh buyers.

In the 4 months I have been selling things properly on eBay, aI have sold 1500 items as opposed to 5 on eBid.

RobH · 31 Dec 2009 at 11:20

I agree that eBay and PayPal could both do with some decent competition but I still use them.

I recently sold a 2006 (first gen) MacBook on eBay for £450 without a single problem, the fees came to around £50 but I would have struggled to sell it at that price anywhere else I can think of.