Ebay to sell a phone ?

Soldato
Joined
6 Feb 2004
Posts
7,765
Location
Rugeley
I have a LG Viewty Smart here with a 8 gig card and its had minor use, had it as a upgrade but got another contract and a Hero which i currently use, how safe is it to sell it on ebay ?, its a shame for it to sit here and not get used at all just want some money back for pc upgrade/ps3 .
 
I've used ebay to sell phones before and I've not had a problem. It is pretty pricey though as you get stung by ebay and Paypal (assuming you use them). On a phone selling for around £140 you should expect to pay £10 out in fees.

The other issue is that if you have less than 100 feedback then you won't get your money from Paypal until positive feedback has been left (or 2 weeks has past).

Something like a work intranet is a better place IMO.
 
Well, tbh, the is risk is on the buyer side. Many people sell their phone and report it as stolen. The insurance will give them a new one while the sold one will be blocked.
 
I've used ebay to sell phones before and I've not had a problem. It is pretty pricey though as you get stung by ebay and Paypal (assuming you use them). On a phone selling for around £140 you should expect to pay £10 out in fees.

The other issue is that if you have less than 100 feedback then you won't get your money from Paypal until positive feedback has been left (or 2 weeks has past).

Something like a work intranet is a better place IMO.

Thats my problem i only got a 20 odd feedback only use ebay from time to time normally for guitar strings had me account 4-5years though.
 
Last edited:
Whatever you do, make sure you mark it so people not registered in the UK cant bid and also that they must have a credit card on file!!!
I've sold a few phones on the bay and every time I've had a £300+ offer (for a £150 phone - brand new!) from some guy wanting me to post it to his farm manager in Uganda!?!?!

You can cancel what look like dodgy bids but most of the time they end up costing you the auction!

There must be people out there stupid enough to believe the tales they tell or it wouldnt happen so much!!! :confused:

StevieP
 
The other issue is that if you have less than 100 feedback then you won't get your money from Paypal until positive feedback has been left (or 2 weeks has past).

I've recently experienced this - sold a Nokia mobile with no problems, posted the same day. Logged into paypal and got a message saying "Payment has been received but we're holding onto it until either positive feedback is left or 21 days has passed"

I understand they've implemented this in order to reduce any issue's but they're going to make some serious profit (interest wise) sitting on everyone's money for up to 21 days :mad:

Seems almost like banks taking X amount of days to cash a cheque or transfer funds :mad:
 
Just sold a nokia 5800 on ebay for £142 inc RMSD (I only allow special delivery for phones). After delivery and fees I retain £126+. Already communicated with the person, good feedback with expensive items sold and a good grasp of english.

Would never have got that on gumtree for example.

You just need to ensure that you deter foreign bidders, by making it absolutely clear you won't post abroad. Also find the going rate and use a Buy-It-Now. You pay much less in fees and if it doesn't sell the insertion fee was only 40p for me. The other benefit is that if the person doesn't pay or tries to get you to send it abroad, you can just relist it and get a refund of the final value fees.

I do have the benefit of not having funds being kept in arbitration for 21 days since I've sold a dozen phones in the past.

Good advice from Stevie P as well. Just go through the filters and select the relevant sensible options.
 
Last edited:
I've just experienced a new trick on ebay. A scammer has over 300 feedbacks, and just buy it now. Then, he asked me to contact him at [email protected]. I was stupid to send to that email address. Then he replied me some fake paypal receipts with [email protected] as username while the real address is other crap. To be honest, it is not that easy to spot as gmail usually shows only username for covenience. Of course, he asked me to send to Nigeria blah. The thing is, as he had my email address due to my stupidity and contacted me directly instead of through ebay. There is no proof he has done this. He then reported to ebay that his daughter misused his account to buy my item and he still have 100% feedback. I angrily complained to ebay, but nothing happened and I had to relist.
 
Ebay is fine if you know what you are doing.

Never ship the item unless you know you have received payment
Always use Paypal too!

Keep your auction local (UK only)
and also set up restrictions on your auctions so users with strikes etc can not bid.

Also end your auction at a time in which you know you will be at your desk to watch it.
Just in case - some scammers bid during the last few hours of a auction so its worth watching your auction and setting up a quick shortcut in your ebay profile to use the 'block bidder option' and 'remove bidder option'

If your auction is won by a scammer.. dont worry just relist - ebay will refund you any costs.
 
Well sold it on Ebay in the end and it was effortless, Mazuma for example offering £85 sold it on ebay for £190 with postage the chap has payed and left positive feedback and is very happy with the phone, with postage and fees i ended up with £170 very happy with that.
 
Back
Top Bottom