Your advise on selling >£100 item on eBay

Mr Jones

Mr Jones

Mr Jones

Soldato
Joined
16 May 2006
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Location
Dubai
Hi guys, I'm thinking of selling a laptop on eBay which according to most listed, sold for around £520 mark plus delivery. I'm a seasoned eBay buyer but have never successfully sold anything (listed and re-listed an earphone before giving up).

What I would like is your personal experience on selling on eBay; what measures I can do to protect myself from scammers? If you've been scammed before, what happened? (so I can learn from it)

Also, I currently hold a paypal account which is fine taking my funds out from my debit card, but putting money into my bank is another issue due to my name change (Paypal still have my previous last name and I'm asked to jump through hoops to change it:( - when not changed, if my money don't go into my Bank and I get charged £20 for "their hassle")

So I'll try and avoid the use of paypal payers; Checks should be fine (do eBay have buyers paying via cash over counter / Bank Transfers like in the MM?)

My eBay positives, 21 and 100%, so this should give buyers the confidence.

Any advise are appreciated :)
 
agony said:
Confirmed address - Check when you recieve payment, otherwise they are through the door. - Try and ask for Bank Transfer (non reversable).

Best of luck
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Confirmed address, as in on eBay? (didn't know there's such a thing there, as I've bought loads and don't think I've "confirmed" my address...)

Ben M said:
the best way to be safe: don't.
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I did think of that but eBay seem to the best place to maximise the returns on this item - every penny counts. MM is a good place to offer but everyone's out for a bargain there, not a heated eBay bid :p
 
Cheques are always dodgy, could be stolen and then you might get the money taken back out of your account. Also can't a person ask for a cheque to be 'cancelled' even after it has 'cleared' so to speak? I know asda for one doesn't accept cheques at all any more so they must've been having a few problems with them.
 
The buyer collects in person and pays cash. You meet the buyer with a gang of your mates armed with bats and pipes to make sure they don't rob you in a pub carpark far away from your house.

You check the cash is not fake before letting the buyer take the laptop.


You should be pretty safe then.
 
loopstah said:
The buyer collects in person and pays cash. You meet the buyer with a gang of your mates armed with bats and pipes to make sure they don't rob you in a pub carpark far away from your house.

You check the cash is not fake before letting the buyer take the laptop.


You should be pretty safe then.
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You make it sound like he is trying to do an arms or drugs deal!

Speak with them on the phone :)
 
agony said:
Right, erm...

Basically, when you recieve your payment through Paypal, and recieve your reciept email, it will under the address state if it has been Confirmed or Uncomfirmed.
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Ah, I know about that but as said, paypal is best avoided in my case, unless I want £500+ in paypal account and not at hand.

I didn't know there's an issue with cheque, looks like I'll have to look out on that - what if the cheque clears? Are there still a chance of them getting it back?

Face to face sales sounds fine, I can always bring along my TaeKwonDo members with me :D (not that I'm not capable of protecting myself, bar a gun wielding chav)

I'll have a note on speaking to them over the phone; is this before or after? If after and speaking to them, they sound dodgy, what "escape plan" have I got as a seller?
 
In the listing only allow UK sellers with positive feedback and will only ship to the UK, although you'll still probably get UK buyers who want it shipped to their son in Nigeria. It's been a while since I sold anything but I believe there are options to do so.
 
Alan! said:
TBH its a piece of p!ss to get 21 positives/100%.

As you say, you've never sold anything before and that would worry me as a potential buyer who's being asked to part with £500.
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Hmm... true - though my account's been with me since 2004 AFAIK. I bid selectively :p
 
Have you thought about selling it on here in the FS forum? You might have to take a £50 hit or so, but I'd 1000% rather sell something on here than on eBay, so much less hassle.

*edit*

Just checked your trust - why aren't you just selling it on here you numpty :p
 
Rich_L said:
Have you thought about selling it on here in the FS forum? You might have to take a £50 hit or so, but I'd 1000% rather sell something on here than on eBay, so much less hassle.

*edit*

Just checked your trust - why aren't you just selling it on here you numpty :p
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Because every penny counts, I am trying to invest it on to another system and very limited by money, so £50 lost is a big hit. This is also a time to start selling on my laptop before it looses more value...
 
aayzof said:
I'd never done it before and in the space of 4 days managed to sell my wii for around £250 and my old powerbook for £300. I don't know if I was just lucky, but used paypal and both were smooth transfers.
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I might have a work around plan, my mum's got an unverified paypal account with £650 limit, which I might be able to use and transfer the money to her account and back to mine - long way around but it might just be the only way around my stupid hoop jumping account...
 
Dr Jones said:
Because every penny counts, I am trying to invest it on to another system and very limited by money, so £50 lost is a big hit. This is also a time to start selling on my laptop before it looses more value...
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:) Fair enough I suppose! Personally I'd probably take the hit for the less hassle, I haven't used eBay in a while so maybe I've got a skewed perception from always hearing about scammers and suchlike! Apart from that not really much more I can suggest - maybe take payment via bank transfer or cash over the counter/in hand only, as said before, cheques can be forged/stolen which won't flag up even if your money is cleared.

Good luck though!
 
I have a love hate relationship with ebay it can make you lots of money but you can also lose lots. Remember these things

1) lots & lots of scammers on there, people hijacking other people accounts and then buying things. People from Nigeria wanting you to send item first lol. (you lose your insertion fees if this happens) but do get the final valuation fee back if you open a unpaid item depute.

2) In the buying settings make sure people can only bid with a credit card on file and who have a +1 feed back score, all bids with 0 or -1 are knocked back.

This is what i have mine set to

Have a feedback score of -1 or lower
Are currently winning or have bought 4 of my items in the last 10 days and have a feedback score of 0 or lower
Have received 2 Unpaid Item strikes in the last 30 days
Have a feedback score of 0 or lower and no credit card on file.

4) If your selling a laptop then its best to spend the extra £10 to make your listing appear in the feature section or your item is not seen for about 8 pages and this is even with a hour left. This could be the diffrence between £20 -50.

5) state on your listing that people need to email you if they have less than 5 feed back or you will cancel there bid :D

hope this helps and good luck
 
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