Ebay experiences

[HasanDaddy]

Hey dudes

I'm thinking about selling an iBook and a Ti over ebay, but I've heard some horror stories about selling over ebay and I'm a bit weary of doing it

First off ---

1. Will I get the best price of off ebay, for my equipment?

2. Is it safe? What are the chances of getting screwed?

3. I live in LA. Is there a way to post it on ebay, but then sell it to someone in person here in LA?

THANKS A TON!!!

 

[ectocooler]

You have NO IDEA how much it sucks to sell on ebay. I was trying to sell my last notebook on ebay and it took way over a month, thus killing the value by a bit.

Learn from my mistakes:

1) First off, DONT offer buy it now unless you're ready to have to start the auction over and over again. People "get their accounts hacked" and go through and end tons of computer auctions all the time. It happened twice to me, each time, costing me the amount it costed to post. Ebay refunds the after sale charges, but not the posting charges, meaning if you use exposure add ons like "bold text" or "special position posting" stuff, you're out that money.

2) There are a group of people out there who try to scam you via escrow.com. This happened to me once. Escrow.com ended up getting hacked, and so I went through all the escrow stuff on THEIR OWN WEBSITE, only to find that it was all done through a hacker who was trying to get me to send out my laptop before recieving money. Escrow.com said on the page that they had recieved money from the buyer and to send the laptop, then right before I shipped it, like, a few hours before, I get an email that says "ATTENTION DO NOT SHIP!!!" from the real escrow reps. They fill me in on the "hack". Thanks escrow.com for the great security.

3) Paypal is NOT a secure way to recieve payment. Check paypalsucks.com and all the other sites to find out the truth about how Paypal can empty your account out at any time for no reason, or how they're completely not responsible for your money. Also, if you dont have a merchant account, they take out a large amount of money. Total junk.

4) Many people will try to scam you from other countries. You'll get hundreds of emails from people in "cuba" or "puerto rico" or "mexico" or "china" or "korea" asking you if you'll offer the machine to them. These are cookie cutter emails and you'll soon start getting dupes. They're all just scam artists who plan on stealing your laptop w/false payments.

5) REQUIRE A LOT OF POSITIVE FEEDBACK. YOU'LL GET TONS OF PEOPLE WITH 0 BIDDING! NO GOOD!! Theres a reason why they have 0. And why they had just registered last week. They will try and try and try.

Theres so much more to be aware of. What is important is that you state your boundaries, stick to them too. Dont accept paypal from anyone who doesnt have a LOT of positive feedback. Don't waste your time with people who make you offers from other countries.

Oh and good luck! Hope that helped!

 

[QCassidy352]

wow, I was going to sell my ibook soon on ebay, but that sounds like a lot of scary stuff. I thought it was mostly buyers who got scammed! That part about escrow.com is especially bad. I thought that site was good, and would ensure a smooth transaction...

It does seem, though, that ebay auctions tend to end up higher than people are willing to offer on this and, ahem, *other* mac sites. Of course, it's no good to get a theoretically higher price and then be scammed out of your laptop, but you should remember that millions (more?) of ebay transactions go off without a hitch all the time.

I think the most important thing is to be careful, like ectocooler said. Set auction rules that will protect you, and stick to them. Hope it goes well, if you do sell on ebay. I may be joining you soon!

 

[ectocooler]

Righty-o. Don't trust ANYONE. One person sent me emails asking questions and setting up the transaction only to try and give me a hacked paypal payment that failed. I couldnt believe how personal and realistic this person was. Don't sell to other countries. DONT ship unless you have the money in your hand. Having it in a paypal account doesnt count!

Originally posted by ectocooler

4) Many people will try to scam you from other countries. You'll get hundreds of emails from people in "cuba" or "puerto rico" or "mexico" or "china" or "korea" asking you if you'll offer the machine to them. These are cookie cutter emails and you'll soon start getting dupes. They're all just scam artists who plan on stealing your laptop w/false payments.

After re-reading that, it looks like those are the only countries. They will be from every country under the sun. Selling to other countries is a shady thing. They will send you emails that are like "Please end the auction now. My brothers niece needs a computer here in puerto rico, and we will pay whatever you'd like. Please give us the amount and how to pay. My brothers niece needs this computer asap."

Seriously, I'm sure 90% of the emails you'll get will be junk. If you want, post your guidelines here before and I'll let you know if theres any holes in them for your to get screwed with.

 

[HasanDaddy]

Thanks ectocooler!

that was EXTREMELY helpful!

My mom actually wants to buy my iBook off of my (she has fallen in love)

but I will consider ebay for future things

is it too much to ask that the buyer only be from a certain location, like Los Angeles, just to guarantee that I could sell the laptop in person?

THANKS!

 

[ibookin']

Originally posted by HasanDaddy
is it too much to ask that the buyer only be from a certain location, like Los Angeles, just to guarantee that I could sell the laptop in person?

THANKS!

If you're going to go that way just advertise in the L.A. Times Classifieds or (even better, with no listing charge) the Recycler. Or you could go with the Pasadena Star News if you want to go even more local. I bought a camera (Nikon F3, great deal at $275 for the body) out of the Recycler and it has been working well for over 2 years. Most Recycler transactions are face to face, so you won't have to deal with things like esrows.

Nice to hear someone lives near me (I live in Eagle Rock). Have you ever been to Di-No computer. Great little Apple retailer on Colorado.

 

[Grimace]

I've sold tens of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise on Ebay so here is my take on things:

Buying: Fairly simple - do your homework. Make sure that the seller has at least a 100 level feedback (500 or more for large ticket items) and look at the prominence of negative feedback. If there are comments like "Stole my money" from buyers, don't bother. (Some times people post negative feedback for slow shipping.) You can see what kind of items they sell by clicking on the links in their feedback profile.

Selling: A little more tricky - ads without good pictures will not get a very good price - period. I recommend that other sellers sell high ticket items only after they have sold a few other items and have got the hang of the transaction process. You need to be proficient at HTML encoding - it gives a professional look that gives confidence to bidders. A good looking auction with clear pictures will receive top resale price - better than anywhere else; fall short on the ad and you may not get much.

Two more quickies:
1. You can set a regional location so only bidders in a certain area will see it (and put text in your auction - must pick up from xxx location.)
2. You can set a "reserve" price so if you don't want to sell for anything less than (ex.) $1500.00, only bids above that price make the transaction go through (and the reserve amount is known only to you.) If the highest bid is $1498.99, then the auction is nulled and you can relist.

Here is a feedback profile to make some of my comments relevant:

http://cgi2.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=carletonmusic