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Selling your phone on eBay w/o getting screwed?
- Thread starter Brien
- Start date
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Don't do an auction, do BuyItNow or Best Offer. Set the BuyItNow price to some pie-in-the-sky amount that you would love to get. Then have people submit best offers and only consider the ones with higher feedback.
Require 3-5 days handling time so any money they send you in PayPal can be transferred to your bank account before shipping. Only ship to confirmed PayPal addresses.
This has been perfect for me. I had a terrible experience a few years back when I sold my MacBook for $1200 and then the buyer claimed he never got it so I try to vet everything like crazy now.
Is eBay the safest route? No. Probably a service like Gazelle is. But selling on eBay probably gives you an extra $100-150 that you can get on top of a Gazelle offer.
Require 3-5 days handling time so any money they send you in PayPal can be transferred to your bank account before shipping. Only ship to confirmed PayPal addresses.
This has been perfect for me. I had a terrible experience a few years back when I sold my MacBook for $1200 and then the buyer claimed he never got it so I try to vet everything like crazy now.
Is eBay the safest route? No. Probably a service like Gazelle is. But selling on eBay probably gives you an extra $100-150 that you can get on top of a Gazelle offer.
I was able to sell my 3GS with no problem on eBay but ran into all kinds of trouble selling the 4. Some dumbass kid won the auction and paid, and then 2 hours later decided that he'd "made a mistake" and wanted a refund. My gut instinct told me to tell him to pound sand, that he could figure out what to do with the phone once he got hold of it, but everyone told me that that would kill my rep as an eBay seller, so I granted the refund, which involved transferring the money back out of my bank acct. Major pain in the ass. PayPal promptly put a hold on my account for several months because of suspected fraud. Grrrrrrr.
I'll give it a try again with my 4S, though. Just make sure you limit the number of countries to which you'll ship (there are some countries that are more prone to generating fraudulent transactions than others) and put whatever other restrictions you need to on the type of buyer you'll accept (# of positive feedback, whatever). I'm also going to set a reserve price on mine because I don't want to have to settle for selling it for some ridiculously low price if it gets lost in the shuffle of all the other iPhones flooding the market. Oh, and make sure you set the auction to end at a time of day when the majority of your buyers are going to be home, like in the evening. I've made the mistake of having auctions end in the morning before and I'm sure I lost out on some buyers because of it..
I'll give it a try again with my 4S, though. Just make sure you limit the number of countries to which you'll ship (there are some countries that are more prone to generating fraudulent transactions than others) and put whatever other restrictions you need to on the type of buyer you'll accept (# of positive feedback, whatever). I'm also going to set a reserve price on mine because I don't want to have to settle for selling it for some ridiculously low price if it gets lost in the shuffle of all the other iPhones flooding the market. Oh, and make sure you set the auction to end at a time of day when the majority of your buyers are going to be home, like in the evening. I've made the mistake of having auctions end in the morning before and I'm sure I lost out on some buyers because of it..
This. Safest way unless you use gazelle.com. I have a $400 offer from them with a box coming in the mail, but will list on eBay in the meantime because you can usually get at least $50 more even after paypal and eBay fees.
I'd hold onto it for ever and ever before I sell on ebay.
Don't trust that place one bit.
I've sold a lot of craigslist and even with competition have success.
Take good pictures
Well written description
Include price
Be patient
Many list but many lie. Some are scams or stores, others are not as described, etc..
No, i've bought one iPhone and thats for myself, can't be bothered with all the bother that surrounds eBay these days for something of that value.
People will end up paying at least £70 final value fees on the auction as well, I believe even more if its a BIN format.
People will end up paying at least £70 final value fees on the auction as well, I believe even more if its a BIN format.
I've owned every iPhone and sold them on ebay every year when the new one comes out. Never had a problem.
I agree.
These days eBay is a tough place for sellers, especially with all the ways buyers try to scam eBay/Paypal/etc - even AFTER the buyer has paid. I've heard too many horror stories to be wary of selling anything worth more than $50 on eBay
Be weary of international buyers. You're gonna get screwed with eBay fees and PayPal fees as well but probably get something comparable to what you could get on craigslist.
My buyer seems a little weird, but I think it'll go alright. As long as I purchase shipping insurance and tracking
gazelle is now offering $276 for a 32gb 4S in flawless condition.
If you don't like money, gazelle is great.
Someone tried to scam me when I sold my MBP on there last month, but it was pretty obvious when they wanted me to ship it to Nigeria. They even sent me a fake PayPal receipt that looked identical to the real thing. I only noticed that it was fake because the from address wasn't service@paypal.com. I spoke with an eBay rep about the ordeal and he got me out of having to file a no payment claim. He also said that about 1 of every 4 Apple product sales are a scam.
I put my 4S up for sale the day they announced the event, and it sold in 10 minutes for $400 to a legitimate buyer though. That almost twice as much as I would have gotten from Amazon or Gazelle.
In order to try and weed out a lot of the scammers, I'd recommend setting up Buyer's Requirements and Excluded Shipping Locations in your account.
I put my 4S up for sale the day they announced the event, and it sold in 10 minutes for $400 to a legitimate buyer though. That almost twice as much as I would have gotten from Amazon or Gazelle.
In order to try and weed out a lot of the scammers, I'd recommend setting up Buyer's Requirements and Excluded Shipping Locations in your account.
I just used the ebay instant cash deals.. figured i would give it a try. sure I could have gotten 50 more bucks selling to someone.. but i did this twice and twice my phone was bought by people using couriers to Russia.. and I dislike selling to ppl that forward their mail because it can cause lots of problem. it is gets stolen in customs or in transit. the courier can file a case with ebay and the buyer always wins..
ebay instant offerd 300 for 4s 16 gb
ebay instant offerd 300 for 4s 16 gb
I use eBay for everything. I've sold every iPhone to date to upgrade every year. I've never had a problem. Only ship to confirmed addresses and you're "Seller Protected." As long as you provide a tracking number (signature confirmation for more than $200), you're covered if the buyer tries to scam you.
I usually don't ship internationally unless I think it would fetch more money.
And I'm a fan of Buy It Now. You can usually find someone willing to pay a little bit more than the average selling price just to avoid the hassle of an auction.
I usually don't ship internationally unless I think it would fetch more money.
And I'm a fan of Buy It Now. You can usually find someone willing to pay a little bit more than the average selling price just to avoid the hassle of an auction.