Ebay sales savvy. Anybody?

F

Far Corfe

Registered User
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Further to a message I put up last week and a respondent suggested i try selling on Ebay.

I did this and put a book for sale , a valuable book.
I got a message from a european collector and sent him photos and he replied saying it was wonderful and "would I be interested in selling it out of the ebay auction or did i prefer wait till it finished"

Puts me in a quandry as i am completely new to ebay.
When i say valuable a similiar lot is priced on a US site at over 2000 dollars.

So any ebay savvy ladies or gentlemen there?

Regards
 
People who ask to buy outside of eBay are often trying to scam you out of whatever you're selling. You have no comeback if you don't stick to eBay. How does the collector propose to exchange his cash for your book?
 
hi there

it depends what he was offering

check the category you have the book placed on , sometimes if the book is placed in the wrong category ( easy to do first time! ) it can achieve a lot less than in another category
 
Yes, plenty of sharks in the ebay waters. I would do everything by the book (excuse the pun), payment only by paypal and signed delivery.

Planning to sell a few things myself on ebay but going to start with a few low value items to start with.
 
Sarsfield said:
People who ask to buy outside of eBay are often trying to scam you out of whatever you're selling. You have no comeback if you don't stick to eBay. How does the collector propose to exchange his cash for your book?
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I dont know how he intends to pay the interaction has just been today. I told him i was interested in his offer but would also be happy to let it run in the auction as a learning experience. I can tell he is reputable.

Thanks for all the tips. Its the most valuable thing i have to sell and i could do with the money. I will let you know how it goes and anymore thoughts there.
 
Far Corfe said:
I dont know how he intends to pay the interaction has just been today. I told him i was interested in his offer but would also be happy to let it run in the auction as a learning experience. I can tell he is reputable.
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I buy and sell a lot on ebay and Sarsfield's advice is spot on! Be very careful of anyone who offers to buy outside of ebay - even if they offer to send you a bank draft drawn on an Irish bank, beware! You may send off your precious book only to find that the draft is a fake.

Ebay and PayPal procedures are there to give you at least some protection and my advice would be to follow them. Good luck with your enterprise! :)
 
Far Corfe

Advice above is sound. There are a great many scammers on eBay, as pointed out above. My point is to make sure you have a realistic reserve on the item - if it's worth $2,000, then that should be about your reserve. I know from experience that putting first item on eBay can lead to mistakes. I nearly sold 2 airline tickets for the price of 1 by mistake!

Slim
 
From my own eperience I found that sometimes they say they are in england or somewhere but ask for it to be shipped to Nigeria. After they receive a shipping number, they pretend to credit your account. Its amazing that people fall for it. Anyway, be careful with paypal aswell. They dont have to pay out if they have been scammed. So you would lose.
 
Thanks for all the help friends. I went into this very naively i see not even setting a reserve and only realizing its value after i had placed it.

I received this mail from the collector today.

" To be honest with you I am sure that you wont receive a fair price for the book because of you small description and the fact that you did'nt use an illustration on it and a very small starting price.

I believe to be more successful if i bid on your auction and get it for a cheaper price. we can try but maybe I could accept your offer you expect for it.

Please let me know and maybe I could help you stop the auction"

The man is german hence his english may not be exactly as he means.

So to you eBay savvy people do i have to sell now at what may be a silly price?
 
You can end your listing - details here:

"If needed, you can end your listing before the scheduled end date. If there are bids on your item, you can cancel them.
Reasons for ending listings early include:
  • The item is no longer available for sale.
  • There was an error in the starting price or reserve amount.
  • There was an error in the listing.
  • The item was lost or broken.
To end your listing early:
  • Type your item number into the End My Listing Early form. (You can get this number on your listing, on your confirmation email, or on your My eBay page.)
  • If there are bids on your item, choose between
    Cancel bids and end listing early or Sell item to high bidder(s) and end listing early
    (If your item has no bids, you can skip this step).
  • Choose the reason you're ending your listing early.
  • Your listing will end and will no longer be displayed on eBay. If there were bidders, they will be emailed that their bid was cancelled and the listing ended early.
Note: You will still be eligible for applicable listing fees if you end your listing early. Consider revising your listing first if you want to change or improve it."

Be careful with the guy who says he's German - he may not be, I've had people who have claimed to be Dutch or from the UAE when they weren't. He may be an honest person trying to advise on the real value of the book?
 
Ebay can be alot of fun seeing how well your item does. Anyway, as you ar ein doubt about the security of the user, you should not sell it to him. Otherwise its a risk that many people lose out to.
 
:):):)

:):)

Thanks everybody and Delgirl.

I am going to relaunch it as two lots, book and postcard with a better presentation.

:)
 
Germans can IBAN straight to your bank account. Thats same as cash.
 
Personaly I would not pull the auction just because someone contacted you outside of the auction. If the person is really interested in the book then tell them they should place a bid. Contact the potential buyer after the auction and only send the item after payment is sent and cleared.
I've had many mails asking me if I would sell outside my auction even though I clearly state would do this.
As well as paypal I also use other payment systems such as PPPay and AlertPay. Paypal can be expensive to sellers so you should consider that when setting the price. The up side is that there is a lot of buyers who have paypal. But there is always one. Do not except Western Union.Also clearly state how much the shipping will be the easiest way is to get scales weight the book and go to An Post where by you can get a estimate. Also consider packaging costs.
Here's my two cents.
Be as discriptive as possible. Take plenty of photos. For best results get a box cut a side out, creat a blue or green screen using cloth from a drapers or coloured paper and at least to lights sources (avoid the cheaper light bulbs - gives of a yellow hue) and take your photos with a digital camera (even a camera phone will work).
Do not set you at a rounded figure (in this case €2000) alway go for €xxxx.95 (for example €1995.95) the difference in the sellers fee that ebay/paypal charges for that differences can make a suprising.
There is other auction sites out there. I also auction some things on ebid they have free auctions as well as fee based auctions.
Clearly set out your term of auction and stick to them.
For example
* I only accept paypal
* I do not ship to these counties...
* If after 5 days there is no payment a remider mail will be sent out after 7 days (2 days after reminder) a non payment is issued.


I would suggest you spend some time on ebays forums as there is a wealth of information there and in general the people there are friendly.

In any case best of luck and welcome to the world of online auctions.
 
Thanks Meathenterp, thats a treasure of information.

Printing it out to keep. I'll construct the photo box you describe over the w/e.

Thanks for all the help everybody
 
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