Paypal and (selling) eBay

Two-Sheds
I recently signed up on e-bay in the past couple of months and set up a personal Pay-Pal account. I've bought two products via Pay-Pal and have had no problem whatsoever.
The products I've sold have been cash and cheque (buyers choice) again no problems encountered. I suppose you just have to apply commonsense when doing any deal and if it looks dodgy, then in likelyhood it probably is!

Regards
Clive

Remember that paypal take a percentage of the deal.

Do start off with some of the lower priced things as you say to build up some positive feedback. Try a few things and see how they go, don't be disappointed if they don't sell for what you may think they are worth prices sometimes find their own level.

Ensure that cheques clear or the money is in your account before parting with anything. Make it clear that you will wait for cheques to clear so this wil slow down the transaction.

Most people are basically honest so you shouldn't have much problem. Otherwise Ebay wouldn't work.

If you then tried selling, say, a nearly new CDS3 then yes expect some scammers.

In anycase if it is junk then you don't need it any more anyway so any money you get for it is a bonus.

I've found PayPal makes purchasing easy (and cheap!) for the buyer, which helps in achieving a sale. It's also far easier to track and manage sales and payments via PayPal than it is with cheques and you don't have to wait for them to clear. Generally I'd recommend PayPal, but at some point you may need to ugrade your account to a Premier or Business account to overcome the rather tight limitations of the personal account.

Two Sheds:

A good tip is to time your sale so it ends mid-evening (pref. Sunday).

Talk up your items (see the 'lovely Pink Shoe' thread in the other place).

Supersize Photos.

I agree with the others it works really well. Start slow and low. I would reccomend always have a picture. Certainly try to get the item to finish at the weekend or at least early evening for UK sales.The cheapest is 7 days from when you submit,so bear that in mind when you are going to sell.Specifically timed sales cost extra.
You will be surprised at the prices that can be reached for stuff you think is almost junk. Like any auction if 2 people want it then you can reap the rewards.

Howard

I cheat a bit when selling. I insist on buyers using paypal, then add a bit to the postage and packing to cover what I think paypal will charge.

Tony

Yep - agree. I buy and sell regularly (mainly collectibles to help my growing collection and weed out things I don't need)

Paypal actually brings in bidders so the increase in bids will help cover fees.

Treat everyone the way you wish to be treated but be totally sceptical of all enquiries and payments.

Never accept Western Union etc. or overpayments. You know the scams that are discussed here all too well.

Hot finish time for UK sellers is between 7pm and 10pm Sunday. Remember that the eBay "official" time is different.

Turbo-Lister works well.

Have fun and be lucky ! (feedback rating of 370ish and 100%)

quote:

Never accept Western Union etc. or overpayments. You know the scams that are discussed here all too well.

don't accept western union? I know sending it if you are the buyer is dodgy (no way of really tracing where it goes), but it can be dodgy if you are recieving? or does it just make your auction look dodgy?

what scams are there with overpaying? they ask you to send them back the difference and somehow get it all back?

sorry if these are stupod questions, but the only time I look at eBay is when someone sends me a link for a comedy item (possesed toy, bloke in wedding dress) since I don't use it I don't pay too much attention to all the scams, and would have thought there are more scams to dupe buyers than sellers.

cheers for all the advice, I have a digital camera so I will take some good pics of the items. I wouldn't have thought of timing it so it would end sunday evening so thanks for that especially.

hi guys,

Selling:-

between 8:00 - 9:00pm is the best end times mid-week.

Buying:-

Bid as close to finish time as you possibly can. There is a program avaiable to "snipe" the auction for you at the last minute, but I prefer to snipe the auction myself, in the last 4secs, broadband is a real godsend..

Be strict with the max price your willing to pay, too many people get carried away and somtimes pay more than the items worth. Which is great if your a seller , which is also why a low start price is good and no reserve. I know that sometimes you cant afford to take that risk but it does usually pay off.

One thing I try to do when buying expensive items more than say £100, is to read the auction to see if the seller is giving potential bidders the oppurtunity to view the item during auction and the option to collect if you win. This to me basically says that they have nothing to hide..Try to collect expensive items if you possibly can, IF however I find an items not as-described then I would walk-away. Its not happened yet though, descriptions have been pretty accurate.

If the seller cant provide pics or enough details on the item for sale then I generally leave it although the seller could well be genuine and just does'nt have a camera. I was screwed over by a seller who basically wanted to get rid of junk, atleast it seems that way. Call me suspicious but for the millions of geniune e-bayers there are a large amount who insist on messing things up for the rest of us. SO, I would definately say be "VERY" suspicious. Read carefully and if something appears too good to be true, it usually is. Things for sale have a tendency to reach realistic prices on ebay and are pretty consistent.