The EBay thread.

[Happy Monkey]

Ebay takes 10%, I believe. So $4.98.

Last time I tried to use EBay, they were charging little nickel and dime charges for all sorts of crap to set up each listing. I don't know if they're still doing that, or if the stuff they charged for was actually useful.

[Undertoad]

There's a 0.30 "insertion listing fee" when you've listened over 50 items, which is retracted if the item sells. This prevents people from just wildly listing every goddamn thing in the universe.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

There's a 0.30 "insertion listing fee" when you've listened over 50 items, which is retracted if the item sells. This prevents people from just wildly listing every goddamn thing in the universe.

It's been years since I've eBayed. Sounds like they've settled down. When I tried, there was a whole menu of fees. I don't remember what they were, but some of them seemed like pretty essential items for a listing, like pictures. I eventually gave up, and sold what I was selling on Amazon, where you could input the ISBN or UPC and get a lovely listing page automatically generated if it was something they sold already.

[Flint]

Anybody had luck taking pictures of stuff and posting on FB Marketplace?

I've got space to store a bunch of stuff.
No listings, no bureaucratic hassle, just show up and bring the cash.

[glatt]

Not aware of FB marketplace. Is it public or just friends? Local ones at that.

[sexobon]

That's good if the item is sold and shipped by Amazon; or, at least shipped by Amazon. Otherwise, you can have the same situation with items sold and shipped by some individual via Amazon.

Buying something that's sold and shipped by Amazon is like buying from an eBay seller with 99.8% or better positive feedback. Less than these for either one and it's key is to do in-depth research on the seller. That way it's a calculated risk and you don't have to depend on lucking out as glatt did this time (glad he did).

I've ordered items via eBay shipped from Canada, Australia, and India without incident; but, I did my homework.

[Clodfobble]

Isn't FB Marketplace just Craigslist with a different audience? For what it's worth, I still sell stuff on Craigslist all the time--not always because it's too big to ship, often it's little things that I just don't want to bother shipping.

[glatt]

Does Craigslist work? Are there enough local interested in your stuff?

[Flint]

Originally Posted by glatt

Not aware of FB marketplace. Is it public or just friends? Local ones at that.

Public, and it also aggregates results from all buy/sell/trade FB boards you're already on. Yes, I'd use it for local, like come pick up and bring cash --a public "garage sale" where I simply warehouse the goods.

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

Isn't FB Marketplace just Craigslist with a different audience? For what it's worth, I still sell stuff on Craigslist all the time--not always because it's too big to ship, often it's little things that I just don't want to bother shipping.

It's guess its like Craigslist, but its available as a tab on the application I'm already staring at all day.

[glatt]

How does this scammer make money?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Big-Agnes-Co...sAAOSwtptZ0xOE

Seller is selling a $400 brand new tent for a buy-it-now price of $20. Seller joined Ebay a week ago and has 0 feedback. Seller is in China and says estimated shipping will have the tent arriving in December. Clearly a scam.

Ebay has a money back guarantee. If a buyer were to buy this non-existent tent, the buyer has to jump through some hoops when it doesn't arrive, but should get their money back.

So does the seller just close their account, take the $20 payment, and run from Ebay? I guess what I'm asking is if Ebay is being scammed by the seller or is the buyer is being scammed by the seller? I've seen a bunch of these new Chinese accounts selling super cheap high end stuff and have zero feedback, so its common.

[Clodfobble]

So far I think I've sold everything I ever tried to sell. Sometimes it took a couple weeks to get a bite, and sometimes I had to re-list it at a lower price than I initially was hoping for, but I'd say I have something actively listed maybe 30% of the time. It's not a place to build a thriving business or anything, but it's great for things that don't donate easily like clothes and toys do.

Just two days ago I sold a giant metal wall clock that was 2.5 feet in diameter. We bought it online and discovered only after hanging it how insanely loud the ticking was. The metal made it resonate. Anyway, I decided after a couple months that I just couldn't take it, but it wasn't worth the effort to repack it, and I think I was probably past any return window anyway. So I posted it on Craigslist for 75% what we paid for it, and 9 days later someone texted me with an offer for half. I said sure. Met him in the parking lot of a grocery store I had to go to that day anyway, and now the thing's out of my house and I took less of a financial hit than I would have by just giving it away.

Having pushed that off my plate, I've now posted my daughter's shoulder rest for her violin that she recently outgrew, with pictures swiped from the manufacturer's website. It's only listed at $15, and I'll probably end up taking $5-$10 for it in the end, but the thirty seconds it took to post it are worth it just to see it go to someone who can use it, instead of in the trash.


Edit to add: I've also found my last two duck egg suppliers through Craigslist.

[glatt]

Is craigslist free for sellers?

[Clodfobble]

On an even more extremely-local level, I gave away our backyard trampoline on the neighborhood site nextdoor.com. I didn't want to disassemble it, so I was hoping to get someone who could literally walk it down the street to their own backyard, and I had easily half a dozen requests for it within a couple hours of posting. If it's cheap enough, people will take anything off your hands.

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by glatt

Is craigslist free for sellers?

Free for everyone. No money involved on the website at all. You have to watch a little more closely for scams, but they're pretty obvious--"diamond rings" listed for $100, just show up in this alley at night with the cash, or "I want to buy your thing, but I have to write a check..." As long as you deal in cash and meet in public it's fine.

[Clodfobble]

Oh yeah--I also found a guy to do some in-person research for me a few months back. Posted an ad offering $50 to any student with access to the library I wanted, and the kid was in touch within 3 hours. He had to trust me to Paypal it, of course, but we chatted on the phone for a few minutes to explain what I wanted, and it was obvious we were both normal, non-scammy folks. Craigslist is awesome.