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Boy has, Ebay changed, sheesh!

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Long story short, listed something w/ a BIN and fees would have been $45 if it would have sold. I only had it up a few minutes and then ended the listing. (No one bought it OR contacted me about it through or because of ebay.) I ended it cause I had it listed on CL and had a few calls come in quick because of the CL ad so I figured I'd end the ebay ad before I was charge any fees seeing I didn't need to sell it on ebay. Well, the guy that was supposed to come buy didn't so I went ahead and relisted it on ebay....and not only was I charged the $45 for the first time, but I was charged ANOTHER $45 for "relisting" it.....even though I was still in my original $45 paid period. Now you can go back in and change you ad to cost you less...after you agree to pay for what you were already charged EVEN THOUGH you now have a shorter run period than you originally paid for....

In other words, it will cost you MORE to run it less...

The kicker is, I ended it for a "listing error" (which it did have and it wouldn't let me correct) yet I was still charged both times and the error is still in there!

I also just listed an amp on ebay for $769.00...fees for that are $84.45...

I'll never use them again.
 
Just got off the phone with them, "Insertion is free, what you are being charged for is the duration period".

Right.....which I'm still in, I'm being charged for the same period twice....AND it still has errors in it I can't change!

After a little runaround I got them to credit me one of the $45 charges.
 
I figure the cost of selling on Ebay is roughly 15% if the item sells, Ebay plus Paypal fees. Better place to be a buyer but still, some items are not likely to sell locally and Ebay has a large enough audience that anything I've ever listed has sold for enough to make it worth my while.
 
sail said:
some items are not likely to sell locally and Ebay has a large enough audience that anything I've ever listed has sold for enough to make it worth my while.
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The amp fees make it hard to be worth it. Yeah. looking at 15-20% of sales price. That's way too high. They're gonna price themselves into competition with someone else.
 
I remember when ebay started, they talked about it as a "community" and in some ways it was, people with similar interests bought and sold their hobby stuff, there were and still are some less than stellar types on there, but the fees weren't high, and you could search and find what you were looking for, not have to sift through thousands of steering wheel covers and such that "fit triumph TR6".

I used to sell on ebay quite a bit, but they seem to want to cater more and more to the high volume businesses and not the casual seller who buys and sells to keep up with his hobby. I have "quit" a few times when they have changed policies in ways I didn't like, and I resisted paypal for quite a while and still think it is a ripoff that they make you use it. It is quick and convenient, but about doubles your cost of selling. But still for obscure car parts my local market is pretty thin, so I go back.

About the only positive I can say is that they have moved the policy towards making it harder to totally rip off buyers on shipping, which became pretty rampant on there for a while.

Agree that if they are not careful they may get some competition.
 
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I've become mostly a buyer on ebay in the last few years. I only sell on there now if I can't sell something on craigslist.
 
A general question: if you wanted to sell your classic car - where would you list it other than BCF and locally?

Tom
 
NutmegCT said:
A general question: if you wanted to sell your classic car - where would you list it other than BCF and locally?

Tom
Click to expand...

I'd find a way to get it on "Bring a Trailer" (as in: list it on CL, then submit to BAT). If the vehicle has merit the buyers will line up.
 
waltesefalcon said:
I've become mostly a buyer on ebay in the last few years. I only sell on there now if I can't sell something on craigslist.
Click to expand...

I do exactly the same thing.
 
The other thing that is a pain about e-bay these days is that it is free or cheap to list, to you have all the "hope springs eternal" or "sucker born every minute" types who list things new and used for our cars at 3-4 times the going rate over and over again, I understand why e-bay does it, it doesn't cost them much to add listings once they have created the basic infrastructure, and it encourages people to use the site, but still get tired of looking at the "used MGB valve spring set" listed over and over again with a "buy it now" of only $200!. When the initial listing we charged for, and part of the charge was based on opening price you got a lot of real auctions with low starting prices and the market determining price and sales.
 
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