That’s a pretty good idea about gathering free or inexpensive things with the intent of selling on eBay. For me, I’ve just been going through some shit at my house. And the problem is, people don’t want to pay what I think the item is worth. I dont want things to sell for pennies when they cost me a couple hundred less than 2 years ago. I guess that’s how it goes with electronics though.
I think I’ll keep my eye out for some free shit to sell for cheap 
Of course, sometimes, I get it wrong. I found a big pile of really corroded rusty nails out the back of the place I work one day, when I happened to be in a really manic episode of ‘Hey, I could sell this on eBay’ mode. So I picked up a pound of them, photographed them and listed them on a penny start listing.
Perhaps not surprisingly, I didn’t get a single bid - although I got a couple of ASQs commenting on how funny/clever they thought it was to try to sell rusty nails, and I did get loads and loads of views (which might have worked to my advantage if people were clicking the link to see my other items)
On a different day, it might have been different - some newspaper might have been running an article on ‘crap for sale on eBay’ and my rusty nails might have been the next Grilled Cheese Virgin Mary.
I’ve been selling on eBay since '98 and it’s gotten a lot tougher over the years. During those first few years, you might really have been able to sell those nails; I’ve sold some pretty damn stupid things for damn good money.
The “glory days” of being able to sell just about any old crap with a clever description is pretty much over, though, with an occasional exception of course. I have to spend a lot more time than I used to scouting out collectible stuff because buyers are much more discriminating now.
Question is: why has it changed? Are people buying their rusty nails somewhere else? Are they buying new nails and self-rusting them by leaving them out in the rain? Was there never a real market for rusty nails, and people were just buying them out of sheer stupidity? Or has the global requirment for rusty nails been satisfied?
I can’t work it out; I can’t come up with any suggestion that seems to make sense.
Maybe I need to test the market again; it’s only about a quarter of an hour until lunchtime - I’m going out to collect some rusty nails…
I think you hit the ahem nail on head with that idea.
The “Hey I just bought something at an auction on my computer” factor has gone.
I attributed it to novelty - stupid stuff was there to buy, and people were buying it stupidly.
I don’t know how else to explain some of those early sales I made.
Yeah, but I have a plan this time. Mark my words; I’m going to sell some rusty nails.
Gotta give them props for the customer service. Still hate all the sniping and shilling and scamming though.
Ouch! Don’t put sniping in the same category with fraudulent activity. Nothing wrong with sniping - it’s perfectly legitimate and most buyers are doing it now. IMO you’re crazy if you don’t snipe.
When I have been offered “second chance”, I counter-offer them only one bid increment over the next highest bid…Not my maximum. If they don’t take that, they are either a scammer or an idiot, and in neither case deserve my custom.
As for early shilling, that is the reason I preach the gospel of sniping far and wide.* It really effects me little, as I typically will snipe at 1/2 to 2/3 of the non-ebay market value of the item. If it was early-shilled too high, I simply don’t bid.
*I realize that even if all legitimate buyers sniped, the seller could still shill using two sock puppets…which for all practical purposes is no different than setting a reserve price.
I completely agree with you, Kevbo. It’s always bugged me that the second-chance offer automatically sets to your maximum bid amount. If someone backs out, you should have a chance to buy the item at what the price would have been without that bidder, because if they backed out, they obviously never intended to buy the item in the first place. I always counter with the “next highest bid” also; the sellers usually decline.
Of course, sometimes buyers really do back out, and that’s another huge problem. Non-paying bidders are absolutely rampant on eBay now. I monitor all my auctions and cancel bids from zero-feedback users since eBay won’t allow me to automatically block them. Some people have complained to me that it’s not fair, because new users “have to start somewhere”. But I figure if eBay isn’t going to take the problem seriously then I’m going to have to deal with it myself. They need to have serious consequences for non-paying bidders. They say “your bid is a contract”, but they don’t really mean it. If you can bid on stuff and then not pay after you win, it renders the whole concept of an auction meaningless. EBay’s attitude is sort of: “Gosh, if you do that two or three more times, we’re going to give you a warning”. They’re not motivated to change the rules because they make more money with the status quo.
As a seller, I wish more people would make those counter-offers. When eBay sends those second-chance offers, it doesn’t give the seller any opportunity to input a price. Most bidders just ignore the email and never even make a counter offer. Since I start the bidding prices near what I’ll accept for the item anyway, I’m always willing to negotiate on a second-chance offer.
What’s your ebay username? I have some rusty pieces of wood for which your nails will be well suited.
Rusty wood? Bwuh?
Whoosh!
Totally
I specify that I will sell to US and Canada only BUT in my shipping instructions, ask other international buyers, if interested, to ask me first. If all is on the up and up, I then merely invoice for the extra shipping fees via Paypal, using the same EBay ID # as a reference. I have shipped to UK, Germany and Thailand, and all were excellent experiences. My biggest ass-ache with EBay has been the whole shipping process, particularly when selling ceramic articles (of which I must have a couple million!)----this is not an EBay issue, it is my own, wherein I have simply decided I HATE packaging everything to virtually guarantee no breakage, then dragging it and my butt to the PO several times a week, it is too much work, and thus I would never make EBay a full-time occupation unless I had someone else to do the packing/mailing for me.
I positively detest the folks who charge 10 bucks to ship a 2-dollar item, and I will avoid those types completely when buying. I wish EBay would do more about this. Yes, you can report these folks, but tons of them are still out there, active every day, & I can’t help but wish there was some kind of system in place to detect them better and eliminate them.
If you aren’t discouraged enough, & do try EBay again, my friend, pick up one of the “EBaying for Dummies” types of books that are available. I’ve found these books to have loads of helpful hints and to do a great job of explaining the labyrinth that is the Item Sales system. Lots of hints on how to avoid the general idiot/scam buyer are included.
International shipping is supposedly a bit more risky for sellers, as it’s harder to get end-to-end proof of delivery, so if the buyer decides to file a non-delivery complaint, Paypal (assuming that’s how they paid) will just hand your money back to them.
Having said that, I hardly ever bother with a proof of delivery for UK items, and that’s never been a problem, so the above might just be paranoia on the part of sellers.