[Hildy]

I think PayPal is worse if you're the buyer than if you're the seller. Peronally, I've never had a problem on EBAY as a buyer.

[EllaMinnow]

I've been selling on ebay for 3 years, and the one tip I give to potential sellers is to have good feedback as a buyer first. It's a lot easier to learn ebay from the buyers' side first. Since you've done that, you shouldn't have a problem.

Personally, I've never had a problem with Paypal - but I do know others have.

[SheLion]

I've been selling on Ebay since 1998. Nothing big like antiques or vehicles. And I've been with Pay Pal just about as long. I enjoy it, and it's a hobby for me.

Plus, it's a good way to get rid of "stuff" that you no longer need or want. I really enjoy it.

The only heartburn I have with being a seller is the newbie buyers. They can't wait to slap a negative on your feedback. You have to be really careful and treat them with kid gloves, or you'll get a negative for "not being nice." That's my big beef.

Instead of working things out in email, they can't wait to give negatives. But........their day will come. :)

[abner]

I've never had a problem with Paypal, but I know someone that hates it.

I just started a drop off store in my neighborhood to sell for other people. It is going to go gangbusters I think. I have a tiny sign out front and I am almost afraid to put up the big signs that I have.

Good luck.

[boris]

I tried to sell a "nearly new" external SCSI Jaz Drive with cable, Adaptec controller, 10 2-gb media (personally checked by me for readability), 4 1-gb media (ditto). I pay shipping.

Opening price for the whole shebang: $125.

Bids: zero.

Eventually went into the trash bin. Understand: each 2-gb medium (disk) originally cost ~$100...

--Boris

[Former Fetus]

I've been selling on eBay for a couple of years. It is my experience that most people look at the % of positive ratings, rather than whether you have been buying or selling. Now, if your rating is less than perfect, people will check it out and then it might make a difference if you have only bought before.

As for Pay Pal, I've never had any problems. The only people I know who had trouble, it wasn't really Pay Pal but some scam artist presenting himself as working from Pay Pal. Follow their safety advice and you should have no trouble. If you are planning on selling a big item, you need to keep in mind that Pay Pal will take a fee from the seller. Some people will charge an extra 5% if the buyer wants to use Pay Pal.

[Swordmaker]

I have used eBay to purchase over $50,000 worth of merchandise and was stung only once. I have also sold using eBay.

A low eBay rating WILL affect your auctions... many people are leary of buying from a low rating eBayer. It is a classic catch... you have to make transactions to build a good rating. Buyer ratings and seller ratings are basically the same and each increment your number. Unless you really go looking you cannot tell the difference easily. As for low rating buyers don't be too afraid of selling to a low rating... just don't ship the item until you have the cash (not just a check) in hand. In other words, make sure the funds have cleared.

Be wary of buyers that are suddenly purchasing large ticket items that don't fit their previous purchasing pattern... their accounts may have been hijacked by crooks who will buy large ticket items and send a forged cashiers check or other fraudulent instrument.

PayPal is a bank. Using it is as safe as using a bank. There will be fees and if your items are large, you may run up against a transaction limit. By using PayPal, you can specify that you will only accept electronic check transactions from the buyers bank account into your PayPal account. Using credit cards is more expensive because PayPal has to pay the merchant's discount to Visa or MasterCard, etc., so they pass that fee on to you plus their own fees.

For large ticket items consider using a escros service... but not one offered by the buyer,.. as it is common that fraudulent buyers create their OWN fraudulent escrow service. Use one that is recommended on eBay by other eBayers.

[Maigret]

I furnished almost my whole house through ebay and have intermittently sold, I'd just suggest that you can easily build up your feedback by buying some inexpensive things, and by selling items like books, cds, and other inexpensive goods.

Try not to be too wordy in your auction, I especially hate the ones that are a hundred lines of 'rules', I never bid on anything that is sold that way. Just ask yourself if you were buying the item what you would want to know about it, you can put a small disclaimer at the end saying how many days till payment is expected if insurance is available etc.

I love PayPal, it has saved me money by giving me refunds when a seller has been a loser. In fact I try not to buy anything on ebay without using PayPal.

[Sender]

I've been buying on eBay and paying with PayPal for years with no problems at all. I've never sold anything yet on eBay.

It is certainly a good thing to have a lot of positive feedback, but it is not absolutely necessary. If you are selling big-ticket items or expensive, fragile antiques then having no feedback is more of a liability than if you are selling $5 items that are not so great a risk.

IMHO, it is less worrisome to have no feedback than to have negative feedback. I have bought items from far away countries from sellers with little or no feedback and have been pleasantly surprised. If a seller has numerous negative feedback, I'm not buying from them even if they have a thousand positive ones.

[Graymatter]

Always look at recent completed auctions for items similar to what you're selling. You'll get an idea of the prices and the interest shown in such items.

Be thorough and very specific in your selling terms. Read the terms of other sellers.

Think twice about selling large items that can't be shipped cheaply. Buyers often bid on them, then experience deep remorse when they realize they must find a shipper and pay through the nose. Don't complicate your life by offering to find a shipper and arrange for shipping.

I'd go on but I'm getting depressed, remembering the mistakes I made. I haven't sold in over a year. Not worth the agony.

[abner]

If you can, don't use a reserve. Put a starting price of what you need to get for the item. People will either buy or not regardless of price.

Don't start your auctions at a price that you can't afford. You will lose money that way.

Keep your shipping to a minimum. People get crazy about shipping amounts. If you charge a handling or packing fee, make sure that is in your auction.

[Leisler]

Describe everything fully. Leave nothing out. At a minimum this will keep people from emailing you and waisting time answering question you should of resolved thru good text and pictures.

Describe it just as it is. No more no less. You don't want it back and you want good responses.

Buy the extra photos, they are worth it. Do the ten day post.

Don't give it away. Just cause it doesn't sell in one post, so what. Use the history function and you can look back and see what similar items have sold for in the past. Make sure you post it in the correct category. Do a search for like minded items being sold.

Try what to you is the simplest piece to sell first so that you can get your feet wet and not care too much about the piece itself, or the price, but more to lean the ropes before you get to more expensive and/or difficult pieces.

[sistergoldenhair]

ping

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[MACVSOG68]

As some have mentioned here, feedback is important, but it's the % more than either the number or whether it's buyer or seller feedbacks.

I use Paypal for both buying and selling. The benefits definitely outweigh the costs because most buyers want the ease of use and immediate payment, rather than having to either write a check out or go to the bank and get a MO. It does cost, but you can look at the fees and determine if you want to use it. I recommend it so as not to run off potential customers.

Don't use shipping for additional profit. Buyers are pretty knowledgeable, and will resent a $8 to $10 shipping charge for a $2 shipping expense.

Stand behind what you sell.

List it properly (in the right category and item specific area), and always post a good photo, either with a scan or digital camera.

Always answer emails promptly and notify buyers immediately of their win and shipping.

Pricing can be tricky, but personally I hate reserves. Look for similar items in sold category and price accordingly. Start reasonable, but at a point where people see it as a nice deal. Auctions should always start low or they are not really auctions. Sometimes you lose a little, but if you are a good seller with a good listing, you will win a lot more.

Good luck.

[Lokibob]

All of the above is excellent advice.

I had forgotten that new comers to Paypal have a limit on transactions. I would hold off on putting your antiques up for auction until that limit is lifted (I think it is 3 months). Meanwhile do some buying and selling, nothing serious.

I understand that "the UPS store" is opening a sellers assistant section, where you drop off the items, they take care of the e-bay stuff including selling for a fee. That might be the way to go.

An e-bay seller assistant generally get 15% of the sale price after all fees have been paid. Fees on e-bay vary.

Old coins are a difficult market on e-bay.

bob

[Valpal1]

When choosing your opening bid price, pay attention to where the listing fee breaks are.

Listing an item for 9.99 costs half as much as listing an item at 10.00.

Same thing for 24.99 and 25.00.

Use the completed items search to find what comparable items sold for in the last two weeks.

Choose your shipping method before hand. Weigh your items so you know your shipping charges. State flat rate shipping or using the shipping calculator so buyers can determine their ship costs by zipcode, this gets more bidders. It's okay to add a reasonable handling fee for packing materials, etc.

Mystery ship costs lowers bid numbers.

If a seller is to lazy/disorganized to predetermine ship costs and methods, they are also likely to be poor packers and slow shippers.

Good photos are really important in the antique/collectibles category and you may need several from various angles or to disclose flaws. If your item(s) require multiple photographs, a listing service with photo hosting will be cheaper than using ebay's photo service in the long run, especially if you have 100's or 1000's of items to sell. Try sparedollar dot com for low volume selling. If you plan to expand to serious full time selling you will want auctionwizard or auctionworks that can handle real volume selling

I don't use them, but I sell in a category where only the one free picture provided by ebay is necessary. I have seen them recommended by other sellers who need more.

Paypal is okay in my book for average dollar sales. I would not use them for selling high dollar jewelry or electronics as they don't have comparable fraud protection/dispute resolution to real merchant accounts.

If you can't spell, then be sure to spell check your descriptions and titles as mispellings will effect the search engine and reduce your total exposure, you will be totally dependant on luck if you spell keywords wrong. In fact, be sure you know what you are actually selling and research the best keywords to use in describing it to maximize search engine exposure.

Being honest, accurate, original, pleasant and even humorous in your descriptions is worth money, so polish your writing persona.


Best of luck to you.

[luvbach1]

I've had probs with PayPal.
Having an eBay history is preferred so see if you can get old history restored.

Here is something to watch for: When an item is described as "as is" it means the description is often not to be believed because what seller is telling you is that he expects you to accept whatever is wrong with it, no matter how it was described, simply because he stated "sold as is." Case in point: Nikon Camera was desired as "Doesn't work but I can't see a mark on it, sold as is(notice he did not say there were no marks on it, but that was deliberately deceptive)". I bought it for a price that proved to be at least $100 too much. When it arrived I immediately noticed an obvious dent on a corner that had removed paint, exposing bare metal. Seller must have seen it. The camera had been dropped and that was why it didn't work but the seller tried to insulate himself from his dishonest description by adding the "magic" words "sold as is." Camera was repaired at a cost of $125.I gave him a neutral rating when a dissatisfied was called for. He complained bitterly for having given him that.

[Sefton]

I've never had a problem with pay-pal and as a buyer feel much more comfortable sending payment this way then with personal check or money order. I get very anoied by sellers that won't except. Charge me extra handling but let me use pay-pal! I would suggest linking to an account with limited funds used only for internet transactions as protectection. This seems reasonable for any electronic transfers.

[arasina]

I sold vintage lingerie on eBay last year and was quite satisfied with the results. I took a break from my eBay auctions because sales there have been a little slow overall for the past 6 months or so.

I have never had a problem with PayPal and since they became a part of eBay things run a lot smoother. eBay and PayPal were both very helpful last year when some awful person hijacked my eBay ID and attempted to sell non-existent computers.

You may want to try auctioning off one or two items and see how you like it. I thought it was great fun making money from something I enjoy in the first place and I loved creating the ads for my auctions.

If you want to do some research on how well antique items like yours sell, do an eBay search and look at "completed items" --- auctions that have ended. You will be able to determine what a good starting price is and how much you may be able to set for a reserve and ultimately get from the sale. I would recommend using plenty of good photos of your items in your auctions. Pictures make a huge difference for both the buyer and seller.