eBay Thread

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

I have not been selling stuff on eBay for ages, and I think the days of selling stuff on ePay are getting to an end.

I recently sold a few of things just to make some room and get a bit of cash flow going, nothing overly valuable, most items only ranging around $10- $20 each, plus I needed to post the item so I charged the buyer the appropriate amount of postage (which is getting to be pretty high also).

Got my ePay invoice and it was around $30, and I thought that can't be right, I hardly sold anything, once I looked into it some more I worked out that they charged me 10% off my actual sales (pricey IMO but I can deal with it....just), and as if that was not enough, they also charged me 10% of the postage the buyer payed. This is money I payed to Australia Post to post the item sold, not money in my pocket, and selling cheap items a lot of that $28 fees was charged on my postage which was around $9-15 per item

Considering listing the stuff, packing it (bubble wrap, sourcing boxes, packing tape, my time) as well as posting it (Postage fees, fuel, time) it was hardly worth my while, and all this before I even start to look at PayPal fees, also charged on the money I collected for postage and sales

Seriously I think my eBay selling days are over.

Went to Willow Bank All Ford Day Swap meet with a trailer load of 'rubbish' out of my shed, and I came home with $1700 in my pocket, a mint XB GT Fuel cap and a set of metal XB GT/GS 12 slot wheel caps, talked to some good people, laughed at some idiots, looked at some nice cars, ate some bacon and egg rolls, drank some average coffee and watched some drag racing, and most of all had a great day.

I know what I prefer to do in the future

[gossy]

Indeed the days are over. I used to buy and sell a lot on eBay, not anymore.

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

I think I will be returning to the swap meet scene, will be attending a few in the next 12 months, prices seem to be more realistic.

I bought genuine GS 12 slot wheel caps, metal not the later model plastic ones for $5 each, ePay sellers want around $120 upwards per set for the same ones.

Mint XB GT Fuel cap for $180, same one on ePay sells for $500 with cashed up GT restorers going crazy.

I have also noted that not much really sells on eBay any more, a lot of stuff just keeps getting re-listed waiting for the wood duck to come along to pay the inflated price. I think this is promoted by the initial 'free listing', so it does not cost the seller anything to put that 6 cylinder XB GS dash up for $1500 advertising it as a genuine XA GT item waiting for said wood duck to buy it.

[Sioso]

Same here.
Haven't sold on there in years.
Just sold an intake for $330 - ebay took $38.XX ???
Then decided to sell some rims and tyres on Gumtree instead of stealbay, sold both items for their asking price in under a week!
100% of the sale price went straight into my pocket.
No more ebay for me either.

[Dauphin]

eBay introduced a 10% commission on final sold value + postage last year after it was brought in a year or two before in other countries.

There are a number of theories as to why they did this but I think the most likely one is because people were listing items at $1 and then charging $15 for postage so they don't lose 10% of the $15 to eBay.

It's forced me to add an extra dollar onto the postage cost of my car prints so that I don't lose out of pocket when I make a sale. It has ended up being more expensive for the buyer this way but it has stopped sellers getting around eBay's take for running the place.

[QIKESP]

I've found a lot of great bargains over the years on ebay and sold quite a bit as well.
Ebay when it was still good had all the rare stuff listed that you would find at a garage sale or swap meet.
These great finds are very rarely on there anymore.
No one is going to spend half an hour listing an item, and then get stung 20% of the sale price.
Once ebay started increasing the fees to the point of excessive, I and plenty of others simply stopped selling there and it lost that small garage sale element it once had.

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

Yep same used to sell all my old spares no longer required, bought plenty of stuff as well.

But greed always seems to destroy these things, they are making billions already, now they double dip with taking some of your postage money as well as also taking a cut of everything that goes through PayPal which is most transactions. Not sure if many know, PayPal is owned by eBay and you must have a PayPal account to sell on eBay.

And from what I understand all the money goes straight into a Swiss Bank Account, so no tax is payed on eBay or PayPal profits, just greed at the highest level

[Dauphin]

PayPal has just split from eBay, so they are separate companies now. Another theory is that eBay introduced the postage take as they would be losing PayPal's take also when they split.

[gcg2503]

Agree Gumtree or ford muscle car sales is better.

Facebook is good and bad - stuff sells there but you have to put up with the idiots.

Usually the ones who need medication and are angry with life. I also find the ones with the loudest mouths and opinions are the ones with the crap cars too.......

[xisled]

EBay changed there selling model a few years ago. This is the main reason why purchased Gumtree. EBay wanted to attract large business and majority of items to be sold would be brand new items.

New items being sold on eBay from larger companies. Smaller sellers go on Gumtree to sell their items.

The fee's are based for larger companies who can afford to sell on eBay.

Try Facebook as there is heaps of Buy Swap and Sell sights and no fee's.

[Landau35!]

I just noticed when selling some home audio gear, you have to put down paypal as a payment option. If you write a comment saying that paypal fees will be passed onto the buyer in the listing, Ebay sends you a warning that you are not allowed to do that. They also disabled the direct eft option with your bank so you have no choice but to put down paypal. That's it for me and ebay, I used to use it often, not anymore.

[Dauphin]

Hi Landau35!, welcome to the AFF community!

People can still pay by bank deposit, I get requests to do this every few months or so. Just send them the details and they make the payment, then you mark it as paid.

xisled, very true. Everything's becoming more about brand new items and big deals from major sellers. I might give Gumtree another go, have never had much luck with it.

Other websites to consider are:

https://swapmeet.net.au/
http://www.swapace.com/
http://www.quicksales.com.au/