eBay – The Good, The Bad and The Cheap
I don’t do a lot on eBay. Except maybe search for things I want. And the few times I bid on something that I want, I end up losing it in the last 60 seconds of the auction. But every once in a while, I find some things that I don’t need anymore and decide to dump them out on eBay, thinking I’m going to get some extra cash. As I found out, it doesn’t always work that way.
Old Cell Phone
Back in late 2004, I won the above pictured cell phone from an online tech blog contest. I would keep it for sentimental reasons, but I used the phone, had fun with it, and saved the blog post that announced me as a winner. So this thing sat around for at least a year before I got around to starting the auction. When the auction ended, it went for a bit more than I expected, so I was pretty happy.
Not so old Bluetooth headset
At the same time I posted the above Nokia N-Gage QD, I also listed an older bluetooth headset that works well, but one I don’t use anymore. In the last two years, I went from having no bluetooth headsets to five. And since this had sat in its box for the same amount of time as the N-Gage, I might as well sell this one and get rid of something else I don’t need/use.
Of course, I wasn’t expecting the auction to close at the price it did. Did it close higher? HELL NO!! .. wait … let me rephrase that… FUCK NO!!
After eBay fees, I ended up with $4.84. And here’s the proof….
At least someone got an incredible deal
Ok. You can’t always do well on eBay. But at least shipping would only be $4.00 (which is what I calculated it to be at USPS.com, leaving me with a whopping 84-cents from the auction (not including what eBay would take out for their listing and selling fees)
I boxed up the headset and took it to the post office to send off. Here’s where I got my next surprise… postage rates went up on May 12th. Dammit! ok… calm down…. they couldn’t have gone up that much, could they? How much more of that 84-cents would I need to send this off?
$5.45… hmmm…. let’s see…. doing the math…. it COST me an additional 61-cents…. that’s $.61… to sell this item. AND I still need to pay eBay listing and selling fees. So let’s just call it even buck I lost on this sale.
Better Luck Next Time
So the lesson I learned from this was:
- plan for extra shipping charges
- find items that people are actually willing to pay more than $1.29 for
- simply keep all of my unused items in the storage box where they had been happily sitting.
and……
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This has been happening to me too. I’ve almost completely abandoned eBay in favor of craigslist because no fees, no shipping, and I post what area of town I’m in.
When the Fair Tax passes, resale of items will become a HUGE business, and people will consume less new things, helping the environment.
Yes, I said those last three words in my sarcastic little girl voice.
You’re a funny man, Wayne.
I’ve looked at craigslist and may give it a try for future items I sell.
Well that’s not good. I’ve never sold anything on eBay… guess I won’t waste my time?
It really is a crap shoot. There’s been stuff that I’ve sold that went way beyond what I was expecting to get. At lot of it is about watching for similar items to see how well they sell before listing your item.
Dude, if that headset woulda worked with my phone, I totally woulda given you $10 for it. I’m looking at $40 for a new one and I barely use my phone. I don’t wanna spend $40…
Set a basement price. Can’t remember what it’s called but then you’re not liable to see it if it goes for under that amount.
winter what phone do you have? Most bluetooth headsets work pretty good with other phones. This one was a bit bulky for my current needs.
kapgar Reserve Price is what eBay calls it. I thought about doing that, but the extra fee to do that was more than I thought I needed to spend to list this. I’ve had pretty good success when I start each auction out at 99-cents. Makes people think they could get something for cheap…. see, it worked for someone. LOL
I’ve got a Samsung stripe. I just never got around to getting a headset because the prices here range from $49 up. And I don’t use the phone a lot. The hands free law hits us July 1 so I figured I had time…
I’ve seen that phone before… it’s look like a good phone. I’ve bought the last few headsets from buy.com Most have been under $20. Most of them are very good quality and have a good fit on the ear.
Having sold a TON of DVDs on Ebay I can tell you the only way to make anything is set you shipping price up front at a flat rate (for domestic) and be willing to ship overseas, tell people you will quote them a shipping cost. For DVD’s I always charge a flat $5, and I can ship for about $2.50, the remaining $2.50 pays for my time to package it and drop it off on my way home from work. Honestly a lot of people overseas are willing to buy what you are selling, and you can really jack the shipping cost up there, not to screw them but because you have then have to fill out a customs declaration. Which takes time, and I think it’s fair to be paid for that time, I shipped a few movies to Italy and shipping was $7, I charged them $13 to ship. $6 to fill out that form, wait at the post office and pay for gas to get there. It’s not a ton, but it’s fair.
Thanks, Kris. I’ve have my issues with shipping rates…. like a Nintento DS game and they charge $10 to ship it… that’s jacking up the price, IMO. But what you are saying makes total sense. Especially with the time it takes to package it, ship it, drive to the post office. I know a lot of these eBay sellers do work from home and don’t have to go to the post office. They do all of the postage online, print at home, label the box and the mail carrier picks it all up on a regular basis. But that isn’t the case here. I think I’m going to have to go with a higher flat rate for all future items. Because I’d rather sell the stuff I know I’m not going to use than keep storing it for years.