Am completely new to selling - have had a request to collect instead of posting

[Polgara2]

i am quite happy with this but what do I need to do? Obviously I have listed p&p - how do I not charge it? In fact I have no idea what will happen when my listings end anyway so can someone enlighten me pretty please? Am feeling a bit panicky now

One option is to refund it when they collect. I recently collected a guitar I bought that was nearby and have picked up magazines i bid on to save high postal charges.

There should be a list of question topics for sellers telling you what to do. Have a look. I've never sold, just bought but it's quite usual to have a buyer collect.

get them to pay cash on collection the once collected mark as despatched and that will complete the listing.

do not accept paypal if they are collecting in person - they could get paypal to refund as you won't have proof it was delivered!

much safer to take cash when they collect :)

It will be fine, dont panic! but you just have to take cash from them when they come to collect.

All you need to do when the auction ends (if they win it) is to contact the buyer, and swap details with them, agree a time for collection etc.

After they have been and paid and taken it away, you can mark the item as "paid" and then "despatched" on your selling list.

My advice when selling is do not leave feedback until the buyer does. As a seller you can not leave negative feedback if you come across a twatty buyer (and believe me there can be some).. you can only leave positive feedback.. but this can be done cleverly in a way to alert sellers that they might have problems with the buyer. Not that you can do much about it, but if other buyers check out your feedback, they can look at your buyer and see both sides of the story..

Do NOT accept paypal when someone is collecting an item from you. The reason for this is that if a buyer were to say that they had paid by paypal, and not received the item, paypal will ask the seller to provide tracking proof of postage. If you cant provide that (and if they have collected, you wont be able to), they will automatically give the buyer their money back. You will then have lost your money and your goods, and there is nothing you can do about it. Paypal will not accept a signed receipt from your buyer when they collect or anything like that.. they want official royal mail tracking numbers or couriers references.

But you will be fine..good luck with the auctions. :)

But how do I do that?

Sorry, need an idiots guide - I have spent aaaages looking at the eBay guides/support pages but am no wiser.

Sorry x posted with squeaky

Hmm so when the listing ends am I given a choice of what to do next?

When auction finishes, IF the would-collect bidder wins (& they probably won't ime), you message them (use the Ebay msg system) to say "don't pay using Paypal and instead ring me to arrange collection, I'd like cash on collection please"

They ring, you work out a time, they collect & pay. All sorted.

You also save by not forking out 3.4% to paypal fees!

When the listing ends, you will see an option to send an invoice. Just send that and then if the bidder wants to collect, they will contact you for more details (sellers address is not automatically given to buyers, all they will know is your general postcode location).

You can add information to your auctions at any time before they end, so you could put on them "if buyers wish to collect, please contact me before auction ends".

When the auction ends, if you did nothing at all, the winning bidder still gets a notification that they have won, and many will just pay straightaway by paypal without you having to do anything. You will then get a notification from paypal that they have paid (by email) and also your item will show as paid.

At this point, if you are posting it out, you can use paypal to create a Royal Mail posting label, which is very handy if you are short of cash and need the buyers money to pay for the postage, as it saves you having to wait until the paypal money has transferred to your bank account.

Ok thank you. Am still a bit nervous about it all but am guessing it will become obvious at the time!

I think that the buyer can 'request total from seller' if the amount changes. You pay a percentage of the total selling price to ebay so even if you refund their postage in cash when they collect you will still be paying a bit of it to ebay.

you only pay final value fees on the item price, not the postage amount. That is why some sellers try to sell items for 99p and £70 postage to avoid the final value fees

Regardless of that, you wouldn't accept paypal for a collection item as detailed above, so there wouldn't be anything to refund.

Polgara when the listing ends you click on it from your eBay and send invoice, you can include a message to the buyer then if you wish. It is all very straightforward once you have it in front of you.

But you still pay 3.4% on the postage as Paypal fee, I think, am I wrong about that Fergoose?
A lot of small sellers (like me) are working on such small margins, I'm quite happy to save that 3.4% where possible.

Yes you are right, paypal fees are on the full amount paid - 3.4% + 20p

this is a handy, if depressing fee calculator

ppcalc.com/