Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Other subjects
Original poster

OMG - Just put my first ever item on Ebay!!

54 replies

crystaltips · 29/01/2004 16:57

I know! I know! In the scheme of things this is rather pathetic! I have just put my first item on Ebay .... and I am really nervous .. I have never done this before ... what happens if my PayPal payment disappears into a black hole

I decided that because I am buying so much - I really ought to try and recoup some of my money !!

Ha Ha

OP posts:
suedonim · 31/01/2004 13:27

How about making a living from ebay, ladies?? It's easy work, according to this article .

Original poster
crystaltips · 31/01/2004 15:15

I am using the PayPal option ... Questions :

a ) are the fees really that much ?
b ) If you don't use Paypal - are people put off ??

Just thought I'd ask !

Thanks

OP posts:
Original poster
crystaltips · 31/01/2004 15:16

What are you all selling if you can get to the hundreds ...
Gosh I'm feeling like a real novice !!!

OP posts:
pie · 31/01/2004 15:16

Not having Paypal has never put me off personally. BUT the fees are ridiculous ESPECIALLY since ebay own Paypal. It is useful though.

pie · 31/01/2004 15:17

Holy cow kiwisbird...thats some serious ebaying

sb34 · 31/01/2004 15:17

Message withdrawn

Original poster
crystaltips · 31/01/2004 15:18

Off to revise some of my items ... Thanks pie

OP posts:
sb34 · 31/01/2004 15:18

Message withdrawn

Demented · 31/01/2004 23:35

I'm just a small fry here (only 23 feedbacks) but I don't have a digital camera (can't seem to find a cheap one that works, grrr) but if you have a number of items to sell you can run off a film from an ordinary camera and have the pictures put on a CD (more expensive but worth it if you have at least one thing to sell that will be fairly high profit). As far as I am aware Paypal only charges you if you want to take the money from your Paypal account to your personal account, my DH recently sold his coffee machine for about £450 and it cost him about £15 to bring the money over to his bank account, as for me I just spend my Paypal money on more stuff!

I will say I find eBay rather time consuming when I am selling items but perhaps it gets easier with experience.

pie · 01/02/2004 00:09

Demented, if you are a seller, when the money goes into your account they do take a % I think its 5% at the moment, they take it out before it even goes into your account.

HiddenSpirit · 01/02/2004 01:12

If you withdraw £50 or more from paypal it's free. The money your DH had to pay demented was to actually receive the payment from the buyer. The fee for this is, 3.4%+ £0.20 GBP. It's slightly less (2.7%) if you have a paypal merchant account

Demented · 01/02/2004 13:34

Ah, I see, it must only be pennies they take when you are selling say an item of kids clothing because I have never noticed any loss of money. I do prefer Nochex (I think they take their fee from the buyer 99p if I remember correctly, unless you have funds already in your Nochex account) but hardly anyone on eBay uses Nochex. BTW I got my feedback number wrong, 33 feedbacks, still small fry!

Demented · 01/02/2004 13:57

Ah, I've been for a look at my Paypal account, they are quite sneaky, they don't show you the fee they are taking at the time they payment is made and you click on the link in their e-mail to check the amount. I used to ask people who paid by Paypal to add 25p to the postage amount to help cover the Paypal fees (although I had been unaware exactly what Paypal were taking until now), most people didn't add the 25p and I would just end up sending the item out to them as it seemed to too much hassle to ask them to send me 25p and possibly lose the sale.

It doesn't put me off Paypal as you don't have to wait about for cheques clearing which gets confusing (I must admit for small amounts I don't wait for the cheque to clear, possibly a bit silly) and I always send stuff out second class (apart from a lady who told me how desperate she was for a snowsuit I was selling as her DS was freezing, I'm a sucker for a sob story! ).

GenT · 15/02/2004 06:49

anybody heard of FastCAsh or FastPay from Natwest, they charge 20p for their transaction I think

zebra · 15/02/2004 09:35

I hate PayPal; almost none of my buyers have wanted to use it, either. The fees are extortionate for small sales & withdrawals (under £5-£10). Even if I added up all my sales made in last year, not sure I'd hit the £50 mark.

I'd rather be paid by direct bank transfer, but not everyone's bank let's them do it (Smile does, for instance, but Nationwide doesn't, or didn't use to, at least).

I've only got 16 feedbacks (nearly all sales), though.... do those of you with high "numbers" do lots and lots of buying? How come I'm the only one who gives much advice if all of you have sold so much more? Honest question, but you guys must be much more expert than me, right? Am I the only one who likes to blather on? Or am I just that much more careful about it?! LOL.

pie · 15/02/2004 09:49

Zebra - I do the buying DH does the selling - hence I know little about the selling other than 'Sell this for me honey'

zebra · 15/02/2004 09:55

How many items have you sold, and how many have you bought (Pie, anyone)? People make it sound like they do mostly selling, but would there be anything useful left in your house to get somebody a rating over 50, I wonder!

pie · 15/02/2004 09:57

Its about 70% buying and 30% selling, but the majority of the stuff DH has sold isn't stuff from our home, he sells stuff like web hosting.

Feedback is now 194 for us but we have left is 258. We used to leave feedback for everyone but obviously people don't feel the same so we only give it to those who give it to us now.

harman · 15/02/2004 10:04

Message withdrawn

GenT · 15/02/2004 10:17

Our rating is only 80 and we tend to do about 35% buying and 65% selling. Try not to buy things that will clutter. Most of what we have sold are dh games for playstations and CDi's. Quite a number of feedback have been repeat trade. During December we made about £300, not bad for stuff not being used. DH had two old mobiles and those totalled about £125, not bad I say, considering one had a cracked screen.

I started another account for bits and bats items you find like at charity shops and are cute or because I like them. Registered last month and I am at 7 already with another 20 ending tomorrow. I only accept cheques and postal orders there although buyers can pay via Paypal or another method simply be informing me they wish to do so and I direct them to the address.

That is my report.

GenT · 15/02/2004 10:18

how did you find that out harman, I know I have seen the long list before but can't seem to find it again.

tamum · 15/02/2004 10:38

My feedback is 158, and I've never sold anything on there, so you can just imagine how much stuff I've accumulated. I do know a fair bit about it as I used to read the discussion boards on there quite a lot when I first discovered eBay, but I think someone with direct experience, like you zebra, is going to give much more valuable advice. Now if it's buying advice you want I'm your woman....

P.S. I lurve Paypal, and would always use it in preference to anything else, but then it doesn't cost me anything.

harman · 15/02/2004 10:42

Message withdrawn

HiddenSpirit · 15/02/2004 10:46

GenT we have Fastpay, but have never had a buyer/seller on ebay that have accepted it

I mainly buy, but have been a seller on a few occasions. One thing I've found that is great as a selling tool is Turbo Lister (recommended to me ) is saves a lot of time listing stuff and you can upload them to ebay whenever you like.

Another thing that was recommended to me is "gutcheck" which means you can dig out the negatives and neutral feedbacks on someone without having to go through every page of their feedback.

I've only had 2 probs with buying stuff (one overcharging on postage by £3 and another taking over 3 weeks to send item after payment cleared) but have had a few non-paying bidders

When DP gets his qualification and is working full time I hope to become a SAHM and take up selling on ebay on a bigger scale

GenT · 15/02/2004 10:58

I guess Fastpay is good only for those who bank with Natwest. I bought something last week and the person suggested that, that is how we found out. PayPal still seems to be the number one choice for most people. Even Nochex charges a higher fee for people who don't have a Nochex account, it is 99p I think.

Will go and try to find that page....now.

Swipe left for the next trending thread