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The nightmare that is selling on eBay

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Re: The nightmare that is selling on eBay

#31

Post by charlieegan3 »

ben1040 wrote: post #11

I gave up on selling on eBay years ago when I listed an iPad, and twice in a row the auction was won by a scammer using a stolen eBay/PayPal account. My recollection of how the scam worked was that they messaged me after the sale to say the iPad was a gift and could they send it to some other address than the PayPal confirmed address, and also not include any receipt info in the package that could spoil it as a gift.…

That's more elaborate than I had. In my case, they won my item a few times in a row and sent fake paypal payment emails.

When you're keen to sell the item, waiting for a week only to have a scammer win the auction gets tiring.

Re: The nightmare that is selling on eBay

#32

Post by charlieegan3 »

kristopolous wrote: post #18

I sell 10-20 things a week. 95% are great and hassle free. The other 5% are eventually fine as well although it takes a bit of work. Run it like a store. Back your stuff, accept it if people want to return. It's about getting rid of junk, not about making money. You'll come out ahead, not by a lot, but ahead. Some tips: Amazon boxes are lighter than "normal" cardboard boxes. Buy padded envelopes in bulk. Obo is usual…

I'm glad I'm not the only one that sees it that way. I used ebay to give things that I don't want to someone that does. Any money I made was to pay for the hassle of it. I saw it as getting paid for recycling.

Re: The nightmare that is selling on eBay

#33

Post by noncoml »

jjoonathan wrote: post #24
noncoml wrote: post #20

Why are you so adamant about not accepting the return? Is it because eBay will charge you anyway? Well, in that case your problem here is not the buyer, but eBay. I personally don't trust sellers that don't accept returns. More frequent that not, they bend the truth in their description. (I understand that's not what happened in your case) Having said that, I never ever buy, or sell, anything that I cannot write off…

If you accept returns, people will use your listing as a dirt cheap rental service. This problem is much more pronounced for goods that are desirable to rent, of course. Even if a listing says "No Returns" eBay allows returns for SINAD (significantly not-as-described).

> If you accept returns, people will use your listing as a dirt cheap rental service

I would say a small percentage of people.

But I understand. That's why eBay is not suited for one-off sellers. It's meant for little shops, that will amortized the cost of the "free rental service". Just like Amazon does.

Re: The nightmare that is selling on eBay

#34

Post by sys_64738 »

I stopped selling on ebay about 8 years ago when an iMac I sold had the buyer quibble over the year. It wasn't worth it so I gave then 20% refund and they disappeared back under their rock. You have no protections on ebay as a seller.

That being said, I've sold plenty of stuff but it takes one to sour the whole experience.

Re: The nightmare that is selling on eBay

#35

Post by jjoonathan »

noncoml wrote: post #33
jjoonathan wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you accept returns, people will use your listing as a dirt cheap rental service. This problem is much more pronounced for goods that are desirable to rent, of course. Even if a listing says "No Returns" eBay allows returns for SINAD (significantly not-as-described).

> If you accept returns, people will use your listing as a dirt cheap rental service I would say a small percentage of people. But I understand. That's why eBay is not suited for one-off sellers. It's meant for little shops, that will amortized the cost of the "free rental service". Just like Amazon does.

Right, but it's a legitimate reason to offer "no returns" (which on eBay actually means "SNAD only").

Re: The nightmare that is selling on eBay

#36

Post by ben1040 »

charlieegan3 wrote: post #31
ben1040 wrote: post #11

I gave up on selling on eBay years ago when I listed an iPad, and twice in a row the auction was won by a scammer using a stolen eBay/PayPal account. My recollection of how the scam worked was that they messaged me after the sale to say the iPad was a gift and could they send it to some other address than the PayPal confirmed address, and also not include any receipt info in the package that could spoil it as a gift.…

That's more elaborate than I had. In my case, they won my item a few times in a row and sent fake paypal payment emails. When you're keen to sell the item, waiting for a week only to have a scammer win the auction gets tiring.

That’s really the kicker here. I blew two weeks running the two auctions, plus the time wasted in dealing with requesting a refund on eBay commissions because it was a fraudulent buyer.

Ultimately I sold the iPad to a coworker for $75 less than the eBay price because it was worth it to not have that hassle (and net of commissions/PayPal fees, it wasn’t that big a difference anyway).

Re: The nightmare that is selling on eBay

#39

Post by sharkfinsoupmix »

ahmadassaf wrote: post #21
noncoml wrote: post #20

Why are you so adamant about not accepting the return? Is it because eBay will charge you anyway? Well, in that case your problem here is not the buyer, but eBay. I personally don't trust sellers that don't accept returns. More frequent that not, they bend the truth in their description. (I understand that's not what happened in your case) Having said that, I never ever buy, or sell, anything that I cannot write off…

I'd be happy to accept the return if it was within reason, but this claim seem to be outrageous, and more on Apple than eBay as why they claim their batteries can last for 10 hours. I feel I'd be obliged to accept the return but my fear is getting back a damaged or beyond laptop, and all in all its just an unpleasant experience

Sigh. Loser bozos can't accept the reality of a product, so they blame the seller because reality and their delusions don't coincide and they can't do anything about the manufacturer. They're barking up the wrong tree and looking for a scapegoat. Expectations and sour grapes human behavior fail.

Re: The nightmare that is selling on eBay

#40

Post by nine_k »

ahmadassaf wrote: post #2

1) For those who never put an ad on eBay before, when you finalizing your listing, you have this "FREE" word floating around the submit button, making you think that listing on eBay is free and how do they get money you say? well thats when you want to purchase addons or bump your add (or so the naive person inside me thought). The laptop was sold within hours of the listing, and the usual payment went through Paypal…

I'd say if you see a large "FREE" button / banner / another clicky thing, the first reaction should be extreme caution and distrust. If they are trying to aggressively advertise it to you, they definitely see a way to profit off that, and the source of the profit is you.

The only exception should be things like "free and open source", but these things usually don't obnoxiously jump into your eyeballs.

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