Ebay Experiences

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I've been an Ebay customer for just over a year now, and have bought around 150 items in that time. The experience has generally been a very good one - I've bagged a fair number of bargains in auctions and have only had a couple of really bad outcomes.

I'm now thinking of selling some stuff, as a private individual, not a trader. I get the impression that things are probably a lot trickier on that side of the fence, and would be interested to hear of people's experiences, good and bad, when selling on Ebay, and things to watch out for.

Fire away, folks!

Dude I could write a book about that

I will get back to you.

Pinning your hopes on one item can be disappointing but with a few listings things tend to even out so I try to list as many items as possible in one go (this avoids too many trips to the post office too) . I schedule 7 day listings to start and end at 9pm Sunday nights, (it's easy for buyers to remember). If its a very collectable item I start the auction at 99p, the last item I sold like this had just over 70 watchers. I try to sell things at the start of the month when people have been paid. I give items a good clean and take them outside to get good photos. I don't go into any explanations as to why I'm selling items (only selling because I'm upgrading etc). For buy it now, I look at sold listings to get an idea how much things are worth. Auctions, I tend to start things off fairly cheap, which can backfire occasionally but I feel its better to have lots of potential bidders. I don't offer returns.

^ Have you had much in the way of non-payers or aggressive punters?

BUMP!!

Could anyone please tell me whether it's necessary to have a Paypal account if selling on Ebay? I'm pretty sure that when I make a purchase by credit card, my payment is processed by Paypal, but I'm not sure if I actually have an account. I've tried to find out, but haven't managed to do so yet.

Paypal is pretty much essential but several words of caution; ALWAYS send an item via a signed for service because you'll lose the money and the item if the buyer is dishonest and falsely claims they haven't had the item. Be aware also that Paypal usually sides with the buyer and will force you to accept a return.

Personally I'd advise NOT to use Ebay to sell because it can get expensive in fees and the seller protections are a bit of a joke. I found it a hassle and stressful plus there are so many scammers on there I gave up.

I tried selling some old action figures and other pop culture collectable things on eBay. It was difficult and required a lot of planning on my part. I found weighing items with their appropriate packaging helped as well as writing descriptions and planning out prices before hand. At the time I joined (I'm not sure if this is still a policy) sellers could only so a maximum number of items based on their selling experience. I tried to sell items that had a specific theme to drive people to my store - but proved difficult since I didn't have too many similar products.

I managed to sell one thing. But I was in college and arrange someone else to pick-up the item and instruct them on how to package it. It was a bit of a scramble since the person on the other side wanted their product sent right away. It turned out to be worth it as the buyer paid more than asking and they left a really nice review.

As people have mentioned before the fees can get expensive and there are scammers out there, so you'll want to be careful about how you set your prices and communicate with customers.

No, selling has been issue free.

I only sold two items on there once. I didn't make much from it and you have to have proper shipping material, know how much shipping is going to cost, and I have no idea how they do it.


I only buy from there and I mostly do buy it now. I recently got a Tingle DS game from on there and it was a Japaneses game that was only released in Japan and it was translated into English so it was a modded game.

Why paypal and ebay will side with buyers, that was not my experience. Remember when I bought a bunch of Shopkins Kinstruction toy sets from ebay toysrus, I only received one package from them meaning I got two of my orders only. Someone managed to change my shipping address on the other end and shipped it to another location and I never got my packages. Because I didn't know how to open a claim, I selected "item not received" and left negative feedback but it was removed and my claims were closed because it showed I received my item. I talked to paypal and because they no longer are owned by ebay, they told me I had to sort this out on ebay and call the seller. I called the seller and they said they would refund me and they never did. Ebay did refund me when I called them but told me it would be a one time thing only and to talk to them next time. I did that and I never got my money.

So beware of this new scam some sellers do. It's no surprising that toysrus finally went bankrupt. Their customer service had always been poor and there had been a history of people not receiving their orders.

I have always used paypal when buying on ebay. It's faster, no checks. You get buyer's protection. Plus you also receive your money from your buyer that way too if they have paypal. But there is always a little fee when receiving your payment for business. You can compensate for that by making the item a little more.

As a purchaser, I'm pretty sure my payments are processed through Paypal, but I've had some difficulty in establishing whether that means I actually have a Paypal Account. I'm not aware of having a Paypal account number or password, and I've never had any emails from them.

I tried phoning them, but spent several minutes dealing with some automated half-baked 'voice recognition' service, then a session with another automated menu, selected 'speak to a customer services agent', only to be told that no customer services people were available. LOL. I've also contacted Ebay's members' forum to try to clarify the matter, but that's been no real help either.

This matters to me, because I need to know whether I will need a proper Paypal account if I become a vendor.

PayPal is no pal to me . In it’s early Days a Russian selling. Very nice winter coats at a good price tried to sell me the same coat twice according to my paypal account It was a very nice winter coat , PayPal sided with the seller .
Most unfortunate , thank heaven my card I was using to make the sale also provided buyer insurance .
Did not receive any items from the seller ... and my card company sided with me . Be very careful with any overseas
Sellers . They can tie up your money so long that it become almost not worthwhile to try to get your money back.
That has been a number of years now. , so hopefully PayPal has gotten more efficient. Have only had one serious problem
With individuals Acting as a Russian company . Beware
Purchases overseas . And one with A large Chinese company Most recently involving a purchase that was pretty expensive to me. Hidden tariffs that were not included in the price literally doubled the cost of the item and at no point prior to the sale was I informed of this huge tariff .