any body ever sold anything on ebay before??????????

[Woodbutcher]

Hey Slow, it is real easy. But if you are thinking of selling stuff people are buying as gifts you may be late. Most auctions last for 7 days. Then you need time to ship it to the buyer. You will need to set up a Paypal account for people to be able to pay you. The Ebay setup is real simple and walks you through the process step by step. Fees will run about 10% or so, depending on what you sell. All my auctions are No Reserve auctions with a minimum opening bid. I place the opening bid at the least I would take and let it go. My advise is to start with one or two auctions to get the hang of it. Know what things have sold for in the past to see if it's worth it to list your item. To do that, post your search and follow over to the right where it says
"advanced" Click that and on the next screen check "completed" The hit your search. This will open all the past completed sales. Green prices are (sold) red did not sell.
I've done real well selling on Ebay. Others opinions may vary.

[wired]

I sold my F250 Powerstroke 4X4 a few years back. The lady that bought it only lived a couple of hours from here and came up to look it over before she handed over the cash. I didn't mind because I was honest in my description and didn't try to hide anything.
I don't recall what I had to pay eBay, but it wasn't that much - maybe a couple of hundred dollars? Don't remember exactly, but the whole transaction from start to finish with eBay was smooth and easy.
The best thing is that you reach such a geographically diverse demographic - something that would be difficult to do any other way.
Good luck!

[Lazybones]

I've sold several items on ebay. But: here lately they have started charging too much (in my opinion) in fees.
If you want to sell small items worth less than 50.00 it's hardly worth the time and effort in my mind. You have to box it find out how much to ship it and make the time to take it down to the post office and send it off.

For larger items like a truck or motorcycle it my be worth because of the large pool of buyers.

I recently sold a vintage scooter for 2,600 and had to pay 160.00 in listing and final value fees.

Try Craigs List first it's free.

[sagebrush]

I've bought and sold quite a few things on "fleabay"
Models usually go very good if still in original packaging.
Some model RR kits went for more than new at current time.
Don't get crazy with shipping charges but don't give it away.

Ran into a couple from Rivercity at the orange box other day. They had brought a load of scrap aluminum to Casper to sell. Price difference paid for the 3 windows they were picking up. Might want to make a call or two about your scrap when the time comes.

[Vedette]

I buy stuff everyday! Have sold some stuff in the past. But not much lately.
Love eBay!
Good Roads
Brian

[Woodbutcher]

I look for items that bring a high percentage of return. Not necessarily over 50 bucks. For instance I bought a box of toys at an estate sale for 2 bucks. Out of that box I sold 2 gumball machine charms for 30.00 and 15.00. But them in a bubble envelope and sent them off. Quick and easy money and I was happy. I have hit some home runs on Ebay. A Zebra skin rug I bought at a garage sale for 50 bucks sold for 650.00. I did not mind paying their fees. The whole world becomes your customer on Ebay. There just is nowhere else a guy can do better for less money or effort. Many times Ebay runs specials with no listing fees. The key is looking at what the completed sales tell you. You can pretty much figure out what you will get for something before you even list it. Also I put in a fixed shipping cost. No messing around. The bidder knows going in what he will have to pay. Sometimes you can even make a few bucks on the shipping is the bidder lives close by.
Craigslist is OK. I have had mixed results there. Since it is unregulated I find lots of crackpots. But it is free. But I don't expect there is a local Craigslist in Riverton WY.

[doug hodder]

I've bought, but am only like 35 transactions in the last 4 years...but have been thinking about dumping a lot of things that I have no desire to drag around anymore...like a load of mineral specimens and some of the vintage dishes I have...oh yeah...and a Rambler. I'm thinking about putting up some cheap stuff just to learn how it all works and learn the ropes. Doug

[Woodbutcher]

Doug, I've seen the way you fix up old stoves. Selling on Ebay should not be a problem. It's even easier if you are selling several similar pieces, like your dishes. After listing the first piece it will ask if you want to list a similar piece. You will only have to replace the picture and touch up the description. If makes things go real fast. Good luck!

[Oldragbaggers]

One year we cleaned out a big storage room that we were tired of paying rent on. I made about $4000 selling stuff I hadn't looked at in years. It involved lots of listings and transactions. We sold everything from movies to boat parts to camping gear (which I wish I had now), and everything in between. It was quite a bit of work with all the shipping, answering emails and such, but well worth it I would say. Paypal is the way to go for getting payment. I don't find my fees to be quite as high as Woodbutcher. We just sold the Boler trailer on there for $1076 and our fee was $64.

Shipping is easy to calculate if what you are selling will fit in a Flat Rate priority box, because it doesn't matter where it's going. Otherwise, put it in a box and weigh it, measure the box. There will be a place to enter that information. Then the buyer enters their zip code and eBay calculates the shipping charge for them. Unless you want to get an estimate from UPS or FEDEX or some place before hand and put in a flat rate.

[Wolfscout]

i agree.. it's gotten too expensive to sell on ebay.
I've gone to solely selling on Craig's list... even better is to give it a local pick up.

[Aaron Coffee]

I sold some video equipment a few years ago, listing it wan't too awful bad, the fees then weren't too bad, my complaint was that when I listed the items, I specified shipping only to the United States, and got two or three questions on shipping to Italy or other foreign countries. I have noticed now that a lot of sellers are including return acceptance terms. I have also heard horror stories of buyers claiming misrepresentation in the description and getting paypal to refund the payment. I did sell some auto parts and recently got a check from the class action lawsuit for overcharging fees, a whopping $.46, yes 46 cents. One thing I look at is if it is something that would be a limited market in my surrounding area, if so Ebay, if not Craigslist.

[BillZ]

how do you know what to charge for shipping.

I mean you don't know who the buyer will be till its sold.

slow

Ebay pretty much walks you through the process. It will ask you if you want to add shipping charges and let you do so after the auction is over. It also has shipping calculators to help you estimate the cost.