Ebay sellers thread (other platforms too)

[QuarterMillionMan]

After I viewed the $149 Disney stock certificate on eBay, I got notification that now it is $127. That is still high but I guess the seller is getting desperate.

[disneysteve]

After I viewed the $149 Disney stock certificate on eBay, I got notification that now it is $127. That is still high but I guess the seller is getting desperate.

I send out offers on my ebay listings every day. I just sent out 4 offers a few minutes ago. It has nothing to do with a seller being desperate. It's just a form of marketing. People like to think they are getting a bargain on something. Have you never shopped a sale? I intentionally price my items a little high to leave room to send and receive offers. That's how most retail works.

[disneysteve]

January 2025 wrap up

ebay:
$604.94 gross
$424.94 net

Replacements:
$159.50 gross
$72.25 net

Marketplace:
$10.00 gross
$10.00 net

Total:
$774.44 gross
$507.19 net

It was a slow month by design. I spent very little time on ebay and focused almost entirely on Replacements, accumulating china for my next trip to North Carolina on 2/10.

As of right now, I've got about $5,000 worth of china ready to go. I'm sure I'll pick up some more in the next week or so before I leave. After I return from this trip, my plan is to push pause on the Replacements stuff temporarily and catch up on ebay. I have a bunch of stuff that needs to be listed and I want to focus on that for a couple of weeks before I start buying china again. I'm down to 360 listings on ebay, down from a high of 415, so I've been selling stuff off much faster than I've been adding anything new.

February will be a solid month with the china. I expect them to reduce or reject some items that I bring as it's all based on condition and it's hard to predict what they will and won't accept but hopefully they won't reject more than about 5% of what I deliver in a couple of weeks.

[disneysteve]

I'm heading to North Carolina again tomorrow. I've got 22 cases of china I'm selling for $5,365. Total of 563 pieces from 72 different patterns.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Tonight I listed some items on eBay, a new $5 baby stroller for local pick up (on Craiglist also), a new roof top cross bar rack $35 for local pick up (on Craigslist also), and a broken Invicta watch for parts $1 auction and $8 shipping. I have some new clothes (ie, shirts, shorts, etc) which I need to list as well when time permits.

[disneysteve]

Tonight I listed some items on eBay, a new $5 baby stroller for local pick up (on Craiglist also), a new roof top cross bar rack $35 for local pick up (on Craigslist also), and a broken Invicta watch for parts $1 auction and $8 shipping. I have some new clothes (ie, shirts, shorts, etc) which I need to list as well when time permits.

Good luck on those.

Generally speaking I don’t think eBay is the best platform for local pickup only. Marketplace and Craigslist and NextDoor and OfferUp are all geared toward local business. eBay is aimed at global business.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Thanks for the recommnendation of Offer Up which I just listed the baby stroller and roof to cross bar rack & Market Place. I'll look into Next Door too.

[disneysteve]

A buyer left me negative feedback for a purchase. All he said was "Too expensive". How is that my fault? Nobody forced him to buy the item. If he wasn't happy with it, I accept returns.

I looked at his profile and it turns out he has left the exact same comment for 3 purchases in the past month. I'm checking now on how I report him to ebay for abusing the system.

update: eBay has already removed the feedback for me.

[disneysteve]

I'm used to the fact that I can make a nice profit on items purchased at yard sales, thrift shops, and estate sales. For some reason, it still amuses me that I can also make money from antique stores. I guess I expect that the people selling there know more about stuff than the average person setting up a table on their driveway or the typical Goodwill employee pricing items for sale.

A few months ago, we went to a local antique store. I bought a teapot for $60 only to get home and immediately sell it for $120.

On Tuesday, we were out of town and went to an antique store. I picked up a set of 7 dinner plates for $64. We got home yesterday and I just sold them for $112.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Ebay is fair about those negative feedbacks and removed your's. Once someone gave me a positive review but maybe a month later wanted reimbursement which I would have done but eBay ruled in my favor.

[EasyMoney00]

A buyer left me negative feedback for a purchase. All he said was "Too expensive". How is that my fault? Nobody forced him to buy the item. If he wasn't happy with it, I accept returns.

I looked at his profile and it turns out he has left the exact same comment for 3 purchases in the past month. I'm checking now on how I report him to ebay for abusing the system.

update: eBay has already removed the feedback for me.

That's really strange. What would be the point of doing that? Maybe their account was compromised?

[disneysteve]

February 2025 wrap up

ebay:
$610.17 gross
$445.45 net

Replacements:
$5,014.83 gross
$3,715.39 net

Total:
$5,625.00 gross
$4,160.84 net

As expected, February was a big month as it included a road trip to Replacements with 22 cartons of china. ebay remained steady despite me listing very few new items. That's a big benefit of building up an inventory in that even if I step away from it for a bit, the sales keep rolling in. I've already met the $5,000 sales quota for the year to Replacements so that hurdle is complete. And to think when I first signed up last July, I didn't know if I could manage that and here I am hitting it just 6 weeks into the year.

I'm giving myself a little break since coming home from NC. I had a bunch of stuff that needed to get listed on ebay so I've been focusing on that, and have already sold a number of the items I listed. We were also away for a few days last week. March will probably be good but modest, nothing like February. I'm planning to ship china to Replacements for now. No trip planned. Maybe later in the spring. Right now I've got $437 worth packed and ready to go that I'll ship out this week.

Big score today. Someone on Marketplace was giving away two sets of Kaplan Bar Exam review books. Apparently one of the law school in NJ gives them to all graduating students for free (well included in tuition) so this woman gave away her set and another set from a friend I guess. There are 9 books total and they sell on ebay for $100+ each. I'll get one set listed tonight and as they sell, I'll list the second copies, and there's a third copy of one of the books for some reason. So potentially I could gross $900-$1,000 on a bunch of books I got for free.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Nice score. My broken Invicta watch has 2 bids, $1 and $1.25 now and buyer pays $8 ground advantage shipping. And here I was happy to get $1.25 for it but it could sell for more, 2 more days until the auction ends.

[disneysteve]

Big score today. Someone on Marketplace was giving away two sets of Kaplan Bar Exam review books. Apparently one of the law school in NJ gives them to all graduating students for free (well included in tuition) so this woman gave away her set and another set from a friend I guess. There are 9 books total and they sell on ebay for $100+ each. I'll get one set listed tonight and as they sell, I'll list the second copies, and there's a third copy of one of the books for some reason. So potentially I could gross $900-$1,000 on a bunch of books I got for free.

Turns out they aren't worth quite as much as I thought, but still good, and cost me nothing. I did my research last night and listed the first 4 for between $74 and $99 each. There were some comps for over $100 but most were selling for less. I'm going to be aggressive with pricing to try and move them quickly. If there's no action in a week, I'll cut the prices. If I have the opportunity to send offers, I'll be generous with those. Since they are for the 2024-2025 exam, I don't want to sit on them for too long. I paid nothing so whatever I get for them is great.

[disneysteve]

My broken Invicta watch has 2 bids, $1 and $1.25 now and buyer pays $8 ground advantage shipping. And here I was happy to get $1.25 for it

Why would you be happy selling something for $1.25? After fees and taxes you'd be losing money (unless you padded the shipping cost).

ebay take about 15% of the total of sale price, sales tax, and shipping. If you sell it for $1.25+$8.00 shipping, that's $9.25 plus sales tax. ebay will take about $1.50 of that leaving you $7.75. Subtract shipping from that and what are you left with? Would it really be worth your time to photograph, list, pack, and ship an item to maybe walk away with a dollar?

Since it's an auction, most bidding takes place in the final 30 seconds so hopefully the price goes up, but starting at $1 is a big risk that you've just wasted your time.