Ebay, and a new phone scam

[enjenjo]

I noticed that about all that is left on Ebay is dealers, and the day of smoking deals is pretty much gone. Last night on an item I was looking at, all but one of the listings were dealers, out of 50 listings.

[slocrow]

the day of smoking deals is pretty much gone.

Yep, seems that way. Its like ebay educated all to what the price should be on stuff and if an item comes on from a unknowing, a dealer tries to snag it right up. It now seems like a sellers fishing trip for more popular items as the seller is looking for a guppy. Most everything I'd be interested in is really high priced to start or has a high reserve.
Hey, Mecum starts today in Indy and is on the velocity channel starting tomorrow at 10:30 EDST. That might be a good indicator about the mid-west economy and prices of cars at least.

[tomslik]

1 of the bigger problems is ebay/paypal fees....
that being said, i've got stuff on there right now with no reserve, i start 'em out at the minimum i can stand and hope...

i get tired of looking thru 1000 listings of cheap crap to find what i want, hitting the auctions only tab helps but not a cure for it...

[Charlie Chops 1940]

Ditto all that has been pointed out. I don't sell on there as the fees just eat you alive. I haven't given up but I spend less and less time on there. One of the biggest problems is that you can't tighten your search enough Say you search as tight as possible for 32 Ford stuff and you also get anything with 32 in the auction anywhere.

I've bought a lot of stuff on there and got some smoking deals but I do better with Craigslist although that is fraught with a lot of problem sellers.

I still love to go to swap meets to buy and sell but that is getting very expensive in gas and space costs. Surprisingly I do very well on the HAMB but it's becoming more and flake populated too. I have sold a lot of high end wheels through the HAMB, a lot some would call off-topic but hot rodders are hot rodders.

I don't think the good old days necessarily were all that great but it was sure simpler.

Charlie

[phat rat]

I don't know if all of you know it,  but now it's 9% fee on selling price plus whatever the shipping is. Then of course you have the Paypal fee on top of that. So if you sell an item for $100 and shipping is $15 you've got $10.35 Ebay final fee plus $3.64 Paypal so in the end your $100 part only brings you $86. I'll sell on the Hamb, Craigslist and swaps instead.

[unklian]

They squeezed all the little guys with fees etc,
while giving discounts to the bigger sellers.

At some point, it's not worth it.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

Agreed on eBay.  Locally , the swap meets are coming back to life here.... a little.  I dont hear the words: "I can sell that on  Ebay for more $" .... too much any more at a swap

I figure a 12% loss to fees on eBay and PayPal , plus shipping costs if I include that in auction.

Stuff I sell on eBay are parts I have near nothing in $ wise.

Not many folks know you can enter a minus sign -  and eliminate auctions with words behind the minus sign in searches on eBay.

If I search for Crosley stuff,  I use a minus sign -  in front of covers , hubcaps , and other similar words.  eBay is so spammed up with  dealers listing sheet that could never fit most cars it is listed under as fitting.

[Harry]

Up here, kijiji has quite a few good deals.

[Husker]

I tried to sell my 56 project on all the free sites mentioned with zero luck. I was losing my storage and got desperate by throwing in my 350/350 combo for a total of $1200.
I decided to bite the bullet and listed the car only on Ebay Saturday. It was sold for my buy it now price of $1200 Sunday to another rodder in CA.  I have my money and I have my drivetrain and best of all a new rod buddy in CA. I am not a big Ebay fan anymore but it worked out for me this time.
Paypal on the other hand is getting ridiculous! I only asked for a $250 deposit which was promptly made. Then I have to wait for 21 days to get my $242 dollars. I have perfect feedback but it does not matter to those * anymore. I use them only when I have to but I dislike them very much, I have to be in dread mode to use the bastards. The buyer left positive feedback so I got my momey.
I have had good luck on craigs list with other stuff but the idiot scam attempts are plain stupid. I can not believe people get pulled in by those creeps. I did find my own way to fight back, I let the bastards think they have a fish on the line and spend the money to overnight a bogus cashiers check to me.  I laugh all the way to the garbage can!

[kb426]

I concur with most of you. I sold the yellow cafe racer 2 weeks ago. The flat ebay fee was $125 for anything above 2 grand. It's $60 if it's below that. I sold the bike. The fee is substantial and it isn't what it used to be. There's lots of things to be irritated about but until something better comes along, it's still a useful tool.

[58 Yeoman]

Yeah, I sold my motorcycle pull behind trailer for $395, and the fee was $60, but I got tired of having it in the way, and it didn't sell on CL, so I bit the bullet.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

yep, stuff can still sell faster on eBay is the case sometimes. dang it.

I just had a fellow do a buy it now on a 45 dollar part on eBay.... with in 10 minutes he is asking for a refund because a small piece is not there (clearly posted in the auction) . It's one of those pieces you never use and toss away.   Of course he is also offering me 15 dollars less  since this part is missing.  I re-listed the part

A buddy just sold his Anglia to a fellow in Hawaii via CL.  He had the car on CL all over the USA for over 1 year.  It became a game with him to see responses from various locations.  He thought it was great fun , but then he is Canadian.  

[Husker]

Thinking about a wall of stupidity in my garage to put all the overnighted checks on going forward lol.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

Well......  the part I re-listed on eBay has sold again.  To the same hooligan that I had to refund the payment to the first "buy it now"

He is apologizing and has learned the missing small part is often un-needed.

   :!:

[Husker]

Oh boy!  I can see great feedback coming from that cat lol.