e-bay aficionados?

I have only browsed e-bay; never sold or purchased. Tho lately I have been looking at several items I may bid on. What does "no reserves"mean when it is part of the item headline? See that on numerous items.

It means that the seller have not set a certain price that they won't accept less then that price. If they start the bidding at say .99 you can bid 1.00 and the bidding will start there. If they have set a reserve price, say $15.00, no mater haw much you bid it will say that the reserve price has not yet been met until you reach that 15.00. They don't tell you what the reserve price is, you have to just keep bidding till it says reserve has been met.

Tombstonejan, would you suggest I simply bid at the highest I am willing to go then or stay low with the current bids?

I suggest you bid within the last minute of the auction, if you want to win it that is. If you bid your highest amount right now the other bidders will have the chance to keep bidding bit-by-bit until they out-bid you. I just wait and watch until the very end of auction, then bid the highest amount I'll pay and hope for the best.

Anastatia,

That really depends on time. If you don't want to babysit it, by constantly seeing where it's at and whether or not you should bid again, then yes, set the highest price you're willing to pay.

The best way is to try and snipe it towards the end. Wait until there's under a minute, and then put however much more than the highest bid you're willing to pay. Because there's not a lot of time left, you won't want to bid the next highest minimum, as the current high bidder may have it set to keep going up. This means you'd have to keep bidding manually.

this is fascinating. Tell some of your great ebay buys?

Way to many to list. I've done 90% of my Christmas shopping on Ebay for the last 3 years.

Some of the better ones are 16th-19th century maps, I've purchased for my father, fo Birthdays, Fathers Day etc.

I picked up a wonderul emerald braclet for my wife, as well as some diamond earrings. I'll probably never buy from a jewelery store again. That's an area that feedback is important in. I did get burned once with some nasty brown diamonds.

I've bought and sold some coins on there. Those are fun, as the bidding can get pretty hot and heavy on some.

Below, however, is my favorite Ebay win of them all.

Hmmm. It's not letting me upload a picture.

heres a link to the picture.

www.buried-treasure.net/PICT0008.jpg

WOW Chris! you bought that on Ebay? Thats really cool. I love mustangs.

I sold my last one to my sister so it's still in the family. I go visit her, I get to drive it.

I love Mustangs!

Molly

Molly,

Picked her up just over a year ago. Guess where.

Ft. Lauderdale. Drove her all the way home.

This is my 3rd. I've had Two 66's and now this one is a 65. This has been the best of the 3. Next, and probably last will be the convertible, but that's at least 5 years away.

This guy really goofed when he listed it though. He didn't put in his ad that it had AC, the pony interior, 4 barrell carb, and a couple of minor add ons. I didn't find out about those until they day I went to pick it up. Big time value additions.

Chris

Way to Go Chris, great deal.

Get the convertible, you live in Florida. YOu neeeed a convertible. LOL

Molly

We buy computers on eBay for people who are looking for basic systems. We also bought our digital cameras on eBay. We love it! :D We've sold a few things, but not as much as we've bought. Something's backwards there, LOL.

We do a fare bit of selling on there, and it was what got the ball rolling for Buried Treasures.

We've cut back considerably this year, as the fees have really gotten ridiculous. Our selling fees last year were just under $7,000.00.

Ebay is definately a buyers market though. There were times (still some, but rare) when I'd see electronics on there sell for 10-15% higher than what you could buy them for locally. Just not the case any more.

The cheapest place for elctronics that I've found is www.pricewatch.com

A bunch of retailers basically trying to undercut each other. You can always find great buys there, but the follow up from most retailers, and their hard up sell, would leave most time share salemen in tears. Not for the faint of heart, but lots of money can be saved.

BT, Sellers fees? $ you pay ebay?

I, too, have noticed that the seller's fees have risen steeply over the past few years. You really have to watch how low some things are priced, sometimes you can barely break even if your item gets only one low bid. Another thing they get you on is printing your postage thru the auction link...you have to pay paypal to print out the postage whereas if you went to the post office website you have no additional fees. Very sneaky!! And then there's the paypal fee - another chunk of change, gone.... I'd much rather *buy*on eBay (wouldn't we all?).

Eileen

Oh yes.

To sell on Ebay, you pay a listing fee as well as a Final Value fee if your item sells.

It's really no different than a live auction, but the percentage is a bit out of whack.

It's still a great venue to market a business in a limited context, but it's tough for the people that need it to make a living.

eBay's fees, combined with PayPal's fees, makes it hardly worth selling unless it's something you know goes for a good price. I am to the point where I charge a shipping/handling cost slightly above the actual postage, just to help defray the fees. It's all part of overhead/handling.

Fees: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html

I buy and sell all the time on ebay. I just bought 10 white casa blanca oriental lillies for about $1.30 each. They are $4.95 in my Wayside Catalog. Even with the postage added (which I'd have to pay a catalog company anyway) it came to about $1.45 each.
I bought a bread machine at a thrift shop for $4 and sold it for $40-something on ebay.
The best thing to do is look at similar items before you even consider selling to see if the price you item is getting is worth your trouble.
Here is a picture of some of the raku pots my husband sold on ebay, none under $50.......

Does Ebay take a straight percentage or does it vary according to a scale or something? I've always wondered about this too. I have some various stuff stored around here like Occupied Japan figurines, records, some coins, etc. I never have decided if it would be worthwhile to list them, but I did get some prices from various antique shops a few years ago.

'Chele... they charge a flat fee for listings (which varies with starting price and whether or not you have a Reserve price) and for more than one photo. In addition, there's a percentage of the final auction price which also varies by final total price. I take Paypay but not through ebay. Too many extra fees!

GW's link above has all the nitty-gritty.

You should do a search for some of your specific items to get an idea of what the market may bring. You can save the searches, too, and have them notify you when another of the same item gets listed. Then just add it to your 'watch list' and you can follow the bidding without bidding.

My renewal is coming up and I tell you, girlfriend/boyfriend, Daves is the most worthwhile investment and return on my $ ever. All the info. on this discussion alone. I don't know what I did before. I have an aquaintance that buys womens XL sizes at a brand name discount shop and sells on ebay and makes pretty good $; supplemental income but OK none the less. If you purchase something, say electrical, and it does not work satisfactory, do you just hope you are dealing with a good/honest seller?

Absolutely - Feedback is king, and we also look at how people respond to negative feedback (you'll see "response" below some of the feedback comments).

It depends if it's new/refurburished or used.

If it's new or refurbished, it will have a manufacturers warranty, and if there's problem, it will most likely have to be sent to the manufacturer.

If it's just an individual selling his used walkman, or something like that, then read the description very closely. Most will be sold as is, and you'll have little or no recourse. All of the electronics I buy on there are new or refurbished.