Selling on eBay
Dec. 16th, 2013 09:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gbI've been flogging some of my things on eBay. Someone suggested it to me and I find it an entertaining way to declutter. Alas, the person who suggested it brought me a pile of old books to sell and they're scattered all over my floor, so much for decluttering XD But I have made some pocket money!
Here are my findings so far. These are from an Australian perspective but largely apply to anybody:
* Weigh everything.
* WEIGH EVERYTHING
* If anything is over 500g, NO FREE POSTAGE. EVER. NOT EVEN FOR THE REINCARNATION OF MR ROGERS. Tell eBay to take their helpful advice of 'make everything 99c with free postage' and STICK IT. Unless your item is very likely to go for $150-$200 or more, and/or you don't mind forking twenty or more dollars over to Australia Post.
Do not feel even remotely bad about this. After I lost $30 sending off two text books I had only listed because I was horribly poor, I stopped feeling bad pretty dang quick. Seriously, if you're as terrible as judging weight by feel as I am, buy one of those electronic kitchen scales. It's worth the peace of mind.
(A small caveat to the above: I live in Western Australia. Australians who live on the eastern side of the continent and people in countries with less ridiculous postage costs, which is most of you, will have it a little easier. Not by much though.)
* I read on the internets that timing auctions so that they finish on Sunday evening is the best idea, as this is when most people are checking out eBay. My experience so far holds this to be true!
* Fiction books don't seem that popular, even if they're old or first editions or what have you. I suspect books (that aren't collector pieces like first-edition sealed comics) are usually impulse buys, which is probably bad for the auction format. The only person I haven't received payment from yet is someone who got a bunch of older books for a dollar plus shipping. :P I'll put up a few more of my books at Buy Now prices and see how this goes.
* Electronic gizmos and doodads, on the other hand, are very popular. Do not underestimate how much people may want what you think of as deprecated or out-of-date. (I had a small bidding war take place for what I thought was a paltry 4GB of RAM)
* Clothes and shoes do well too.
* I haven't sold any video games yet but from observation, eBay isn't worth it unless you have something Radiant Silvergun-levels of rare to sell. You still get more cash for your games than you would at your average game franchise store, though. :P If you have a lot of games and badly need the moolah, give it a try.
* I've heard hearsay that DVDs don't do well there, either. I put up an out-of-print DVD set of an older but popular anime series and didn't get a sniff. I took it down after a few days, so it might've picked up later, but still...
Some people I know put in together for a trading table to share at the local anime convention and I helped out with this last year. I think on the whole you'll have much better luck selling your second-hand DVDs and other weeaboo goodies like this, when your target audience is guaranteed to be paying attention and in the mood to spend money.
That said, I sold a rather obscure anime figurine on eBay for more than I expected to, so don't rule it out entirely.
* Keep in mind suffering capitalist guilt is reasonable, but being too guilty to sell things (often things you and no one in your immediate vicinity have use for any more) for Capitalism Dollars, in the long run, only really benefits the people who have a vested interest in you feeling too guilty to do things like 'get money so you can pay for food yourself' and 'fight the kyriarchy'.
... Maybe that's just a pointer I need, though.
If I figure anything else out about how this crazy PayPal machine works I'll write another post!
Here are my findings so far. These are from an Australian perspective but largely apply to anybody:
* Weigh everything.
* WEIGH EVERYTHING
* If anything is over 500g, NO FREE POSTAGE. EVER. NOT EVEN FOR THE REINCARNATION OF MR ROGERS. Tell eBay to take their helpful advice of 'make everything 99c with free postage' and STICK IT. Unless your item is very likely to go for $150-$200 or more, and/or you don't mind forking twenty or more dollars over to Australia Post.
Do not feel even remotely bad about this. After I lost $30 sending off two text books I had only listed because I was horribly poor, I stopped feeling bad pretty dang quick. Seriously, if you're as terrible as judging weight by feel as I am, buy one of those electronic kitchen scales. It's worth the peace of mind.
(A small caveat to the above: I live in Western Australia. Australians who live on the eastern side of the continent and people in countries with less ridiculous postage costs, which is most of you, will have it a little easier. Not by much though.)
* I read on the internets that timing auctions so that they finish on Sunday evening is the best idea, as this is when most people are checking out eBay. My experience so far holds this to be true!
* Fiction books don't seem that popular, even if they're old or first editions or what have you. I suspect books (that aren't collector pieces like first-edition sealed comics) are usually impulse buys, which is probably bad for the auction format. The only person I haven't received payment from yet is someone who got a bunch of older books for a dollar plus shipping. :P I'll put up a few more of my books at Buy Now prices and see how this goes.
* Electronic gizmos and doodads, on the other hand, are very popular. Do not underestimate how much people may want what you think of as deprecated or out-of-date. (I had a small bidding war take place for what I thought was a paltry 4GB of RAM)
* Clothes and shoes do well too.
* I haven't sold any video games yet but from observation, eBay isn't worth it unless you have something Radiant Silvergun-levels of rare to sell. You still get more cash for your games than you would at your average game franchise store, though. :P If you have a lot of games and badly need the moolah, give it a try.
* I've heard hearsay that DVDs don't do well there, either. I put up an out-of-print DVD set of an older but popular anime series and didn't get a sniff. I took it down after a few days, so it might've picked up later, but still...
Some people I know put in together for a trading table to share at the local anime convention and I helped out with this last year. I think on the whole you'll have much better luck selling your second-hand DVDs and other weeaboo goodies like this, when your target audience is guaranteed to be paying attention and in the mood to spend money.
That said, I sold a rather obscure anime figurine on eBay for more than I expected to, so don't rule it out entirely.
* Keep in mind suffering capitalist guilt is reasonable, but being too guilty to sell things (often things you and no one in your immediate vicinity have use for any more) for Capitalism Dollars, in the long run, only really benefits the people who have a vested interest in you feeling too guilty to do things like 'get money so you can pay for food yourself' and 'fight the kyriarchy'.
... Maybe that's just a pointer I need, though.
If I figure anything else out about how this crazy PayPal machine works I'll write another post!
