eBay does it again.

[Beemermark]

Okay this may not be appropriate but I want to warn people before they use eBay again. I do not sell much on eBay and it is very rare when I do. Usually it's an item I have no idea what someone will pay for it - like my recent heavily worn and damaged F2AS. When I got the invoice for the sale it seemed very high. I went to the eBay fee section to decipher the cost and I calculate a little less than half of what I was charge for the final cost. The fee section for the "final value" is a table of decreasing percentages - 8.75% for the first $25, 3.5% for the next bracket and then 1.5% for the rest. I did not read the fine print. eBay offered a great deal a month or so ago in which there would be no "insertion fee" for the first 5 items posted per month. Sounds like a great deal, right? Now go back to the "final value fee" page and read the fine print. If no insertion fee is paid the final value fee is a flat 8.75% of the sold value. Add on the 3% (or greater) paypal cost and basically it is now more than 11.75% to sell anything. WOW, and I was thinking of putting my Rolleiflex outfit on eBay.

I think for the last year or more all 90% of my buying, selling and trading has been here on the forum. I just wish the classifieds had a better search engine.

[Paul T.]

In the UK it's 10 per cent up to a fairly high figure. When I sold a lens for £410 I paid around £39 in final value fees, plus Paypal's 4 per cent.


I still like eBay for selling weird, one-off stuff, but as for cameras, this place is a bargain - as well as a nicer place to be.

AS for the search engine, I simply use site-specific Google.

[bob338]

after using ebay since 1997, i've been avoiding it for selling stuff for a while now. when they changed the rules last year to suit the buyer in just about any kind of dispute, i gave up. you can't even leave a negative for a buyer ripping you off!
it's still great for buying certain things; books for my kids, thomas the train for my son and nicorette(3 years and counting!) for me, but selling on there is more of a gamble now than it's worth.
my other big problem with them is how they're pushing BIN instead of real auctions. it just isn't fun anymore.

bob

[bob338]

Originally Posted by nikonhswebmaster

I have never used eBay to sell really valuable collector cameras, since there is a very limiting ceiling on prices, I do much better though collecting groups, and places like the RFF.

The risk on eBay vs. the reward, for high ticket items (over $5000), has ALWAYS been too great on eBay.

But for less valuable items, there is nothing better than eBay, for buying and selling. eBay is unbeaten for things like Dinky Toys and the like, terrible place to buy an M8.

as recently as 2007 i was selling off various high ticket items to fund our recent house.
i can remember sending a $7k Gretsch to Sweden, Beatles records that were in the high hundreds all over the world, cameras from $100 up to a couple grand, i even sold a couple of motorcycles. and all of them went smoothly until i sent a canonet(i think) to spain. the buyer claimed he never got it and ebay/paypal offered no assistance whatsoever. i lost about $45, but it really made me wonder what could have happened with that Gretsch that i shipped as a gift.

regarding craigslist, i just did a trade through a CL ad for an m8 that was pretty stressful. the guy was supposed to meet up with me a couple times but something always came up. when i finally got him to meet at a coffee shop, he called from the parking garage saying he didn't have any quarters for the meter and could i meet him in the garage. i was pretty sure i was about to get jacked for my camera, but i went anyway. sure enough, he was in a parking garage that has meters and when i handed him $2 in quarters, we went back to the coffee shop and did our trade. it was a LOT more work than using ebay, but i think it was worth it.

my .02

bob

[Keith]

I'm quite happy to use Ebay for buying provided it's from a seller I trust. Matsuiya Store is a prime example ... my Ikon, 50mm Hex and now a Zeiss Planar have all come form Noriyaki via his eBay listings and it makes the buying process very easy and painless ... I'm sure he factors his selling costs into his prices.

When it comes to selling I'm not so keen and would prefer to use the classifieds here ... I just really resent giving the eBay/paypal arsewipes any more money than I have to!

[sanmich]

Originally Posted by nikonhswebmaster

I never pay any eBay fees myself. I decide a minimum I want, say $150, add in the fees, $15, and set my reserve at $165.

reminds me of that guy that had a way not to bother how much he uses his car, no matter how high is the price of gas.
He simply fills 25$ of gas no matter what, and moves on.
A genius eh?