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Ever sell on Ebay ? Easy as pie, or pain in the butt ?

Miles Monroe

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Normally, I sell stuff on the forums I'm part of, but have a few things I can't get rid of. No luck on Craigslist, so I figure I should give Ebay a try. Been poking around on there, and it seems easy enough to sell and ship.

Any advice is welcome.
 
I've sold some stuff on eBay ... I don't think it could be any easier...
 
I hate Paypal. I got into a spat with them about ten years ago and refuse to use them at all. They suck.

Aside from that, John's right, eBay is easy to use and effective.
 
I've sold some stuff on eBay ... I don't think it could be any easier...

My concern is in shipping. Did you ship through Ebay, or do it on your own ? I see all the sell it, print your own lables, and call for a pickup stuff on ebay.

I hate Paypal. I got into a spat with them about ten years ago and refuse to use them at all. They suck.

Aside from that, John's right, eBay is easy to use and effective.

Wow, I don't think I've known anybody that has had a serious issue with paypal. That's too bad Goal, for me, they make it too easy.
 
I have never used them to ship - done that piece myself. We actually had our BGO Paypal account hacked, and Paypal was great in terms of making things right. I haven't had any negative experiences, not to say it's not possible, but I haven't had any problems.
 
I've sold a few things on ebay, did my own shipping, easy as pie. Make sure you check your fees before, so you don't end up losing money:

eBay Fee Calculator
 
I have never used them to ship - done that piece myself. We actually had our BGO Paypal account hacked, and Paypal was great in terms of making things right. I haven't had any negative experiences, not to say it's not possible, but I haven't had any problems.

I've sold a few things on ebay, did my own shipping, easy as pie. Make sure you check your fees before, so you don't end up losing money:

eBay Fee Calculator

Seems to be the general trend of shipping yourself from all I have asked.

Thanks...
 
The fees on ebay and paypal will rape you. I sold on there for a while and made good money at it, but had to stop. It just wasn't worth it. Even though ebay owns paypal, they both slam you with fees that seem to get higher every day, and those fees are already absurdly high. In the end, you're lucky to break even on most things anymore unless they're high dollar. Ebay even nails you for a percentage of the shipping now. Even if you charge a low shipping fee to attract buyers, ebay is taking a cut of that too. All this fee whoring has come about in the last 6-8 months. People who haven't sold there in a while would cry seeing how bad it is now. It's a shame they have no legitimate competition from a similar site.
 
The fees on ebay and paypal will rape you. I sold on there for a while and made good money at it, but had to stop. It just wasn't worth it. Even though ebay owns paypal, they both slam you with fees that seem to get higher every day, and those fees are already absurdly high. In the end, you're lucky to break even on most things anymore unless they're high dollar. Ebay even nails you for a percentage of the shipping now. Even if you charge a low shipping fee to attract buyers, ebay is taking a cut of that too. All this fee whoring has come about in the last 6-8 months. People who haven't sold there in a while would cry seeing how bad it is now. It's a shame they have no legitimate competition from a similar site.

I didn't realize ebay owned paypal...that is shady as hell! They are collecting double-fees! That doesn't seem legal, the bastages.
 
It shouldn't be legal. What else shouldn't be legal is the fact they give you no payment option other than paypal. So you don't have the option of avoiding fees coming and going. It couldn't be any more crooked than it is. When you combine the fees of paypal, ebay, postage fees and fees to withdraw money from paypal so you can actually use it, you stand to lose a lot more from ebay than you will ever make these days.

And if you're a seller they hate you. They are all about the buyer. You can give all the pictures and perfect descriptions you want, and the buyer can receive, open and use the item, and file a dispute if they have buyers remorse and you have to refund their money. You get your ebay fees back in this case, but you never get back your paypal fees or your postage fees. It's a total con job.

Ebay is great for buying, but the sellers that haven't jumped ship yet are either new, selling stolen goods, selling inherited goods, or selling from China. And that's gotten huge. Always check the location of the seller, because these Chinese dealers rip people off all day on there, but people look at the 98% seller rating and assume they are safe. Problem is, they are selling 40,000 items a month, so the hundreds of complaints every month have an almost unnoticeable pull on their rating. But with that many negatives a month, they are shady dealers.

Most sellers and former sellers refer to ebay as feebay for very good reason. It's a criminal enterprise, and they raise the fees every year.

Here is an example of something I sold last January - my final sale on ebay before I left.....

It was a GSA Morgan silver dollar in a case with the original box. The listed value was $475. I got it at a flea market a year earlier for $200, you I was looking to make a decent profit.

I listed it as an auction, and it ended up selling for $340. The insertion fee for me to list it with the pictures and description was $1.20. The final sale fee (which they never actually tell you what the percentage is and that it changes with the sale price) was $48.50. Then the shipping cost for me was $6.52, of which I had to pay ebay an additional $1.32. Then came paypal. Since they deduct their fees from the sale price, instead of waiting for ebay to rape you first, the amount deposited in my account after paypal fees was $298.12. Then to take that money out was another $11.27.

So all total, I bought it for $200, sold it for $340, but after all fees I only received $229.31. A profit of $29.31. Ebay made $104.17 once you deduct postage. Total con job.
 
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I think that's overstating things by quite a wide margin Extreme. First of all, there's nothing even remotely 'illegal' about their payment set up. That's a ridiculous statement. They can set up any payment system they want. You, likewise, have absolute freedom to either utilize eBay or to not do so. In the rare instances I've had problems, eBay has been pretty prompt and addressed the issue. I agree that buyers need to be wary, and yeah, you're dead on in terms of the ratings system. But paying attention to that is on the buyer - you'd have more of a point if eBay didn't offer ratings data to buyers, but they do. As far as fees - eBay offers a service to their users. They aren't a not-for-profit. I'm not sure how that's unusual? Just like with any business, if you think their fees are too high, don't use them.
 
That's exactly why I don't use them. I call it a con because of the fact they not only own ebay and hit you with fees, but they also forbid you to use any payment paying or collection service other than paypal, who they also own, who also takes fees to receive your money, then more fees to spend your money. The fact that the majority of people using it have no idea this is how it's done, just makes it worse.

It reminds me of those old mining companies who used to pay their workers in chips that they could only spend at the company store. The way ebay is set up would be like your employer taking money for themselves out of your paycheck, then making you cash it at the bank they own and nowhere else, then taking out more money when you deposit your check, then charging you again to take out your money. It isn't criminal, but it should be. Or at least make the rape warning crystal clear.

To top it all off, they know they are crooked. Why else would they make it a chore to navigate through their site to find out about fees, then give you a double talk example of the fees while refusing to quote a dollar amount or percentage, or what determines either? Then they never make mention of owning paypal, and that paypal will take even more fees out. It's a ****ty way to run a business, and the only reason they exist anymore is because they have been around so long that they not only cornered the market, they are the market. And none of the big companies that could topple them have made any effort to, because they just don't really care. But it doesn't make ebay any less of an unethical enterprise.

It would be less evil if they had set amounts or percentages, and warned you in advance that paypal was owned by them and would collect their fees too. But they make it a point to not do that. As a seller, you will never know how much they are going to take from your sale until they take it. It gives nobody a chance to mull the decision over and see if it's worth it. It's a gamble, and gambling is illegal in most of the country :)
 
Oh sure, now ya put questions in my head Extreme... LOL

Well, my goodies haven't sold on the dedicated forums or craigs list, and I need the revenue asap, so I'm going to go for it, and put the stuff on ebay. Being what I'm selling were completely cost free, it's all profit. I did learn some time back, when I do sell something on line, I make sure to tell the buyer to mark it as a gift, not product or service. That keeps paypal from taking a nice chunk of change. Shame I can't do that with ebay :)
 
Oh, you also have plenty of legwork to do just to be able to list an item for the first time. First, you have to create an ebay account. Then you have to create a paypal account to link to it for payment receipt. Then you have to verify through both ebay and paypal that you are who you say you are. This includes both a text message with a code for confirmation from ebay, and attaching your bank account and credit/debit card to your paypal account as a funding method for fees associated with both ebay and paypal. As far as the banking confirmation that paypal does for your selling account on ebay, they deposit two small amounts of money into your account, then after 3-5 days, you check your account to see what those amounts were, and type them in on paypal to confirm you are the holder of the account. Then they take the money back out, and lift the limitations and everything, THEN you can be selling. And even then, they limit you to how much you can sell as a new member. It varies from person to person, but it's generally 5 items or $1,000 a month, whichever comes first. Oh, and you can never unlink your bank account as a funding source for fees. So if you're the type that doesn't like giving out your bank account info on stuff, then you won't appreciate their methods. And if for any reason anyone has a dispute, even if it isn't legitimate, ebay will freeze the funds until everything is resolved, which can take anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks.

Ebay was great in the past, their entire system is garbage now.
 
Well, I guess it shouldn't be too bad for me. Have had a Paypal account for years now, so setting up the vender acccount on Ebay should be the hardest part.
 
I had to break down and use ebay again for 1 thing, and it paid off big. The other day I bought a few handfuls of silver quarters. I went through them just to see if any were higher value than the $4.50 each I got them for, because in his "junk" silver bin, people sometimes bring bucket loads of silver quarters and he dumps them in instead of searching, and pays them based on weight.

So they were all fairly common until I noticed I had a 1921 standing liberty quarter. I got it for $4.50. I put it on ebay and the winning bid was just over $293. Regardless of their atrocious fees, it will still end up not only getting me way more than I could have gotten anywhere else, because a lot of bidders are crazy on certain items, but it's waaaaaaaay above what I got it for. Not a bad day.
 
Which only goes to show, for the purposes someone like Pete is using it for, EBay is quick, easy, and reaches a huge audience. He's not starting an online business.
 

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