ebay: what do you need?
- Thread starter Corvus
- Start date
vincegamer
Active member
I have yet to sell minis but I\'ve sold all sorts of other stuff. (well not all sorts, games mostly).
Anyway
A good picture hosting site. you need multiple high quality pictures and that way you don\'t pay eBay\'s high price for extra photos.
Give a good description but don\'t be too wordy.
I accept checks or money orders. I always say I hold checks, but I don\'t actually hold if the amount is small since it usually costs someone about $10 to cancel a check. They lose money if it\'s a less than $10 check.
I may think of other stuff later but gotta go right now.
oh, paypal has questionable business practices so I refuse to use them.
Anyway
A good picture hosting site. you need multiple high quality pictures and that way you don\'t pay eBay\'s high price for extra photos.
Give a good description but don\'t be too wordy.
I accept checks or money orders. I always say I hold checks, but I don\'t actually hold if the amount is small since it usually costs someone about $10 to cancel a check. They lose money if it\'s a less than $10 check.
I may think of other stuff later but gotta go right now.
oh, paypal has questionable business practices so I refuse to use them.
Yeah, Vincegamer summed it all up, those are all good points.
I haven\'t sold anything for a while, but I used Paypal also, and I use it for when I need to pay for something from E-bay.
It is convienent, but they do get a \'cut\' from anything you do.
I know there has been some serious issues with fraud with Paypal lately, but I am not sure what \'questionable business practices\' Vincegamer is referring to.
Would you care to elaborate?
I haven\'t sold anything for a while, but I used Paypal also, and I use it for when I need to pay for something from E-bay.
It is convienent, but they do get a \'cut\' from anything you do.
I know there has been some serious issues with fraud with Paypal lately, but I am not sure what \'questionable business practices\' Vincegamer is referring to.
Would you care to elaborate?
S
Shroud
Guest
Ive been selling for 2-3 years on Ebay, with almost 100% success (I think the only problems Ive had are non-paying bidders - everyone gets them - and one purchase I made didn\'t arrive so the guy sent me another one). Here\'s my system:
- if you want the big bucks, paint WELL or paint VOLUME
- establish a name. Maybe a brand name, such as \"Verzanni Productions\" or \"7 Ravens\" or \"Tincture Adept\" *cough*. The really big players sell at high prices without doing this (Jason Richards, Jen Haley).
- Get a web host and upload good pictures. Use a webpage editor to do your auction listing, including nice photos. What you do is go into the HTML view of the editor, copy everything between the < body > tags and paste it right into the \"description\" box of the listing form on ebay. It looks much more professional and is easier to read.
- establish your auction terms (ie must pay within x days etc).
- Accept as many forms of payment as you are comfortable. Paypal is almost a must imo. 99% of my buyers pay me that way, and as a buyer I won\'t bother with any auctions that don\'t accept it simply because it\'s the most convenient for me. It\'s not cheap to use them but convenience = more bidders. Also accept money orders, western union and cheques. But obviously use prudence - dont ship before a check clears for example.
- Get bubble wrap, newspaper and sturdy small boxes (example boxes made to ship coffee mugs are what i use, from the post office). Bubble wrap figure, nest it in a comfy surrounding of crumpled newspaper, and seal it into the box. I ship this way and never, ever have breakages.
- Establish a \"one price fits all\" for North American shipping. I charge 4 bucks without insurance or tracking, 8 bucks for trackable insured. For international, it\'s often not much more expensive.
Hope this helps a bit.
PS
Good, clear, well lit photos are a MUST if you want to get good prices.
- if you want the big bucks, paint WELL or paint VOLUME
- establish a name. Maybe a brand name, such as \"Verzanni Productions\" or \"7 Ravens\" or \"Tincture Adept\" *cough*. The really big players sell at high prices without doing this (Jason Richards, Jen Haley).
- Get a web host and upload good pictures. Use a webpage editor to do your auction listing, including nice photos. What you do is go into the HTML view of the editor, copy everything between the < body > tags and paste it right into the \"description\" box of the listing form on ebay. It looks much more professional and is easier to read.
- establish your auction terms (ie must pay within x days etc).
- Accept as many forms of payment as you are comfortable. Paypal is almost a must imo. 99% of my buyers pay me that way, and as a buyer I won\'t bother with any auctions that don\'t accept it simply because it\'s the most convenient for me. It\'s not cheap to use them but convenience = more bidders. Also accept money orders, western union and cheques. But obviously use prudence - dont ship before a check clears for example.
- Get bubble wrap, newspaper and sturdy small boxes (example boxes made to ship coffee mugs are what i use, from the post office). Bubble wrap figure, nest it in a comfy surrounding of crumpled newspaper, and seal it into the box. I ship this way and never, ever have breakages.
- Establish a \"one price fits all\" for North American shipping. I charge 4 bucks without insurance or tracking, 8 bucks for trackable insured. For international, it\'s often not much more expensive.
Hope this helps a bit.
PS
Good, clear, well lit photos are a MUST if you want to get good prices.
Corvus
New member
I have seen that the buyer is always given the opportunity to choose if he wants the package to be insured... so does this mean that when you send the package and it doesn\'t arrive, this is the responsibility of the buyer? How do you prove you\'ve sent it then? Isn\'t it advisable to always send with an insurance?
Another question: do the prices on ebay include the packaging and posting costs you mentioned?
Sorry for all these questions, but I really have no experience at all with online transactions and the like....
Chrispy
Active member
I\'m not sure about the insurance thing, once my mom sent out the package and insured it for $50 but it only cost $1.50 or something like that and I find that more confusing...
As for Shipping, there\'s a place to put an amount for shipping when you put to price you want it to begin at. Like Jarret said, I have a flat rate on mine, $5 for minis up to wieght/size of a small dragon or Black Troll, $10 for more or a whole squad or regiment.
Some other tips for eBay:
Paypal is a bit easier to control in my opinion and you can accept credit cards through it. You can also register on UPS and print out labels through Paypal for your package and just hand it to the clerk in the store.
When you\'re starting an auction, it\'s best to remember about what price you want. Most people start thier minis out at $1 and I think that\'s just stupid. I at least set the price at what the mini would be if it was just the bare metal. Most of the times, I set up the starting price at 3/4ths of the price I want. That way, the first bid will gaurentee I get something.
Also, there\'s a thing called being \"featured in the gallery\" that means when people look at your auction, theres a thumb of your pic by it. Otherwise, they\'ll just be a little icon saying there\'s pics on the auction. People are lazy, if they see a mini they might want, they\'ll click on the auction rather than browsing through hundreds of auctions that lok the same. This option only costs about $0.25 but I feel it\'s worth it for more bids.
Hope this helps!
As for Shipping, there\'s a place to put an amount for shipping when you put to price you want it to begin at. Like Jarret said, I have a flat rate on mine, $5 for minis up to wieght/size of a small dragon or Black Troll, $10 for more or a whole squad or regiment.
Some other tips for eBay:
Paypal is a bit easier to control in my opinion and you can accept credit cards through it. You can also register on UPS and print out labels through Paypal for your package and just hand it to the clerk in the store.
When you\'re starting an auction, it\'s best to remember about what price you want. Most people start thier minis out at $1 and I think that\'s just stupid. I at least set the price at what the mini would be if it was just the bare metal. Most of the times, I set up the starting price at 3/4ths of the price I want. That way, the first bid will gaurentee I get something.
Also, there\'s a thing called being \"featured in the gallery\" that means when people look at your auction, theres a thumb of your pic by it. Otherwise, they\'ll just be a little icon saying there\'s pics on the auction. People are lazy, if they see a mini they might want, they\'ll click on the auction rather than browsing through hundreds of auctions that lok the same. This option only costs about $0.25 but I feel it\'s worth it for more bids.
Hope this helps!
Chrispy
Active member
The winner would pay $35.. 30 for the auction and 5 for S&H. The S&H is usually shown, but sometimes people are just dumb. For example, I was looking for a resin fig the other day and found one for $5, but S&H was $25! They wanted to vacuum seal it and I said forget that and didnt even bid. I just think it\'s wrong to sell something with a S&H cost more than what you bought it for..
Insurance
Hey Corvus,
I always keep my Post Office receipts until I know they\'ve received the package so I have something to prove I sent the package. I offer insurance, but most of the time people are too cheap to buy it. In my auction I state that items that are not insured are the buyers problem. If you insure the item it becomes your problem, which would probably mean you\'d refund their money (minus the shipping) and then you get to attempt to get the money back from the post office (its the sender\'s problem to collect on packages that get lost, not the receiver\'s). To do that, you\'d probably have to print out the ebay auction proving that\'s what it is worth or some such (I hear its a real hassle though and 9 times out of 10, it takes months and months to get your money back form the post office - it\'s why I\'d just as soon not worry about insurance as a seller, more hassle than its worth unless we\'re talking about a hundred bucks or more - not likely for me selling minis!). The other thing you might want to do is use delivery confirmation, that way the buyer can\'t say \"I never received it\" when you can show something that says he did.
Finally, prices on ebay do not include shipping, and the buyer is expected to pay shipping 99.9% of the time. People usually put these details in the auction, although some lazy ones don\'t so there you have to be careful - always ask before bidding and remember to figure in shipping costs to the total price. Some people on eBay are idiots and will bid such that the price + shipping is more than you can find the thing elsewhere online, but hey, I\'m not complaining as a buyer
--Katie G.
Hey Corvus,
I always keep my Post Office receipts until I know they\'ve received the package so I have something to prove I sent the package. I offer insurance, but most of the time people are too cheap to buy it. In my auction I state that items that are not insured are the buyers problem. If you insure the item it becomes your problem, which would probably mean you\'d refund their money (minus the shipping) and then you get to attempt to get the money back from the post office (its the sender\'s problem to collect on packages that get lost, not the receiver\'s). To do that, you\'d probably have to print out the ebay auction proving that\'s what it is worth or some such (I hear its a real hassle though and 9 times out of 10, it takes months and months to get your money back form the post office - it\'s why I\'d just as soon not worry about insurance as a seller, more hassle than its worth unless we\'re talking about a hundred bucks or more - not likely for me selling minis!). The other thing you might want to do is use delivery confirmation, that way the buyer can\'t say \"I never received it\" when you can show something that says he did.
Finally, prices on ebay do not include shipping, and the buyer is expected to pay shipping 99.9% of the time. People usually put these details in the auction, although some lazy ones don\'t so there you have to be careful - always ask before bidding and remember to figure in shipping costs to the total price. Some people on eBay are idiots and will bid such that the price + shipping is more than you can find the thing elsewhere online, but hey, I\'m not complaining as a buyer
--Katie G.
Corvus
New member
some questions on paypal
So what about paypal... what are the costs they bill? People can pay you by transferring money on your paypal account, you can use this money to buy online on sites that support paypal, but what if I want this money on my bank account. Extra costs? How is this done, is it put on my bank account via my visa or what?
???
Thanks again.
So what about paypal... what are the costs they bill? People can pay you by transferring money on your paypal account, you can use this money to buy online on sites that support paypal, but what if I want this money on my bank account. Extra costs? How is this done, is it put on my bank account via my visa or what?
???
Thanks again.
S
Shroud
Guest
\"I have seen that the buyer is always given the opportunity to choose if he wants the package to be insured... so does this mean that when you send the package and it doesn\'t arrive, this is the responsibility of the buyer? How do you prove you\'ve sent it then? Isn\'t it advisable to always send with an insurance?
\"
Correct. It is advisable but not that cheap, so some don\'t do it. But if the buyer won\'t insure it or make it trackable, I don\'t accept responsibility for loss. Happily, this has never been a problem in over 100 sales.
For Paypal, you can have your bank account connected to your paypal account. When people pay you, your paypal account goes up. Then you withdraw funds into your bank account and they appear there a few days later. It\'s a percentage fee system - I dont really remember how it works but it\'s \"reasonable\" for the convenience.
\"
Correct. It is advisable but not that cheap, so some don\'t do it. But if the buyer won\'t insure it or make it trackable, I don\'t accept responsibility for loss. Happily, this has never been a problem in over 100 sales.
For Paypal, you can have your bank account connected to your paypal account. When people pay you, your paypal account goes up. Then you withdraw funds into your bank account and they appear there a few days later. It\'s a percentage fee system - I dont really remember how it works but it\'s \"reasonable\" for the convenience.
PayPal
I have never sold anything on eBay, but I have bought a ton of stuff. IMO PayPal is an absolute Godsend. I live in England and PayPal has made international purchases dead easy. vincegamer is quite right however in that there was some concern about PayPal in the past. There was even a site set up to warn people about their practises. However, eBay recently bought PayPal and seem to have sorted things out. Obviously this is in their interest as PayPal really \'greases their wheels\'. I checked the warning site and found that it had last been updated in November 2002. That is six months ago and (I think) before eBay took over.
If you want to sell internationally PayPal is a must. I am like shroud and simply don\'t look at auctions that wont take PayPal.
Good luck:flip:
I have never sold anything on eBay, but I have bought a ton of stuff. IMO PayPal is an absolute Godsend. I live in England and PayPal has made international purchases dead easy. vincegamer is quite right however in that there was some concern about PayPal in the past. There was even a site set up to warn people about their practises. However, eBay recently bought PayPal and seem to have sorted things out. Obviously this is in their interest as PayPal really \'greases their wheels\'. I checked the warning site and found that it had last been updated in November 2002. That is six months ago and (I think) before eBay took over.
If you want to sell internationally PayPal is a must. I am like shroud and simply don\'t look at auctions that wont take PayPal.
Good luck:flip:
Quite off topic, but that\'s a question that has been bothering me. How can minis that are not has well painted go for 30+ dollars more? How can you know how much you\'ll sell your mini? I just recently saw a mini that was at 100$ and was definetly not worth it. Are they some kind of trend ? Do people pay more for minis that just came out ? ??????Yes I know lots of questions, but sombody once said \" Ask a question and you\'ll look stupid 5 seconds, don\'t ask it and you\'ll be stupid for life\"
