eBay Getting Deeper in Your Wallet 1 1

[01TheDude]

4 hours ago, Martin Sinescu said:

Check their fee structure first. I've been using Amazon to sell some stuff here and there (not comics, mainly old books and the odd star wars collectible), but there are some things I literally lose money to sell. Books that sell for a buck or two, Amazon is taking $3-4 in fees and I typically only make 60-70 cents on shipping, so I'm looking at having to pay Amazon unless I can make up the difference on a more expensive item. Don't think they always used to be this steep on lower-priced items, but it's not a flat 10% commission like it is for eBay.

yeah-- I learned that lesson the first time I sold something on Amazon -- sold a magazine and ended up costing me 12 cents after paying them their "cut" and also the shipping (hate how inflexible they have shipping set up).

Since then, I have raised my prices significantly. I won't sell anything on there for less than 9 bucks other than something that qualifies for media mail, like books- and even those are fairly high priced by ebay standards.

Amazon by far is much more expensive to the small time seller. If you are significant volume, you can pay the monthly fees and it works great. The best part though is setting up an item and basically not having to come back to it until it sells.

I would not buy any comics on there-- especially if amazon is the shipper (they are TERRIBLE at packing comics). TPBs or books--- I have used them though.

It is funny to me how ebay craps all over the collectible sellers all the time when that is probably one of their biggest advantage areas compared to amazon et al- although that is not a huge segment for them in the grand scheme of parts and other high volume stuff.

Edited September 21, 2017 by 01TheDude

[Cruzin' Thru Comics]

I finally opened a basic ebay store this year. Have over 200 items up. The way convention promoters keep jacking up table rates (plus all the work involved setting up at shows), I believe ebay fees are a better deal. 

[comicwiz]

Beyond the exorbitant fees, is the lopsided advantage buyers have over sellers. I can live with increasing fees IF it's justifed. It isn't, plain and simple. It's not only eBay doing the reach around, it's buyers who play games, demand partial refunds, filing chargebacks, and/or extort via eBay's feedback mechanism.

Here's the kicker. I am witnessing eBay anteing up their detection protocol for off-eBay activity, monitoring my email if I happen to share my email address with anyone, but they can't be arsed to notice when an account has racked up 69 bid retractions in a 6 month period with nearly half their activity with one seller, or to notice when an account has an unusually high chargeback history? They have a customer service team monitoring photo uploads through eBay messaging, but they can't be bothered to have that same team review basic analytics of an account revealing a padded history of defrauding via shill bidding or chargeback theft?

Even if I'm resigned about selling on eBay, I refuse to use eBay as a buyer unless they do a better job of ridding bidding shenanigans, and that won't ever happen because eBay is cleary in it to help themselves. And for any shareholders reading this, the writing is on the wall when a company fails to address the root of the problem, and instead serves up solutions that make their user base feel exhausted by the never ending fees that do nothing to make eBay safer or improves their experience.

Edited September 21, 2017 by comicwiz

[Cruzin' Thru Comics]

5 hours ago, comicwiz said:

Beyond the exorbitant fees, is the lopsided advantage buyers have over sellers. I can live with increasing fees IF it's justifed. It isn't, plain and simple. It's not only eBay doing the reach around, it's buyers who play games, demand partial refunds, filing chargebacks, and/or extort via eBay's feedback mechanism.

Here's the kicker. I am witnessing eBay anteing up their detection protocol for off-eBay activity, monitoring my email if I happen to share my email address with anyone, but they can't be arsed to notice when an account has racked up 69 bid retractions in a 6 month period with nearly half their activity with one seller, or to notice when an account has an unusually high chargeback history? They have a customer service team monitoring photo uploads through eBay messaging, but they can't be bothered to have that same team review basic analytics of an account revealing a padded history of defrauding via shill bidding or chargeback theft?

Even if I'm resigned about selling on eBay, I refuse to use eBay as a buyer unless they do a better job of ridding bidding shenanigans, and that won't ever happen because eBay is cleary is in it to help themselves. And for any shareholders reading this, the writing is on the wall when a company fails to address the root of the problem, and instead serves up solutions that make their user base feel exhausted by the never ending fees that do nothing to make eBay safer or better for them.

I haven't had quite this much trouble with eBay. For online sales reaching the maximum amount of potential buyers where are you going to go? Maybe here on forums and I hear Facebook has some decent auctions. I've had a couple occurrences with shady buyers but the vast majority have been ok. When a buyer asks for a transaction outside of eBay I just tell I can't do it. 

[Terrapin]

I'm about to start selling a 3500 book collection and was looking into eBay but I keep hearing more negative info that makes me hesitate. When I look at the sold auction values it seems that the only sellers who get a good price are those with a top rated seller status which would take a while to achieve. What are the other good options? I'm even thinking about seeing what metropolis/CC would offer just to save the time and hassle.

[ThothAmon]

12 hours ago, Poka said:

On top of the fees add to it that ebay continues to favour buyers on sellers expense - think they have and will continue to drive sellers away

Key to Ebay from my perspective is to sell slabs.  Raws are a crapshoot and require a lot of handholding.  

[lizards2]

5 minutes ago, Terrapin said:

I'm about to start selling a 3500 book collection and was looking into eBay but I keep hearing more negative info that makes me hesitate. When I look at the sold auction values it seems that the only sellers who get a good price are those with a top rated seller status which would take a while to achieve. What are the other good options? I'm even thinking about seeing what metropolis/CC would offer just to save the time and hassle.

You can post scans directly from your computer and sell here.

[Terrapin]

6 minutes ago, lizards2 said:

You can post scans directly from your computer and sell here.

I've thought about that but I'm new to the boards and not sure of the protocol for new members who haven't built any board Creed. I thought if I sold a bit on eBay I could point to my feedback there.

Edited September 21, 2017 by Terrapin
Typo

[lizards2]

Just now, Terrapin said:

6 minutes ago, lizards2 said:

You can post scans directly from your computer and sell here.

I've thought about that but I'm new to the boards and not sure of the protocol for new members who haven't built and board Creed. I thought if I sold a bit on eBay I could point to my feedback there.

If you post nice, high quality scans or photos, and they appear to match the assigned grades and prices, it shouldn't be a problem.

[CKinTO]

I have only bought on Ebay, never sold, and for slabs, generally prefer it as I can usually get a better price than at a store or at a con (where dealers are looking to recoup significant fixed costs). It's really sad to hear stories on these boards of how Ebay is tilting towards overly favoring the buyer, buyer fraud (returning different items, etc.), or non-payment. While sometimes buyers do need to be protected (ie. sellers having multiple accounts shill-bidding, etc.), it has to be a balance - IMO sellers are more important than buyers in the marketplace. If there isn't good product, at good prices, buyers will go elsewhere with so many other options today. There will always be buyers willing to buy if the product / pricing is there - buyers are easier to come by than good sellers.

[1Cool]

25 minutes ago, Terrapin said:

I'm about to start selling a 3500 book collection and was looking into eBay but I keep hearing more negative info that makes me hesitate. When I look at the sold auction values it seems that the only sellers who get a good price are those with a top rated seller status which would take a while to achieve. What are the other good options? I'm even thinking about seeing what metropolis/CC would offer just to save the time and hassle.

If you have the time always start here since your fees are lower and you will definitely get a LOT of information in terms of packing, proper scans/pictures and numerous other items that will make your life on E-Bay a lot easier.  The books that don't sell here then you already have the scans ready and can quickly post books up on E-Bay.  Mycomicshop is a source of getting pretty good prices for a large batch of books but you will almost always get better prices if you put in the time and effort to do the selling yourself but you have to balance it with the huge amount of time it will take.  I'd stay away from auctions on E-Bay until you get a ton of customers unless you like giving away your books for $1.

[mattn792]

7 hours ago, comicwiz said:

Beyond the exorbitant fees, is the lopsided advantage buyers have over sellers. I can live with increasing fees IF it's justifed. It isn't, plain and simple. It's not only eBay doing the reach around, it's buyers who play games, demand partial refunds, filing chargebacks, and/or extort via eBay's feedback mechanism.

Here's the kicker. I am witnessing eBay anteing up their detection protocol for off-eBay activity, monitoring my email if I happen to share my email address with anyone, but they can't be arsed to notice when an account has racked up 69 bid retractions in a 6 month period with nearly half their activity with one seller, or to notice when an account has an unusually high chargeback history? They have a customer service team monitoring photo uploads through eBay messaging, but they can't be bothered to have that same team review basic analytics of an account revealing a padded history of defrauding via shill bidding or chargeback theft?

Even if I'm resigned about selling on eBay, I refuse to use eBay as a buyer unless they do a better job of ridding bidding shenanigans, and that won't ever happen because eBay is cleary is in it to help themselves. And for any shareholders reading this, the writing is on the wall when a company fails to address the root of the problem, and instead serves up solutions that make their user base feel exhausted by the never ending fees that do nothing to make eBay safer or better for them.

This right here.  Although if they weren't dropping the ball so consistently, we wouldn't have been treated to the epic GOODNEWSCOMICS meltdown.  Silver linings...

[Transplant]

49 minutes ago, Terrapin said:

I've thought about that but I'm new to the boards and not sure of the protocol for new members who haven't built any board Creed. I thought if I sold a bit on eBay I could point to my feedback there.

Stick with getting some board cred first.  Board Creed is way overrated.

[ADAMANTIUM]

12 minutes ago, Transplant said:

Stick with getting some board cred first.  Board Creed is way overrated.

One? Ah one? The only way is one? 

Amazing what was around that was thought popular. I actually still heard this song in the radio the other day. Wasn't as catchy.

[PunisherPunisherPunisher]

eBay are getting worse by the day, the way it's going in 10 years they will take 1/3 of your sale

[Aweandlorder]

While it's in no way shape or form compared to eBay. I believe the future of comic book trading belongs to Instagram 

[ADAMANTIUM]

3 minutes ago, Aweandlorder said:

While it's in no way shape or form compared to eBay. I believe the future of comic book trading belongs to Instagram 

That's what I've heard, haven't tried it out though.

[comicwiz]

7 minutes ago, Aweandlorder said:

I believe the future of comic book trading belongs to Instagram

Without a way to upload from computers, it will be a bleak one.

Edited September 21, 2017 by comicwiz

[Aweandlorder]

Just now, comicwiz said:

Without a way to upload from computers, it will be a bleak one.

I take all my pics from the phone now (IPhone 6S+) it takes amazing high Rez pix and saves me time with uploading them to the computer. If it wasn't for eBay's time consuming listing prep process I would've done everything on the phone. 

I see the limitation with copy+pasting hashtag keywords on Instagram with such a limited space on the phone but that's a quick tweak on their platform if they chose to do so. 

The more I get involved in IG the more I recognize its potential. Collectors go there to showcase their books, in that regard buyers and sellers are engaged, you save your favorite collectors to your feed and keep up to date with their books. It's FIRST AND FOREMOST fun! That's what IG has on eBay now. The fun aspect of checking others books. 

Hashtags are clearly the key here. Imagine an IG system with eBay inventory and advanced hashtag search optimization. Limitless!!

I have friends who subscribe to knives and watches communities who are making a killing on IG and to them that is a far better platform than eBay.

of course, you'll still need PayPal for both

[spracknetch23]

I've been trying an IG store out for a couple of months now and I must say it's quite nice. I can leave all unsold posts up as long as I want and archive sold posts, I can copy and paste hashtags between posts and just modify them for new posts. I can post collection pieces as well as for sale items. I can also post multiple pictures in one post if I want to show back covers, closeup flaws, etc. Also it's really easy for someone to just go to my name and look at everything I have for sale.

The downside is that it's kind of hard to see the actual condition of the book, so I try to state a grade for each book I post for sale. So far I've had 10 or so buyers, so it has worked pretty well.