Anyone sold anything on ebay before? I am in the process of selling my motorcycle on there and every question I get is how low will I sell the bike for. Its astonding. I of course reply with how much are you willing to give me for it? Then there is the question of how low my reserve is... Well thats kinda cheating isnt it? To know that ahead of time? I reply and show it on the ebay listing that the reserve is between 1000 and 5000 (1000 being the opening bid and 5000 being mentioned in the add as get buch of goodies with it). Is this typical questions for Ebay? Is everyone who shops there this cheep?

Sheesh.

 

I know what you mean. I've tried to sell a couple things, at a little less than what I thought they were worth, no bids. I'm not giving stuff away! I've had people PM me with offers, even after bidding ended. Yet watch them bid $125 plus $25 shipping for a 4" downpipe that anyone can buy for $100, if you look around a little. Way too many people think that if you're selling it, you'll take way less than it's worth. Good luck, keep it if they won't give you what it's worth.

 

I've had great success with Ebay, I think a lot of it depends on whatcha got and where you're located. There seems to be a whole lot of business on the East Coast. I have probably bought and sold about 50-60K over the past 3 years, 75% of it "outside" Ebay.

 

Another thing to remember is that 90% of the "real" activity occurs in the last 24 hours of a listing. The jokers that keep asking you the reserve don't yet understand how the game is played.

 

I bought my truck from an Ebay ad but I PM'd the seller and offered him the buy it now price. He took it off Ebay and I paid him direct for it. I don't know if it was legal for him to do that or not. He didn't want to take PayPal either because of the high fees so I wired him the money.

I didn't intend to do the purchase outside of Ebay but he had de-listed it as soon as I PayPaled him my deposit.

I have sold quite a few small items on Ebay but never a vehicle. I think their fees there are way to hgh which is probably why so many people go around them.

Edwin

 

with a rating over 600 I've seen my fair share of ebay sales. It is nice to know the reserve when your bidding so if it is too high for your liking you can just back out. I get asked it, and ask people their reserve all the time. Some give the answer some dont. The way I look at it is that the reserve is one of 2 things: One its the lowest price you want for the item but you want a low start bid so people will play the bidding game. Two the seller would rather not sell the item cheep but wants people to look into it. I personaly give out the reserve price, to me its just a low price for the item, not a big secret.


Coop

 

I will almost never bid on an item on Ebay if the seller won't give out the reserve. Why should I bid on something and generate activity for the seller if I have no idea if the reserve price is a price I can even afford and is reasonable?

I bought a coach bus recently. I looked at lots of Ebay ads and ultimately did not buy off Ebay, but found that an Ebay seller had another bus I bought.

Brian Elfert

 

I've only sold one or two items on e-bay, but I know many others that have sold several items to I managed to get some tips at first. I usually look around for items similar to what i'm selling, and kind of get an average of what they're selling for before I set my opening bid. I put a reserve on them too, but I will always state what the reserve is in the item description. I hate seeing "reserve not met" and you have no clue what it is and if it's even worth bidding on. People are cheap in this world, and it takes forever to find the right buyer. I spent nearly 6 months trying to sell my 02 honda xr400 dirt bike which had a book value of 3400 and I was asking 2800...best offer I got was 2300 from but I owed 2650. I got sick and tired of trying to sell it and told the guy 2500 nothing less and he said okay and bought it. I just got sick of paying for it. I really hate selling things no matter what they are.....I think the birds in this world are trying to tell us something...it ain't chirp, chirp, it's "cheap cheap"

 

Well the reserve is met now. Sadly, the guy who met it contacted me telling me he ended up purchasing a bike locally and as such wouldnt be able to buy my bike. I explained to him that these are considerations that come into play before you put in a bid on a item but not to worry most of the bidding on items in ebay comes the last 24 hours and he would probably be out bid. But that if he wanted to cover his *** he should withdraw his bid because if he was the winner of the auction I was going to hold him accountable.

I mean really! "Oops, didnt mean to buy the bike, it was an accident!"

 

This happens a lot especially on bigger items. . The most I have ever been able to get out of people is to ask them to kindly pay the listing and final auction fees and try try again. If not leave them negative feedback because they deserve it.

 

YES, isn't that the idea. When you bought that 2003 Jetta TDi, did you ask if you could give the seller (dealer or private party) an extra grand just cuz?

 

I think eBay is the most amazing thing to happen to this country (marketing wise) since Al Gore invented the internet. Anyone..... anyone can start a business in 10 mins and start selling stuff they no longer need or want.

I pulled an old electric 50's coffee grinder out of a dumpster a few years ago. It sat in my garage for a year, I put it on e-bay and sold it to a New York City coffee house for $350 and they paid the $200 shipping. I have picked stuff up for free (left on the table by the auctioneer as a "no bid") and sold it for $$$$ on e-bay just goofing around. We used to throw our llama wool away, now we sell it on e-bay for $10 a pound.

Sweet!

 

I sell things from time to time and the only complaints i have are the 0 and low feedback bidders that just sit around raising up the prices.

It discourages other people from bidding on your items when theres someone thats been a user for 3 years that has not purchased anything They think youre bidding your own item up or osmetihng of the sort.


I never really give out a reserve, if i have one. 99% of the time i dont use reserves, as just checking the completed listings i know what to expect it to sell for, and if its not as much as i want then ill keep it and not list it at all.

If i do put a reserve, and someone asks, i tell them to bid the max you want to pay and if reserves not met move on! Simple logic.

 

Being cheep is one thing, yes I think I got a nice deal and I worked for that. But asking what the lowest you will part with an object for is beyond cheep in my mind. Thats not how auctions work anyways. You bid what your willing to pay and if you win you win.