Do you eBay?

[Toolulu22]

We use to buy and sell more frequently than now. We still use EBay when looking for novelties, discontinued items, collectibles. These are also the things we tend to sell.

We bought more items when our sales $ went into our PayPal account. Since EBay started depositing directly into a bank account- we are less likely to spend that money on EBay.

 

[irlandaise]

This only means it’s being shipped by Amazon though.

No, there are three different possibilities:
1. Amazon sells and ships the item.
2. Another company sells the item but uses Amazon shipping.
3. Another company sells and ships the item.

I use option 1 whenever possible, but occasionally option 2.

 

[barkley]

i made my first ebay purchases just this past christmas. i've been looking for years for a pair of mcfarlane figures but always found them too overpriced on amazon. found them on ebay in new condition in their original packaging for less than i've ever seen a single of the pair selling for on amazon recently popped to get a couple of new bluey items for more than they sold for new but reasonably priced (they were long sold on any retail store by the time i discovered they existed). fun place for the odd pop cuture item.

I was a Barbie seller years ago. Are they pre 1980s Barbie items? Made in Japan or Taiwan? Any Sears made Barbie clothing? You can get some serious money for some of those items.

how do you tell where the barbie stuff is from/if they are sears? all my clothing would have been from the 60's and likely from sears since it was the main shopping option where i grew up (still have some of the mary poppins clothing that was sold when the movie came out along with lots of 'fab', 'mod' outfits).

 

[LoveDaisy]

I was a Barbie seller years ago. Are they pre 1980s Barbie items? Made in Japan or Taiwan? Any Sears made Barbie clothing? You can get some serious money for some of those items.

They are from the 80’s through the 90’s all in the boxes, I’d have to check where they are made. I have the first couple of Bob mackie, the holiday ones, there was an astronaut one in the latest box they pulled out. I really have no idea what may be at their house I’m guessing all dolls and not much other items.

 

[Neapolitan Ice Cream]

Check out the above link regarding SD cards. That is a commodity that Amazon itself is shipping fakes out due to mixed stock from unscrupulous suppliers.

I bought a 512GB Micro-SD card, some random make. Turned out it didn't hold nearly that much. Tried to return it but Amazon said they never stocked goods by that name. They were an anonymous budget unit. STEER CLEAR.

 

[Pink Partridge]

how do you tell where the barbie stuff is from/if they are sears? all my clothing would have been from the 60's and likely from sears since it was the main shopping option where i grew up (still have some of the mary poppins clothing that was sold when the movie came out along with lots of 'fab', 'mod' outfits).

Look up Sears Barbie and check out the images. Just a general Google search.

For instance, my most profitable sale was from a line called Barbie Sears Glimmer Glamour.

You get to know all of the names after a while.

Also, shoes stamped Japan are sometimes worth quite a bit.

Would love to hear what you have on your hands.

 

[Pink Partridge]

Also, here is a reference that shows you pictures of the clothes. You can look the names up on ebay and see what they are currently going for:

https://www.dollreference.com/1959-1963-barbie-vintage-doll-clothes

I love them all so much. The details are amazing.

Edited to add- Be careful of vintage anniversary "replicas" and "repros" on ebay.

 

[firefly_ris]

Yes, been selling and buying on eBay since 2001. This year is a little slow but I typically make about $1200 per year -- sometimes more, sometimes less. I've been doing it forever so it doesn't take much of my time. I do everything Buy It Now or B/O and don't fool with running auction items anymore. I buy stuff on there too. These days it's mostly film, eBay Motors items, or used books I buy.

 

[jo-jo]

I have looked at ebay just to see if the stuff we are giving to thrift store is worth anything. I don't want to give trash to them. I realize people may try to sell a cardboard box for $50, but hey if the thrift store get $10 for something selling for $50 on ebay, it's still something.

But some years ago, I did buy a supershooter cookie gun on ebay. At the time, the cookie discs were selling for $3 each. I have about 8 million of them. Or maybe 25 ish.

 

[irlandaise]

We bought more items when our sales $ went into our PayPal account. Since EBay started depositing directly into a bank account- we are less likely to spend that money on EBay.

Ditto. My PayPal account is basically for buying stuff on eBay and sending money to friends, neither of which I do very often. It used to get replenished by things I sold on eBay. Now it doesn't.

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

No, there are three different possibilities:
1. Amazon sells and ships the item.
2. Another company sells the item but uses Amazon shipping.
3. Another company sells and ships the item.

I use option 1 whenever possible, but occasionally option 2.

Categories 1 and 2 apparently get their inventory comingled due to how amazon treats inventory. People (including my wife) have received obviously counterfeit product when buying stuff that is sold by amazon themselves.

 

[TiggerTrigger]

I haven't in a while, but I will buy from ebay from time to time. I have taken my chances with a number of things...especially certain bags and Lenox ornaments. I also like ebay for used books if I have enough time before one of the kids' projects. Selling...really on any auction site...is a true headache. I sold one of DD15s bats back in the fall and while I made some money back, the auction site I used takes a chunk and I don't like having to wait on buyer approval to get paid. I know there's a risk with authenticity, condition and non-delivery shopping on these sites, but ebay is excellent at protecting the buyer and sometimes you can get a real deal.

Amazon, on the other hand, is getting kind of sketchy. There are things where it's been fine, but others where I just can't trust them. For example, I took a chance and bought a bag on there a couple of years ago. The day before the bag was supposed to arrive, my payment was refunded and my order was canceled. A bag actually did arrive the next day, but it was a very obvious counterfeit. I tried to report it, but Amazon's customer service was useless. I tried to write a review to alert other buyers but it was rejected. I've had similar rejections on products I just didn't like. For example, I tried that Lume stuff they're always advertising and it smelled awful. The review was rejected, which leads me to believe they have some deal with the company.

EDIT:
True ebay story- I wanted a matching band for my engagement ring, but the designer didn't make one, the jeweler who sold us my ring said he couldn't get another mounting to make one, and I didn't like the quote I was getting for something custom. I found a seller on ebay who had a mounting nearly identical to my engagement ring (all white gold vs two tone) and figured it could be turned into a band. I know most people wouldn't trust ebay for gold and diamonds, but I decided to take the risk. It arrived and it looked good. I took it to the jeweler that sold us my ring and center stone and he claimed the side stones in the ebay buy were fake and refused to turn it into a band without swapping out the stones. I decided to get a second opinion (and a third) and it turns out that the first jeweler was trying to pull a fast one. Jewelers 2 and 3 confirmed all of the stones just to be safe and all was good. Jeweler 3 was considerably cheaper so he did the work. He even added some yellow into the band to make them really compliment each other. I think Jeweler 1 was just bitter because I found a workaround to his ridiculously priced "solution." So...ebay to the rescue! Funny that the ebay seller was more trustworthy than the local jeweler.

 

[goofyernmost]

Only once, but I would use it again should the situation arise.

About two and a half years ago the drivers side sun visor broke and fell clean out of the ceiling. I took it to the dealer and they told me it wasn't covered under the warrantee and they would replace it for just $450.00. I said, I don't use it often enough to pay that much. I really wanted to replace it, so I started checking with auto salvage yards country wide and the only place where I could get one that was complete was via e-bay.

I didn't know who was selling it but they were charging me $50.00 for a brand new one, which I actually could not find a new one in the states. Turns out it was from some city in China. That happened during covid when all the ships and easy transport were held up. I had to pay in advance so the amount of time it took to get it stretched out to about a month or more. I was starting to think that I was scammed and then it showed up at my door. It was brand new and the way those connections are made in the car all I had to do was plug in the electric light wire for the vanity mirror and simply click in the bracket. It took less than a minute to install it. Seriously $450 compared to $50 shows you just how much dealerships are soaking their customers. Anyway, it arrived as advertised, brand new, exact color match and works perfectly. The most amusing part is that I have a German engineered VW, that was assembled in Mexico, sold in North Carolina and the only place I could get the correct part was from China. It's a small world after all.

 

[Smugpugmug]

I buy and sell on eBay regularly. I actually use it more than Amazon these days. I mainly buy merchandise from the Asian Disney parks as there are plenty of legit personal shoppers on there and they ship really fast, like I've received items from Japan and China faster than if I bought something that was shipped out from California. I also occasionally buy Gamecube games if the price is right. I'm trying to rebuild my childhood collection that I, stupidly, sold off and I like that you can see pictures of the item you're actually buying. I 100% avoid listings with stock photos of just the case. I know this isn't a super valuable game but a few months ago I was able to grab Super Monkey Ball for $30 and it came with the game, manual and case. When I received it, it looked brand new as if the seller never used it.

As a seller, I only do buy it now for my listings. I don't have enough patience to deal with auctions and got tired of people sending like $5 offers for an item I have listed for $30. I know you can customize the lowest offer you'll accept but I would still get messages from people asking if they can buy an item for significantly less and I got bored of entertaining that. I also typically don't ship internationally as the shipping price is usually more than the actual item but one time I had someone say they were willing to pay it if I shipped the item to Finland. So I was like, sure and that's how I shipped a $10 game for almost triple the price to Europe lol

 

[hobbs29]

I buy and sell on ebay

 

[irlandaise]

No, there are three different possibilities:
1. Amazon sells and ships the item.
2. Another company sells the item but uses Amazon shipping.
3. Another company sells and ships the item.

Categories 1 and 2 apparently get their inventory comingled due to how amazon treats inventory. People (including my wife) have received obviously counterfeit product when buying stuff that is sold by amazon themselves.

That's too bad. At least in the first case one can probably get a new product or a refund more easily than from some random seller.

 

[barkley]

I tried to write a review to alert other buyers but it was rejected. I've had similar rejections on products I just didn't like. For example, I tried that Lume stuff they're always advertising and it smelled awful. The review was rejected, which leads me to believe they have some deal with the company.

this drives me nuts with amazon. i'm to a point where i don't do reviews b/c they seem to only post the positive. similarly they seem now to make the refund process more difficult-i went through a couple of weeks of back and forth with them recently wherein they initaly kept pushing out the delivery time line then kept insisting that i had to first contact the seller but amazon's system kept bouncing the message saying the seller was no longer able to receive messages. i finaly did a dispute with my credit card company.

 

[ShockMaster]

I sometimes sell rock merch there. Good passive income for me since I own over 100 t-shirts

 

[mousefan73]

Ebay saved our heating system. We have an oil heating system with the boiler for hot water on top. This went broke. Would cost thousands to replace new. ( our furnance is old and will need total replacement next couple years anyway ) our nephew who is a HVAC guy went on ebay and found some guy selling his used, but good boiler for the same system.. He was getting a new system and was selling the good parts.. We paid like 500 euros.. been working for 5 years.

my husband has also found a car seat replacement for our van on their... I think ebay is great for specialty stuff.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

Occasionally I'll buy something, more so when I was actively collecting old women's magazines from the 50s. I used to bid on lots of those. I haven't bought anything in a few years, but I would if something caught my eye.