Selling On E-bay Help

[SRRN]

I have a LARGE "100th anniversary collector's edition Boyd's bear that I'd like to sell.Just what do I need to do to get started with E-bay? Are there any other places that I might be able to sell it? Thanks.

 

[SeaWitch]

It's actually fairly simple. You will need to obtain a login for Ebay (sign up). Once you are done with that, you just log in and click on SELL MY ITEM button... Ebay has a nice step-by-step walk-through on everything required to put your item up for sale.

 

[gumdrop]

Yup!! SeaWitch is right. It is a very simple process. You will need to give them a credit card / bank account number for ID verification and so they can charge or debit the sellig fees. Your selling fee will vary depending on how much your staring bid is and how many options you choose, like bold headings or adding extra pictures. What I like to do before I sell an item on ebay is to search for it first, so in your case, browse for Boyd's bears and see what other sellers are staring there price at and also, see if there are any bids on the item. Don't be discouraged if you don't see anyone bidding at first--many wait until the last days and hours of an auction to place their bids. One cool option that you have as a seller is to set a reserve price for your item. In other words, for your Boyds bear, lets just say you don't want to sell it for less than 15.00, but you know that a high starting price discourages many from bidding. So what you do is when you are filling out your item form, you would put in starting price: 2.00, reserve price 15.00. If bidders do not meet your reserve of 15.00, no one wins the auction. The bidders will not know what your reserve is. I'm not sure where else you could sell your bear, but ebay is a great place to start. I guarantee it will get lots of exposure. Please feel free to email me (gumdrop1980@yahoo.com) PM me, or post here if you have anymore selling questions. I do a lot of selling on ebay and would love to help you out!! ebay is a lot of fun-I hope you give it a try!

 

[wdwpluto]

One thing (and this is my opinion and I'm sure that others may disagree) I would never purchase an item from someone w/ zero feedback. So maybe buy a small item or two and get some positive feedback under your belt. Again, just my opinion

Lori

 

[calgarygary]

I agree with Lori, having feedback is critical in getting a fair value for the items you sell on ebay. If your bear has "real" value, wait, make some purchases of small items and also sell some items of lesser value so that when you go to sell the bear, potential buyers will bid with more confidence than if you had 0 feedback rating.

 

[SRRN]

Thanks for ALL the GREAT information.Although I'm a little hesitant,I do have some smaller bears I could start off with and work up to my BIG bear.Thanks again!

 

[gumdrop]

SRRN...

Glad you found everyone's advice helpful!! Great idea to start with smaller items to get a feel for ebay and how it works. As the others have mentioned, feedback about the buyers is very important and what I like to do is just check out the feedback of my highest bidder. If you don't feel that the person's rating is up to par, remember that as the seller, you have the right to end the auction early or refuse to sell to the person. Make sure you state that and your payment terms in your item description. For example, after I type of a description for my item, I insert my own disclaimer which is something like..."As the seller, I reserve the right to end the transaction due to excessive negative feedback. Payment is expected within 10 days of this auction's end. If not, item will be relisted, negative feedback will be left, and an ebay non-paying bidder form will be filed." Having a disclaimer like that will ward of people who just bid for the fun of it. For the most part though, you will find ebay a positive, honest community, but of course, there are a few bad apples out there. Remember not to ship items out before you recieve payment and take advantage of using the reserve price option when you don't want to give your item away, but do want to attract bidders with a low starting price. I hope you enjoy ebay!! I've become as addicted to it as I am to these discussion boards! There are lots of people here at DIS who do ebay, and they have helped me out a lot too. So if you have any more questions or concerns, you should have no trouble finding an answer here. Happy selling!

 

[J&D]

You could also list the bear on DIS Auctions under Non-Disney Collectibles. The site is up and running today, and they aren't charging any base fees during the month of Sept.

DIS Auctions

 

[epcotfan]

Originally posted by wdwpluto
One thing (and this is my opinion and I'm sure that others may disagree) I would never purchase an item from someone w/ zero feedback. So maybe buy a small item or two and get some positive feedback under your belt. Again, just my opinion

Lori

I have to agree with Lori on this one. I would never buy from someone with zero feedback since they don't have a reputation on ebay yet. Before I started selling I purchased a few items to gain some positive feedback. My first buyers were more trusting after I had a few positives beside my name.