You HAVE to try this!! EBAY your way to DISNEY!!

[cpl100]

Thanks for that great information. I have been trying to figure out how I was going to keep track of everything because I know that I need to set up a system.

I am going to pm you about it.

Thanks again!

 

[lat]

I just had my first 2 e-bay sales and I was thrilled. I only have 1 feedback from back in July when I bought a halogen light so I was surprised that people would just use buy-it now option to buy the stuff.

It was not cheap and after these two people bought them, I sent them the invoices tonight as soon as the auctions were ended, and I have still not heard from either of them.

Is this pretty standard? I know they have 5 days to pay, but wouldn't they want to get in touch with the seller to get more information? They did not even contact me before they bought.

What is going on? Thanks

 

[dg39]

lat if your description is good and self explanatory then normally the buyers/bidders have no reason to contact you before auction end. Some "lucky sellers" get paid instantly through paypal and some of us have to wait til the very end to get paid. If you accept money order/cashier check and in your terms of service state that payment is due within 5 days, you can sometimes expect it on the 5th day. Alot of time(most of the time) I never hear from the winner of one of my auctions until they leave feedback. And sometimes they don't even do that. You can always send them a friendly email, thanking them for bidding on your auction and congratulating them for winning. Alot of times after doing that and if their paying by paypal they'll send in payment. I usually just wait til it gets closer to the payment due date, then I start emailing them. But 9 out of 10 times, payment comes sooner. Even when I buy, I very rarely contact the seller, unless I need to know something about the item that wasn't in their description. So, don't worry and I bet you get your payments real soon.

Denise

 

[DMRick]

Is this pretty standard? I know they have 5 days to pay,

do they only have 5 days to pay, because that's what you put in your auction? eBay gives you up to 30 days just to send a reminder, and you have up to 45 days to file for non paying bidder alert, then another 60 days to file for your fees back.

eBay suggests you give them 3 business days (bidders) to reach you, but if I only gave my people 5 days to pay, I would be so out of luck. Sometimes the mail from CA takes 5-7 days to get to NY, and they may not even mail for several days. 10 would be the minimum I would ask for.

Keep in mind that yesterday was a Holiday, too.

 

[floridagirrl2]

Agreed- I ask for people to pay within 10 days in my auction text ("Payment appreciated within 10 days."). 5 days is not enough for people across country. I have had it take a full 7 days to receive mail from buyers in New England, Texas, and California (based on the postmark date of their payment).

Also, you are raising peoples' expectations too high if you ask for payment within 5 days--they are then going expect to receive the item they purchased within the same amount of time! This is just often not possible with the USPS.

I actually give people 30 days to pay before I file an NPB notice, IF they are responding to my email. (People who don't pay and don't respond to the invoice or to my follow-up email which I send 2-3 weeks after the invoice, get a NPB in 2-3 weeks).

I think people's policies also vary somewhat with what they sell. I have read (on other Ebay listserves) that some categories of items have a much higher NPB rate than others (for instance, video games), so they have to be stricter. I sell primarily books and have very few NPBs. Mostly, people are slow in paying for books because they forget or haven't gotten around to it, not because they don't intend to pay.

Also, now that I accept Paypal, the vast majority of my buyers pay by Paypal, so payment is almost instantaneous.

 

[pjlla]

Okay, I'll admit.... I'm a newbie to the Ebay thread.... I have been trying to read the entire 240 pages, but haven't made it yet! (Up to page 31).... but about a week or so ago I decided to bite the bullet and start selling! While I have not been wildly successful, I have had fun! My DH and I had cleaned out some bookshelves a few weeks ago and had three boxes of books ready for the Goodwill. When I saw the success that others had had selling books on ebay, I decided to give it a try. Can't give an exact total, but I have cleared about $40-50 selling the books that I was just going to give away! (Almost paid for our CRT breakfast!). I have been contemplating selling off a portion of my Barbie collection for years, and have sold just a few of those (but for just barely what I originally paid for them in some cases). But I would like to thank ALL OF YOU who contributed to this thread for giving me the motivation to finally give ebay a try. While I don't think that my DH will be able to retire with my earnings, it is nice to make a little extra for our upcoming WDW trip! ...P

 

[disneychrista]

I am so frustrated. I spent about six weeks going through some old(er) magazines I happened upon, taking pictures righting listings etc and after 3 days some of them haven't even gotten a hit yet, the most that any one listing has gotten is 9.

So my question is for those of you who have listed magazines (and were sucessfull) did you list them under magazines - back issues or did you list them under collectables or did you list another way?

 

[C.Ann]

Originally posted by disneychrista
I am so frustrated. I spent about six weeks going through some old(er) magazines I happened upon, taking pictures righting listings etc and after 3 days some of them haven't even gotten a hit yet, the most that any one listing has gotten is 9.

So my question is for those of you who have listed magazines (and were sucessfull) did you list them under magazines - back issues or did you list them under collectables or did you list another way?

---------------------------------------------

Can I ask what "kind" of magazines - and their age? I've sold quite a few lots over the past month or so - some were kind of old and some only a few years old..

Depending on what the magazine was about, I would choose my category based on that..

Another thing to consider.. People are Christmas shopping now so they're not spending on themselves but rather on those they are buying gifts for.. I'm probably going to hold off on listing anymore magazines or books not suitable for gift-giving until after the holidays and people in the colder climates are cooped up inside and wanting something - anything - to read!

 

[C.Ann]

Originally posted by pjlla
Okay, I'll admit.... I'm a newbie to the Ebay thread.... I have been trying to read the entire 240 pages, but haven't made it yet! (Up to page 31).... but about a week or so ago I decided to bite the bullet and start selling! While I have not been wildly successful, I have had fun! My DH and I had cleaned out some bookshelves a few weeks ago and had three boxes of books ready for the Goodwill. When I saw the success that others had had selling books on ebay, I decided to give it a try. Can't give an exact total, but I have cleared about $40-50 selling the books that I was just going to give away! (Almost paid for our CRT breakfast!). I have been contemplating selling off a portion of my Barbie collection for years, and have sold just a few of those (but for just barely what I originally paid for them in some cases). But I would like to thank ALL OF YOU who contributed to this thread for giving me the motivation to finally give ebay a try. While I don't think that my DH will be able to retire with my earnings, it is nice to make a little extra for our upcoming WDW trip! ...P

----------------------------------------
Hi there!

So glad you have joined us!!

You're going to like it here - lots of great people with tons of good advice..

And if you have questions, just fire away.. Always someone around to answer them for you..

 

[floridagirrl2]

Welcome pjlla! Ebay is such a blast. Selling books has become a small business for me--I registered a fictitious name with the state, pay the city fee for operating a business out of my home, pay the IRS income taxes, and I STILL make a small profit every year
.

Disneychrista, what kinds of magazines are you trying to sell? When I sell vintage magazines, I generally base the keywords in my titles on the hobby/interest that people would be purchasing them for. For interest, I have sold old copies of Ornament magazine and made sure I put the word "beading" or "beads" and "jewelry" in the title of my auction. I would generally list the magazines under the category of the hobby/interest (e.g. beading) rather than under magazines.

 

[Madi100]

I've been selling quite a bit of stuff for my brother-in-law this last month, and I have learned that the lower I start the price, the better it sells. I have just started everything at $1.99 lately, and it does sooooo much better. Thinks go over $100, but I get so many more hits and bidders this way. I figure that if it's going to sell, it will be bid up to a higher price.

I'm getting a little tired of doing this, though Maybe because I only get 10% of the selling price, and I'm doing a lot of work. I'm REALLY getting tired of the people who make purchases and then pay me about two or three weeks later and want to know ASAP when I will have their item to them. I've had a lot of those. KNOCK ON WOOD, I haven't had any non payers, though. That part has all been smooth.

 

[disneychrista]

They are different Beer/Brewing/Brewery/Brewpub type magazines, dated between mid 1970 - 1999, most between mid 1980 - mid 1990. I have them in lots by title and year. Some issues no longer available from the publisher. They could be given as gifts for someone who is "into" that type of thing.

 

[Mrs. Snowgod]

Originally posted by disneychrista
They are different Beer/Brewing/Brewery/Brewpub type magazines, dated between mid 1970 - 1999, most between mid 1980 - mid 1990. I have them in lots by title and year. Some issues no longer available from the publisher. They could be given as gifts for someone who is "into" that type of thing.

In that case, I would list them under Collectables/Beer & Breweriana/Other, as well as Magazines/Back Issues/Crafts and Hobbies.

In which categories do you have them currently?

 

[Mermaid 3]

Thanks, I'm going to check on those fees right away, before I list anything else. So far I have made more than I spent, but I want to keep it that way!


I had a buyer last week who didn't contact me, and I was wondering why. I sent an invoice and two emails, finally I heard from her, but still haven't received any payment or notification of when to expect payment.


I guess some people aren't as fast as others. I had a buyer this week who paid by Paypal a minute after the auction ended!!

If only they were all that way.

 

[disneychrista]

Originally posted by Mrs. Snowgod
In which categories do you have them currently?

Right now they are listed under food/wine in magazines, that seems to be where the ones I saw when I researched were listed the most.

Well I am going to ride this week out (not much I can do now) and switch them to collectors when I relist them. Who knows maybe I will get an explosion of hits and bid now that the holiday weekend is over.

 

[floridagirrl2]

I apologize in advance if you already know what I'm about to tell you in this post....

1. You can change categories as long as you don't have any bids and are not within the last 24 hours of the auction.

2. The best categories to use are the categories where previous, similar items received the most bids, not necessarily where you see similar items listed most often.

3. I seem to get more hits when I use the word "vintage" in the title. For someone in their 20s, the 1970s and 1980s could be considered vintage (OK, the 90s might be stretching it a bit .

Good luck on the mags! I agree with Mrs. Snowgod that I would probably list them under Collectables/Beer & Breweriana/Other. Also, if you notice something in particular that sells really well in the Beer & Breweriana category, you may be able to tie that in with some of the mags you're selling (e.g. "Meister Brau article-vintage beer mag").

Of course, I have 8 relists up at the moment with nary a bid, so what do I know??

 

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

sorry double post!

 

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

I'm trying to follow-up my auctions with email to winning bidders.

1) I send invoices asap after the auction's end, unless I get an instant purchase through PayPal first.
2) Once I receive payment, esp. through PayPal, I notify thank the buyer for their payment and let them know when I will ship by reiterating my auction's terms.
3) Tonight I started following up this weekend's auctions with this:

Ebay Item for was shipped via USPS Priority Mail.

My hope is that you are completely satisfied with your purchase from my auction. Please inspect your item to ensure that it is as described in the listing and has met your expectations. Should anything be other than as listed, contact me immediately for resolution. I would appreciate your return to www.ebay.com to leave appropriate feedback.

Thank you

Am I being too pushy with the feedback request?

 

[lat]

thanks everyone for the advice. I am amazed that people would just send money to strangers on the internet. Both my buyers had contacted me and everything looks good so far.

This thread and you guys are the BEST!!!

 

[dg39]

DOUBLE CHECK YOUR AUCTION LISTINGS....

Alittle while ago I put 1 item up on auction. When I went to my sellers page I noticed that there were 2 listings for the same item.
I cancelled one out. So just want to let you all know that there might be a glitch in ebays system tonight and just double check your auction listings.

Now for the question, I was charged all the fees associated with this extra listing. Can someone point me in the right direction as to how to get the credit for them back(insertion fee,extra picture,listing designer etc.) I rarely do the extras when I list, but this is a nice item and I went all out.....Wouldn't you know......
TIA
Denise