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

[Cinders]

WHOAH what an I missing? How do you get free supplies to your door PLEASE tell!!!

Simply go to the US Postal Store using the link below. Just remember that you must use Prioriety boxes, envelopes, and tape only when mailing something Priority. If you are using Media mail or first class you cant use these items.


US Postal

 

[C.Ann]

I am SOOOOO excited!! Just had 4 paperback books (that I bought in a garage sale for 25 cents a piece) sell for OVER $8 !!!! Woo hoo!! I love those kinds of sales! Have several other items ending tonight and can't wait to see how they do..

Been researching some other items I hope to get up tonight or early tomorrow.. Don't know if I'll get to list during the weekend because I may head up to the lake.. I just remembered I have a few things up there that will definitely sell..

Anyone else have auctions ending tonight??

YaaaaaaaaaY eBay!!!!!

 

[PatriciaH]

Wow! One of my sisters Royal Doulton figurines just shot up to over $122! Looking good for this weekends auctions

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by C.Ann
Twelve days ago I finally decided to bite the bullet - overcome my fears - and try selling a few items on eBay in an attempt to save money for a December trip to Disney World.. All total I have listed 20 items so far and have completed 4 auctions..

I am SOOOOO amazed I'm practically speechless!! I'm closing in on $100 already and still have 16 items up for auction (8 of which currently have bids on them)..

These items are NOT anything spectacular - collectors items - or anything of that nature.. The four sales were an ink cartridge, a cookbook, and two videos..

My remaining auctions are books and videos and the bidding is going very well.. This is very surprising to me because I had read that sales were "slow" - but you sure can't prove it by me!! I think the trick is in offering nice merchandise (with an accurate, detailed description), asking a fair opening bid, and charging a fair price for shipping and handling.. I purposely started off with smaller items that were easy to determine shipping on and were easy to pack, but now I think I'm going to venture on to "bigger and better"..

If you're serious about making extra money for that Disney World trip you really should try this.. On one of my videos I literally made ten times what I would have gotten for it in a garage sale.. I will never hold a garage sale again - LOL!!

And as an extra-added bonus, this is REALLY fun!! Try it - you'll like it!!!!

My son did that last year, they earned enough to take 5 people to Disney for a week. They worked very very hard.

 

[robinb]

I just wanted to drop a quick note in here about making sure all you new sellers describe your items throughly and have some kind of reasonable customer service.

I had to give my very first negative feedback to someone today because they lied about the condition of the books I bought and they refused to give me a refund. They said the books had "slight damage" and they were literally falling apart. One book had fallen apart with most of the spine peeled away and was glued back together! I emailed her this morning and told her I was unhappy and she said "I realize that it is hard to buy sight unseen but thats the risk you take
with ebay ...". This is a lesson on how not to treat a customer!

Here are the mistakes that I made in the transaction. (1) She had "no refunds" in her payment instructions ... which I missed, otherwise I would not have bid on her auction at all. (2) She also said to email her for "more accurate" descriptions of the books and I did not. I trusted her to mention such poor condition in her auction. The most I expected was yellowing and maybe a couple of small rips. Lesson to me: always check for refunds and ask, ask, ask!

She was a new seller and now she has a big fat negative to her name.

BTW, here are the books:

 

[DMRick]

Oh..those are bad! Can't believe she wouldn't refund, or even compromise. Of course she's new, so she'll prob just start a different ID : (

 

[robinb]

Yeah, I was really bummed . I have 32 of 34 books in a complete set that I was trying to put together to sell as the set brings more than the individual books. Now I am $16 in the hole .

 

[DMRick]

But the good part is..she already gave you a great feedback..so at least you don't have to wait for retaliation. She isn't all that new..she should have known better. Did you pay by charge card, by any chance?
Doris

 

[C.Ann]

"Bad" doesn't even BEGIN to cover the condition of those books!! That is AWFUL!!

It always amazes me when people do things like this.. Take some car mechanics for instance - rather than be totally honest and upfront with you (and earn your respect and repeat business for many a year to come) they'll totally RIP you off the first time you go in just to make a "quick" buck.. Don't people understand that it's in the "repeat" customer over the long run that you'll make the most money ??

I would be angry too.. Sellers like the one with those books only make it harder for us honest sellers.. I've seen some of those auctions that state - "No returns" - "Not responsible for items once they leave my hands" - etc. - and I would avoid they like the plague!!!!!! They're practically screaming that they're dishonest..

So sorry you got ripped off like that..

 

[robinb]

Originally posted by DMRick
But the good part is..she already gave you a great feedback..so at least you don't have to wait for retaliation. She isn't all that new..she should have known better.

Yeah. She would be the type to give me a retalitory negative. She has a FB in the 50's, but most of her feedback is from buying and not selling.

Did you pay by charge card, by any chance?

{blush} Mistake #3. I used PayPal, but I didn't clear out my balance first and PayPal just sucked it out of my PayPal $$. I try to keep a zero balance for that exact reason and I try to always change my payment method from checking account to CC. So, I can't even dispute my bill and PayPal won't help me.

I think I had a "kick me" sign on my butt the day I bid on her auction!

BTW, she just sent me another note blaming me for not asking for more information. She said: "Most people...especially on items without photos...ask for a more accurate
discription. I cannot be held responsible if you choose not to do this." I don't think she has seen her FB yet .

Here is the auction for those of you who are interested:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3520663526

Yes, I ordered from Austrailia because these books had been going for a lot less than their American counter-parts even when you count the extra $$ in shipping.

 

[DMRick]

She said: "Most people...especially on items without photos...ask for a more accurate

What crust. She made it clear the books were in used condition..not wrecked. So you're suppose to read more into it? Can you imagine how she would be if you said..umm..so, what shape are the books in, after she already described them? These books are not in good shape..and picture or not, she should have been honest. Stop kicking yourself..you did nothing worng..she on the other hand should be ashamed of herself for being so misleading. Guess we know now, why she didn't put pictures in. And your sharing this has helped others to see why pictures are important. We don't expect the people to lie.
Doris

 

[robinb]

OK. This just got really strange. My seller emailed me back (again) and it seems that her brother took the liberty of reading her email and responding for her. Gee, thanks Bro. The writing styles are much different and the latest email is more in line with the emails I exchanged before. So ... I think she is telling the truth about this. She changed all her passowords and she will be refunding my money. Once that's done, I think I will be looking for a way to remove the negative FB. I think I might be able to do it through SquareTrade. {sigh}

 

[DMRick]

Uh..if she wants it changed, let her pay square trade. It isn't your responsibility that she gave out (if she did) her password. Think about it..even if her brother wrote to you..who wrote the auctions saying the books were in decent shape? She did! Right now you are only out $16 (if I remember right)...with square trade you may still be out that, plus the square trade. If she refunds you, then suggest SHE go to square trade and pay to have the neg removed, since she got it because of her actions..which was a poor auction description..

And I always have trouble believing that someone else answered the email without permission. I think she was mad at you, which changed the tone, and once she saw the neg, changed back, to get you to pay to have it removed.

 

[twinklingstars4u]

I agree with DMRick. Do not pay for Squaretrade to remove the neg. Make her pay the $20 if she wants it removed!

 

[Mermaid02]

I'm so excited, my dh comes home tonight so I will be listing some of my stuff!! Wish me luck.... I don't have very long (9-30-03) to earn my WDW money.... but I know I can do it!! Ebay isn't the only way I'm going to make $$ for it- but I'm really excited about it!

 

[ByJiminy]

That's all I'm saying...please don't feel bad if you aren't seeing the same profit as others.

Thank you, DMRick! While I appreciate the enthusiasm and encouragement of this thread, I have concluded that Ebay is not necessarily going to provide everyone with funds for a Disney trip. For me, it sure isn't!

For anyone on the fence about trying it, it really is easy to list, and you might as well give it a try with a few items if you are curious. If you have spare time, I agree that it could be a fun "hobby".

I don't have lots of spare time, I have active young kids and they keep us pretty busy.

I also don't have much valuable stuff to sell. I've never bought any "collectibles" or things like that, and I'm just not a big shopper anyway. We live pretty simply...our kids are not deprived, but we they don't have nearly the volume of toys and things that some of their friends do. That probably makes it easier for me to save money for WDW to start with, so I'm not complaining! I've never had a job where I was given free things that I could sell. My point is that we don't have much "inventory", so to speak, of things to sell, and nothing that would generate much money.

The post office is out of my way, and although I probably spent a couple of hours trying to find a no-fee checking account (so I could keep my Ebay transactions separated) I haven't found one. They all have some restriction or qualification that doesn't work for me. So there went more of my time just trying to figure that out - if I "paid" myself for all my time out of my Ebay "earnings" I don't think I'd have anything left! Again, if I had alot to sell, or some higher priced items, it might be more worthwhile to spend my time doing these things. It does take time to keep up with the auctions - emails, feedback - not much, maybe, but again, if you're pressed for time, it adds up, and if you're not selling items for very much, it's hard to justify. But I agree fully that if you have time on your hands, there are probably worse ways to spend it - at least if you're listing and selling, you're not out spending your money. If it keeps someone from going out shopping, dining, or otherwise spending money, that's great! You're also probably learning some new skills - working with the pictures, maybe a bit of html, customer relations, and so on.

I will probably list some more things on Ebay, my thought is to keep adding things to Turbo Lister as I have time, and once I have a good batch, put everything up. Getting to the post office is hard for me, and so I think it's best to do a big batch of auctions now and then so I'm not making special trips for $3 here and there.

I am not trying to sound negative, but for anyone considering selling, I just wanted to share some other thoughts about factors that might make Ebay less worthwhile for some.

 

[HuggaBaloo]

First I want to say a big THANKS to C.Ann for starting this thread and to all of you who have contributed your thoughts, questions, suggestions and opinions to it. I've been away from the boards for a few months, then came back the other night and saw this thread and was thrilled. I just started selling on eBay about a month ago to save up some money for our next trip to the World at the end of this year.

Since I'm still a newbie, there are a lot of things I'm not sure of. One question is this: I have an item that I believe to be somewhat rare. I reviewed the current and ended auctions and have found one listing for the same item (they also identified it as rare). Does eBay policy prohibit me as a seller contacting the non-winning bidders following the end of the other person's auction to tell them that I also have the item for sale? Is this considered spam? My guess is that it would not be allowed, but I couldn't find out for sure when I reviewed the eBay policies on their site. I was just hoping someone could tell me for sure. Also, I feel more comfortable asking questions about eBay to you guys instead of on the actual eBay boards since I'm still so new to this (weird, I know ).

Thanks again for all the fantastic info and good luck to everyone with their auctions!

 

[C.Ann]

Hi HuggaBaloo !! Thanks for joining our "class".. I think you're going to have to wait for DMRick to answer your question about contacting previous bidders as I don't have a clue in that area..

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

Just wanted to give a little *hint* to some others here as well.. Do you have any brochures lying around from some place interesting that you have gone to in the past - or maybe just picked up somewhere along the way??

Last night I sold 5 brochures (3 individual auctions and one that was for 2 brochures) for a whopping total of $24.75 !!!!!

Not too bad for a few "sheets of paper" - huh? Best part is I still have many, many more I can list..

Better look at everything twice before you toss it out!! LOL

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

I'm goin' to Disney !!!!!!!!!!

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

Yaaaaaaay eBay!!!!!

 

[robinb]

There is no way I would pay to have the neg removed! Do I look stupid? Oh ... never mind ... don't answer that one . I gave her the link to Fair Trade and left it up to her. I still have one more reply to her reply on my neg so after I get my $$ back I will leave one about things working it out.

Back on topic ... I have to put up some auctions today! I am leaving for WDW in 3 weeks and I need enough time for the auction to end and for my buyers to get checks to me if they want to pay that way. I have a lot of "Hot, Erotic" Blaze books and some other goodies laying around. Yippie! More "Mouse Money"!

BTW, the people at the post office know me by name now. Has that happened to anyone else? It's pretty cool .

 

[DMRick]

Does eBay policy prohibit me as a seller contacting the non-winning bidders following the end of the other person's auction to tell them that I also have the item for sale?

Yes, it would be considered spam and a reason for eBay to suspend you...although you would prob get a warning first, if it's your first time. We aren't even suppose to let our own bidders know if we have put up another of hte same item..although we can do the second chance auction thing...but through eBay.

Also, you might notice that to prevent that, eBay has removed the bidder's email addy's from everyone (unless it's past of their actual name) except the seller.

Here is the above info from eBay's site:

Miscellaneous Offenses See other offenses

If you've experienced any of these issues, please use the link below to report them to eBay Investigations. We may take disciplinary action, including a formal warning, indefinite suspension or temporary suspension of the users account. eBay will consider the circumstances of an alleged offense and the user's trading record before taking action.
<snip>

Sending spam - Sending unsolicited (without prior permission), commercial email. Examples:

Sending unsolicited offers to bidders/potential bidders for the same or similar products that they have bid on in the past.

Sending an email to active bidders in an open auction offering them the same or similar items.

Adding email addresses to your mailing list without first obtaining permission from the users (this includes past winning bidders/buyers or sellers).

Sending a direct or stand-alone email invitation to users to join your mailing list.

Using the "contact eBay member" link on the eBay site to send any unsolicited commercial offers.

For additional related violations, please see Transaction Interference here:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/investigates.html#bidding