Re: my first e-bay experience...

Link should have been there Joe...

Josh '90 YJ - 4.2L - 1.5" lift - 31" Roughriders - Tuffy - Alpine - Sony

Thanks alot Chris! Great advice - I never really thought about needing the word "Wrangler" in there, but you're right. I took about 20 pictures with my web-cam/digital camera and that was near the best one I had. Next time I will put it in a more neutral place like you suggested. The feedback rating seems very important, so i'll have to do my best at making the trade easy and efficient once a buyer comes about. If it all pans out, I can see myself using it more often!

Thanks again.

Josh '90 YJ - 4.2L - 1.5" lift - 31" Roughriders - Tuffy - Alpine - Sony

Chris has some good ideas, but remember one thing...YOU are the seller, right? That means, you of all people on e-bay are in a better position than the buyer. I sell and buy on ebay for the past 5 years.

Do have a write-up describing what you will accept for payment, the timeframe for payment and contact, etc.

Do take good pictures, the higher resolution, the better.

Do NOT ship items until you have been paid in full (i.e. no COD)

Do NOT ship before personal checks have at least 7 business days to clear. Better yet, have them pay you with postal MO's or something similar.

Be careful of new bidders, but don't exclude them necessarily. Everyone had to start at 0 feedbacks at one time.

Do check the feedbacks for the person, and look at past auctions they have bid on to see what they bought, how much was it, etc. This gives you a feel for how they transact business.

Be careful if you use Paypal, some people like it, some don't. I haven't had any problems, but many have. Usually because they don't understand how to protect themselves from fraud.

Hope that helps,

Tony

On that note, taking the opposite roll of bidding on, and/or buying a few smaller items on ebay is a good way to get some experience and get a feel for how things work. JELo

Many people will not buy anything from someone who has zero or only a few feedbacks. This is especially true for more expensive items. And fewer bidders = lower selling price.

If I were you, I would buy several things on ebay first to build up my positive rating to 15 or 20 before I started selling things. This shouldn't be hard to do. You can buy many staples on ebay at prices less than walmart sells them for, even with shipping costs, as long as you are willing to purchase in larger lots. Try purchasing a crate of toilet paper or a 50 pack of gillette razor blades next time you run low. This is a very easy way to build up your rating.

Actually Josh, the first thing I sold on EBay was an old set of Mopar long ram manifolds. I have a feedback of 1 at the time. These things were selling for about $3-400 at swap meets at the time. The final bid on them was $665 dollars. Not bad for something that was given to me, and had been sitting in the basement for about 15 years. I didn't even have the carbs or linkage for them, which are the hard parts to find. Of course I was instantly addicted to EBay. :)

As far as the feedback, you're right, everyone starts a 0. I have never had a problem with a new bidder personally, nor have I ever got a bad check from anyone. Maybe I'm just lucky in that regard. I have read repeatedly that the highest risk EBay buyer statistically is someone between 8 and 20 feedback. I don't know where they got that number, but that's what is often said in the EBay newsgroup.

Chris

The same is true of liars, like yourself.

Did you sell those via local pickup? I have found people to be more trusting with low feedback users when they can pick up the item in person because you can verify everything before handing over the cash. If you shipped it by mail, I bet you would not have found someone to pay that much to a zero feedback user.

Of course there are always exceptions to the rule... but my experience as both a buyer and a seller has been that all else being equal, generally the higher the feedback of the seller, the higher the ending price of the auction.

Cal Wheeler,

You need a new schtick. You sound like a broken record.

You keep trying so hard to convince everyone I am a "troll" - going so far as to use my name, make up untrue things about my personal life, and post them in public forums. Meanwhile, you have worked your poor lil' self up into such a froth that you contribute nothing meaningful to the forum.

On the other hand, I, the person who you keep trying to convince everyone is a "troll," am the one of us who is actually trying to talk about jeeps.

Actually, I shipped these. I think the overall trust of EBay users has changed somewhat. Mainly due to the fact that people have found ways to scam buyers, and in some cases, sellers. Even though I have over 300 positive feedback, I still find people aren't nearly as trusting as they used to be in regards to EBay transactions.

Chris

On Thu, 18 Sep 2003 20:12:38 GMT, "Mighty Monad" wrote: Hi Dave,

You are 100% correct, I should have been more accurate. My intent was to say the picture should be as good as you can make it. Properly lit, sharp, as much detail as necessary to let the potential bidder make an informed decision.

Thanks for the correction,

Tony