eBay and Paypal?

[Merkuri]

Sound advice, but consider the flip side. I've just started selling on eBay, so my priority has been to get my reputation up. I'm doing this by selling off all my cheap things first. Once I have a reputation, then I can put up the expensive stuff (and I've got quite a bit of that) and people will have the confidence to put down the high bids.

What a lot of other people do is buy first to up your feedback score. Once you get a decent score while just buying, start selling. It's what I did.

 

[Huw]

What a lot of other people do is buy first to up your feedback score. Once you get a decent score while just buying, start selling. It's what I did.

I'm doing that to. However, there's not a lot I want (miniatures mainly), so I'm mostly selling.

 

[kenobi65]

What a lot of other people do is buy first to up your feedback score. Once you get a decent score while just buying, start selling. It's what I did.

Yup, it's what I did, too. I probably had a feedback score of 30 or so before I started selling.

Huw: I understand where you're coming from, and building up your score by starting with low-priced auctions probably isn't a bad idea. Just recognize that there are undoubtedly buyers who are skipping your auctions right now for no other reason than because you don't have an established positive reputation. They're just being cautious, and I can't blame them for that.

 

[werk]

The only problem I've had is as soon as I got a paypal account I started getting so much spam I can't really use that account anymore.

My wife got an account to buy a piece of art for her father, same thing, her school account is buried now.

My advice would be to get a free email account at hotmail or yahoo or something, and get your paypal account on that one, because you won't want to use it again.

 

[Merkuri]

My advice would be to get a free email account at hotmail or yahoo or something, and get your paypal account on that one, because you won't want to use it again.

You could also try getting a better spam filter. I love Gmail's spam filter. I get over 50 emails a day, but they all go into the spam box and I don't have to look at them. Maybe once a month I'll get a real email in my spam box or a spam email in my inbox. It's updated constantly as people report spam emails, so only the newest spams get through. I've accepted spam as a part of the internet, and Gmail helps me filter through it quite easily.

If anybody wants a Gmail invite, just email me at merkuri at gmail dot com.

 

[Huw]

Huw: I understand where you're coming from, and building up your score by starting with low-priced auctions probably isn't a bad idea. Just recognize that there are undoubtedly buyers who are skipping your auctions right now for no other reason than because you don't have an established positive reputation. They're just being cautious, and I can't blame them for that.

I don't have a problem with that. Some lucky person got Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan for 99p (that's about $1.75), but everything else I've sold has gone for around what I expected.

As long as there's some healthy bidding going on when my mint Fighting Wheel, various rare Planescape bits and Warhammer Realms of Chaos books hit the market

Regarding the spam problem, I've had none at all from my Paypal account. Might be due to differences between UK paypal and US paypal though.

 

[Chainsaw Mage]

Don't be caught in the frenzy of the auctions. I know people who place a bid for an item they are only moderately interested, "I'd buy that for a dollar." They bid and got caught up in the frenzy of a bidding war, before long, that dollar was close to an hundred. All this for an item they didn't really want.

As an eBay seller, I love it when this happens.

 

[kenobi65]

As an eBay seller, I love it when this happens.

Indeed. Some years ago, I sold all of my old Marvel Super Heroes RPG stuff (the first, 1980s version) on eBay. A couple of the supplements (Ultimate Powers Guide and the Magic guide) wound up in bidding wars, and both went for over $100 each. A pleasant surprise.

 

[Nyaricus]

Well, if you email me your credit card number, I can make everything foolproof for you

cheers ("I kid, I kid!"),
--N

 

[ssampier]

As an eBay seller, I love it when this happens.

I bet. If you don't mind me asking what do you sell?