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"Decluttering Box of Tricks" reminded me I need to de-clutter the attic and, lo and behold, there's a bunch of stuff that appears to have some value (following a quick look on-line) like a 50 year old Getzen, nearly mint reel-to-reel, et cetera.

My first thought was eBay but I've never sold anything on-line. So, if there are some veterans out there, I wouldn't mind hearing of some experiences. It'd be good to learn about perils and pitfalls, and general tips for success.

ryck

I'll start the ball rolling, ryck...

I'll begin by finishing the story I began in Tales of "The eBay Wars:"

My discs eventually sold for a respectable price (I maybe even cleared a profit on them. ), and I immediately received an unhappy e-mail from the winning bidder advising me that he was unable to install Leopard on his up to specs Mac...that my Leopard discs, which were listed as a "Retail Install" discs, were, in fact, "Retail Upgrade" discs.

(I'll take a side-trip here to tell you that, fabulously luckily for me, my buyer was a retired, in 1983 and with no computer experience, electronics engineer who at least had some degree of savvy and lots of time and inclination.)

Moving right along... First, I convinced him with words and pictures that there is no such thing as a "Retail Upgrade" Leopard disc...that my discs were, indeed, "Retail Install" discs, and then, after several days of helping him troubleshoot it finally turned out that his RAM modules needed to be either reseated or rearranged in their slots, but that was only after he had swapped them out a second time (having already zeroed all data, so the first swap-out and the zero erase had apparently eliminated both RAM and bad blocks, i.e. a failing HD, from the equation and left us with a hair-tearing scenario).

I finally received my positive feedback, and PayPal released my money, but note that this was my very first eBay sale, and reflect on how the episode might have ended had my buyer been an ordinary user with neither savvy nor inclination to learn, and a short fuse to boot! Shudder!

To the chase, then...

I'll begin by saying that, despite its very nasty reputation, I've found eBay to be an excellent website...pretty intuitive, full-featured, with more or less knowledgeable, but always helpful, chat support, and with readily available tutorials dealing with many subjects. (My gripes are that they recently eliminated overnight chat support, leaving me to deal with long mid-day waits, and that there's no way that I can find to e-mail them about technical problems, so those go unreported, by me, anyhow, until [I guess] people go to the trouble of reporting them in chat sessions.)

Now some tips, and note that the "verys" and other adjectives, which I generally don't use, are included because they're very important:

• Spend a good deal of time visiting eBay and following sales, both in progress and completed, of an assortment of items similar to what you plan on listing to get the hang of what goes on before you list.
• Learn what can and can't be changed in your listing, both before and after your item has been bid on, before clicking on "Submit."
• Choose you price, whether it be starting or "Buy It Now," very carefully and with the realization understanding that if you start an auction a $0.99 that may be all you get for your item.
• Give your type of auction and its duration very careful consideration.
• Give careful consideration to whether you want to deal with packaging your item (a tube-job (?) reel-to-reel, by way of example).
• Be certain to calculate the correct shipping charges for your item so you don't get burned on them after your auction has completed.
• Post your buyer's feedback without waiting for hir to post yours first.

In addition to all that, I've found that a good story, good documentation, and good, revealing pictures contribute to a successful auction.

I'll update this as soon as everything I've forgotten about comes flooding back.

Happy eBaying!

But really, who better to roll than ryck?

Did I scare you off, ryck?

Nope. Not scared off, and I do plan to proceed. I have spent some time at the eBay site reading (and need to do more). Meanwhile a couple of other things have popped up to take time.

I've also done a bit more scrounging and found a few more items. I'm starting to think my wife is right about that pack rat thing. The other side is that, spending time on eBay watching items as you suggested also got me to see some of the stuff that people are able to sell. That provided a bit of vindication with a couple of: "Do you remember when you insisted I throw out.....? Well, guess what!"

I do have one question (so far) on your post. You mentioned taking a lot of time to think about the type and duration of the sale. Would that be concern about giving enough time for people to find your item, or not taking so long that someone scoops a buyer with the same item posted for a shorter time, or...?

I've also been wondering if some things are better sold at a specific site more related to the item. e.g. is the old Getzen better sold at a trumpet or musician site? (My wife muses I'm just delaying. Sigh.)

And, the one thing I should have done right off the bat....Thanks very much for taking the time to write a comprehensive reply.

ryck

If I were emotional enough I'd off myself, having seen how much the "garbage" I've thrown away in my life is worth in today's "collectibles" driven market-place. The flip side of the coin, though, is that it takes a certain mentality (which, mercifully, I haven't got) to be a volume eBayer...monitoring sales, packing, shipping, dealing with unqualified, unhappy, and non-paying buyers, "et cetera, et cetera, and so forth."


I think type is more important than duration... If you start an auction at $0.99, that may be all you get for your item, but if you list a starting price or do a "Buy It Now," your number may be off-putting to people who'd actually bid the same amount in an open auction.

Trying to figure out what the "bottom-feeders" (as eBay buyers are frequently referred to) may spring for is actually a fascinating game.

But duration is also important, because it affects your cost, albeit nominally, and the number of potential buyers who see your item (which may be important for something obscure), and while I suppose there are people who "need it badly enough" that they'll pay more to get it sooner, I doubt that they're a critical factor in the decision-making process.

As for people finding your item, I'd say that you shouldn't worry about "cruisers..." that people who are looking for a Getzen, for instance, will search for it by name, and, as respects that, I neglected to say that you need to be extremely careful about categorizing and describing your items; there are people who make nice money buying and re-listing poorly described and/or erroneously categorized items.

Bottom-line is really that there's no formula that's a panacea...that your own judgement has got to govern the balance between price and duration.


That's a tough one... I'll glibly reply that it depends on what you're selling and what your research teaches you.


You're very welcome, and thanks for giving me the opportunity to release some of the pressure that first nightmare sale of mine built up. Please note, though, that this entire post is just one man's opinion and that I learn new stuff about how to manage eBay auctions almost every day.

The thing I'm finding interesting, though, is how little interest the subject of eBay has raised among FTMers.