Selling Expensive HiFi on eBay: *READ THIS*

Alan

Recent eBay announcement:


08 June, 2012 | 10:00AM BST

On
Tuesday 10 July 2012, the maximum final value fee for private sellers
will increase from £40 to £75. This new final value fee cap will only
impact listings with a sale price above £400. 
This change applies to private sellers
and will only affect items
which are listed from 10 July 2012 onwards. Fees for business sellers
are unchanged.

Full details of eBay fees for private sellers can be found here.

Regards,

The eBay Team

Looks like eBay might be losing some HiFi nuts, especially as we have forums. 

I'll un-announce this in a while when everyone's had a chance to read it.

As an addendum, does anyone have a recommendation for an alternative auction sit that might be worth supporting? It seems to me that eBay is a monopoly and is disinterested in individuals.

Docfoster

I've sold a few cars there over the past month (don't ask...). Glad I didn't end up doing it this month.
That's obviously quite an increase. To me anything over 10% feels like a rip off. That said, it may be that given the huge shop window that ebay provides, the extra £35 could still make ebay the best site for net profit for private sellers.

Alan

EBay's reach is enormous, and there is nothing to touch it.

The fact that the sale of some £750 speakers could now cost £100 (approx) instead of £50 (approx) once all the fees are added is still unwelcome IMV. But what do you do? They are a monopoly.

The worst thing is the lack of support for sellers on the question of shill bidders and no-show auction winners, which remains a disgrace. Likewise the near impossibility of contacting real humans to explain issues and the general lack of interest in the ever increasing scammer community (understandable as they make money through the scammers activities - relisting fees for instance).

I wonder what the extra profit will be spent on.

uglymusic

Increasing their bottom line?

PAC

Theres a few alternatives to Ebay for selling hifi but I can't think of another auction site. I am registered as a business seller but now won't be selling anything further as although this doesn't affect business rates, they way Ebay chopped and changed categories, its now harder to pin point gear (was this deliberate on their part?) and I think the whole re-categorisation has been a backwards step.  What was there before was impler and more focussed as far as hifi goes.  the rates are now getting extortionate for private sellers and many hifi shops are beginning to stock used items again as for a long while, they didn't bother due to Ebay.  I'm sure Ebay don't give a toss, but it will IMHO result in massive revenue loss potentially for them.  These are a few of the alternatives if wanting to sell used:

http://www.hifi-forsale.co.uk/

http://www.hifihunter.com/

Docfoster

Hifihunter. Excellent site.
:-D

Docfoster

Interesting what you say about locating items...
I recently sold a few cars on eBay (new career...? ;-) ) and sometimes found it impossible to locate my vehicle using a search that specified features that I knew I had correctly imputed as the seller. I double checked my listings several times to make sure that I'd listed details correctly, but the search appeared to miss them. Weird.

NeilP

Yes, exactly

EBay's reach is enormous, and there is nothing to touch it.

The fact that the sale of some £750 speakers could now cost £100 (approx) instead of £50 (approx) once all the fees are added is still unwelcome IMV. But what do you do? They are a monopoly.

The worst thing is the lack of support for sellers on the question of shill bidders and no-show auction winners, which remains a disgrace. Likewise the near impossibility of contacting real humans to explain issues and the general lack of interest in the ever increasing scammer community (understandable as they make money through the scammers activities - relisting fees for instance).

I wonder what the extra profit will be spent on.

I was 'ripped off' (I can only assume) by an e-bay buyer.

Sold an old iPhone, first to an American .who did not realise he was bidding £ sterling and not $..then refused to pay, so I listed again, with a big header in red, saying to all Amercians that it was a £ listing.

And b****r me..and dumb Amercian bids again..same story..Oh is that not not dollars? oh..that is too expensive..not going to pay now.

Third listing it sold, paid for and I posted it, as the seller requested, basic ( cheaper ) postage.  Kept postage receipt, but it never arrived.

They refund the buyer, despite the fact that I provided all the proof that I did what the buyer requested, kept all e-mails showing his request for non insured postage, postage receipt etc etc.

As usual with e-bay , I conversed with a computer for a while, ll my e-mails being ignored and never read by human.  After about three weeks of this, and the last e-mail to them, I was actually exceedingly rude, telling them exactly what I though of their lack of service, ..mail littered with expletives etc etc, guess what..exactly the same standard e-mail reply.

The refunded the buyer his £150, and are now demanding it back form me..fat chance of that happening , they can't take it from your Paypal account, they can only send invoices, and threaten you with restricting your account.

OK so you loose all your feedback, which, so I have gone through and taken screen grabs of all the feedback and ratings if I need it in future.

They have great buyer protection but nothing at all for the seller.  

Brain_Dead

When my Dad died I put lots of his radio equipment on e-bay, most of which sold, got ripped of by E-bay and now I have closed the account still get spam. 

Alan said we should all start our own on line selling site, Dave can run it.

I suggest we call it W.R.Y.O.L.E.B. (We Rip You Of Like E Bay) 

And yes the US $ does get the poor insular Yanks confused as they believe the World Series is just the US so the $ is also the worlds only currency. It is the one that has caused the worlds two major financial crashes that for sure. 

I love then really I do I just never work for them again.

Brain_Dead

EBay's reach is enormous, and there is nothing to touch it.

The fact that the sale of some £750 speakers could now cost £100 (approx) instead of £50 (approx) once all the fees are added is still unwelcome IMV. But what do you do? They are a monopoly.

The worst thing is the lack of support for sellers on the question of shill bidders and no-show auction winners, which remains a disgrace. Likewise the near impossibility of contacting real humans to explain issues and the general lack of interest in the ever increasing scammer community (understandable as they make money through the scammers activities - relisting fees for instance).

I wonder what the extra profit will be spent on.

Seen this word somewhere else mmm 

Alan

eBay is a double edged sword - as Neil says the buyer gets protection (most of the time) but the seller gets zilch. Its like we should be grateful for using them.

They aren't much different to any other uncaring multinational, the shame of it is eBay started as a good company, with the idealism of a new internet company. They've now been bloated by greed and fat-cat corruption.

Brain_Dead

eBay is a double edged sword - as Neil says the buyer gets protection (most of the time) but the seller gets zilch. Its like we should be grateful for using them.

They aren't much different to any other uncaring multinational, the shame of it is eBay started as a good company, with the idealism of a new internet company. They've now been bloated by greed and fat-cat corruption.

The same as Facecrap I am sorry to say.

uglymusic

And another Internet giant started off by telling its employees not to be evil. What happened there?

Brain_Dead

It nice to Virgin is still OK hey is that not British.

Try your new toy Boss.