One Mans Junk........... (ebay.co.uk)

Member Name: newby2

Product:	ebay.co.uk
Date:	23/06/09 (112 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: makes money

Disadvantages: can take a lot of time

eBay.co.uk........


I have been an active eBay user now for 5 or so years so feel I know the site well enough to write this review. I think I initially opened my ebay account to sell some of the things that I no longer had any use for and ended up making a fair bit of money from my old stuff and spending that money on buying things from other ebayers!


I have flitted in and out of eBay since my joining date and have now reached a red star and over 1200 positive feedbacks. Feedbacks are accumulated when a transaction (either buying or selling) goes through and the buyer/seller leaves a sentence on how well that transaction was completed. There was a stage when I seemed to be getting a lot of negative feedbacks and people claiming that they hadn't received the items that I had sent out to them and because of all that trouble I stopped eBay (both buying a selling for a long while).


I have now started up again with my eBay craze and as ever with me I never go into things half heartedly and I currently have 129 things selling (with the hope of putting more bits on tonight). I am trying to de-clutter my flat and pay off my ever increasing credit card bills so alongside working more hours at work I think that by selling things that are either of no use to me or collecting dust I could pay off all my debt by Christmas!


Anyway being an eBay member is pretty simple really. When singing up for the first time it literally takes a few minutes of your time where you will type in your personal details such as your address date of birth etc and you are set to buy. For selling items you will have to have a debit card linked up to the account and also have a paypal (online account which is linked up to a bank account where money can be sent and received) account created and linked up to the ebay account. Probably the hardest part of signing up to eBay now would be trying to find a unique user name that hasn't already been taken!


Buying on eBay is very straight forward and far too easy! There are items that are for sale through the online action or items that have a "buy it now" price. Things have progressed somewhat since the early days and there is now the option on some "buy it now" items that you can offer the seller the "nearest price" which to me makes no sense as no one would surely choose to pay the full amount they would always offer a price. Although with this option you have to make good offers otherwise after 5 offers you are then unable to offer any more and then unable to buy the item, I guess this is a deterrent for people who think offering a ridiculous price is a good idea.


My favourite way to buy has got to be the online auction format as this is sometimes a real thrill if you think that you are going to grab yourself a bargain. However I do think people will literally stop at nothing to get what they are bidding on. Take for example I was selling a Baby's Journal Book that I had bought for myself before Jack to was born to record all the information that I will probably forget such as when he said his first word etc. I never got around to filling it in as it was far to in depth so decided I would finally put it up for sale on eBay. I had bought it from the Book People when they came around to my work place and had only paid £5 for it. I started the auction off at 99p and after 10 days of it being listed it sold for £15! Now I was so astounded by this that I thought I would do a quick search on the Internet as I thought it probably wasn't available to buy anymore and that was why it had sold for such a high price. This however wasn't the case and I found it straight away for sale on Amazon.co.uk for £7. This has got to be a case of people in a bidding war and not wanting to back down! But in this situation I wasn't complaining.


Now as far as the "buy it now" sales are concerned these are good for those times when you want to buy something and you want it now. (I have these moments quite a bit). Often these types of sales have things that you won't find on the online auctions so you may still be able to get something that you wouldn't normally come across though there is less chance of you getting a true bargain. A lot of the "buy it now" sales require immediate payment through paypal so be careful if you bid without having a paypal account up and running.


The main things that used to get me down when I began selling a few years back was the eBay fees that used to cost a fair bit. There used to be a set fee of 15p for listing anything for 99p. These fees got higher the bigger the starting price was for the sale item and for that reason I would always start my listings at 99p to incur the lowest possible fees. At the end of the auction ebay would also charge a percentage of the Final Value Fee (without postage costs included). So these fees along with the small fee that paypal charge would often bring a sale items profit right down.


However nowadays eBay have abolished charging for listings that are placed on 99p or under (good news) and they charge pretty much a 10% fee on the final listing value. This is not bad really and of course works out better if you sell things at a higher price (both for you and for ebay). Selling things for 99p often won't make much at all because you have to take into account the paypal fees that are also charged.


I have been selling so much "stuff" over the last few months and I find you have to be very methodical in the way in which you post items on and record items that have been sold. I often charge enough in the postage to cover for signed for so that there is never a question as to whether the buyer has received the item or not. This I find is one of the main problems with ebay in the fact that as a seller you have to really cover yourself.


I once sold a CD to someone in America for around £8. I charged £3 postage which unfortunately wouldn't cover for Airsure (international signed for) so I sent it standard airmail. A week passed and the buyer contacted me to say that they had not as yet received the item and that they would be putting in a claim via paypal. Paypal then emailed me and said that I would need to give them the tracking number of the parcel (of which I didn't have as it was sent standard air mail post). Because I couldn't do think paypal had to issue a refund for the item which included the £3 postage paid. For some reason I do believe that the buyer had received my item but was trying to pull a fast one which they did rather successfully as they ended up with all there money back and the CD. I however was out of pocket from the initial money I had spent on the CD, the postage it cost to send it to USA and the fees that both ebay and paypal had charged for the completion of the transaction. I was not a happy bunny.


Because of all this trouble I tend to stick to the rule that if something is sold for over the £8 price I would pay the extra 75 pence from the postage costs the send the item as singed for so at least if a dispute is opened I can then offer paypal the correct tracking numbers to prove that I have sent the item.


On the whole however I would say that eBay is a great place. Most sellers and buyers are friendly people and in the years that I have been a member I have not had too many difficult times with. It really is a great place to get rid of the things that you no longer need and for you to pick up a real bargain from time to time. There are so many different things for sale on the site at any one time that it should be the first port of call when wanting something that you can't find on the High Street.


I think the main motto is that one mans junk is another mans treasure and I think this is truly the case with eBay. There have been things that I have wondered about selling on the site as it was not something that I thought would sell but in the end I put it on ad it sold for a good amount. So now until I have listed it and it has not sold I won't pass anything onto the charity!


I think eBay deserves a five star rating and an EXCEPTIONALLY HIGH RECOMMENDATION from me. You can make as much money as your stuff allows you to and I for one will continue to use eBay for as long as the fees are fair and I have no bother (I do expect to do so much in a short space of time and get fed up with it I will then take a few months off and re- start again!) All good fun!


I do hope that this has been of some help/interest to you.


Many thanks for taking the time to read.

Summary: A great place to get rid of unwanted bits