People on Ebay are stoopid!!

[Gentile]

Actually it's not even the impulse. That has gone by the wayside. Most people Ebayers use a sniping tool these days. I use Goofbay (which is quite good). In fact you can use that to type in a Users Profile and it will do an analysis of what they've sold, the listing costs etc. Very good way to analyse a business and see when someone is telling porkies about how much they make.

A-ha! - meet your customer, e-bay sellers!

[MarillionFan]

Maybe she exaggerated a bit about the numbers involved just to make us believe it. But the concept is true. You could buy the games etc for that special offer and sell them for profit on Ebay. It is another question if its worth the hassle. What about returns policy and punters claiming they didnt recieve the item, hassle over delay in delivery etc etc.

The 'it's not arrived' punter. 1 in 10 would do that to me. Really annoying.

The second bit to pull up on 'he dropped them in the post box in the morning on the way to work'. No he didn't. No Ebayer drops stuff into the post box. The reason, 'No proof of posting'.

To get a proof of posting you have to go to the post office, what a pain in the arse that is. Without it, everyone of those 10 you will have to refund as you're not insured by the post office. Having an ebayer turn up with 200 parcels takes a significant amount of time.

[Gentile]

Maybe she exaggerated a bit about the numbers involved just to make us believe it. But the concept is true. You could buy the games etc for that special offer and sell them for profit on Ebay. It is another question if its worth the hassle. What about returns policy and punters claiming they didnt recieve the item, hassle over delay in delivery etc etc.

I don't honestly know the prices, since as I said I don't have a clue about computer games. But if £20 is about right for a second-hand game (I checked Amazon before posting, and that's about what they seemed to go for on there), then 200 games is definitely what he was shifting as volume. And if you're buying at 3 for 2 and selling the third item at 100% markup, those figures will be right.

[MarillionFan]

A-ha! - meet your customer, e-bay sellers!

I used to make about £6k on sales of £30k per year when I had the shops. What a pain in the arse that was.

[nomadd]

More than impulse buying its the determination to win an auction. Instead of bidding at the last minute a lot of punters bid on items which start at 99 p and then somehow want the item at any cost. During this bout of bidding and counter bidding they lose the ability to google the price for the item on Amazon etc.

This^

I guess it's also why those TV shopping channels seem to be growing in number: dumb people just can't resist a bargain.

Now, about that 100% genuine Rolex I have for sale on eBay for 99p...

[blacjac]

More than impulse buying its the determination to win an auction. Instead of bidding at the last minute a lot of punters bid on items which start at 99 p and then somehow want the item at any cost. During this bout of bidding and counter bidding they lose the ability to google the price for the item on Amazon etc.

+ 1

I once sold an MP3 player that was worth about 40 quid and got over 100 for it. I thought it was some sort of scam at first when I checked the bid history and saw 2 people new to ebay get in a bidding war about 2 hours before the end of the auction.
All went smoothly though.

Nowt so queer as folk.

[Gentile]

The 'it's not arrived' punter. 1 in 10 would do that to me. Really annoying.

The second bit to pull up on 'he dropped them in the post box in the morning on the way to work'. No he didn't. No Ebayer drops stuff into the post box. The reason, 'No proof of posting'.

To get a proof of posting you have to go to the post office, what a pain in the arse that is. Without it, everyone of those 10 you will have to refund as you're not insured by the post office. Having an ebayer turn up with 200 parcels takes a significant amount of time.

No you don't. There's a Post Office application that even lets you print your own franking directly onto envelopes if you want to. And proof of posting isn't worth anything anyway, since the recipient usually isn't in and the postie generally signs for stuff himself based on anything I've ordered off of Amazon, and Amazon/e-bay will always take the side of buyers whatever "proof" sellers believe they have.

Seems you know as much about how the Post Office works as you do about advertising, PayPal and e-bay. How's your sniping for those Coke Glasses coming along?

[MarillionFan]

This^

I guess it's also why those TV shopping channels seem to be growing in number: dumb people just can't resist a bargain.

Now, about that 100% genuine Rolex I have for sale on eBay for 99p...

They're genius. I've worked on one of those.

They sell items at cost price(sometimes a loss). The average margin around 2%!!!

The one I worked on, when you called you paid £1.50 to bid. It took your details and if you won(which most do) the call centre would call you back to a landline. Cost to call back was 1p. So a profit of £1.49 per bidder. Then the P&P is a fixed amount of £7.99. It is non accumulative. They use the post office. Average profit was £5 per item.

So you're up £6.49. Sell 100 items every 10 minutes. I'll let you do the maths.

[MarillionFan]

No you don't. There's a Post Office application that even lets you print your own franking directly onto envelopes if you want to. And proof of posting isn't worth anything anyway, since the recipient usually isn't in and the postie generally signs for stuff himself based on anything I've ordered off of Amazon, and Amazon/e-bay will always take the side of buyers whatever "proof" sellers believe they have.

Seems you know as much about how the Post Office works as you do about advertising, PayPal and e-bay. How's your sniping for those Coke Glasses coming along?

Proof of posting does not mean you have to sign for it. Jesus. (Shakes head at this hole digging with CUKS resident Tat Shop poster)

How did he declare his income? At that rate it was taxable as well you know.

Whats the Ebay account Waltermena?

[nomadd]

+ 1

I once sold an MP3 player that was worth about 40 quid and got over 100 for it. I thought it was some sort of scam at first when I checked the bid history and saw 2 people new to ebay get in a bidding war about 2 hours before the end of the auction.
All went smoothly though.

Nowt so queer as folk.

Finished a long contract a few years back and decided to take a break. Was the Winter, so wanted something to do inside the house. Bought a games console with 70(!) games off a guy on eBay for £250. Had a great time over the next three months, playing the damn things to death. Stuck it back up on eBay and got the same price I'd paid, so all it really cost me in the end was some P&P, listing fee and a single paypal charge - all in, about £15. For the hundreds of hours worth of entertainment I got from it, it was one of the best things I ever bought.

That's about the only time eBay makes sense to me - when you have something that you can use, and then quickly stick back up for sale again once you've had your fill.*

* Can't see this working for condoms, though.