cudak888 

Now I understand what was going on. Sneaky git; gets to run up the price based on the last bid or adjust to your last-known cutoff price.

As for bidding on an auction with seconds to go - I just put in a snipe and let the sniping system do the work for me.

I still find auctions do better, if you've got a product that's desirable and have the guts to start the listing low. Everybody gets emotionally hooked early, and the watcher count goes up, giving you better chances when the "don't miss out" email is sent out.

BIN with immediate payment works, but I find that it can't hurt to have a Best Offer on some items.

As for bidding, as I mentioned to Dave: Snipe at your max, and forget about it. Does the job and guards against impulsive upping of one's max too.

-Kurt

himespau 

Yeah, the problem is that apparently the seller somehow changed it to a local pickup after I paid because when I click on the never received button it pops up with that error message I posted above saying it's on the way and the expected arrival date is __. Without a posted expected arrival date, I can't say that it's late. I'd hoped the seller was just a bit slow in getting it shipped, but I'm beginning to expect that it was someone who was disappointed in only getting one bid. I'm sure it'll work out through buyer protection eventually (that's why I put down a bid for what was a moderately low - but not so low it looked like a scam - price from a seller with less than 10 feedbacks).

wrk101

Thats part of the problem. New sellers don't understand the rules or the system. They don't understand their obligations. They think its just a money machine.

I try to avoid buying from new sellers, when I do, I know it might not end well.


"BIN with immediate payment works, but I find that it can't hurt to have a Best Offer on some items."

The problem with accepting best offer is you LOSE the immediate payment required option. This opens the door to deadbeats, and I get the same 10% never pay on best offers. Buyers get buyers remorse. And if they get the chance to stick it to the seller, they do it. Buy it now with immediate payment required eliminates this problem.

Been there, done that, got the T-Shirt.

As far as competing against the "big guys", the big sellers tend to just sell new items. If you just sell vintage bike parts and thrift store finds, you avoid that entire group of competitors. There are people out there that want that made in USA Pendleton wool shirt from the 1970s. Now there is really no practical way to become a huge seller if you just sell thrift store and garage sale finds. You would need a team of people sourcing the stuff, and another team creating the unique listings. Meanwhile, the "big guys" will create 1 listing and sell 1000 copies of some new item.

himespau 

Yeah, I tend to only do it when it's something that I want but don't need, is a good deal (but not so good that it sets off a scam alert in my head), and is of an overall low enough cost that I don't mind my money sitting at eBay or Paypal for a while before I get it back with no product if something goes wrong.

bargainguy

I stopped selling on ebay a few months back after the following experience.

Posted the above '71 Raleigh International with a BIN price. Got a question from someone that went something like this:

"All bikes have hidden issues. What are yours?"

Immediately realized what I was being asked. I'd have to do a complete overhaul just to discover whatever "hidden" issues lurk beneath. Not something I wanted to spend a few hours doing.

So it wouldn't matter what disclaimers I'd attached to the listing, if this person bought the bike, there would be heck to pay. Not going there.

I removed the listing and haven't put another one up since. On something like a nearly 50-year-old bike, too many variables, too many buyer expectations. Ebay is not where I want to be right now.

dailycommute

Last whole bike I sold on ebay was similar, great deal on nice looking moto. It had fenders attached and after the buyer received it he sent me a ebay message saying that once reassembled one fender rubbed and he wanted xxx price refunded. I told him just needed adjustment as did not rub prebox . He said no, he knew how to to adjust and it was misrepresented. At that point told him I would not be extorted and even offered to take it back on my dime by sending him a prepaid fedex label, he would have to rebox (b/c I would rather have a loss but back vs having this prick have it). He said no, he wanted to keep it but still wanted xxx refunded, then threatened to report me to ebay, I said fine since I now had evidence he tried to extort me. That was the last I heard but made me realize just not worth it. I guess small parts would not be so bad but had a few other similar crazies that just turned me off. Last big batch of stuff I had in basement just gave away before getting out of the bike rehab game altogether.

wrk101

Ive had this a few times. When I get potential bidders like this I immediately block them. One asked me ten questions and then finally bid only to find out I blocked him... Priceless.

99% of the buyers out there are fine but the 1% are awful.

cudak888 

This. Let them kick and scream when they realize someone's called out their scammish entitlement.

-Kurt

bargainguy

I did block the buyer once I got the question. But then I realized I could just as easily get the question from someone else, and that's when I took the item down for good.

Much rather sell to someone in person away from ebay. Just me. YMMV.

SurferRosa

Appreciate your advice. Can you give us a few more of your ebay marketing tips, like your chosen item details, refund policy, and any other rules to narrow risk?

miamijim

My favorite wild card was the * as you could search mis-spelled items

Campag*
Peug*
*winn

CliffordK

The question mark "?" is also frequently used to match a single letter.

Yep. Plus plurals or other suffixes.

Bike or Bikes (Bike*)

or variations.

Campagnolo or Campy (Camp*) (with the risk of also snagging camping).

Derailleur vs Derailler (Deraill*)

Compound Words?

Future shock vs Futureshok vs Futureshock (Future*)

English vs foreign spellings and variations.
(Italy,Italia,Italian,Italiano) (Ital*)

That isn't quite as useful with Germany (German, Deutsch, Tedesco, etc).

E-Bay has been using an auto-translator in some cases. But, it often makes errors. I think I was seeing some interesting results when looking for headbadges. But, there are a few other things that seem to crop up, especially foreign words incorporated into the English language.

miamijim

As of September 1st, 2019 eBay is in fact paying the State of Ohio. cliffnotes: All online marketplaces are considered the 'seller' and collect Ohio sales tax to paid to the State of Ohio.

A 'marketplace' is defined as an entity that sells $200,000 and 200 transactions into the State of Ohio and handles the finacials (accepts payments)

Have fun:
https://www.tax.ohio.gov/sales_and_u...ilitators.aspx

miamijim

Maybe not related but go to ebays home page, scroll all the way down, click 'ebay sites' click country of interest.

CliffordK

Ahhh, thanks.

I just guess on the URL extension, or use Google.

But, the point about searching a European site for rare European bikes or components did come up earlier in this thread.

nomadmax 

Here's what I'm referring to:

https://www.tax.ohio.gov/taxeducatio...our_stuff.aspx

In the end, I think taxing the sale of items from private seller to private buyer is stealing (not motor vehicles). I've adjusted my shopping habit to reflect that.

himespau 

eBay (and Amazon) has been adding sales tax to the price I pay on everything I have shipped to me here in Kentucky for several years. As long as they're not also charging the seller and eBay is actually forwarding the tax onto the state, I don't see what the problem is. If it were practicable, I'm sure the state would want sales tax from every transaction done in the state including yard sales and boy scouts selling popcorn, but some things are too hard/not worth the cost to track and enforce. It used to be that they'd ask you to estimate the amount of money that you'd spent on non-taxed internet/mail order purchases every year at tax time and ask you to pay the state then to make up for what they hadn't gotten on transaction fees. I never felt that I could give an accurate estimate, and most people I knew purposefully underestimated their purchases to lower their tax bill, so I'm fine with them calculating and remitting to the state the exact amount I owe as we go.