New to ebay

I use eBay, but not as much as I used to. It's a good way to get stuff (the hoods for your MFD are sold on eBay), but you can spend a lot of money too.

FWIW, you could use a site like Photobucket to store your pictures on. It's free and will provide a direct link for your eBay item.

 

I love eBay. I've bought a car on eBay, sold stuff I don't want to just throw away and bought cell phones, accessories, model cars, car brochures and license plates (I collect) and other assorted stuff. I've only been screwed a couple of times in the many transactions I've made, but they were small and it was no fault of eBay.

 

Ebay rawks! I use it every now and again to make purchases and sell random stuff. Last thing I sold was my old Saturn when I bought the Prius. You can get some good deals buying stuff on Ebay and make pretty decent money selling old crap.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(marjflowers @ May 17 2006, 06:23 PM) [snapback]257178[/snapback]</div>

I sell stuff on ebay. I have a digital camera and a little homemade "studio" where I do product shots. White linen and pvc pipe and natural light bulbs, all from home depot. I didn't set this up specifically for ebay, as I do product shots for websites on occassion, but anything I sell on ebay gets a photo done here.

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I write pretty good copy for my eBay ads. There is some free online training on the ebay site that is worth the time to go through, though I would not pay for the extra courses they try to sell you. Best advice I can give you is that if you are going to do this, really put on your entrepreneurs hat and treat this like a real business, albeit a part-time one. I've settled into a little niche in video and photography equipment, but still experimenting with other stuff.

 

It's great for selling...

Someone was trying to sell New Zealand few days ago on Ebay, bids went up to over $2000.00, really funny.

Ebay Auction of New Zealand Story

 

I buy more than I sell, but yeah, eBay rocks. I'm teaching my mother how to use it now as the garage sales aren't moving the stuff they need to clean out. My garage is in the alley and yard sales aren't very successful in my neighborhood so when I need to spring clean, it goes up on eBay.

I've sold a car, furniture and made about $800 selling some Ty beanie babies.

I've bought my dining room set and my bed. I get my little prius cars on eBay. I also buy an occasional salwar/kameez from India. I've decorated much of my house from eBay. I've bought four vintage light fixtures, table linens and while it's taken a few years, I've managed to acquire service for 12 of a 50 year old china pattern. My mother has one plate and I've loved it since I was a child. Thanks to eBay when I decided to finally buy good china, I looked for those plates. I've also replaced lost or broken sentimental items. Whenever someone in the family asks for something odd or hard to find...I check eBay first.

BTW if anyone collects Oak Tree beer steins from the Santa Anita race track.....my mother has quite a few she's selling. Just let me know what years you're looking for.

 

I mostly buy men's shirts (I'm a tall, very large size), jewelry for my girlfriend, occasionally some art, some nice Aesthetic patterns of silverware, some computer accessories, and also a premium Toto UltraMax toilet and a floor model of a high-end (second from the very top) Sealy Reflexion (talalay latex) mattress. And by the way the luxury of those last two are totally worth it. My girlfriend mostly buys books and shoes and also vintage sterling hairbrushes and vases and so forth with faces on them, and also some clothing. Probably a lot of other stuff by each of us that I forget at the moment, too. And she is now selling off a bunch of her old, unwanted stuff there. Ebay is great overall, though not completely free of problems.

 

I buy stuff on eBay occasionally. Always been a good experience. Never sold anything there. When I have stuff I don't want any more I donate it to a thrift store.

 

I've WANTED to sell stuff on ebay, but never felt comfortable forking over my primary checking account information, and will only do so by setting up a separate account. Of course, that would involve doing some work, so I haven't actually gotten around to it... :lol:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dsunman @ May 17 2006, 08:01 PM) [snapback]257224[/snapback]</div>

Canada is for sale right now - wait a minute, the US already has a lien on it. Damn!

 

I used to use EBay a lot but got ripped off with some junk not as advertised and now I find that most of what I would like is more expensive or goes for more than I can find it on-line elsewhere...without the hassle of dealing with paypal which I hate.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darwin100 @ May 18 2006, 06:49 PM) [snapback]257732[/snapback]</div>

One does need to apply considerable caution, especially to high-volume consumer items such as laptops, DVD players, and music CDs, for instance, as there are some scam artists out there too. But shop carefully and most people will be ok. I've purchased hundreds of items without incident. My girlfriend has purchased a lot too, but once a dress was not quite like the one pictured (but she liked it and decided to keep it anyway) and once some guy with a hundred plus feedback suddenly disappeared off the map (maybe he died?) and she was out a seven dollar item--a little risk is the price you pay. Of course as you point out, you should also check, especially dealing with commercial products, on whether you can get a better price somewhere else, as that does happen too.

As for PayPal, I can't imagine how it is at all incovenient for a buyer. It is slightly inconvenient for sellers I suppose and carries a small pricetag too, but I'd pay for everything using PayPal if I could. I absolutely hate having to hunt down my check book, write out a check, find a stamp and an envelope and address it, and then mail it, and will avoid most sellers who won't accept PayPal because of it. And I'd rather give PayPal my bank & credit info once and then have them send all my many payments out than give my credit card info out to lots of different small sellers or their third-party credit merchant companies.

 

I only buy from sellers with outstanding ratings. If there are negative feedbacks, I read them, and the replies, and consider the number of positives to decide if it is a quirk. But also, doesn't eBay privide certain guarantees in case a seller just does not ship an item, or it is not as described?

As for PayPal, I like it. As an earlier poster mentioned, I'd rather give my credit card or checking account info to just a few large sites (PayPal, Amazon, and Yahoo) and shop with merchants who accept payment through them. Plus, I use a separate checking account with its own debit card for all on-line purchases, so if I were to get ripped off, the damage would be limited to the amount in that account, and probably to the $50 limit on card fraud.

If you wanted to sell stuff and didn't want to give your checking account information, you could always open a free checking account and use that one. There's some work involved, but probably less than advertising in the paper. I just don't need to sell stuff.