Hello fandom, I have A few figures I would like to sell on e-bay to make more room on my collection. My question that I would like to know from those of you with experience with selling on e-bay is that, How can I get started and what are the steps/procedures I need to take to sell and ship figures correctly. I have heard stories of people taking your identity or screw you over on e-bay. What are some ways i can prevent that? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank You.

 

Ebay recommends that you start off by buying from sellers online. I've been on eBay for almost an entire year now, buying and winning a few auctions, and earned 13 stars plus positive feedback from the sellers that I've bought from. Once you earn 10 stars, you can then start selling your own items online.

I don't know how to best answer your question concerning preventing yourself from being screwed over or having your identity taken on eBay. I'm sure eBay has that sort of information listed under FAQs or something.

 

as long as you have a few feedback, give a proper description of what you are selling and check completed listings for what the figures sell for, list them a lot lower starting price, and if you want a buy it now that is a couple bucks cheaper than the usual prices (get more BINs that way) and good clear pics of them in each mode with all accessories clearly visible, if something is missing make sure you state that in your description

 

Before eBay, have you tried selling here in the the Junkion Exchange?

Otherwise, you'll need a Paypal account and a camera (auctions are more successful with pics). There are new rules for new sellers now which MIGHT affect you; something about funds being withheld by Paypal for a period or until feedback is left. Maybe someone else can elaborate on that.

As long as you don't disclose your eBay credentials to anyone and don't click on eBay phishing scam emails which attempt to trick you signing into websites that aren't actually eBay, there's little possibility someone could steal your identity.


BTW, the eBay Help page is here: Browse help

This is false. You don't need any particular feedback score to begin selling. If he's never sold before it doesn't matter if his score is 0 or 100, the feedback score percentage will still be 0% until he receives feedback as a seller.

 

Thanks, i'll give it a try.

 

I think he meant that more as a good starting point rather than a requirement

 

As a longtime eBay user, some time seller, let me give you some tips. And these aren't necessarily Transformers-specific.

1. As someone already said, try the Junkion Exchange first. It's free and more friendly.

2. If you're determined to go the eBay route, start with assessing what you have, clean them up, decide what is realistically sellable, and do some research on eBay using the Completed Listings option to see what comparable items went for, the questions that the buyers/bidders of those items asked, the terms of sale, and so forth.

3. As people have also already said, some experience as a buyer is a good idea. Not just to build up some reputation as a good eBay citizen, but also so you can relate to what was good and bad about the transactions you've already completed.

4. Photos. Plenty. Good resolution, good lighting. Include closeups of flaws, damage, etc. (See next item.)

5. Be brutally honest about the item. You will get a lot more respect and more satisfied buyers if they know what they're dealing with. If it's a KO, broken, missing pieces, Transformers-adjacent-but-not-actually-a-"Transformer" (*cough* Go-Bot *cough*), whatever, say so. Be clear about what it includes and what it doesn't. You will probably not scare off as many people as you think you would. There are people who are looking for suitable figures to touch up, for parts, or just not fussy about having every little accessory and more than happy to go for an incomplete item than spend several times more to get everything absolutely 100%. Whatever. And if people think they've been deceived, they just get pissed off and give you negative feedback, which will particularly hurt you in the early stages. As most large-volume sellers will tell you, you can't please everyone. But you don't need the negative reaction when you're just getting started.

6. You do not need to pay eBay for image hosting. Unless there are regional differences in the way eBay works, your first image is free. For subsequent images, upload them to a free photo hosting service like Photobucket, then link or embed them from there into your listing. "Cost" should not be an excuse for not having an abundance of photos. Don't use Flickr; they get upset and it's against their usage terms.

7. Postage. Do some research beforehand online with your local postal service. eBay's system provides some preset configurations - research those and see if they're suitable. Also, always pack well. Don't leave a box part-empty. The item will rattle around inside and get damaged. If you need to fill up a part-empty box, you don't have to spend money on packing materials - take junkmail or newspaper and loosely ball it up to fill out extra space between the (bubble-wrapped) item and the box. Pre-paid boxes/envelopes, if available, are very useful, as they are not dependent weighing the package, beyond making sure it's under the rated maximum allowable (ie: you're not having to try and figure it out to the gram/ounce). Don't overcharge and try to profit from postage. That inhales rectally.

8. The listing editor is essentially an HTML editor. If you know some basic HTML, it can help, particularly with adding embedding code for images from a photo hosting site. By the same token, K.I.S.S. No, not the girlie Binaltechs. Keep It Simple, Sport. Big flashing things, multiple fonts, giant multi-color text... no.

9. Don't stress about getting your listing 100% right in one shot, especially the first few times you list. It takes a little practice to get everything just right, and eBay's system allows you to modify a listing (or cancel it entirely) to correct it or clarify anything. Do the best you can in good faith, then fix as necessary. I procrastinated with my first listing because I was paranoid that I'd get it wrong, people would crack it, eBay would crack it and the whole thing would go south very quickly. It's not that hard, just try to do the right thing and remember that every single day of the year, complete morons and a**holes are listing and selling items on eBay. So if they can do it, you'll be just fine.

Good luck.

>AM<