[Milsurplus] For Ebay Sellers Only: Listing Recommendation

[Mike Feher]

Talk about shipping charges. The other day I was looking at a gold coin that
had a starting bid of $0.99 with no reserve, but, the guy was asking $1500
for shipping, in an attempt to minimize ebay charges on the sale. No way was
I going to buy from him. While a lot of people do not like PayPal, as a
buyer, they have saved my butt a few times. Over the last few years I would
have been scammed out of close to $20,000 on gold coins where I paid the
sellers, but they never shipped the item. Every time, PayPal fully refunded
my entire payment, after a few weeks of my complaint. I have not sold on
there for more than 5 years, for pretty much the same reasons Todd mentions.
Too much trouble, especially with the heavier items. Funny how all the heavy
items I managed to drag down into the basement I can no longer pick up, HI.
I just bought a big 16 foot enclosed moving truck for the hamfest season in
an attempt to lighten the load. I still like eBay, and have over 4000
transactions on there to prove it. 73 - Mike  

Mike B. Feher, N4FS
89 Arnold Blvd.
Howell, NJ, 07731
732-886-5960


-----Original Message-----
From: milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Todd, KA1KAQ
Sent: Saturday, March 26, 2011 11:30 AM
To: radioman390 at cs.com
Cc: arc5 at ix.netcom.com; milsurplus
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] For Ebay Sellers Only: Listing Recommendation

On Sat, Mar 26, 2011 at 11:01 AM,  <radioman390 at cs.com> wrote:
> It's not quite true that they have no competition. More items are
> showing up on Craigslist.com all the time.

Nor is it the only effective venue as Dave opines, merely another tool
in the toolbox for those who employ a number of methods for finding
what they're after and moving what they're not. Definitely one of the
better tools for overall exposure, no question. Ebay has helped me in
many ways over the years.

And while hamfests and private sales are not the complete answer,
clearly that are becoming a better alternative in a world where heavy
items cost more and more to ship, and ebay wants more and more of the
action. The only real answer is to vote with your feet, wallet, and so
on.

I found it most amusing that ebay claims to be including the shipping
cost in the total fee now to discourage high shipping costs. This
while they have a separate entry for a handling charge which sellers
are free to charge. Obviously they don't care what sellers are
charging, since the more they charge now, the more ebay gets.

In my case, I'd already moved away from selling large items on there
strictly due to the time and cost involved with proper packing.
There's no way I can charge enough to recover what I have invested in
a proper packing job for a piece of gear weighing 40-50 lbs or more.
Easier to sell small things like audio tubes and trinkets that will
fit in a Priority Mail box. Even these can cost $40-$50 or more to
ship overseas. I never charged anything beyond actual shipping cost,
just took the rest in as the cost of doing business.

Can't remember the exact date the new changes take effect (April 19th
maybe?), but that's the day my selling on ebay ends. I've had
successful transactions with members here on the milsurplus list and
elsewhere, including with Dave, Robert Downs, Mike Hanz and many
others. There are also a number of other online sites dealing in old
radios that have excellent classified sections. I recently came across
a set of Cannon connectors for my ATC and the control box Mike sent
me, for a whopping $3 for the set. Just need to find the U/9 now.

I'll continue to use ebay for buying the odd item here and there, as
it truly is the #1 site for convenience shopping. And it has dredged
up a lot interesting items over the last decade plus, many of which
would've been lost to time in some landfill. But as Dave points out -
they're biting the hand that feeds them, and have been doing so for
some time now. It's taken me a while to build up other online
resources to replace it, but they are indeed out there.

Good luck to the rest of you 'greedy sellers' (as they see you) who
stay with ebay. I am confident they will continue to find more ways to
punish those who wish to provide goods there, regardless of how honest
a seller may be.

~ Todd,  KA1KAQ/4
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