ebay tips

Post by **Pullmyfinger** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 9:48 pm

My room is so messy, today I spent over an hour looking for my white saturn and I still can't find it, so I think some things have to go. I plan to sell some stuff on ebay to make some room, but I never sold anything there before.

I got tons of stuff to sell:

Complete Systems:
1 Sega CD2 + Genesis 2 + Sega Justifier (Complete, great for playing Snatcher)
2 Complete Snes Model 1
1 Genesis 2 (Complete)

Loose Consoles:
1 Sega Saturn (Console only)
3 Genesis 1 (no A/V, AC Adaptor and Controllers only)
3 32X (no A/V, AC Adaptor only)
2 Dreamcasts

Accesories:
6 Genesis 3 Button Controllers
6 Dreamcast 3rd Party Controllers (Mad Catz, Nyko, Astropads)
4 200 Block DC 3rd Party Memory Cards
2 800 Block DC 3rd Party Memory Cards

Untested Stuff:
11 Atari 2600 games
10 Atari 2600 Controllers
1 Atari 2600 (All Hookups?)

Busted Stuff:
4 Busted NES (No Cables)B
1 Busted DC (Will output VGA, but no composite and won't boot games)

Do you guys have any tips for me?

Like what asking price should I list, How much should I ask for shipping, how much should I expect to get from all this, should I list one huge auction or split it into various small auctions, how many days should I list it, etc, any help is more than welcome

Post by **lordofduct** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 10:14 pm

Splitting auction: selling as one huge thing will lower your total profit. But listing an auction for every individual item is annoying, cumbersome and takes a lot of packaging as most of it will go to different people. Best bet is to make small little package deals... i.e.
Sell the SegaCD/Genny2/Justifier and 2 controllers together
Sell the atari games as a package deal as they aren't worth much and the listing fees alone will be more then their value.

Shipping: After deciding your seperate packages you should locate packaging for them, put it all together and weigh it. Then use the autmatic shipping calculator built into ebay with the known dimensions, weight and extra costs so that way each bidder can figure out exactly what it will cost them in their area for shipping. (There is an option to add a nominal value over the shipping cost to include 'handling' costs... a lot of sellers use this to cover their fees. The thing is Ebay charges a listing fee and keeps a percentage of the profit. They don't keep any of the Shipping cost though... it isn't considered profit. That is why you'll see lots of stuff selling for 99cents but with 30 dollar shipping costs).

Next for value and starting bid. Research your products. Go on ebay and look em' up and see what other people are selling them for. Check with local collectors on different websites and see what people are willing to pay for the products. Figure what YOU are willing to pay for the products. Next check the demand. Are the products on ebay similar to yours getting lots of bids? If not your gonna wanna put the starting bid close to your expected sale price. If they are getting lots of bids then set it lower and allow bid warring. "Buy It NOW" is one of the BEST features on ebay as well.

As for time period... that is a little trickier then the pricing. You really need to look for demand. You can list it for 2 or 3 days and NO ONE even looks at it because it is something no one really purchases often (happened to me with copies of Dragon Force and Panzer Dragoon Saga I was selling). Other times 5-7 day auctions turn people off... it'll sit for days with out a single bid and you start getting worried the thing won't even sell. Best bet though as your selling a majority of products with very generalized prices (not a lot of bid warring on these products) I would put them up for 3... maybe 5 days (5 for the busted products... that way it allows time for people looking at them to think about if they really want to pay the shipping on a cheap but broken product).

Post by **lordofduct** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 10:15 pm

Oh and a little extra tip... list them on the BST section here or at SX for a couple days. See if someone there wants to buy it first so you can avoid the fees. That and it boosts reputation as well if your a cool salesman... although it seems you have a good reputation here already though.

Post by **Mozgus** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 10:28 pm

This is why I sell old consoles if emulation has taken over.

Post by **Pullmyfinger** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 12:32 am

The problem with BST forums is that they always ask for a fixed price, I hardly remember what these things cost me, they came from years of collecting and going to flea markets and stuff like that.

But I'll give it a shot, someone here must want the Saturn or the Sega CD at least. I also wouldn't mind some trading, at least it would be clutter I don't already have.

Post by **Clockwork** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 5:11 am

would you sell your saturn without ebay to me??? (is this thing modable? i have now two saturns which are both not...)

Post by **Pullmyfinger** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 10:39 am

I'm not sure if it is, it has round buttons, but also a 64 pin chip

Post by **Clockwork** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 4:00 pm

okay, i already have two saturns of this type

Post by **scott21** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 12:03 am

i've been getting rid of all my saturn games, about 150'ish and its been my first real ebay experience.

as far as selling tips, never use stock photos and always provide your own. i _hate_ buying auctions with stock photos personally. if people can see what they are getting, it adds to their confidence in the item.

make sure you have paypal setup, its the easiest/fastest way to pay for things. its pretty simple to use too

as mentioned above, sell individually. the rules still apply, if you buy in bulk things are cheaper. selling in bulk means you make less too. If the items are halfway valueable them split them up.

dont feel intimidated by cheaper auctions. dont price your items way above market, but give them a value thats fair to yourself and the buyer. i started all my games at $5, even for the shitty ones, and out of 50 auctions so far, only 9 havent sold. And i'm sure a lot of people could've found some of my games for .99¢ at other auctions.

sell a lot of items at one time so people can combine shipping, plus saves you a lot of visits to the post office.

dont ignore any messages, even if the guy ask some stupid question at least give him some sort of answer so he knows your available and willing to talk.

give pretty accurate descriptions, if something's broken/cracked go ahead and mention it or else it could lead to trouble down the road

as far as shipping. dont be gay and charge 2x the shipping cost. posting a $2 saturn game and paying 6-7 bucks for shipping is a real turn off. If you dont know the shipping, take the time to weight it and ask your post office what it will be to ship. i've ran to the post office a few times with items just to get a quote. takes about 2 seconds to do.

if it works, say it works, if it doesnt say its spare parts, if you dont know.. find out

if you have no idea what your item is worth, look at completed auctions for whatever your trying to sell, it'll give you a good idea of what you'll make, and then list about 10 under value or more. dont worry about starting it low because people will bid it up.

Post by **Ramatut4001** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 9:23 am

Sounds like solid advice, scott21. My feedback is over 110, but it's all purchases. I guess laziness is my main reason for not selling anything even though I have a few things I should sell. Maybe I should put them up for trade on a forum.