Any fears in selling large $ items on ebay?

[tinkereversandme]

I am a casual seller and a small percentage of the time the transactions have been rather terrible. I once sold an item for $17 and four months later PayPal removed the funds because a "chargeback" occurred and it took me three weeks to get my $17 back. Then there were two International orders that didn't reach their destination and it was my fault despite the fact that I showed proof of shipping (Russian Federation and Italy) and I have heard horror stories of people "saying" that what the received was an empty box when items were in fact sent. Ebay tends to favor the buyer it seems. I have two items I want to sell on ebay and they should bring a few thousand dollars and I am sure a lot of you sell items of that size and bigger all the time and was wondering if you ever had any issues and what measures should I take to protect myself?

I appreciate your input. I love this site.

Regards,

Larry

[Bigb13]

Any fears of course the taxman

[D. Bergin]

You can disallow bidders from individual countries you think are risky, or all International bidders if you like. I have Italy and Russia blocked myself, though I can allow specific bidders from those countries if I like, if somebody I'm familiar with requests an exception.

I've been pretty lucky, but most of my stuff is within a specific niche that doesn't expose me to very much risk.

You could also go the auction house route.

[sb1]

With the plethora of auction houses that sell your items for ZERO sellers fee, why would you risk it on Ebay and pay them 15% or more by the time you figure in paypal.

[TanksAndSpartans]

Originally Posted by sb1

With the plethora of auction houses that sell your items for ZERO sellers fee, why would you risk it on Ebay and pay them 15% or more by the time you figure in paypal.

I was thinking something similar - I was going to ask how much you would pay in eBay/PayPal fees and compare that with consigning the card/item(s). I think if you consign it though, you'd be looking at an auction whereas with eBay you could list a BIN if you wanted.

In my opinion though, there really is no such thing as ZERO sellers fee. I always calculate the Buyer's premium into my bid. For example, if I would bid $472 on eBay, I'd only bid $400 at an auction house to account for the 18% buyer's premium.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by DezHood

I was thinking something similar - I was going to ask how much you would pay in eBay/PayPal fees and compare that with consigning the card/item(s). I think if you consign it though, you'd be looking at an auction whereas with eBay you could list a BIN if you wanted.

In my opinion though, there really is no such thing as ZERO sellers fee. I always calculate the Buyer's premium into my bid. For example, if I would bid $472 on eBay, I'd only bid $400 at an auction house to account for the 18% buyer's premium.

Yes exactly so, frankly I am surprised to hear Scott say that. The consignor gives up a cut to the house whether it's called a seller's premium or a consignment fee or a buyer's premium. Just because it's in the form of a reduced hammer price is really irrelevant to the math.

[ValKehl]

Originally Posted by tinkereversandme

I am a casual seller and a small percentage of the time the transactions have been rather terrible. I once sold an item for $17 and four months later PayPal removed the funds because a "chargeback" occurred and it took me three weeks to get my $17 back. Then there were two International orders that didn't reach their destination and it was my fault despite the fact that I showed proof of shipping (Russian Federation and Italy) and I have heard horror stories of people "saying" that what the received was an empty box when items were in fact sent. Ebay tends to favor the buyer it seems. I have two items I want to sell on ebay and they should bring a few thousand dollars and I am sure a lot of you sell items of that size and bigger all the time and was wondering if you ever had any issues and what measures should I take to protect myself?

I appreciate your input. I love this site.

Regards,

Larry

Larry,
I am right now in the processfor the first time ever, of doing this very thing on eBay that you are asking about. The only fear I have is the recipient claiming he/she received an empty box, and I don't know if there is any way to avoid this possibility. I was planning to consign this scarce Mickey Mantle card, which may be the single most valuable card I own (but am no longer interested in because my collecting focus has been on pre-War cards for the last 15 years or so), to one of the top-tier auction houses (e.g., REA or Heritage), but I kept hesitating because I (erroneously?) believed these auction still charge a seller's commission (I am aware that several middle-tier auction houses don't, and I have used a few of them in the past, but was hesitant to for this card): http://www.ebay.com/itm/1953-54-Brig...e=STRK:MESE:IT
I don't believe I have ever sold anything worth more than $500 or so on eBay. FYI, what persuaded me to list this Mantle card on eBay is the special offer I received via email from eBay a couple of weeks ago - this special offer is that eBay's final value fee (i.e., the seller's commission) will be a maximum of $20, no matter what the sales price of the item is (but no reduction in the PayPal fee). So, I'll see how it goes - wish me luck!!
Val

[glchen]

There are several issues in this thread, but I'll first get to the one the OP asked which was how to protect yourself when selling large $ items on ebay. The max value that I've sold via ebay is $4000, but I often sell $1-2K items. Here is my advice:

(1) Do not sell international. Exclude all foreign countries, including Canada. You can do this via buyer requirements. Sure, you can lose some money, but less to worry about.

(2) At the minimum, ship via Priority Mail with Signature Confirmation and insurance. The Signature Confirmation is needed to protect you with ebay, so don't skimp on this even if you get insurance and via insurance, there is a signature. Ebay may not honor that. I've seen sellers use overnight express also even though it is more expensive, but one less day to worry about. The insurance is needed to protect you in case the Post Office loses or damages your package. Registered mail is also a very popular way to ship these types of packages although it tends to take much longer, but there is less of a chance the package will be lost. So you worry for a longer period of time but your package should be safer.

(3) Avoid low feedback buyers. After the buyer has paid for the item, check his feedback. If the feedback # is fairly high, and it looks like he's purchased a number of expensive cards recently, then I think you really don't have much to worry about (other than the Post Office losing your package, of course). If my listings, I stated that buyers with a feedback lower the 50 must message me for approval before bidding. You can't prevent low feedback bidders from bidding and winning your auctions, but perhaps at least this can dissuade some from bidding. If a low feedback bidder has won your auction and paid for it, and you have serious reservations about it, you can still think about trying to cancel the transaction and not ship the item to him. Of course, if he doesn't agree to the cancel transaction on ebay, you may still lose your final value fees. The other thing to look for are bidders who haven't had feedback in years. Then it is always possible that someone has hijacked their account, so you need to be careful in this situation also.

I don't really worry about chargebacks or returns because as long as you get your item back, who cares? You are just out the shipping. I've had a couple of chargebacks in the past, but as I said, it's no big deal other than you just need to put the item for sale again. If you need to spend the funds immediately for something else, just be aware that this might happen. The empty box is a concern, but it's never happened to me. This is usually something from low feedback or international bidders (or those who haven't purchased in a while).

A few years ago, on the Collectors forum, I asked for advice on selling really large $ items on ebay, and the response I received was as follows:

"... I have sold several 10K+ items on E-bay and many many 1K-5K items. First rule in doing this is to Not, and mean Ever, accept payment through Paypal. I Only accept high Dollar payments outside of Paypal. There are several ways to do this with your Buyer. Usually on Hi Dollar items there has been contact with me before they ever drop the Hammer and I make it clear what my rules are ahead of time. I have never had a 2K plus Sale without some form of Pre Contact, usually to negotiate on price. When we do come to a deal I usually get a Cashiers check or some type of Certified funds and then still wait a few days and have my Banker contact the Financial clearing house for the transaction and do this even with Repeat Customers. I Never ship anything until I am assured of the item clearing. I have no issue with my Buyers being amiable to this, if it is a Legit Buyer of a Hi Dollar item they should have no problem with this and in fact other than a little anticipation on some of their parts, have never had no problem.
I have no particular Beef with Auction Houses but the fact that I can list something in my Store let it sit for however long and it Will sell and other than FVF's ALL of the money ends up in my Pocket!! Why pay sombody to do what you can do!!
Also, any and all high Dollar items are Shipped USPS Registered with an Additional Second Signature Delivery Confirmation. Have never had a problem this way. And what are they going to do, with no Paypal, No way to have those RICO Crooks (Paypal) be a party to you getting ripped off !!!!
And if you don't have a store, have you thought of just Consigning with somebody here, I take consignments as do many, and charge way way less than any Auction House?"

[glchen]

About the question whether you should sell it yourself on ebay, use an ebay consignor (e.g., PWCC, Probstein) or go to an auction house, there are pros and cons for all of them.

If you sell it yourself, you can just put the item on a BIN, and wait as long as you want until you get your price, changing your BIN price as needed.

If you worry about buyer fraud, then let an auction house or ebay consignor deal with the issue. If you are selling the card via auction, it is almost better to let the consignor take care of it. For example, PWCC rates for $5K+ graded cards is just 8%, which includes all ebay and paypal fees. If a card sold for $5000, then would come out to $400. If you sold this card on ebay yourself, and did not have an ebay store (and were not a Top Rated seller), your ebay final value fee would be $500 and your Paypal fee would be $150, so your total fees would be $650. If you had an ebay store, your FVF would be $250 and Paypal would be $150, so the total fee would be the same $400 as PWCC, but your auctions would likely be viewed much more. (Top Rated sellers have an additional 3% discount.)

The fees are greater when you use an auction house through their buyer's commission and seller fees. However, if you have a very expensive item or need very specialized buyers to see your listing, then you should probably use an auction house. Auction houses typically list their items for a much longer period than ebay auctions, so there is a greater chance that the buyers who would be interested in your auctions will see it. They often have print catalogs or publicize their auctions much more widely, so there is a chance the final price will be higher. In addition, auction houses usually vet their buyers much more than ebay (which does no vetting), so you usually don't have any deadbeat buyers (although it still happens on occasion). Of course, if your item is very generic and not "special," it could get lost among all of the other prestigious items in the auction catalog and sell for less than it would on ebay.

Good luck on whatever you decided to do!

[sb1]

My point was that using Ebay you will pay 15% perhaps even 20% in fees and perhaps not be marketing your item to the best crowd, either in terms of quality of bidders or visibility of items.

Using a Zero sellers fee auction house there is always the discounted buyers premium which will affect exactly how much you net. However, you won't have to deal with non paying bidders, and will be reasonably sure the most serious collectors/buyers saw your item and were involved in the bidding. Many collectors no longer use Ebay do the large amount of crap that you have to sort thru to find the few quality items.

So I will stand behind my statement that you will probably fare better in any quality AH rather than Ebay if you are selling 4 or 5 figure items.