ViperGTS wrote: Sun Sep 01, 2019 8:43 am
Cortexmelon wrote: Fri Aug 30, 2019 10:20 pm
I feel like ration prices in general on ebay for vintage stuff in particular have been absolutely ridiculous lately, so overpriced on almost everything..
This guy is a member here, that i have done some business with. He has always been more than fair...this one shocks me a bit
As I scan through these comments I have something to add which may or may not be beneficial for those who are not regular sellers on ebay. Over the years ebay policies have changed significantly and it is incredibly difficult for smaller sellers to make money , because ebay has favored volume sellers who actually run fixed price listings etc. Additionally selling anything on ebay now is a risk because of the amount of buyer fraud. Couple that with increasing fees, scanning of private messages to enforce policies and a host of other invasive policies ebay has foisted on sellers .
Now onto shipping , for several years sellers were being encouraged to list items at very low prices to attract more bidding action, but in many cases that did not work out for the seller well and in my own experience I once sold a Penn Senator reel for $9 due to the pressure to start bids at a dollar , I always charge actual shipping and absolutely lost money on the listing. Many sellers though compensated by selling things well below the retail cost and they just padded their shipping, couple that with the fact that ebay did not count shipping in the final fee and did not take part of it as the 10% fees
A lot of sellers are ignorant to the fact that ebay actually takes a portion of the shipping and the final value fee , and still try to use it as a profit center. Plus ebay has been very aggressive in forcing sellers to start accepting offers on items and reducing your listing item values by 5% . Yes sellers do have control over pricing but ebay has become more and more aggressive over time and it is my guess that at some point if you want to sell you will be forced to accept listing price reductions , etc.
Now back to myself the way I price things is I look at what the fair market value is and I price accordingly, I do not follow ebay recommendations at all because in many cases they are inaccurate and ebay only cares about a sale and not how much the amount is, their percentage is the same regardless. I do start all auctions at the minimum bid I am willing to accept though even if it often times costs me a fast sale. However I do not pad shipping in any way shape or form and I do not offer free shipping which is never free no matter what the buyer thinks, sellers always pad the price of their auctions when they do offer free shipping.
I'll end this post with the statement that I know it is all perspective for buyers who want the best deal , and I am not defending any other seller's practices. Just remember you have the freedom to not buy from people that overcharge , or have excessive fees.
