Ebay Rant

[buzzboy]

Ebay is starting to make me mad. I am selling my Tippmann Pro Carbine on their and the people are making me mad. It just makes me so :mad: how these people bid on guns. My package has more stuff, lower shipping and is cheaper but people still bid on the other items. It is pissing me off. I mean a reserve of 80 bucks for a gun/mask/hopper/2 co2 tanks/barrel and it is being outbid by a "well used but well taken care of" Pro/Carbine with a hopper and 12oz tank for 100 bucks. Also the guy who did bid on my gun. He bid 3 times at my starting price of $50. Why do you need to bid 3 times at the same price.

Sorry. Had to blow some steam. I feel much better now :dance:

[cdacda13]

People are retarded.

Write that down.

[Jaan]

If you place a bid for the minimum, and then decide you would pay more and go back and place a maximum proxy bid it shows up as 2 bids. 3 bids doesn't make sense though lol.

Yeah, people on e-bay are retarded. My friend used to have a spanner wrench for camera lenses running all the time on e-bay as an ad for his camera shop. Right on the item page he said "I make these and sell them through my web site ... for $35 shipping included" with a link to the web site. People STILL bid more than $35 for one.

I bought a "pound of dice" once, and the same seller had 15 of them for sale at any one time, most didn't have any bids on them. I mean same seller, same exact page, same price, same item. Some moron just HAD to outbid me, even though there was 14 other ones with no bids.

[deathstalker]

I love eBay. :headbang: :clap: :bounce: :hail:

[master_alexander]

People are retarded.

Write that down.


lol! van wilder?

but yea, ive tried to sell anough stuff ont here that i kinda gave up on it... the time limit and stuff... yea,... i like AO better

[Recon by Fire]

You have to learn the ways of The Ebay young Padowan! I've been a user on Ebay since before most people ever heard of it! My buddy sells on Ebay as a power seller and rakes in $60K in sales a month! Damn him....LOL

[buzzboy]

.......a power seller and rakes in $60K in sales a month!.....
Whoa!

[automikey]

People think yours is a better deal and are waiting to snipe at the last minute. The 3 bids mean the guy went and bid, say $60, then came back and upped it to $70 and then again to $80 (for example). I've been selling on ebay for 4 years and most auctions don't even get bids until the last 3 minutes.

If you know about what the item is really worth, you'll save lots of fees by selling it here.

[Faddy]

What's your feedback? I know I personally won't bid on guns from someone who doesn't have over 10 feedback as a seller, and over 95% positive total. If this is your first time as a seller, people will spend more on something thats not as good just to be guarenteed not to get ripped off. Not saying you'll rip them off, but feedback = mucho importante.

[slade]

What's your feedback? I know I personally won't bid on guns from someone who doesn't have over 10 feedback as a seller, and over 95% positive total. If this is your first time as a seller, people will spend more on something thats not as good just to be guarenteed not to get ripped off. Not saying you'll rip them off, but feedback = mucho importante.
true. also ive noticed having an auction with a reserve can sometimes hinder bids. why dont you link your auction?

ive been fairly lucky with ebay, for the most part. a year ago i sold an electro piranha package (barrel kit, cheap used to hell pack, and out of hydro 48/30 tank) for $500, then bought my mag for $491 shipped. pretty good, considering the first time i listed the piranha package it ended for $230 :eek: (thats another thing... always make sure your auctions dont end on a holiday morning ;) )

[Jaan]

true. also ive noticed having an auction with a reserve can sometimes hinder bids. why dont you link your auction?I noticed that too when I used to sell on there ... if you had no reserve you would get a couple of guys in a bidding war, thinking they would get a $500 for $18. Also, I always charged "fixed shipping costs". I personally hate it when I'm charged $6 for shipping and when I get the item it only cost $1.30 for shipping. I know it's part of the cost, but still.

Ebay these days, especially with buy it now, is more of a store than a real action. Ahhhhhh, the good ol' days ...

[buzzboy]

Yeah, I am selling under our family name(my moms sn) and we have very little feedback. Only a feedback of 2 with a 100% positive. I am really hoping to get a few last minute bidders in. Here is a link (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7182348056) . Tell me what I am doing wrong.

[Jaan]

Actually, that's not bad.

It seems though, unfortunately, these days what sells is BIG HUGE LETTERS and wild claims like DEAD NUTS ACURATE!!!!!

I wouldn't worry too much about it, you might get a couple of good bids towards the end. I think the guy who placed the $50 bid went back and placed higher bids 'cause he wants it so bad. If you're lucky you'll get a little bidding war going.

[VFX_Fenix]

How about the guys who bid, win then don't pay? I had a gun float through 2 non-paying buyers before I had a solid winner.

[rkjunior303]

thats why you have friends that will bid up your auction, for you :dodgy:

[stop whining buy a mag]

I'm not trying to bash you or anything but here's some tips for Ebay. Once you use it more often, you really get used to it.

1.Pictures are the main sellers. I saw one guy selling an E-mag and he took a picture of it on his unmade dirty bed. It just didn't look good. I often set my items up in the foyer of my house. The hardwoods floors and white molding generally make things look nice and professional. Also try to make everything look neat when taking pictures. Take off all the stickers and make the gun look real good. Put all extra accesories on the side. It's best to keep them off the gun for all the pics except one, so the seller can see what just the gun looks like.

2.Spelling Spelling Sp3lin speln...yeah. I ignore auctions that have a lot of abbreviated words and LOTS of simple spelling and grammar mistakes. A few mistakes are accpetable but a messed up description usually means dumb PBN kiddie that won't be reliable. I've had too many problems with little kiddies trying to sell me sh1t. I'm sick of it. I will only buy from people that can spell and have 20+ positive feedback with no negatives. You did good on the spelling.

3.Using the right words in your listing. Avoid negative sounding words like "explode" or "broken". Also don't use words like "gat", "sweet", or "man this thing RIPS!!". No one cares. We know what the gun is capable of if we are looking at it. Sound posistive and professional in the description.

4.Title. This is a big one. If I am selling an E-mag I would put "ULE E-mag Emag not Xmag Ion DM4 Timmy Angel". Maybe someone is just surfing around looking for a high end gun and didn't anticipate seeing the E-mag. It may grab this persons attention. I generally add guns related to the one you are selling or the most popular. Also bolding it can help if there are pages of the same item.

Overall, you did a good job on your listing. Pictures could have been a little better, but at least you have pics. :shooting:

[slade]

thats why you have friends that will bid up your auction, for you :dodgy:
shhhh... :dodgy:

[buzzboy]

Great. Now after all this heart break I got a kid on a forum that said he will paypal me on the spot my asking price/reserve price. I guess I can't say no. I just end up having to pay ebay their 5 bux for listing it there.

[Jaan]

thats why you have friends that will bid up your auction, for you :dodgy:The correct term is, shill:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shill

[slade]

The correct term is, shill:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shill


Many online auction sites employ sophisticated (and usually secret) methods to detect collusion, and a number of people have been sent to jail for online auction fraud in the past decade.
aww :(...

[buzzboy]

Whoo hoo. It jumped from 3 bids to 13 bids in the last few hours to end at $107.50. Now I have a few questions. First, I got an email saying that I was sent $108 by credit card to my paypal account. It also says that I can't recieve my payment unless I upgrade to paypal premium or something like that. Will paypal prem. cost money or does it just allow me to get credit card purchases.

Also how do I go about shipping co2 tanks. I just wrapped them in an inch of foam and packed them tightly in the box with the rest of the stuff. Do I need to tell the carrier that there is a closed tank in the box. I let all the pressure out of it.

[deathstalker]

Years ago when I upgraded my PayPal account it did not cost anything to become a premier member, but you do end up paying a little more in transaction-based fees.

As far as shipping a tank goes, I never tell the carrier I'm shipping a tank.

[buzzboy]

Turns out they just charge people who want to send money via credit card instead of account to account transfer. I guess I will just send the tanks anyway.

[MarkM]

4.Title. This is a big one. If I am selling an E-mag I would put "ULE E-mag Emag not Xmag Ion DM4 Timmy Angel". Maybe someone is just surfing around looking for a high end gun and didn't anticipate seeing the E-mag. It may grab this persons attention. I generally add guns related to the one you are selling or the most popular. Also bolding it can help if there are pages of the same item.



Against ebay rules, manipulation of the search engine by keywords.
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/keyword-spam.html

The upgrade to Premier account is one of the sneaky things ebay does with regard to advertising Paypal, sure you can receive payments FOC but only if the buyer already has money in their Paypal account or funds the transaction with their bank account, to avoid this forced upgrade you can insist that Paypal from Bank Accounts only. Too late now but if you setup an account in your own name something to think about, that or only take personal cheques/money orders. I ended up with a Paypal account the other way around as I went to pay for an item I had won and used my credit card just like the button said I could, getting the buying restrictions lifted took way too long and all the account verification took a while too. But now I have a 100% record with over 300 transactions and taking Paypal I am sure has helped many of my sales.

With shipping your Co2 tanks I wouldn't like to think how the courier will look upon a tank as if they have to use an aircraft on any part of the journey then it would be reccomended if the valves are removed and packed seperately. I am sure a lot of parcels will get x-rayed more so than in the past and the delay/possible confiscation will surely dent that currently perfect feedback score.

[Jaan]

Against ebay rules, manipulation of the search engine by keywords.I had a friend who used to put keywords on his page by making the size 0 points. That way they were there and the search engine could see them ... but they had no actual size.

Just today I saw the best example of throwing in keywords on your page. I was looking up D&D stuff, and this guy took the ENTIRE Wikipedia entry and posted it at the bottom ... just in case you didn't know what D&D was when you looked up the item lol.

Ebay Keyword Page (http://cgi.ebay.com/SWORD-ARCHON-RARE-DUNGEONS-AND-DRAGONS-MINI-ANGELFIRE_W0QQitemZ5243400651QQcategoryZ44112QQssP ageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)

[slade]

4.Title. This is a big one. If I am selling an E-mag I would put "ULE E-mag Emag not Xmag Ion DM4 Timmy Angel". Maybe someone is just surfing around looking for a high end gun and didn't anticipate seeing the E-mag. It may grab this persons attention. I generally add guns related to the one you are selling or the most popular. Also bolding it can help if there are pages of the same item.
gah, i hate people like you. if im searching for a timmy, i want to see a timmy. i dont want to see an auction for an e-mag, angel, dm4, or 500 ions!

[bleachit]

gah, i hate people like you. if im searching for a timmy, i want to see a timmy. i dont want to see an auction for an e-mag, angel, dm4, or 500 ions!


and now the infamous "QFT"



qft

[rkjunior303]

If you ship a tank, you have to ship it GROUND. It is illegal to ship it any sort of air-mail.

[Archangel Zer0]

gah, i hate people like you. if im searching for a timmy, i want to see a timmy. i dont want to see an auction for an e-mag, angel, dm4, or 500 ions!
Amen to that. I can't stand that and don't even look at those auctions.

[stop whining buy a mag]

It can be annoying but all you have to do is look to your left and click "Dye" or "Smart Parts".

Ebay is all about making the most you can out of your item. Hence chicks with big b00bies can often be seen holding paintball guns.

[FSU_Paintball]

It can be annoying but all you have to do is look to your left and click "Dye" or "Smart Parts".

Not if we're trying to look at 2 or 3 different brands, but not AGD. And even if I am only looking for one thing, it's still one more step I have to take because SOME JERKOFF is breaking the ebay rules.
I hate people LIKE YOU who do that. All you do is make our lives harder by throwing in little annoyances.

[slade]

It can be annoying but all you have to do is look to your left and click "Dye" or "Smart Parts".

Ebay is all about making the most you can out of your item. Hence chicks with big b00bies can often be seen holding paintball guns.
? you mean to where it says different brands? please :rolleyes: the list they have is:

* Angel (133)
* Autococker (363)
* Automag (40)
* Dye (70)
* JT (10)
* Smart Parts (211)
* Spyder (462)
* Tippmann (473)
* Other (895)

you can not tell me that that is by any means an exhaustive list. it doesnt even have timmys for gods sake. wheres ICD? AKA? macdev? what the hell is JT doing there?? etc. plus people often ignore the lists, because theyre so bad the majority of markers are out of category.

and you know what i usually tend to do when i search? at the end of the keywords i put "-not" but unfortunately that can block the one person who was selling what you wanted but decided to throw on a bunch of keywords.

[Aslan]

Wow...where to start?

First off...the premise of this thread is rediculous. "Why can't I get $80 for my Pro-Carbine?" Because. Because the resale price on paintball equipment is very low.

Also, like someone else said...most of the time people wait till the last three hours to start bidding on stuff. :tard:

Now...as to all this Ebay "advice". The dude that said he nows a guy making $60,000 selling junk on ebay...HIGHLY unlikely. There's numerous "get rich quick" scams out there regarding online selling targeted at lazy people who can't hold job. They get promised that they can make thousands of dollars a day selling stuff on ebay. It doesn't work. Think about it. You're telling me there's some guy with enough stuff in his house that he can sell it for months and make $60,000 per month? Unless he's selling Civil War or World War II memorabilia or rare art or rare sports collectibles...HIGHLY unlikely! The get rich quick scams are like pyramid schemes...where they sell you junk and then you try to sell it on Ebay for more than you bought it for. But the stuff is junk...and worthless...so nobody buys it...so you end up either with a basement full of Hula lamps or a ton of bills charged by the company holding your goods that you've committed to buy. If it sounds too good to be true...2999 times out of 3000...it is. :clap:

Next...getting people to "bid up" items. Ebay will eventually catch you. I know of a couple that got caught and were banned for life from ever using Ebay. And that was for a first offense where a neighbor or family friend bid up an item by $25. Ebay takes that stuff VERY seriously. :nono:

Next...hate to agree with slade... :mad: ..but people that add "not minimag" or "not crossfire" to adds...REALLY piss me off. If I'm looking for a minimag...I don't want a "Spyder Fenix not a minimag, automag, Dye..." That's annoying and I think less of the seller for doing it. :nono:

And finally, the paypal thing. Paypal doesn't like credit cards, they like bank accounts...which is also annoying because credit cards are much easier. You can try the "bank accounts only" line...but it will just turn people off who want to use a credit card. It's easier just to get verified and pay the small fees to accept credit cards. I ignore "bank accounts only, no credit cards and pay by credit card anyway. The fee to relist the item and go through all that usually far exceeds the paypal credit card fee so the seller just pays it. :argh: :cool:

[slade]

Now...as to all this Ebay "advice". The dude that said he nows a guy making $60,000 selling junk on ebay...HIGHLY unlikely. There's numerous "get rich quick" scams out there regarding online selling targeted at lazy people who can't hold job. They get promised that they can make thousands of dollars a day selling stuff on ebay. It doesn't work. Think about it. You're telling me there's some guy with enough stuff in his house that he can sell it for months and make $60,000 per month? Unless he's selling Civil War or World War II memorabilia or rare art or rare sports collectibles...HIGHLY unlikely! The get rich quick scams are like pyramid schemes...where they sell you junk and then you try to sell it on Ebay for more than you bought it for. But the stuff is junk...and worthless...so nobody buys it...so you end up either with a basement full of Hula lamps or a ton of bills charged by the company holding your goods that you've committed to buy. If it sounds too good to be true...2999 times out of 3000...it is. :clap:

he never said anything about a "get rich quick scheme" or some company that sells him cheap trinkets that he sells on ebay. it is likely that this guy knows someone who owns a wharehouse or something that constantly sells products on ebay... and very possibly actual products people would buy instead of cheap trinkets.


Next...getting people to "bid up" items. Ebay will eventually catch you. I know of a couple that got caught and were banned for life from ever using Ebay. And that was for a first offense where a neighbor or family friend bid up an item by $25. Ebay takes that stuff VERY seriously. :nono:
how'd they get caught?


Next...hate to agree with slade... :mad:
awwww... :(


And finally, the paypal thing. Paypal doesn't like credit cards, they like bank accounts...which is also annoying because credit cards are much easier. You can try the "bank accounts only" line...but it will just turn people off who want to use a credit card. It's easier just to get verified and pay the small fees to accept credit cards. I ignore "bank accounts only, no credit cards and pay by credit card anyway. The fee to relist the item and go through all that usually far exceeds the paypal credit card fee so the seller just pays it. :argh: :cool:
...or they get pissed off, report that you did not pay for the item through their approved payment method, and they dont have to pay for relisting the item. and you get bad feedback. once you upgrade your account, you dont only have to pay fees for credit card payments, you have to pay fees for ALL transactions. and that can add up, its not a small fee for a $600 marker.

[Lohman446]

Now...as to all this Ebay "advice". The dude that said he nows a guy making $60,000 selling junk on ebay...HIGHLY unlikely. There's numerous "get rich quick" scams out there regarding online selling targeted at lazy people who can't hold job. They get promised that they can make thousands of dollars a day selling stuff on ebay. It doesn't work. Think about it. You're telling me there's some guy with enough stuff in his house that he can sell it for months and make $60,000 per month? Unless he's selling Civil War or World War II memorabilia or rare art or rare sports collectibles...HIGHLY unlikely! :



My buddy sells on Ebay as a power seller and rakes in $60K in sales a month!

I trust you understand the difference between making and selling. It is rather possible to sell 60K a month of stuff on e-bay, you may be making $1 on it, or a very small percentage regardless. E-bay in fact favors to some degree the sellers that can sell at sub-discount margins (we are talking profit margins under 10%) because of its relative lack of overhead.

[Aslan]

I trust you understand the difference between making and selling. It is rather possible to sell 60K a month of stuff on e-bay, you may be making $1 on it, or a very small percentage regardless. E-bay in fact favors to some degree the sellers that can sell at sub-discount margins (we are talking profit margins under 10%) because of its relative lack of overhead.

Right. It was my understanding that he's talking about a guy "making" $60,000 a month. That's just no possible. I'm not even sure if that's possible for an actual store that uses ebay as a sort of "advertising"...since they pay Ebay for this advertising everytime they list an item whether it sells or not. If he meant, "sells" $60,000 worth of stuff...well, yeah...alot of those get rich quick schemes are huge warehouses that can provide you with that much junk...and I guess if you're a decent ebayer and it's all you do...you might be able to do that volume...but not "make" $60,000...I find that highly rediculous. :wow: :spit_take :wow:

[Aslan]

he never said anything about a "get rich quick scheme" or some company that sells him cheap trinkets that he sells on ebay. it is likely that this guy knows someone who owns a wharehouse or something that constantly sells products on ebay... and very possibly actual products people would buy instead of cheap trinkets.

Still doubtful...Lohman is right...it's a matter of "selling" vs "making".



how'd they get caught?

I believe Ebay monitors this using a combination of a few methods. They can look at histories of not only who has bid on your items...but whether they are the same person or it looks like a new user. I know they also have the ability to track IP addresses because I heard of a guy that would bid up his items at work but list them at home. However, not only did it raise suspicion that the same guy was bidding up things...a user from the same location as the seller...but even when the guy changed to different user IDs...it was the same IP address...and that's how he eventually got caught. I'm not sure, but most likey theres a program that they are running that has alert levels when any number of these types of events occur...it wouldn't be a very complex program...just monitoring user IDs, locations, and IP addresses.



...or they get pissed off, report that you did not pay for the item through their approved payment method, and they dont have to pay for relisting the item. and you get bad feedback. once you upgrade your account, you dont only have to pay fees for credit card payments, you have to pay fees for ALL transactions. and that can add up, its not a small fee for a $600 marker.

I'm a verified member. I don't pay fees if I'm the seller and the buyer uses a bank account. That's why some sellers request "verified" paypal accounts (accounts tied to bank accounts). My point is paypal is a two-way street. If I'm going to sell something and I don't want to pay 1 cent per dollar...I would just require check or money order. If I want the convenience of Paypal...I pay the penny...just like stores pay transaction fees when you or I use credit cards...at the end of the day, it's your choice whether you want the convenience.

If I pay $600 to a guy for a marker, and he cries that I jipped him out of $6...that's pretty lame...I'd probably just apologize and send him $6...but I think that's pretty lame.

[Lohman446]

Its illegal in many states to add a fee when paying with a credit card. It is legal though to give a cash / check discount.

[Aslan]

Its illegal in many states to add a fee when paying with a credit card. It is legal though to give a cash / check discount.

Very true. But a business can choose not to accept credit cards if they don't want to pay the transaction fees. They know that not accepting credit cards costs them business, so they pay the fees.