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Tell me about ebay, Craigslist, and Paypal
Ohio
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I've never sold or bought anything on ebay. I've never sold or bought anything on craigslist. I don't have a Paypal account.
I've never paid much attention to how these things work. However right now I have something I'd like to sell. I decided I'd try Craiglist because it's local and I'd rather do the transaction in person. So I put my item on Craigslist and I thought it said the posting will remain for 45 days. That was about 25 days ago. Just now I went to search for the posting and can't find it. So where did it go?
So now I'm thinking ebay. I don't have any feedback, though. Reputation, I mean. I wouldn't buy from a "new seller" so why should I expect anyone to buy from me? And how does Paypal work? If someone buys something from me and then pays me through Paypal, how do I then get the money out of my Paypal account and turn it into cash in my hand?
I am very weary because of all the crap I hear about ebay and Paypal, people getting scammed, etc. Can anyone ease my mind?
I am looking to sell the following. If you were me, what would be the easiest way you'd do it?
-A wii, opened and used, but still in brand new condition. I still have all the original packaging.
-a classic controller
-5 or 6 virtual console games
-Zelda: Twilight Princess
-third-party component cables
I've never paid much attention to how these things work. However right now I have something I'd like to sell. I decided I'd try Craiglist because it's local and I'd rather do the transaction in person. So I put my item on Craigslist and I thought it said the posting will remain for 45 days. That was about 25 days ago. Just now I went to search for the posting and can't find it. So where did it go?
So now I'm thinking ebay. I don't have any feedback, though. Reputation, I mean. I wouldn't buy from a "new seller" so why should I expect anyone to buy from me? And how does Paypal work? If someone buys something from me and then pays me through Paypal, how do I then get the money out of my Paypal account and turn it into cash in my hand?
I am very weary because of all the crap I hear about ebay and Paypal, people getting scammed, etc. Can anyone ease my mind?
I am looking to sell the following. If you were me, what would be the easiest way you'd do it?
-A wii, opened and used, but still in brand new condition. I still have all the original packaging.
-a classic controller
-5 or 6 virtual console games
-Zelda: Twilight Princess
-third-party component cables
Ohio on
0
Posts
You are more likely to sell on Craigslist with detailed information on your items and some real pictures.
I do not send items until payment is received in my paypal account.
I ship using one method only. I wouldn't make exceptions if someone needed express delivery.
And I do not accept returns.
Make sure you cover your ass when listing your items on ebay. State all the conditions of buying it, bold it, make it red, whatever you need to do. That way when the customer bids on it, they are completely aware (or atleast should be) of what the conditions of the sale are.
Getting money from pay-pal is super simple. You link your pay-pal account to a bank account, and the funds are transferred at the click of a button. If I remember correctly there may be a small fee involved (I haven't used it in a year). It takes a few days for the money to enter your account.
I've never had a single problem as a seller on ebay or paypal. If you are careful and keep good records of your transactions and any emails a customer may send you, you should be pretty well covered. I had one guy try to get his money back and he contested the sale to get it back through ebay, and it ended up getting dropped, because he knew what he was getting himself into when he purchased the item from me. No returns means no returns.
On eBay you'll get lower bids than an experienced seller because you aren't selling some $2 postcard, you're selling electronics. Bidders will be wary.
In addition, on eBay you will have to pay fees. A fee to list the item, a final value fee (basically a % of the amount you sell the item for), and PayPal fees.
To be fair, you will have to pay PayPal fees in any case if you sign up for PayPal. But have a chance of selling your Wii on Craigslist without accepting PayPal, whereas on eBay you will get much fewer bids if you don't have PayPal.
Edit: I've used PayPal for years, on and off eBay, and not had any problems with it. It IS a very convenient way to pay/accept payment. The fees involved are not huge, it's just a pain in the ass after you've already paid eBay fees.
Craigslist, I feel, if done right can be just as effective as ebay, but it seems that there is a larger chance of being scammed, you just need to be careful, as always. Only accept pay pal, or cash in person, deal only with locals? Pick ups only? I don't really use craiglist, so I'm not entirely sure how one should approach listing/dealing with people.
Meet in a public place. Again, only deal with cash. Walk away if they offer anything less than what you originally agreed upon. I've gotten a couple people try to give a story about how they got lost and used too much gas, or they had to drive a long way, or they had problems getting the money out of the bank. Boo fucking hoo, we agreed on a price, and if you so much as offer $5 less than what we agreed, I walk. Generally this gets them to pull out the rest of the money from their pockets. This has happened a couple of times now. Don't settle.
If you're really cautious, you may want to jot down the license tag on the car. Just tell them it's for security reasons, and allow them to do the same. Generally though, having their email and phone number (if you required to speak to them first), would be enough if something went awry, like stolen products, fake money, or someone flat out attacking you. The odds of this are extremely low, again, if you meet publicly, and talk to them first - you can get an idea of what they are like over the phone.
Pictures of your item(s) will help a lot, plus a good description. For the TV, I dragged it down to our lobby, and showed it worked by plugging in a camera. Told them if they have any problems to call within two days.
To repeat - "ONLY cash, ONLY local. U-Haul"
Also, take cash only and NEVER send anything to anyone through craigslist. Always meet locally and in a public place (such as Starbucks).
Edit: Oh, and please take the time to use semi-comprehensible grammar and spelling in your ad and subsequent correspondences. Nothing turns me off more from a buyer or seller when they can't spell simple words or complete a sentence without putting three periods at the end. To me, that says this person is probably half retarded and since they can't complete a simple email communication they're probably also going to flake on the meet-up or get lost because their dumb ass doesn't know how to use google maps to look up where they're going before they leave. So I'm going to end up sitting in this starbucks twiddling my thumbs because I don't drink coffee waiting for this idiot to show up.
Ok, craigslist rant done for now.
Postings last well over 7 days. It is either 30 or 45.
What most likely happened is that you did not activate the post via an email that they send to you. The post is not seen until you go to the email account that you specified and click to activate it. I did this my first time using craigslist and didn't see my own post in searches.
To weed out scammers, make it clear that you only respond to people who leave their phone number. It always works. Also, you will receive SO MANY emails from scammers. SO MANY
Yeah, unless there's a pay option, all the ones we posted for free only last a week. You can just re-submit it, though.
Could be regional? That'd be weird.
This ad will expire 30 days after it was created.
Depending on how much you were asking I'd consider taking it off you...
But as for sites to sell things, Ars Technica's forums have an Agora sub-forum. They've got fairly strict rules, but its a good place to buy/sell/trade hardware and software. Though if you don't have much history as a buyer,seller, or forum member it may be a bit more difficult.