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[j.hall]

man, what is it with ebay.

i have a bunch of stuff i'm selling up there.

i'm getting the craziest questions..........

i had one person email me a question that wasn't a question at all.

this person just emailed to inform me that my pictures sucked and my background was ugly.........hahahaha

gimme a break......

just had to vent real quick.

[JPRisus]

i sold a bunch of stuff last year and learned to laugh at all of that... just hope for serious bidders who understand the value of what they're looking at. Nothing's worse than a flake, not like our industry has any of them or anything lmao...

[NelsonL]

It's a strange world out there. I sold my bassman 2x12 cab on ebay. I stipulated that I was willing to ship but would prefer local pick-up-- its one of those 2x12 cabs that are bigger than most 4x12s. I just got sick of lugging the thing around.

Anyway, by the time it got to the other side of the country it had suffered some damage in shipping. It was as if Fed-Ex dropped it off a cliff, or more likely a loading dock.

So rather than try and collect the insurance on the item, the guy demands that I refund him the cost and shipping plus additional shipping to send the cab back to me-- or he's going to sue.

So I filed a report with ebay requesting mediation and damn if that wasn't the right move-- the whole thing went away. He wrote me back saying he didn't have time to go through channels w/ ebay (but he DID have time to sue me?)

So the whole thing went away-- no bad feedback, no nothin'

I like ebay a lot and have only had to less than stellar experiences-- still I'm pretty low volume I can see how it could be pretty overwhelming if I was doing a lot of buying or selling.

[JPRisus]

I got burned on ebay about 5 years ago... tried to buy a MOTU 2408, won the auction, sent payment to some dude in alaska... had good feedback, everything seemed fine, wasn't the first time i used ebay... the guy gave me all these bullshit e-mails telling me it was on it's way etc. finally i filed grievance with both Ebay and the US Postal service, since i payed via postal money order... never got my money back, but did collect a bit of insurance, and helped build a case against this guy that just recently landed him in the can for 18 months.

Please let him read this and show up at my doorstep someday.. i'll show him how grievances are filed where i grew up...

[j.hall]

well....my deal is this

i'm totally honest, if it's broken (i have yet to sell something that was broken) i'll say that.

i don't use reserves.....i think that's stupid, just start the auction at your absolute bottom dollar and let it go.

most of the time i put stuff up for what i think is a killer deal for a buyer, and a fairly average deal for me

more often then not, my stuff doeesn't even sell

but if you price it at market value, it doesn't sell.....

it's like i need the reserve, some perfect opening price inbetween great deal and market value.

then i get flooded with emails asking if the unit has scratches.....gimme a break, don't you want to know if it passes audio and actually works?

[spankenstein]

eBay is all psycological. Quite often you'll see stuff going fro right at retail if not occasionally above on most things. My tips are:

1. Set your reserve to you bottom dollar.

2. set the opening bid rediculously low.

3. Make it a short auction.

This makes the people that look at it get all frenzied and think they are getting a better deal than they are. It's dumb... I agree but that's how you sell stuff there. You could always skip the reserve but I generally have a "need to get x amount" out of the stuff I've sold.

[Beezoboy]

Another e-bay trick i like is to try and make your item end on a Friday. People sure love to buy things on payday. Another good one is to let it end on a Sunday, because people have nothing better to do than to lok at stuff all day on a Sunday.

Timing is very important too. I had a DBX 274 gate that I put up 2 times and bidding never went above $65.  I had the reserve at $85. I put it up a few days ago and it sold for $110 buy now, which is well over what I paid for it and then some. Well I did a search and found that one went for $120 a week or so before and a lot of people bid on it, so i figured more people might want one. I like to offer free shipping on a buy now. It makes the deal seem sweeter to someone that wants it badly.

Beez

[rvdsm]

j.hall wrote on Mon, 30 August 2004 14:43

then i get flooded with emails asking if the unit has scratches.....gimme a break, don't you want to know if it passes audio and actually works?

I never could understand that one myself.
I'm getting ready to sell a mixer and noticed a scratch on the side of the unit. I'm sure somebody will ask me about it and I'll just feel like cancelling my auction in disgust. I didn't even notice the scratch until I was boxing it up to sell. Who in their right mind is not going to buy a piece of audio gear because it's got a scratch on it? (instruments excluded for the most part)

[JPRisus]

rvdsm wrote on Tue, 31 August 2004 00:33

Who in their right mind is not going to buy a piece of audio gear because it's got a scratch on it? (instruments excluded for the most part)

There are some ridiculously anal people out there, believe me. A scratch can happen just by putting something into a rack, no matter how careful you are with it. And that kinda scratch will be hidden anyway! go figure.

I was leaving someone's house one night in the rain, and the driveway was very steep. My car lost traction on the way out and left some tire marks on the very edge of the driveway... i found out the guy had his entire driveway repaved the following weekend, because of me! damn lunatic if ya ask me...

[j.hall]

you guys will love this one...

i'm selling my moog 3 band parametric EQ

i had one guy email asking if there were any scratches on the top or bottom.

i replied saying it's racked up and i don't really know.

he replied in bold large font type, "CAN YOU CHECK FOR ME?"

i really wanted to reply, "buy it and find out for yourself."

but i stopped working (the joy of unattended sessions) grabbed my screw gun and pulled it.

one scratch on top, none on bottom......what difference does it make.....it's in the rack.

is your rack all glass?

[NelsonL]

[quote title=j.hall wrote on Tue, 31 August 2004 06:48]

"CAN YOU CHECK FOR ME?"

quote]

The more annoying the potential bidder, the less likely they are to bid on the item. I doubt this guy will end up with your eq.

If he bothers you again tell him he shouldn't buy from you-- because you're scratched as well.

[iluvatar]

Quote:

So rather than try and collect the insurance on the item, the guy demands that I refund him the cost and shipping plus additional shipping to send the cab back to me-- or he's going to sue.

Well, that guy got screwed out of some money. As the shipper, YOU are the one responsible for filing an insurance claim. They'll only give insurance money out to the person who actually paid for the service, not the intended recipient.

-Dan.

[NelsonL]

Dan, you're being too literal. You also sound a little angry. Are you angry Dan?

I'm not saying he should have filed the claim-- just that he could have postponed his ranting threats until after we heard what UPS had to say for themselves.

It isn't about me not knowing how ups works, or what my responsibilities are.

I offered to contact UPS but the buyer declined, in lieu of that I contacted ebay. Ebay has a department in place for settling disputes-- seemed like the best way to approach the problem since every other sentance threatened legal action.

[JPRisus]

speaking of ebay...


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=31870 01642

[j.hall]

hahahaha

oh man

"email me with questions"

hahahaha