17 May
2000
17 May
'00
9:33 a.m.
Just to confound the eBay hysteria, I'll recount
what happened
with these RL02s. I was all excited because eBay's history showed
a single RL02 went for $28 a few weeks ago.
Chuck McManis missed my original post to this list, but
he was
the winning bidder and picked one up for $5.50. I sold the rest
to him for that price, so he got five with shipping for $45.
(Did I bend any eBay rule by selling him the other ones?)
In another eBay story, I was the top bidder for a Leitz illuminator
transformer for an old microscope I have, at $5. However, the
seller wanted to charge $12 shipping. This item is two-three pounds
at best. I questioned this and haven't heard from them yet.
No doubt some eBay sellers have discovered the old
mail-order
1) Know the shipping cost before you bid. It isn't all greed, some people
only use mailbox etc. or only ship fed ex (or both). Check feedback, no
frequent seller would get away without some shipping cost comments if they
charge too much. For newbie sellers, either email, or don't bid. If stuck
with high charges (and I don't mean $1 for packing), wait til the package
arrives then post a neutral feedback showing the actual and charged amounts.
2) Ebay has some funny rules, maybe you bent one, but the practice is common.
3) I charge a fair price for shipping, ie priority mail with confirmation
is $3.55 up to two lbs, and that gets listed in most of my auctions as $4
for small items (no insurance) or similarly rounded up with insurance added
for larger items. Most people are willing to pay a fair price, but nobody
likes a unexpected price.
4) Don't try to save your customer shipping costs unless they request it,
and even then stick to basic good business practices like confirmation of
delivery and/or insurance. This is a lesson my international sales are
slowly pounding into my head.
5) List thinly traded items at a "fair" selling price, not a low bid
attracting price. I sell a lot of some cheap generic items for old macs, ie
a IIcx power supply, mostly because I don't want to just scrap them. I
tried a bunch of different prices, and "most" sales were still single bid,
so now they list for $5.99 with $6 shipping.