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 Post subject: Selling crap on ebay
PostPosted: Mon Dec 26, 2016 3:48 pm 
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So many months ago I promised to get around to this.
I'll unlock this eventually for posts and q&a once I finish. For the moment this is a work in progress.

I'm going to start with a variation of my warnings in others posts.
Selling scrap, junk, crap... it doesn't work now what.
So you have seen those pentium pro CPUs on ebay sell in the $10-$20 range. You're seeing gold stars and dollar signs. If they can why not me?
If you have less than 200 positive feedback don't even think about posting something broken on ebay. Period. My starting point suggestion is usually 250-500 for people looking to do this.
Ebay and PayPal are both set up to protect the BUYER not the seller.
That's not a bad thing over all but in scrap it causes issues.
Here's why. No matter how you list it the buyer is always protected from personal stupidity. So when they see your 2016 Mac book air for $50 and click buy it now without reading the description they can file for a refund because they failed to read that it was listed as for parts or repair. Failed to note you stated has been run over by 5 SUVs on the highway. Shipped as powder in a baggy. Etc
They file a claim with ebay or PayPal and now you've got neither laptop nor payment.
EBay's requirements for sellers is between 92%-98.2% depending on class and levels. If you have less than 100 feedbacks one negative puts you on perole and two gets you a short suspension. But 3 can loose your account.
So selling broken scrap day one is not a good idea if you plan to sell working stuff too.

Prices:
Ebay's prices are not real world!
I saw a single seller list 100lb lots of 486 CPUs. One lot sold for apx 500 and another way over 5000. Still a bargain for the buyer but ouch for the seller. No real scrapper or refiner is going to pay you $30 for a pentium pro so selling them at all is dangerous for your account. Anyone paying much more than boardsort's rates is a collector or an idiot. And most will be idiots. You're begging for negative feedback and a charge back.

Don't use reserves.
With scrap you want the real scrap buyers not the home refiners. And scrappers don't do bidding wars. The vast majority of scrap buyers are like me where we bid once and walk away. With proxy bidding there's no reason to under bid what we're willing to pay.
We hate reserve auctions. We hate snipers. And we're not going to war for 10 lbs of broken ICs.
Reserve auctions cost you, the seller, money and eliminates a potential buying pool who won't even look at your auctions because we filter reserve auctions OUT of our searches at the beginning. Post your auctions for the minimum you'd accept and let it be. I tend to post scrap just below boardsort's buy rate because I don't need to pay shipping.
If it sells great and if not it goes to boardsort.

Speaking of shipping. Don't charge $50 to ship two lbs from New York to San Francisco. We're not stupid. A 99c buy it now and $30 shipping doesn't work 99.9% of the time and when it does you're begging for negative feedback.
On the flip don't ask for $1 to ship to China and then cry over the $30 bill you'll eat. We don't care.
Absolutely never ask for more money from a buyer for shipping to cover your mistake and ALWAYS refund any major overage in shipping. Normally if my shipping difference is more than $2 I'll refund the difference. The positive comments in feedback for such a situation far outpays the temporary monitory benefit. It shows buyers your an honest person to work with and they'll not only come back but also recommend you.
Finally never post hazmat. Laws are different not just between countries but between states. You need a license to sell radioactive materials (yes even smoke detectors) and another one to ship them and yet another to buy it.
Just because it's not all spelled out on the auction page doesn't mean it's legal.

The two radioactive materials you'll find most often in escrap are boron (isotopes) and Beryllium. So pay attention and know what you're buying.
These two types show up on ebay a lot because many scrap yards won't buy them. They're also valuable elements so if the broken scrap boards are expensive that may be a reason. Keep your eye out for that.

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 Post subject: Re: Selling crap on ebay
PostPosted: Fri Mar 31, 2017 6:11 pm 
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Joined: Tue Feb 03, 2015 6:57 pm
Posts: 9751
Location: Low DOS
Fully unlocked now. Not much more I can add upfront but always happy to answer questions and partake in discussion.

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