Have any of you sold on eBay?

[redpoint5]

How is Ebay's fees a ransom? I have found their fees to be exactly what they have advertised them to be, and never had a problem paying their cut as agreed.

I donate things worth $20 or less nowadays since it isn't worth the hassle taking pictures, posting the item on CL, responding to stupid people, arranging a time to meet someone who is inevitably late, and then dealing with them playing dumb about the agreed price. Now that I have typed all that, I might have to bump up my minimum price to $40.

How do you get a parking ticket for parking in front of your own home? If you contest it, they will likely reduce the amount regardless of guilt.

This is why I prefer to own a driveway and garage. You can tell the authority to leave private property.

[Xist]

I realized there were far fewer cars well before the semester ended and they have not come back after school started.

We have a driveway and carport, but more guys than spots.

The City of Tempe has also threatened to fine and\or jail our landlord for not trimming the weeds.

Most people call that grass.

It might have been a foot tall.

Fine and\or jail time for not mowing often enough?

I lived in Mesa for at least twenty years and liked it, but I had many complaints about Tempe. People in Gilbert seemed especially friendly.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Xist

Fine and\or jail time for not mowing often enough?

Sounds right to me. The tenants have a responsibility to pay their rent (which includes groundskeeping) in full, and on time, and the landlord has a responsibility to regularly maintain the property.

[Xist]

Almost nobody seemed to want U.S. Army uniforms and equipment for a few dollars.

That probably would have been simpler through Craigslist back when I was in Phoenix. Perhaps someone would rather pay for shipping than meet a potential buyer, but often the shipping is far more than the purchase price.

I still want someone to know why eBay takes the buyer's money, sends 100% of it to Paypal, Paypal takes their cut, but eBay sends me a bill.

Why not take what they want while they still have my money?

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Xist

I still want someone to know why eBay takes the buyer's money, sends 100% of it to Paypal, Paypal takes their cut, but eBay sends me a bill.

Why not take what they want while they still have my money?

You define how Ebay collects the fees; either through a credit card, checking account, etc. You can even setup automatic payment of fees.

The reason they don't withhold the fees to begin with is that you normally get the money for a sale within a couple days, but Ebay bills only once per month. Another reason is that not everyone pays through Paypal, and therefore Ebay doesn't necessarily handle the money in the first place.

Why make a big deal out of this? I've had Ebay threaten suspension because my credit card used to pay fees expired and my bill was past due. This is a reasonable business practice. If someone agrees to pay a fee to sell in my store, but then doesn't pay, I'm not very likely to let them continue selling the next month.

I'm all for fighting whenever a business is in the wrong, but I just don't see it in this case.

[wdb]

Very entertaining! Thanks all.

[Daox]

If you don't like eBay's selling system don't even think about Amazon. They're way more strict and have way more rules to follow.

[Xist]

I swear that I saw laptops like mine selling for several hundred dollars--when I paid $800 a few years ago. I only looked at completed auctions. Maybe I waited too long. When I determined that my Lenovo had a hardware problem and that component was soldered to the motherboard, which would cost me $400 to replace, I started fighting Allstate, who bought Squaretrade, and they eventually agreed to replace the motherboard. Before I sent it in I bought my second Black Friday laptop of the year.

The first was another Lenovo, which also froze randomly, so I returned it.

The HP supposedly cost $400, but I think that I paid an extra $40 for a backlit keyboard and full HD screen.

That backlit keyboard is important to me. I often wake up before my family gets up and they have an odd habit of sleeping in the living room. Also, my brother has an odd habit of turning off my light when I am using my computer.

The thing is that I realized that my $400 laptop was faster than my significantly-older $800 desktop that didn't come with a monitor, mouse, or keyboard, so I have both hooked up to my 43" television.

Like some kind of weirdo I have 2 keyboards and 2 mice.

Neither keyboard is backlit, so I am not benefitting from that $10 investment.

$400 laptop
+40 to upgrade the screen and keyboard (I am not using the screen, either! )
+96 for an extended warranty, which they initially claimed they would refund if I didn't use, but that disappeared as soon as I clicked on Buy.
+37 tax
+108 for me to upgrade the RAM and SSD myself
= Priceless.
For everything else, there's Mastercard.

My $400 laptop ended up costing $681! Good thing it was on sale!

The buyer paid $531 for my old laptop.
-30 for taxes
-58 for shipping
-67 for their cut (despite originally claiming it was no-fee and I didn't approve any extras)

They paid out $376. My friend said "Better than nothing!"

I always want to slap people who say that.

Posting the laptop was annoying because, on top of trying to get me to pay for extras, they kept asking the same questions different ways.

Anyway, my $400 laptop ended up costing $305 after selling my old laptop with a new $400 motherboard for $531.

Unless someone actually has something that flies off of the shelves I don't know who uses eBay voluntarily. I can absolutely see shop owners paying employees minimum wage to do this, though.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by Xist

The buyer paid $531 for my old laptop.
-30 for taxes
-58 for shipping
-67 for their cut (despite originally claiming it was no-fee and I didn't approve any extras)

99.99% sure eBay told you it was free to list your computer for sale, NOT that they were waiving the normal 12.55% final value fee when you sold it.

[freebeard]

A few days ago, the Seeed reTerminal Pi was on eBay for $314. Today it's gone. Wut?

edit: Ha! Glad I looked. On the Seeed website they're $195 with 10 in stock. Minimum viable desktop/server.