feeling sad. After 14years, probably will say goodbye

[annieher]

I'm feeling sad. I've been with eBay since 2003 and only mainly sold little stuff.. books, clothes, plants... garage sale sort of thing. Never made a lot of money but it was fun and cleared the clutter from my house.

Haven't sold much in the past couple of years due to work commitments and, have to admit, I missed the email about the FVF on Postage. So just recently, I put some items up and you can imagine my horror when I saw my fees. 

As an example, sold some shoes for $5.00 (50c FVF) then another $1.33 for FVF on shipping... leaving me with a grand total of $3.17. lol... if you want to add the cost of fuel for me to get to the Post Office, well... let's just say I don't want to do that particular sum.

I'm assuming that eBay doesn't want to be bothered with the small seller anymore which is a shame, considering that's how they got started. 

Has anybody tried Gumtree? I suppose I'll mosey on over there and have a look.

Mostly, I have had positive experiences here, a couple of totally horrendous ones, some very funny ones.

Time moves on, eh?

ciao bebes

[annieher]

oh! forgot to mention the 78c because the buyer used Paypal!!! 

[lyndal1838]

Have you been selling all this time without building your fees into your starting price?

I can understand you missing the postage FVF but that is something you could correct now that you now about it.  Just add the fee amount on as a handling fee.

[padi*0409]

I've used Gumtree as a buyer quite a few times for largish items and it's always been a positive experience for me, but some sellers on the boards have said that the number of responces isn't great and that some buyers want to haggle with the price when/if they turn up.

But for buyers there's some real bargains there. 

[*tippy*toes*]

I've sold one thing on Gumtree, a lounge. Was listed on the Thursday, buyer contacted Friday to say don't sell it to anyone else, she'll be there Saturday. She'd been looking for this exact lounge for over a year. Saturday she called to say she was flooded in (it was flooding where she was) and would be there Sunday. Sunday morning she arrived to collect it, was absolutely over the moon and couldn't believe she got it so cheap. Mr Tippy helped her load it into her trailer, gave her a tarp to cover it because it was raining and she went away as the happiest person in the world.

So yes, my experience selling something was very positive.

Mr Tippy bought a lawn mower for $50 from there. Appeared to be in excellent condition. Turned out to be a bit of a lemon, but worked well enough for a few months until we got another one. It probably just needed a service as it was overly loud and vibrated a LOT once it started to work. It was OK at idle, which is why Mr Tippy thought it was ok when he bought it.

It's still in the shed I think, so one of these days I might get around to giving it a service and if it comes good, I'll probably list it back on Gumtree. I did read up on a few things that cause the symptoms it had and I wanted to work on it, but Mr Tippy got the s****s with it so just went and bought a new one.

I think it depends on what you're selling as to how you will go selling over there. Make sure you add a few extra $$ to the price you want so the hagglers think they are getting a price reduction.

[collect247]

And just wait and see that you will not be able to access your funds for 21 days in PayPal because you're classed now as a newbie seller.

[springyzone]

Gumtree is okay, I've used it to both buy and sell, but if you are hoping to sell small, garage sale type goods on it, don't hold your breath.

I've managed to sell a few, but on the whole, things such as adult clothing & books don't get many views.

Furniture sells but not always for as good a price as on ebay.

In fact, on all gumtree ads now there is a box where the potential buyer is encouraged to make a 'quick offer'. Make an offer always implies offer less than the asking price, so pop your price up a bit to allow leeway for this haggling.

On the other hand, if you're after something, it is a great place to look as you know the sellers won't necessarily have had many other offers.

If you do have clothes, shoes etc to sell, you can often do better on buy/swap/sell on facebook. Look for a largish board in your local area.

[annieher]

to Lyndal, oh no. I made allowances for that but when you're selling little stuff, quite often the postage is higher than the item ie books. It would be ok if I was selling expensive books... don't have any of those!! 

To me, it's just eBay double-dipping. I was never one of those sellers who charged exoribant postage to escape paying fees. 

lol.. in fact, I can remember a couple of times swearing because I'd grossly underestimated the postage. 

(shrugs shoulders) I didn't mind only making a few dollars on books etc. Mostly I spent it back there, anyway.

As you say, I'll have to readjust my thinking.

just out of curiousity, does it annoy you that eBay is just being sneaky about getting more money? 

thanks for replying

[annieher]

bother!!!!!

[lyndal1838]

Nobody likes extra fees but I don't see how ebay is being sneaky....the FVF on postage was well advertised and very well discussed on the boards.   I am actually very surprised that you missed it.

The biggest problem with the postage fee on the Australian site is that ebay charges the full amount on overseas postage which can be a brutal slug.  On the US site they only charge the fee on the first listed domestic rate even if it is an overseas transaction.

That is grossly unfair IMO.