When Did Ebay Become Such a Rip Off

motorguy

Flyonthewall wrote: »

Actually I think with ebay and paypal fees it would be around 80p. It's a lot. However, fees are just as high (or higher) elsewhere.

For private sellers though, they can generally get just as much by checking around the online buyers now, without ANY hassle.

RFW

motorguy wrote: »

Ebay, sadly seem to have forgotten who and what made them great in the first place.

Who and what? It was always the big sellers that pushed Ebay forward. They've always courted big business, they'd be daft not to.
It's never been a free ride. There's never been an entitlement to use Ebay. The front end fees have fallen considerably since Ebay started. I think that back in 2002 listing a DVD with pictures at a starting price of £2 would have cost more than 35p.

It's free to list on Amazon, though overall selling on there will cost much the same as on Ebay, if not slightly more. Disney DVDs are usually quite good at retaining value, so worth checking there for any with a decent value.

Flyonthewall

motorguy wrote: »

For private sellers though, they can generally get just as much by checking around the online buyers now, without ANY hassle.

Depends what you're selling. For media, if you want the best price you need to check around as it can vary greatly between buying sites, trading in, amazon, ebay, carboots, facebook, gumtree etc.

Although usually buying sites offer very little and are usually not worth it - they only appear to offer more if you're going to put everything up at 99p on ebay and assume it'll sell at that price. If you try and get the best price, you can most likely get more than any buying site is willing to offer.

As for no hassle, you could get numerous buyers on ebay who you have no problems with. You can also sell to a company and them lose the parcel or say you're stuff is worth less due to the condition (even if you know the condition was fine).

RFW

Flyonthewall wrote: »

As for no hassle, you could get numerous buyers on ebay who you have no problems with. You can also sell to a company and them lose the parcel or say you're stuff is worth less due to the condition (even if you know the condition was fine).

I've no idea why anyone would sell to Music Magpie or companies who offer even less.
You'd be better off offering a joblot on Ebay or cherry picking the best ones for Amazon and giving the rest to charity.
If you need the space quickly and have a lot to sell, my advice would be to use fulfill by Amazon, label up and ship to Amazon warehouse. It's almost certain you'll get more than Music Magpie will pay. You may end up having to get Amazon to dispose of some that wouldn't sell but you will still get a decent return.

Flyonthewall

RFW wrote: »

I've no idea why anyone would sell to Music Magpie or companies who offer even less.
You'd be better off offering a joblot on Ebay or cherry picking the best ones for Amazon and giving the rest to charity.
If you need the space quickly and have a lot to sell, my advice would be to use fulfill by Amazon, label up and ship to Amazon warehouse. It's almost certain you'll get more than Music Magpie will pay. You may end up having to get Amazon to dispose of some that wouldn't sell but you will still get a decent return.

Me neither. Although I'm glad they do because I've got some bargains buying from the companies

I agree. If you've got a spare Sunday morning then a carboot would probably get you even more. Cash in hand too, no returns or packaging needed.

jon81uk

You might be better off just taking DVDs to CEX. uk.webuy.com

ballisticbrian

To be honest, it's 50p or £1 a CD or DVD at car boots now. In the digital age, where you can play old school music on You Tube whenever you want, I don't think people see the necessity to keep archives of music or DVDs for that matter.

bxboards

RFW wrote: »

If you need the space quickly and have a lot to sell, my advice would be to use fulfill by Amazon, label up and ship to Amazon warehouse. It's almost certain you'll get more than Music Magpie will pay. You may end up having to get Amazon to dispose of some that wouldn't sell but you will still get a decent return.

FBA is an expensive way to sell, and with Amazon's free shipping at 20 now, these will just sit unsold and the seller will end up paying Amazon to dispose on them as the P&P charges will make them uncompetitive. FBA would also get a lot of returns with people using it as a free rental service I think.

An Ebay job lot would be the way to go, and would cost much less than Amazon.

Flyonthewall

ballisticbrian wrote: »

To be honest, it's 50p or £1 a CD or DVD at car boots now. In the digital age, where you can play old school music on You Tube whenever you want, I don't think people see the necessity to keep archives of music or DVDs for that matter.

CDs have generally lost their value, but they are still used by many.

DVDs, you get more for box sets and you can get a bit more than £1 for a DVD. Might vary depending on area and other sellers. Also largely depends on how you price things. You say £1 and you'll get that, if you're lucky. A lot will try and push you down to 50p or less. It's already really cheap, what's a few more pence? You say £2 and a fair few will give you that or £1.50 or you can offer to sell a couple at £3. Some may be cheeky and offer half the amount, but at least you're not selling them all at that price or less.

Lucky to get 10/20p each for many when trading in. Personally, I've found DVDs sell really well at carboots and it works out far better than trading them in.

motorguy

RFW wrote: »

Who and what? It was always the big sellers that pushed Ebay forward. They've always courted big business, they'd be daft not to.

It started off being about private sellers, then there was a balance point where you had a mix of private, small businesses and large businesses. Now they're just heading toward business sellers and making it more and more difficult for private users.

RFW wrote: »

It's never been a free ride. There's never been an entitlement to use Ebay. The front end fees have fallen considerably since Ebay started. I think that back in 2002 listing a DVD with pictures at a starting price of £2 would have cost more than 35p.

Then they "dropped" the listing price, but increased the percentage of the total price. Oh and then they started including postage costs in their final value fee too. Didnt used to do that.

In fact if you calculate your fees out on a £2 buy it now item, you'll pay over 25% of that amount in fees to ebay and paypal. And THEN you'll have to stand over the item against

• theft during postage
• theft by the buyer
• scams by the buyer
• "not as described" by the buyer
• "Fault" by the buyer because it doesnt work for them
• Seller decides they dont want it after all.

And just because amazon are stiffing people too doesnt make them right either.