Selling on eBay for others

ANNA

I've been selling on eBay for a while.

Now I've been asked by a friend to help a friend of hers to sell something on eBay.

The item is a used designer garment, so quite valuable. I've never sold for anyone else on eBay. I know there are sellers on eBay who do this for a living. I remember reading a thread (but can't find it again) which discussed what to charge and the dangers of listing for others.

I was wondering whether to do it and what percentage to charge?

I sold a bicycle on Gumtree for a friend, who had offered me half the proceeds. She brought the bike round to me, and I had to do the listing, the email replies to questions, as well as the handover with the eventual buyer.

I asked my friend what her friend's expectations are. It turns out she want to come to my home and have me help her open an eBay account, take photographs of the garment, compile a description and get it listed.

First, is it even possible to sell on a new eBay account with zero feedback?

Secondly, isn't this a lot to ask? It will take up at least an hour of my time and it seems that it hasn't ocurred to her to pay me. She's not a friend, though I met her with our mutual friend a few years ago and haven't seen or heard from her since.

ballisticbrian

You are right there was another thread with all the pros and cons. The starting point is that a lot of people who don't use eBay or computers *imagine* it's as simple as writing an ad to go in the local paper, and there's no come back if the buyer has a problem, and as I'm sure you already know, there's a huge gulf between the two.

soolin

ANNA wrote: »

I've been selling on eBay for a while.

Now I've been asked by a friend to help a friend of hers to sell something on eBay.

The item is a used designer garment, so quite valuable. I've never sold for anyone else on eBay. I know there are sellers on eBay who do this for a living. I remember reading a thread (but can't find it again) which discussed what to charge and the dangers of listing for others.

I was wondering whether to do it and what percentage to charge?

I sold a bicycle on Gumtree for a friend, who had offered me half the proceeds. She brought the bike round to me, and I had to do the listing, the email replies to questions, as well as the handover with the eventual buyer.

I asked my friend what her friend's expectations are. It turns out she want to come to my home and have me help her open an email account, take photographs of the garment, compile a description and get it listed.

First, is it even possible to sell on a new eBay account with zero feedback?

Secondly, isn't this a lot to ask? It will take up at least an hour of my time and it seems that it hasn't ocurred to her to pay me. She's not a friend, though I met her with our mutual friend a few years ago and haven't seen or heard from her since.

Personally I would point her to the basic help pages on ebay rather than get involved. You might also want to suggest that she familiarises herself with ebay by buying a few things before trying to sell.

Other things to consider are, whether the brand is allowed on ebay, and whether you want your ISP linked to a new user who might just turn out to have issues later and possibly cause you issues.

I've found to my cost that helping people sometimes backfires. Every time they do anything they email or phone, they expect you to drop everything and help them and when it goes wrong they blame you.

ANNA

I hadn't even considered the aspect of someone else using my ISP if she were to come round.

Very sensible advice. Thank you.

theonlywayisup

Would the 'friend of a friend' pay you back the designer pound notes when/if the buyer filed a chargeback 6 months down the line (or longer, perhaps up to 6 years)?

RFW

One of the bigger downsides is that for it to be worthwhile the item owner would get no more than 50% of the sale price back. Someone who doesn't understand Ebay and wants you to sell for them would not get how that would be fair.

hollydays

Have you actually checked to see what one of these has sold for, in the same condition?
There's designer and " designer" , then there's vintage and old fashioned, then there's just plain ugly. Not every thing referred to as designer is desirable.
Is it the right season to sell it?

barbiedoll

It's not that hard to set up an ebay account, you're taken through it step-by-step and you don't have to be a computer genius to work out how to do it.

Selling designer clothes though (or any clothes come to that) is not for the faint-hearted or the inexperienced ebayer, especially if she's expecting to sell it for a tidy sum.

You'll be in for a world of pain if you get involved in this, you'll have no end of trouble if she has one of those scam buyers who find a real or imaginary stain/hole/missing button, and who then insist on a 50% refund etc etc.

Steer well clear, she's not even your friend!