Selling stuff on ebay....whats the rules

[charlie82]

I am new to selling on ebay. I have a few items for sale with about 10 watchers and 1 or 2 bids. I have had an email asking to buy 2 items for £90, but it will cost me £23 to send them abroad. I was hoping to get more, but am not sure I'll get near the proposal if I just let it go till the end. I know this person wants them so if the bids are low they will get it for a lot cheaper. Although I was thinking if there are 10 or so people watching my different items, there would be a bidding war at the end considering my items are popular. (seen other bids on similar items). Oh, what to do....help. x

[TWR]

I've only once sold abroad & will be my last time, but anyway, if you sell your Item make sure your money is in your account first, the postage, put that on the price of the goods & state that to the buyer & make sure they understand, if the items are pottery pack them very well as I've heard of people selling these to Europe etc then getting a mail to say that they have been damaged so beware, be sure to follow eBay rules do not accept bids out of eBay as you COULD get banned, check the byers feedback FULLY, I usually say, items can be picked up to save postage & arrange where, not to far from your area/ town, be HONEST otherwise you will come unstuck, myself I would stick to the UK & state that on the selling page. if the people want it they will pat for it, the last Min of selling is the time the bids go up.

[boxtops]

I sell abroad all the time, and I can't say I've ever had a problem (other than one breakage).

If you have an item for sale which already has a bid on it, you can't now cancel the auction and sell it to someone else - you'll need to go through with that one, and for the person to bid for as much as they want to pay - you might find that if there is a bidding war at the end, you get what you want.

Does this person know that the postage cost is £23, are they willing to pay that? I always list Uk postage + Europe + worldwide, so buyers know how much they will have to pay. Does the £90 include postage, would that be worth your while?

I'd tell them (and they will be able to see from your listing) that people are already bidding honestly on your items and that you can't therefore now withdraw the item, it wouldn't be fair trading. Let them bid for themselves, but make sure that they know about the postage costs first.

[smart1]

I often watch things for weeks, but never bid until the closing time as that just pushes the price up for the buyer. Up to you, but would leave it to the end. I thought you had to go through with the auction, unless you pu a 'Buy it Now' option ie - I thought it was illegal to close the auction early.

[TWR]

There could be reasons to stop the sale Smart providing you stop the sale in good time, It can be stopped.

[woofgang]

You can stop an auction to sell it to the highest bidder or if you have lost or broken the item or otherwise no longer have it in a saleable condition. If someone is emailing you asking you to sell to them they have to make the highest bid at which point you end the auction and sell to them.

[boxtops]

Agree with woofgang - you can't just take the item off sale because you've had a Buy It Now offer, if you didn't list your items as BiN as well as auction. If the item gets broken etc before the sale ends, that's a different matter - if you end a sale early, you have to tell eBay why.

[EDDIE51]

You always put the cost of postage in the listing and the buyer pays it when they buy the item..
I sell on eBay and 80% of my stuff goes abroad, very few problems. European postage is hardly more than UK but selling to the rest of the world can cost a lot in postage , always make sure you charge the correct postage and some thing for packing.
If you sell outside ebay there is no buyer guarantee

[charlie82]

I think u can cancel if you still have more than 24 hours to go. The ebayer says they are a professional in selling the 2nd hand good in france. They said they would pay money immediately. Unfortunately the main thing is not been bid on but does have 10 watchers and the other item already has 2 small bids on. They finish on different days too. They kinda go hand in hand but isn't a must. Would be disappointed if I don't get the price she offered but wondered if it worth the hassle and could be worth more.....who knows. Oh boxtops - they told me how much postage would cost for approx weight and who to use to send it. She said she doesn't think I will get a high price than what she's proposing. She buys and sells these items all the time. The £90 includes the posted, so really mean she's buying both for £67.

[Clanad]

Next time, list a "Sell it Now" price, and do a good job of checking shipping rates which you have to show to list anything "Worldwide".

I sell overseas a lot (from the U.S.)... in fact the last item went to OZ and have never really had a problem. Having said that, I did a lot of research and prohibit sales (when you're setting it up initially) to Southeast Asia, Middle East (with the exception of Israel, where I've sold a lot of stuff) and, in one case, Italy). You should probably include insurance in your shipping cost. Depending on the size of the package and declared value, it's not to expensive. In fact, here in the U.S. our Postal Service has a service called Priority Mail and the small box (there are three sizes) ships to Europe for $12.00 (US), and is insured automatically for the E-bay sales amount. Usually get 7 day delivery to U.K. and Europe and 10 days to OZ and Japan...

[Clanad]

That should be "Buy it Now", of course. By the way, a good, cheap investment is an electronic postage scale. In fact the one I have I bought off of E-bay for $14.00 (US) andwill weigh up to 75 pounds.

[charlie82]

I did say pick up only, but if you want to arrange your own courier then thats fine. I did say if she won bit I didn't mind posting it. Oh crap.

[charlie82]

On my ebay its says pick up only and if anyone wants to sort own courier thats fine.

[andres]

You can have numerous watchers and not even get a single bid sometimes !!
If you let it go to the end of the auction you will have to let the item go for whatever amount it ends up as.You can end the listing and sell to the highest bidder at anytime. You don't pay the postage ;the buyer does that .
Hope this helps!

[old-wos-is-name]

If you send abroad, send by our royal mail/parcel force, tracked. there are some countries where the parcels NEVER arrive, so be very very careful, and accept only paypal and make sure you get a receipt at time of posting, a tracking number, and inform the customer that here are the details, the ball is now in your court, so to speak.

[factor-fiction]

I used to sell to customers in places like France but I used to avoid posting to places like Malaysia. I used to get lots of emails asking whether I'd be prepared to sell my £10 second hand clothes to buyers in Malaysia/China etc but I couldn't understand why they'd be prepared to pay a large postage cost to get an item that they could probably get cheaply in their own country, so I was suspicious and didn't sell. Maybe I missed out on sales but I foresaw problems if there were claims for non-receipt

[boxtops]

She's telling you how much the postage is? No, it doesn't work like that! Tell us how much the item weighs, we'll give you a price for postage to Europe, just to make sure.

[charlie82]

Thanks for all your help. So if I decide to sell it to someone who has offered a good price, do I put a buy it now onto my listing? I think I go to revise item and add it. Or can you tell me how this works please? Ive had another person asking can I put a 'buy it now' price up. Eek.

[boxtops]

Yes, it's easily done, but you can't do it during the last 24 hours (unless the rules have changed recently).

Go to the item and click Revise my item, then add a BiN price - you will be charged a small extra fee for BiN, but it'll be worth it if you sell your item for a good price quickly.

You can't add a BiN for items where someone is already bidding, though.

[charlie82]

Damn. I was just about to put a BIN price and someone has put a bid on for 99p - arrrhhhhh. Ok, what else can I do? So if someone wants to buy it before the last 24 hours how can I do this. Sorry, I am learning fast lol

[boxtops]

You can't, charlie - if you want to add BiN, you have to do it before someone bids. You'll have to live with it, this time, and hope that your French lady bids too.

I'd still like to be sure that you are not being diddled on what she says is the postage rate, since you haven't weighed them and given an EU price on your listing. Tell us how much they weigh, I've got my postage chart here.