I have just signed up to Ebay, and have heard some very bad reports from it, especailly among the sellers. Some of the fees are extortionate. For more details see below:
Since PayPal has moved abroad there is even less protection against fraud. They will debit from your account at the earliest opportunity if there is a dispute so after a sale I would remove the money if I were you. If you have a considerable amount of time to spare try and see what would happen if you had a dispute and wanted to sort it out...........
Johnnyboy
That is a good example of someone not reading or undrestanding the instructions. They were selling the wrong thing in a category designed to sell cars not videos.
Cheeky I would contact the buyer before doing what pbeach suggests, they may not want the item so much if it costs more in postage than it is worth. You can stop overseas buyers bidding by excluding people outside the UK in the listing
I make a good income from eBay and have done for years - the trick is to make sure you understand all the terms and condtions, and the way everything works.
If you don't want to sell him your item you can do a mutual withdrawal, if he agrees, and you will get all your listing fees back.
If you sell off your old tat, you don't pay tax on it. As soon as you buy goods for the purposing of reselling you are trading and have to pay tax (if your income exceeds your tax free allowance).
I have separate selling accounts for business and tax, which is a more professional way of handling my accounts.
All worked out fine - the person who won wants delivery to a UK address. The value of them item is less than �10 so I'm happy to post it. I'm selling off my old tat :-)
Some useful info provided though, thanks guys - I didn't know that I could block people from outside the UK from viewing my listings!
Cheekychops - I often have alarm bells ringing at many things.
Please be aware that if you send an item to an address that is different to the buyer's address on PayPal, he will most definitely get a refund if he claims it never arrived.
This isn't going to happen for �10, but please bear in mind for future reference.
If this buyer contacts you and wants to do the same thing for a very expensive item, the answer must be 'no'.
Ethel
Wed 20/08/08
23:14 Cheekychops - I often have alarm bells ringing at many things.
Please be aware that if you send an item to an address that is different to the buyer's address on PayPal, he will most definitely get a refund if he claims it never arrived.
.....................................................................................
so it is always a man that robs people on ebay then Ethel??????
I must admit that it did worry me for a few minutes but the item is of small value. If it was a few hundred and the winner was in Nigeria, I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole!
If only I did have something of high value to sell...