Completely OT, but, f*ck those ebay fees

[Vickko]

Clearly I haven't bought and sold on ebay for a couple years, but holy crap the fees are high. 10% ebay fee, 3% paypal fee?

I thought I was miffed when a local buyer said I was priced right, but if I knocked 20% off, he'd pay me cash.

Now I'm reconsidering his offer.

regards
Vick

 

[bmattock]

It is what it is. They're still the only game that has the global reach and user base. Lots of alternatives, but they're a very distant second.

 

[sevo]

Well, you get a dramatically expanded buyer base for it. If you have other opportunities to sell for 10% less, go for it...

 

[Tim Murphy]

Dear Vick,

It is what it is. Once Ebay got to be the be all and end all of online selling then it was only natural to expect that they would name their terms.

It's pretty much the equivalent of usury, but when you are the only game in town for most then you get to make the rules.

I mostly buy on Ebay. Ebay is a place to buy, and only a place to buy for most people. I've sold on occasion and was willing to accept the fees. The times when I sold that made me feel best were the times when I sold on Ebay while negotiating with some moron on Craigslist.

I offered something local on Craigslist more than once and met with a fiercely defiant and shrewd negotiator who insisted my price was outrageous. More than once, though I suspect I might have been dealing with the same moron, I put a buy it now add on Ebay.

I closed my negotiation with the moron by sending them the closed Ebay listing and a thank you note for being dumb enough to encourage me to seek other alternatives. I then added the selling price less the deducts for using Ebay and told them in no uncertain terms that they were a moron.

I sincerely doubt they got the message though?

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂

 

[David Murphy]

It is what it is. They're still the only game that has the global reach and user base. Lots of alternatives, but they're a very distant second.

One pretty good alternative is to sell quality camera gear right here - global reach too.

 

[Tim Murphy]

One pretty good alternative is to sell quality camera gear right here - global reach too.

Dear David,

On most camera message board for sale sections I'd agree with you. You hit the target market and in general they have a realistic idea of the value of a camera or lens.

Please let me know if the for sale section on this forum has progressed to the point where you can read an ad that isn't on the first page? If it has then I'll agree with you 100%.

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂

 

[bmattock]

One pretty good alternative is to sell quality camera gear right here - global reach too.

Not even close. You must be joking.

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

If you absolutely need to sell something inside of a week, without trouble, cleanly and mostly anonymously, eBay is the only game in town. The fees, IMHO, are extremely reasonable for the miraculous service they are providing. But if you can take your time, RFF is aces.

 

[Tim Murphy]

Not even close. You must be joking.

Dear bmattock,

I was trying to be polite with my response. You made it clear that I wasting my time as I knew I was.

It appears to me that people will not understand that expedience has a cost. I'm content with robbing them blind with an Ebay buy it now so I'm good.

To quote Calvera, "If God didn't want them sheared, he would not have made them sheep."

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂

 

[bmattock]

Dear bmattock,

I was trying to be polite with my response. You made it clear that I wasting my time as I knew I was.

It appears to me that people will not understand that expedience has a cost. I'm content with robbing them blind with an Ebay buy it now so I'm good.

To quote Calvera, "If God didn't want them sheared, he would not have made them sheep."

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂

I wasn't responding to whatever hidden meaning you had loaded your post with, but simply to the actual words you used, since I am not a mindreader, and unlike you, don't ascribe motivation to people I do not know.

Let me make it more clear for you. RFF, although a wonderful place full of lovely people, is in no way comparable to eBay for reach, size, or scale of operations. It is impossible to logically assign it a value as a "pretty good alternative" to eBay.

One can sell photo-related items on both. That is essentially the limit of the comparison that can be made. Your statement would have a squirt gun as a pretty good alternative to a fire hydrant, because both can spurt water.

 

[Peter Jennings]

I recently put a Minolta Autocord and some accessories up for sale on RFF classifieds and had hundreds of views within a few hours. I was actually very surprised. I'm sure it wouldn't have seen nearly as many views if I had listed it on eBay. Perhaps a lot of forum members have a habit of stopping off at the classifieds whenever they visit. It may not have the reach of eBay, of course, but those who visit the RFF classifieds know their cameras and are usually willing to pay a fair price.

The Autocord sold within 24 hours.🙂