Well, they’re not I guess, as they aren’t actually extorting money from me, but I’m sure you get me.

Selling a bike at Auction? That will be 10% of the final value, thanks.

BUT NO THANKS!!!!

what if you get 20% more than you would elsewhere?

Well they have a virtual monopoly on online auctions

Funnily enough their charges for listing a car are a bit more reasonable

Don’t sell on eBay if you don’t like the fees.

I suck the fees up as everything sells and payments etc are made easy for me.

Jamie has a good take on this, stick the bike on Ebay with an auction starting too high (more money than you want). Make a note of all the buyers contacting you to buy off Ebay at a lower price. When auction ends, negotiate a private sale.

Thats kinda sneaky ff…:)

I like it!

Or ask the buyer that once he has received and is happy with the item, instead of leaving feedback agree to cancel the transaction then you’ll have your seller fees reimbursed. Doesn’t matter if payment is done with PayPal either.

That will be 10% of the final value

The cheapest you’ll get anywhere

Auctions I use charge more like 35%. Because they are only able to market locally, even the ones that operate online, they’re not the best way to get maximum value for an item if you are selling, but a way to get a bargain if you’re buying – so much so a lot of they buyers are just selling on again on eBay – between the 35% buyer premium in the local auction and the 10% sellers premium on ebay they’re still able to make money.

A sale you can get on ebay will pretty much always be the best price you make anywhere and also pretty much the cheapest sale you make – thats why everyone uses them.

Isn’t everybody donating 10% to STW when they sell on the classifieds? As above, they have a monopoly but it also means you get top dollar; you’ll easily get more than 10% over any price you could get elsewhere. You stick it on there in 10 days it sells for what its worth. That is worth 10% IMO (although I’d still prefer it to be cheaper 🙂 )

You stick it on there in 10 days it sells for what its worth

More to the point you’re getting often getting not far short of the retail price as new for second hand goods that you don’t have to warrantee, with non of the overheads those retailers have and non of their responsibilities.

Harking back to this, I’ve put a few old 26″ bits on Ebay and they’re already much higher than I expected to get (as 26″ kit is out of fashion), so even after fees I’ll be better off for using Ebay.

Its not the fees that are the problem. It’s all the knobs that try to rip you off post sale that is the killer.
I’m liking Jamie’s approach.

I’ve not used it for ages, but so far I’ve had no problems post sale…..

Ebay fees aren’t extortionate IMO. You get massive exposure to market and you get good final prices on things.

Suck it up.

And they also stealth shaft you by taking 10% of your shipping charge!

I think you need to consider what you’re selling and what the correct medium for that is.

For some things I reckon I get more on Gumtree than Ebay (from looking at completed Ebay listings). Others, Ebay wins hands down.

ebay is good and bad.. massive audience reach and the chance of selling above your expectations

the bad is the fees now levied across the board including postage and the ability of people to manipulate sales and claim on the buyer protection policy.

As for asking for fees back, if you do it too oftern they prod and poke in your account

the other thing with eBay is the sheer quantity of stuff on there. Unless you’re super rare and someone wants what you’ve got to sell you’re just another one of many items but as said above it is the best chance you’ll get to get a broad market exposure all be it only for a week r ten days or so.

Or ask the buyer that once he has received and is happy with the item, instead of leaving feedback agree to cancel the transaction then you’ll have your seller fees reimbursed. Doesn’t matter if payment is done with PayPal either.

If someone asked me to do that I would think it was a scam and run a mile.

Sold a few bikes and frames this way. List them at a higher price and mention in the Listing that you’ll end early for the right price. I must of done this a fair few times now and always get a decent deal.

Ebay have got wise to this though as you can’t send your email through eBay messages now even if you try and disguise it.