mplaczek

Hi, I'm moving house soon and thought a little clear out would help considerably... I have heaps of DVDs, CDs and other bits and pieces that I thought I would sell on Ebay, but thought I should ask a few questions from all you pros out there I've bought lots of stuff without any problems... But never sold anything.

1) To make things easy for me I thought I would sell all the DVDs, probably about 30 of them, in one auction... good idea or no??

2) I know a fair postage price is important, so If I did sell something bulky or heavy how would you recommend I send it. Royal mail special delivery? registered?

3) What about payment methods? I have an accout with paypal which I have used when buying without difficulty. Is selling via paypal easy to set up... I know it is a very popular payment method.

4) Does anyone have any other tips for selling...

Any information is greatly appreciated!!

kbsub

I would take them all to a car boot sale instead , me and the wife did one today and took £110.00 all from rubbish we had lying around the house and no messing about with postage , what you don't sell stick on Ebay

P.S. Videos and DVDs usually sell pretty well at carboots

Bonehead

Or, if you can be bothered to write a list of your dvd's/cds out. Why not post it on scoobynet?

Apparition

Same here. carboot the dvds and CDs. We've done this a few times, certain things were held back for ebay because they brought more money in via auction.
PayPal is dead easy and quite a safe way to receive payments.
Postage depends on weight. Lightweight stuff, (up to 500grms) I normally send by special next day delivery which includes insurance. Heavier items probably parcel post or parcel force. Always try to put the postage fees in your description, people like to know where they stand.
Happy selling! And good luck with the move !

Spoon

1) If you want to make it really easy for yourself then good idea. If you want to realise a better price by listing singularly then a bad idea. Have a look to see what you could expect from selling them and either try a 99p, no reserve auction or a Buy it Now at a fair price that you'd expect from current trends.

2) Sending anything bulky or heavy obviously will command a higher delivery cost. This is accepted by buyers as long as you keep it fair. Try a courier website for prices and don't forget to take into account packaging costs. My advice is whatever you send it NEEDS a signature. Too many people know how to say they never received items and then also to do a PayPal chargeback for the payment!

3) Most people will want to see that you offer PayPal and it is simple to sell using this method. Set-up is only a matter of adding your email address in your listing template and agreeing to accept PayPal in your listing.
However, to avoid any chargebacks make sure your items are signed for and are delivered as described in the listing.
You can never be certain the funds used to pay for your items aren't fraudulent via PayPal. The first you will know is when you receive an email from them telling you the funds have been "temporarily Held" pending an investigation. This might be well after you have sent the item. However, as long as you have delivered to the address stated on PayPal and can prove delivery (via online tracking) you should qualify for Seller Protection.

4) Make your listing look like quality and don't be greedy. It's that simple.

Good Luck.

jbryant

I sold off a load of Region 1 and 2 DVDs via ebay a couple of months ago. 15 good disks (including a few special editions and rarities) sold individually brought me in about £65. It was an awful lot of work - a couple of hours to list them all (though easier with Region 2 disks as you just put in the barcode from the back of the box and ebay has a catalogue of data to import into your auction). It also took an awful lot of grief sending them. Yes several people paypalled immediately, so a batch of about 8 disks were sent next day. I then had to make 3 or 4 more trips to the post office over the following 2 weeks. If you value your feedback you may find yourself regretting multiple auctions unless you have a lot of time on your hands. People expect stuff to be sent real quick even if they've been tardy in paying.

VHS stuff just doesn't sell on ebay and is way more expensive to post. I sent all mine (about 100 films) down the local oxfam as they had been hanging around for years and I still hadn't got around to setting up at a car boot. Saw a box of >30 great VHS films going when I first looked into it (Star wars collection, shawshank, loads of other cool films that I was also getting rid of). Eventually went to £11 + £10 postage so hardly seemed worthwhile when the charity shop could potentially make hundreds.

Be realistic on the postage and you WILL get better prices. I only charged stamp cost + 50p new jiffy bag for postage on the DVDs I shipped, with +50p option for recorded. Get confirmation of delivery for non-recorded or non-special delivery from the post office on everything you send. It is good to stop those 'tryers' from turning you over when stuff 'doesn't arrive.' Post Office staff will inevitably tut when you ask for this, but when you start emailing back the triers to say that the post office are looking into the lost mail claim, they seem to quickly receive the parcel

Hope this helps
Joolz

jbryant

And start off with a 99p price - It's a slightly lower listing cost than if you put £1, and if the disk is worth more then you'll probably get more, as everything reaches a fair price. People seem far more nervous about bidding £2 or £3 for a DVD as a first bid. A quid is much easier for them to cope with

The only time I've found this approach is not so beneficial is for 'low traffic items' or speciality items where you're better off putting a starting price that reflects the lowest possible price you'd be disgusted at receiving (ie. use the first bid price as your lowest possible reserve price). Don't use the official reserve price feature!

Give +ve feedback as soon as you receive payment. This is the honest way to trade. Put a short note in the package stating you've given them feedback and asking for +ve feedback from them if they're happy with the service they have received. Do not withhold feedback until you've received it - People who use this form of feedback blackmail suck (IMHO of course! ).

Joolz