Craigslist or Ebay and Paypal

[charlier]

I have some equipment I am thinking of selling. Which is better, Craiglist or Ebay? How do you make sure you get paid? It will be more than the $2000 paypal 'guarantees'. Paypal says you need to upgrade your account to have a higher limit, but the accounts you upgrade to require that the account will not be used for personal transactions. Seems like an easy way out for them, since this is obviously a personal transaction. Anyone ever collected more than 2000 from Paypal?

Thanks for your ideas!

[Will V.]

I'm not quite sure I understand your question.

In my experience, items sell for more money on eBay than they do on CL, because you are reaching a wider audience. But on the other hand, you have to deal with packing and shipping, and assuming more risk than you would selling locally on CL. It's a trade-off, you must decide whether the trade-off is worth it. You might want to consider whether the items you are selling are exceptionally fine or exceptionally uncommon, in either case, they might command an extra premium on eBay.

[fmueller]

Anything you can ship, you are better off selling on eBay. If you can't ship it - huge floorstanders, furniture, lawn mower, etc. - you might as well put it on CL. When selling on eBay you don't want to sell a whole system as one lot. You'll want to break things up into reasonable chunks, and hopefully that would take you under the $2000 limit. I am assuming it's per transaction. I have never sold one item that was that expensive, but I've sold stuff for more than that in a month, which was not an issue - kinds nice actually :D

Just to illustrate what I mean by breaking it up, if for arguments sake you want to sell an amp, a CD player and a tape deck that are worth $100 each, and you lump them into one auction, chances are that nobody really wants all three pieces. People who want two items will bid $200 - or maybe $220, expecting to get the third piece free or very cheaply. If you sell them separately, you get a guy who wants the amp to bid $100, another who wants the CD player to bid $100 and yet another who wants the tape deck to also bid $100, and you end up with $300 in your pocket.

On the other hand, I doubt you'd want to sell a TT and the associated cartridge separately, because my hunch is that most people would rather bid on a complete setup than a TT without cartridge. I have more experience selling photo stuff than audio gear, but you get the idea.

How do you make sure you get paid?

You make sure you have the money securely in your hand before you ship the stuff.

Frank

[gladiator335]

I usually try CL first (at least it's free and no shipping problems). If it doesn't sell-go to eBay.

[charlier]

I have an amp and pre-amp that go together so I was going to try to sell them as a pair. It will be well over Ebays 2000 limit, though. I was thinking I might get more for the pair, though. I suppose I can just put them up there with a minimum and see what happens.

Thanks for everyone's input!

[Will V.]

I don't understand what you mean by this $2k limit?

[charlier]

As I understand it, Paypal will only gaurantee payment up to 2k if the buyer backs out of it or otherwise trys to steal the equipment. I've never done this before but from what I have read, if I use Paypal, the highest bidder pays with paypal, who holds the money until I ship and they recieve the equipment. If they do recieve it and then claim they did not, I don't get the money. Isn't that the way it works?

[SicMan]

You get paid as soon as the transaction happens, the money is charged to the buyer when he "Pays Now" with PayPal. So in ither words you have the money before hand. I believe the $2K works when you pay for something and don't get it. I use PayPal all the time not only on EPrey but even for CL deals.
My .02

Hope this helps
John

[bowtie427ss]

As I understand it, Paypal will only gaurantee payment up to 2k if the buyer backs out of it or otherwise trys to steal the equipment.It ain't rocket science, don't accept paypal for those items, check or money order only and as mentioned by another poster, don't ship until the instrument clears the issuing bank.

If the gear is as "high end" as has been inferred, why not work with the dealer where you got it to put the payment thru their CC merchant account?

They'll likely charge less, or no more than paypal fees if you have a working relationship with them.

If you live in a densely enough populated area, CL and cash are hard to beat.

As I understand it, Paypal will only gaurantee payment up to 2k if the buyer backs out of itPaypal doesn't cover buyers backing out of transactions, if that were the case we'd all use it.

Just my .02 y'all understand.............................

[fmueller]

The last item I paid for using not PayPal but a money order was a Canon lens (100-400L), which is worth about 1 grand. The seller had just come back from a couple of years of active military duty, and had an extensive and 100% positive eBay feedback record from before that time, but was unfamiliar with PayPal. He got scared by all the horror stories circulating on the net and wouldn't accept it. As a result, he received very few bids on his item, and I am sure he could have got at least $200 more for the lens, had he accepted the now commonly preferred payment method for big ticket items on eBay - PayPal! His loss was my gain, because I got a very desirable lens in mint condition for a steal :D

If you are worried about the 2K thing, sell the power amp and pre amp separately, and put a big note with a hot link to the respective other auction in each auction description. That way people know that the matching pair is available, and can bid accordingly. Seems like the best way out, although I can see that offering a matching pair in one auction also sounds tempting at first glance.

Frank

PS:

why not work with the dealer where you got it to put the payment thru their CC merchant account?

He is selling, not buying!

Paypal doesn't cover buyers backing out of transactions, if that were the case we'd all use it.

If the buyer convinces PayPal that he either didn't receive the item, or it was substantially different from your description - for example DOA - than PayPal can take the money back, and freeze your account - not only the PayPal account, but also the bank account associated with it. It can then take weeks if not months until the issue has been sorted out. It's a big worry, and that's what all the PayPal horror stories are about, but that can happen for any amount - above or under $2000. Luckily it doesn't seem to happen often, and I pray it never happens to me!

[Will V.]

Bottom line, there is no such thing as a guarantee from PayPal, until you get the money securely in your own bank account. PayPal's TOS state in not so many words they can pretty much do whatever the heck they want, anytime they want. So don't even think you're guaranteed in any situation with PayPal. That's why when I make payments with PayPal, I always use my credit card. It's another level of protection for me, above and beyond anything PayPal might do for me if a transaction goes south.

I would recommend accepting PayPal, your final auction price will be higher than it would be otherwise. You might take a look at some higher end PayPal auctions to see what types of payments the sellers accept. Many of them accept PayPal.

[fmueller]

I agree with Will V. Using PayPal is a lot like using a car - it's just darn convenient, and pretty hard to imagine living without these days, but we would all be a heck of a lot safer if we just walked :yes:

[charlier]

Thanks everyone for your comments and advice. It seems like using Paypal will increase the bids. Maybe I'll be lucky and the winning bidder will be within a couple of hours drive... Then I can just get the cash and not have to worry about damage during shipping.
Thanks again!

[blownsi]

Don't forget about ebay/paypal's outrageous fees.

CL is free so I would list it there first and if it doesn't sell then worry about packing/shipping and being scammed.