Ebay selling - feeling out demand and adjusting prices

[J_Dubbs]

I've been a long-time buyer on Ebay but never have done much selling.  A few years back I sold a financial calculator and basically lost money on shipping, or nearly ended up giving it away when all was said and done. Anyways, I just got a break in my schedule and listed a bunch of mining gear, huge pain in the ass!! Anyways, now I guess I just wait and see... I did my best to price competitively as I'd like to sell everything off within 7 days. I'm tempted to post my whole blade rig on Craigslist, but I might run into trouble if I sell some on Ebay then I won't have a complete rig anymore. The ultimate shitty situation will be if I only sell 3-4 blades instead of the whole bunch, guess I'll need to feel out demand and adjust pricing along the way.

Roughly how many days do you wait before making price adjustments? I'm thinking if nothing sells in 3 days then I'm priced too high, but I'm new to eBay selling so I don't have any history/experience to reference.

[1714166620]

1714166620

[1714166620]

1714166620

[Operatr]

Well, I sold a Dualminer on there for $119 a while back when they first came out.

Paypal decided to hold my funds for me because I didnt have enough selling history (though I have had that PayPal account for YEARS).

Then Ebay decided to help itself to $35 of it in fees.

So, paying wholesale for the miner was $85, sold for $119, and made a sweet profit of -$1.00....


Moral of the story is stay the hell away from Ebay and Paypal, they are thieves and represent everything that is wrong with our corrupt and inept monetary system. I will never again use them for anything again.


Set up a shop that accepts cryptocoins, which can be done for free using OpenCart or several others.

[J_Dubbs]

Well, I sold a Dualminer on there for $119 a while back when they first came out.

Paypal decided to hold my funds for me because I didnt have enough selling history (though I have had that PayPal account for YEARS).

Then Ebay decided to help itself to $35 of it in fees.

So, paying wholesale for the miner was $85, sold for $119, and made a sweet profit of -$1.00....


Moral of the story is stay the hell away from Ebay and Paypal, they are thieves and represent everything that is wrong with our corrupt and inept monetary system. I will never again use them for anything again.


Set up a shop that accepts cryptocoins, which can be done for free using OpenCart or several others.

$35 in FEES???! Seriously? Yikes...

The whole thing is the old equipment is only going to be marketable to newbies, so opening a cryptocoin cart doesn't make sense for selling off old equipment with a decent margin. In this case the buyers probably don't have coins yet, so it needs to be offered in a tender they are comfortable exchanging for goods. Hoping to sell fast, and although the fees suck if they are part of the game I'll deal with it for rapid inventory turn.

[Operatr]

Well, I sold a Dualminer on there for $119 a while back when they first came out.

Paypal decided to hold my funds for me because I didnt have enough selling history (though I have had that PayPal account for YEARS).

Then Ebay decided to help itself to $35 of it in fees.

So, paying wholesale for the miner was $85, sold for $119, and made a sweet profit of -$1.00....


Moral of the story is stay the hell away from Ebay and Paypal, they are thieves and represent everything that is wrong with our corrupt and inept monetary system. I will never again use them for anything again.


Set up a shop that accepts cryptocoins, which can be done for free using OpenCart or several others.

$35 in FEES???! Seriously? Yikes...

The whole thing is the old equipment is only going to be marketable to newbies, so opening a cryptocoin cart doesn't make sense for selling off old equipment with a decent margin. In this case the buyers probably don't have coins yet, so it needs to be offered in a tender they are comfortable exchanging for goods. Hoping to sell fast, and although the fees suck if they are part of the game I'll deal with it for rapid inventory turn.

I was a bit shocked needless to say 

Id recommend posting your gear on forums like these in the market sections first. Im sure someone would take them off your hands.

[Gator-hex]

Then Ebay decided to help itself to $35 of it in fees.
Moral of the story is stay the hell away from Ebay and Paypal

$35 in FEES???! Seriously? Yikes...

What people don't realize is that Ebay & PayPal are the same company so they in effect charge you twice. LOL

[googlemaster1]

Yeah, they fees from selling on Ebay are ridiculous.  Its truly highway robbery.  Amazon is equally as bad, but at least they can host in their warehouse for you until it sells.  I seriously hate these companies, they GOUGE you.  If you live in a big city or are close to one, craigslist to the rescue!

[J_Dubbs]

Yeah, they fees from selling on Ebay are ridiculous.  Its truly highway robbery.  Amazon is equally as bad, but at least they can host in their warehouse for you until it sells.  I seriously hate these companies, they GOUGE you.  If you live in a big city or are close to one, craigslist to the rescue!

I had no idea about Amazon doing warehouse storage, but offloading miners would mean unplugging while listing, at least with eBay I stay plugged in until they go out the door. I'm in a not quite big enough city, most of the Craigslist ads here don't seem to be moving, same ones posted each week for mining gear... I figure at some price there will always be a buyer, I'll just need to adjust down until we eventually meet. The fees will really hurt my margins though, was previously unaware how high they are but regardless this stuff's gotta go!

[nybbler905]

My .000001 BTC opinion here...
Someone else already said post in the forums and they kind of forgot to READ them too, there was a few posts of people looking in to buying equipment.  From what little digging I did on the names ( can't remember them at the moment, sorry ) they didn't have negative feedback for sales/buys so it's worth a shot especially if you look in to escrow and ' have buyer pay escrow directly '

With eBay, ya take your chances that they rake you over the coals in fees or worse, side with a non-paying seller that reverses their pay-pal payment as soon as you mark it shipped.


For those with no sense of humour, the following is meant as a joke...

I admit i'm currenlty broke and could use more equipment * nudge, nudge * and am willing to take any mining hardware for free 

[navigator]

When are we getting another bitmit.net?

[mikerbiker6]

I sold some stuff on Ebay, the first 75 items a month have no fee which is pretty nice.
The problem is paypal, they ask a 3,4% fee + 35cents. Anyway, still made some profit.
Later I wanted to spend this paypal money, but the money was frozen.
according to paypal they just hold onto it for a month to be sure everything went right.

But there are other ways, you could tell your customers to only pay through bank wire(no fee in Europe) or BTC and mark the item payed manually.
That way you will be avoiding fees.

[Gator-hex]

But there are other ways, you could tell your customers to only pay through bank wire(no fee in Europe) or BTC and mark the item payed manually.
That way you will be avoiding fees.

If you do that, you will find your account banned, it's against their terms of service.

[J_Dubbs]

I sold some stuff on Ebay, the first 75 items a month have no fee which is pretty nice.
The problem is paypal, they ask a 3,4% fee + 35cents. Anyway, still made some profit.
Later I wanted to spend this paypal money, but the money was frozen.
according to paypal they just hold onto it for a month to be sure everything went right.

But there are other ways, you could tell your customers to only pay through bank wire(no fee in Europe) or BTC and mark the item payed manually.
That way you will be avoiding fees.

Not sure how long ago you sold but this link definitely seems to indicate a 10% fee on the closing of auctions and listings, first 50 included:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html#how

I'm not sure what to do now, seems like demand might be dried up more than I thought, or people are morons. My only auction is a BfL Jally and it has 4 bids with 4 days until close, set the reserve at $150 because surprisingly they seem to always sell for more than that. Everything else I have listed as "buy it now"; cubes for $275, blades for $99, and 9 USB erupters for $120. The freaking USB erupters have 'watchers' subscribed and nobody is jumping at the cubes! I might have some watchers on the blades too.

Lesson I'm learning is if I want to SELL stuff it will need to go auction style. Based on where listings have been selling I do think my prices are fair and reasonable. Also, most importantly, I am offering free shipping on everything. Sucks because I was aiming for a stock out. Now that nothing has sold and it's Tuesday I need to consider pulling down my listings. I have 1 week to sell and then my schedule gets nuts again, definitely don't want to deal with a half-sold inventory... Kinda thinking I might as well just mine out another month with this stuff, payouts have been good so it's no skin off my ass...

[mikerbiker6]

I didn't mention is was using ebay.nl, not ebay.com (last sale was last week, so not outdated data)
Different ebay sites have different regulations, I haven't payed any fee accept for the paypal fee(which could have been avoided also).

Btw, you should definitely use auction mode.
I think it is some mental thing that people see this count down and are more likely to rush in for the buy.

Just by placing stuff online you will also get publicity, almost half of the sales I made happened because people contacted me on ebay wanting to make a deal outside of ebay.
That might have just been luck though.

I also noticed, I sell stuff pretty irregular.
I sell 1 item, then one week nothing, then 8 items at once, then nothing then 1, 1, 3, 0,0,8,5, etc....
So if you sell nothing for 1 week there may still be demand left

[J_Dubbs]

I didn't mention is was using ebay.nl, not ebay.com (last sale was last week, so not outdated data)
Different ebay sites have different regulations, I haven't payed any fee accept for the paypal fee(which could have been avoided also).

Btw, you should definitely use auction mode.
I think it is some mental thing that people see this count down and are more likely to rush in for the buy.

Just by placing stuff online you will also get publicity, almost half of the sales I made happened because people contacted me on ebay wanting to make a deal outside of ebay.
That might have just been luck though.

I also noticed, I sell stuff pretty irregular.
I sell 1 item, then one week nothing, then 8 items at once, then nothing then 1, 1, 3, 0,0,8,5, etc....
So if you sell nothing for 1 week there may still be demand left

Yeah, I definitely don't want to flood the market with 11 blade auctions all at once. What I might do is sell the cubes in individual auctions, hoping the revenues from those will cover an Antminer. Then start trickling off sales of my blades while working towards the next Antminer. The plan is to replace 4 cubes and 11 blades with 2 Atminers. My apartment will get too hot with all this gear running in the summer...

[ChuckBuck]

I sold some stuff on Ebay, the first 75 items a month have no fee which is pretty nice.
The problem is paypal, they ask a 3,4% fee + 35cents. Anyway, still made some profit.
Later I wanted to spend this paypal money, but the money was frozen.
according to paypal they just hold onto it for a month to be sure everything went right.

But there are other ways, you could tell your customers to only pay through bank wire(no fee in Europe) or BTC and mark the item payed manually.
That way you will be avoiding fees.

Not sure how long ago you sold but this link definitely seems to indicate a 10% fee on the closing of auctions and listings, first 50 included:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html#how

I'm not sure what to do now, seems like demand might be dried up more than I thought, or people are morons. My only auction is a BfL Jally and it has 4 bids with 4 days until close, set the reserve at $150 because surprisingly they seem to always sell for more than that. Everything else I have listed as "buy it now"; cubes for $275, blades for $99, and 9 USB erupters for $120. The freaking USB erupters have 'watchers' subscribed and nobody is jumping at the cubes! I might have some watchers on the blades too.

Lesson I'm learning is if I want to SELL stuff it will need to go auction style. Based on where listings have been selling I do think my prices are fair and reasonable. Also, most importantly, I am offering free shipping on everything. Sucks because I was aiming for a stock out. Now that nothing has sold and it's Tuesday I need to consider pulling down my listings. I have 1 week to sell and then my schedule gets nuts again, definitely don't want to deal with a half-sold inventory... Kinda thinking I might as well just mine out another month with this stuff, payouts have been good so it's no skin off my ass...

Yea, definitely auction is the way to go on Ebay, hardy anyone goes for Buy it Now on used equipment.  I was lucky enough to sell my Blade for $197 or so, but still got raped for the reserve listing fee and 10% rate.  Next time, I'm just going to sell over here in the forum:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=75.0

Might sell for a higher fiat price on Ebay, but at least you get it in BTC, gain trust in the community, and deal without the horrible fees.

[mikerbiker6]

Good luck to you man

[ManeBjorn]

Your not kidding about demand drying up over night.
Just 2 weeks ago Avalon Gen 1 units were selling for $900.
My wife an I have to sell ours because I am having a 3rd spinal surgery in a few weeks and we need the money badly.  
What happens?  Not a single bid at a starting price of $475 no reserve.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/141225283111?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

It's frustrating.  Plus the 10% plus Paypal fees ebay is a nightmare now.

Watch once I give up trying to sell it good news about bitcoin will hit again and they will sell like crazy again.

I sold some stuff on Ebay, the first 75 items a month have no fee which is pretty nice.
The problem is paypal, they ask a 3,4% fee + 35cents. Anyway, still made some profit.
Later I wanted to spend this paypal money, but the money was frozen.
according to paypal they just hold onto it for a month to be sure everything went right.

But there are other ways, you could tell your customers to only pay through bank wire(no fee in Europe) or BTC and mark the item payed manually.
That way you will be avoiding fees.

Not sure how long ago you sold but this link definitely seems to indicate a 10% fee on the closing of auctions and listings, first 50 included:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html#how

I'm not sure what to do now, seems like demand might be dried up more than I thought, or people are morons. My only auction is a BfL Jally and it has 4 bids with 4 days until close, set the reserve at $150 because surprisingly they seem to always sell for more than that. Everything else I have listed as "buy it now"; cubes for $275, blades for $99, and 9 USB erupters for $120. The freaking USB erupters have 'watchers' subscribed and nobody is jumping at the cubes! I might have some watchers on the blades too.

Lesson I'm learning is if I want to SELL stuff it will need to go auction style. Based on where listings have been selling I do think my prices are fair and reasonable. Also, most importantly, I am offering free shipping on everything. Sucks because I was aiming for a stock out. Now that nothing has sold and it's Tuesday I need to consider pulling down my listings. I have 1 week to sell and then my schedule gets nuts again, definitely don't want to deal with a half-sold inventory... Kinda thinking I might as well just mine out another month with this stuff, payouts have been good so it's no skin off my ass...

[greentea]

is there a marketplace on the forum to buy mining equipment?

I  see the marketplace for alt-coins but nothing else

[ManeBjorn]

Here is where most of it is.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=75.0

I have an Avalon for sale if you are interested.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/141231808334?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649
I will take $475 in Bitcoin and split the shipping with you if you are in the US.  If outside the US you have to pay shipping.

I hope it helps and Happy Mining.

is there a marketplace on the forum to buy mining equipment?

I  see the marketplace for alt-coins but nothing else

[mikerbiker6]

There is also this thread:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=137.0
If you are interested in large quantities.