eBay as a viable option to sell off old computer hardware and stuff, besides Gumtree?

LZachary on 18/07/2015 - 18:38
Last edited 18/07/2015 - 18:40

I have been on Gumtree for maybe a year, just found them out last year, and was wondering if it's worth it. Just thought having the ad in both Gumtree and Ebay could reel in more audiences?

I heard there are fees(including postang and handling) to consider but if the fees are absurd, then it's probably not worth selling on Ebay and just stay on Gumtree(since there's no fees to worry about)?

Also heard/read scary stories about scammy buyers…..

Just wanna clear out my stuff for new stuff and for walking space! Heh

What's your opinion/comment?

Cheers
Zach

Poll Options

  • 2
    Yes
  • 4
    No
Computing

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Comments

  • scrimshaw on 18/07/2015 - 18:54

    The fees that are excessive are eBay's final value fees. It's around 10 percent so if you sold and got paid $100 your fees will total around $10.

    http://www.fees.ebay.com.au/feeweb/feecalculator

    As for shipping try out the office works parcel delivery service http://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/c/office-supp…

    • Sage on 18/07/2015 - 19:01

      I'm surprised to learn the final value fees include a percentage of the postage. What a rip off.
      An example is you sell something for $10 and it costs $20 to deliver. Fees would be $4.47, so basically half of the value. (That's not including the postage box)

      • Zachary on 18/07/2015 - 19:30

        Hm yes, tested it myself as well; it appears to be dependent on the domestic postage cost, any value for international doesn't affect the final value fee.

        Also, if that's right, selling anything $2 or below(with free postage), it's not worth it as the cost of selling is more than you make unless you just wanna get rid of it and don't care.

      • Terra Australis on 02/08/2015 - 14:09

        This is why so many sellers include the cost of postage into the price. Prevalence of FAST 'N FREE!

    • Zachary on 18/07/2015 - 19:39

      Oh, there's a no listing fee so long as you list stuff in only one category and no more than 40. So if I only list up to 40 inclusive and in only one category, I only get charged the final value fee which appears to be 9.9% of sale price + whatever value domestic price(since international postage seems to be disregarded)

      Here's the link to the PDF file that shows all and any fees relevant: http://sellercentre.ebay.com.au/sites/default/files/Selling%…

      • ozhunter on 18/07/2015 - 19:48

        Majority of people do pay with Paypal which I think is approx 2.5%. Also if something goes wrong, Paypal favors the buyer in most cases and would force you to refund them.

        • Zachary on 18/07/2015 - 21:12

          Wait, there's a fee for the buyer paying with Paypal??! Oh wow…..what's that? 12.4% fee of the total cost of sold item?

          I didn't know eBay sellers get charged a fee for buyers using/paying with Paypal…..

        • Zachary on 18/07/2015 - 23:36

          @ozhunter:

          Oh wow, no way:

          "Receiving money - Purchase payments (Goods and Services):
          When you use PayPal to receive money for goods or services (such as from selling an item on eBay), the fee for each transaction is 2.6% plus $0.30 AUD of the amount you receive."

          Hehe, 30 cents for good measure.

          Probably why some people/stores(not on eBay but online stores in general) don't accept Paypal as a payment method because their running costs is probably too high with everything else added….

        • Zachary on 18/07/2015 - 23:46

          @ozhunter:

          So say if I were to successfully sell a whole desktop box at $100 and buyer paid via Paypal, I would only get $87.8. 12.5% in fees to pay off and an additional 30 cents for good measure from Paypal.

          I would have to markup the price to $112.80 or more if I wanted to have my target sale at $100 and to cover fees. Not sure if I will reel in much sales this way, but at least it covers me for the fees part. :P And then I have to figure out if I should add the postage and handling costs on top of the item price and have postage and handling free or not bother making them pay extra for postage and have this come out of my pocket.

  • Sage on 18/07/2015 - 18:56
    +1

    eBay is not really worth it. I would try Gumtree and if you get no responses then go for eBay.
    12% surcharge isn't nice.
    I suppose you could list the items at higher prices on eBay to cover the fees.

    If you want to do auctions eBay is the only option.

    • Zachary on 18/07/2015 - 19:34

      Hmm….

  • 2pro4sho on 18/07/2015 - 20:16

    I use ebay and gumtree a fair bit as I am constantly replacing my computer or media gear with the latest and greatest thanks to ozbargain -_-. It is always worth listing on both. Most people on gumtree lowball but it is good for big bulky items due to shipping costs. I sell 99% of my things including computer gear with eBay. Even with the fees you will generally get alot more than gumtree. If you are selling alot in a given month it may be worth opening a ebay store for a month or so. $25/mo but fees are cheaper. I never do auctions on ebay, fixed only. The vast majority of auctions sell under value.

  • DeafMutePretender on 19/07/2015 - 01:45

    You can sell your thingamajig for $200 on eBay or $100 on Gumtree/anywhere else. Your choice.

  • Cheeper on 19/07/2015 - 02:48

    OCAU is a good place to sell IT items… depending on what you are selling though??
    You will have to sign up to get access to the selling forum.
    http://www.overclockers.com.au/

    • Zachary on 19/07/2015 - 15:11

      Hm, didn't know forums had a side where people could sell stuff….interesting.

      From here: http://forums.overclockers.com.au/ I can't seem to find the sale forum…

      And according to this: http://www.overclockers.com.au/wiki/For_Sale there is one somewhere but I can't see it….

      • Zachary on 19/07/2015 - 18:07

        Aww, tried to register but they don't allow free email services like hotmail, yahoo or gmail - well that sucks because all my emails are free ones! -.-

        Welp, can't go there because they don't me using free email addresses….

        • Zachary on 19/07/2015 - 18:08

          Why would anyone restrict using only paid email accounts/addresses allowed?

        • humdingaling on 20/07/2015 - 13:40
          +1

          @Zachary:
          minimise spammers
          anybody could flood the forum with fake accounts with infinite free email accounts
          sure people can spoof emails out but its a lot more work…

          most ISP's give you free ones these days

        • Zachary on 20/07/2015 - 14:06

          @humdingaling: Oh fair enough.

          Well I never got my own email with my ISP, it's TPG is case you wanna know.

          Wait you said spoofing….? So I could pretend to be using some random paid address but all the emails would then get forwarded to one of my nominated free email accounts? Could you show me how? :P

          Because I'm not going to pay to open an email account just for this one occasion….doesn't seem justified IMO. If not, then I won't bother all good. Thanks for the suggestion.

        • humdingaling on 20/07/2015 - 16:20

          @Zachary: pretty sure TPG gives you free email accounts

          on the first one i clicked on

          Broadband Features
          Free 20 email addresses and 30MB web space.

          not endorsing that behavior on here =p
          just saying it happens

        • Zachary on 20/07/2015 - 20:23

          @humdingaling: Oh it does, how come I didn't get offered one?

          Let me check.

          EDIT - ok I contacted technical support so hopefully they will get back to me on this.

        • humdingaling on 21/07/2015 - 12:03

          @Zachary:
          you don't need to goto technical support

          unless they have changed it since 2010…..which i doubt

          Please go to https://cyberstore.tpg.com.au/your_account/.
          Under email management, click on Manage your Email Accounts. Please be advised that the new accounts activates after 10 minutes.

          if its not there it would be something very similar

        • Zachary on 21/07/2015 - 14:28

          @humdingaling: Yeah I got replied the same thing, except that I don't know my username or password to login! I'll have to wait till my mum comes home from work to ask as she was the one that did all this setup with internet.

        • Zachary on 23/07/2015 - 00:28

          @humdingaling: Woo, just successfully made an account on the forums with them! Yes, hopefully now I will be able to try and maybe attempt to sell some of my stuff there! Cheers!

        • humdingaling on 24/07/2015 - 17:30

          @Zachary:
          glad to help

          and you now have private email as well.. Bonus!

        • Zachary on 25/07/2015 - 13:08

          @humdingaling: …until I switch ISPs and depending on the next ISP, I may or may not get a free email account service with them(or none at all if they don't allows customers to have their own). Heh

        • Zachary on 25/07/2015 - 22:08

          @humdingaling: Oh darn, found out you need to be a member for at least 90 days before they allow you access on the buy and sell forums…..well, that's about 3 months of waiting for me - I suppose I'll have to wait before I can post anything on those forums…

  • Speckled Jim on 19/07/2015 - 10:34
    +1

    If eBay fees put you off and you don't want to risk Gumtree issues, there's always the OzBargain Classifieds.
    Also free.

    • Zachary on 19/07/2015 - 14:58

      According to this link: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/wiki/help:classified_posting_gu…

      I need to either be at least a one year old member or shared quite a few deals and I am neither as I only just found out about this site this year and never bothered to post any deals as I am sure someone will beat me to it anyways or the deal is probably not worth posting.

  • bradsmrbetty on 19/07/2015 - 12:16
    +1

    My issue with selling on ebay is the paypal 6 months buyers protection. It's ok for established sellers with high turn over and selling brand new products. The once a year seller with a bit of older tech it's not worth the risk anymore.
    My understanding it is getting harder and harder to sell without paypal.
    Also the seller has add tracking to postage or a buyer can claim they never got the item ( no tracking no proof).
    Ebay will side with a buyer almost everytime.

    This just my understanding OP. Does anyone know different?

  • Foxtail on 19/07/2015 - 12:31
    +1

    Spot on, they are for the purchaser, the seller has to prove in most cases the item was delivered, yet the buyer is not forced to pay a tracking and signature fee, then Australia Post only keeps tracking records for 60 days, so in effect the seller loses anyway if after the that, pity the authorities don't bring them to task over this bad practice.

    • Zachary on 19/07/2015 - 15:23

      Yeah, but who's gonna bother coming back in two months just to rip into me? If I was the buyer and item doesn't get sent within estimated postage period, I would start complaining then than two months later down the road, unless of course the seller has contacted me say postage will arrive later than estimated period and apologies for whatever reason is behind this. If it came before estimated delivery period, then that's good, complains there.

  • littleDealFish on 20/07/2015 - 16:36

    Hey, i prefer Gumtree over ebay any day. No fees and much easier to deal with idiots.

    One such example would be selling ram - sold a stick of ram (tested before hand of course!), and buyer tried using with their existing sticks and it was incompatible. I still offered him a refund, but he kept it to use for something else and then still proceeded to give me negative feedback, then changed to neutral - still saying it was faulty. Ebay do crapola to help sellers.

    Needless to say, a lot of people can break or misuse computer parts very easily.. use something like Gumtree so you won't be penalized by fees or feedback.

    • Zachary on 20/07/2015 - 20:38

      Did he say "seller didn't give refund on this faulty item" in his negative feedback?

      If he did and you did truly offer a refund, then those are the buyers I try to boycott from…but you can only find that out after shipping it to the buyer…which means I guess you have to read up on any feedback reviews/score on their profile and if they don't have one, or they are new welp is your choice on whether to accept them or not.

      Or maybe he didn't think it was worth posting back(because of postage cost and the hassle unless you were gonna pay his return cost?)?

      • littleDealFish on 21/07/2015 - 11:23

        Nah he just said it was faulty. Yeah i could understand postage hassle, but it was local pickup, easy refund lol - I think he realised he was wrong and then didn't want to come back (after all the stick definitely worked). Just a shame he left feedback saying i sold faulty goods.

        Ah well what can you do :) not sell on ebay any more i guess!

        • Zachary on 21/07/2015 - 14:36

          Well I believe there's a way to rectify that feedback, just send him a feedback change or something similar and he should be able to change his feedback to either a positive, neutral or another negative but leave a different statement. I'm not sure exactly how it's done but I'm sure you'll find that out somewhere in your panel or ask eBay support about it. Both parties have to agree on the change or else there will be no change.

          I got one of these when I was trying to buy something that wasn't available in Australia(or was but no longer is). I left neutral feedback and said they were unresponsive in my questions. The manager or boss came back to me and asked me why I put that feedback, I told him the lady didn't seem to respond to my last message and I just simply gave up. Then he replied, ok I will send you a request to change feedback if we get this resolved. And soon enough, I got my problem resolved, got the product(from Germany, it was an ancient AGP graphics card, 7950GT, but still fairly powerful back in its days at least and I believe it's the strongest(and probably last) AGP card that was ever made from nVidia, it was sold as Brand New and I couldn't resist! :P) and gave them positive feedback.

  • Zachary on 23/07/2015 - 13:59

    Ok, the general consensus seems to be "No". What if I just only use eBay like I use Gumtree. You know list them up and but specifically state local pickup only and cash on exchange and decline any paypal payments(if any were made) and ask them nicely if they could do local pickup only or I drive to them if their close by?

    That way if I meet them in person and this gets sold, I can just remove the listing without eBay charging me either a paypal fee or a final value fee. Just like Gumtree but I also get the added target audience from eBayers that live close to me.

    Yes, no? Or eBay doesn't like me doing this kind of thing, heh ehhe?

    • beaver2233 on 24/07/2015 - 19:09

      Yeah its a bit of a tough one. I used to use eBay quite a bit when fees were like 7%. Now that's its 10% its really put me off using it. I have done what you said, cancelling the sale after completing the sale using cash on pickup (to avoid the fees), though you need to be careful as I'm pretty certain its under eBays terms and conditions somewhere - whether or not they take an action, I doubt it haha

      • Zachary on 25/07/2015 - 13:12

        Hm, well if you have done it before without problems, I guess there's no harm in me doing it!

        Ok, it's settled then I will list my stuff on eBay: state only local pickup and cash on exchange as well and as soon as the deal is done, I will end listing.

        Easy peasy.

        Thanks everyone for helping me decide on how/where to sell old computer hardware!
        ☺

        • littleDealFish on 28/07/2015 - 10:26

          Like beaver2233 said, there 'can' be a penalty from Ebay if they see your account has a lot of cancelled auctions. Whether they enforce it i have no idea but a user could decide to report you as they probably assume you are being dodgy (i.e if you sell it without ebay then they don't have the ebay/paypal protection - much easier to get away with selling a faulty item). Worst case scenario they might ban your account? probably not a big deal if you don't have an established one anyway!

          Just a thought!

        • Zachary on 28/07/2015 - 10:40

          @caseabrook:

          That's a big IF they do…I hope they don't….hahahaha, and hope they don't enforce it either! hahaha I can see why you can't have Cash on delivery as the only payment method and must have another electronic means of sending money like Paypal or bank transfer….

          Plus this is like maybe a few times a year or less, I'm not gonna keep doing this forever!

          Well I have an already have an ebay account that I have made 50 or so purchases, never sold anything from that though….

          I suppose I could make another account, this one being the account where I only sell stuff and not buy anything……..

          Does that help me? Or not..?

  • Brucet on 26/07/2015 - 11:07

    I suggest you sell on Gumtree.

    • rayski57 on 02/08/2015 - 13:42

      Having used various sites over the years to sell our constantly rotating technology, I have used eBay extensively in the past.
      I now almost exclusively use gumtree as there are a. no fees b. no having to offer PP c. no risks with people changing their minds, refusing deliveries and you copping the postage (& refunds), yes, it's happened to me a few times.
      At least with gumtree you can leave it up as long as you like and there tends to be less competition as you're usually only attracting people who can come and collect - no returns, no feedback BS, no being screwed over by fleabay

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