eBay... Why it's a necessary evil for comic collectors, speculators and flippers
Ok so I want to talk about buying and selling on eBay. If you're a collector, speculator or flipper I'm sure you've either bought or sold something on eBay. Personally I try to stay away from eBay because it's just a hassle but I figure I'll talk about my experience and maybe it can help someone decide if they want to buy or sell on eBay.
First let me talk about buying because I have a lot less to say about it. As far as being a buyer you're really protected to the nines. And what I mean by that is if you make a purchase and you receive the item not as described you're basically guaranteed your money back. If the seller doesn't work with you then you just open a case with eBay and it will get resolved. Now you also have to hope that the seller posts accurate photos. Make sure you look carefully and decide a grade for yourself, don't just take their word for it. You also have the power when it comes to feedback. A sellers reputation is built on feedback and the want to be at 100% so they generally work to make sure you're satisfied. So buying is pretty straight forward. You bid on what you want if you win you pay for the item then it's shipped to you from the seller, you hope it arrives safely and its yours.
Ok now to talk about selling. If it's something you're interested in doing just be prepared, it does take a lot of time and it can be a hassle. Now like I said earlier buyers are protected to the fullest, as a seller eBay doesn't seem to care about you at all. Even though if there were no sellers there could be no buyers. For those of you that don't know eBay takes 10% of your sale, you also need a paypal account and PayPal takes 3% so you lose 13% of each sale you make. So take that into consideration when pricing your books. When you list an item you want to make sure you take a lot of good pictures that way the condition of the book is easy to determine. Leave any flaws in the description that way if a buyer tries to dispute the condition you can point it out that it was in your description. Like I said eBay doesn't protect us so we have to protect ourselves. Ok so how do you come up with a price? For me I genarlly like to put items up for auction rather than buy it now. I usually look at the sold listing and try and price my books competitively. After your item sells the most important part is packaging the item properly. You need to make sure it survives it's journey to the buyer. Assume the post office will treat the package poorly. I personally recommend you use Gemini Comic Mailers. You can order them on Amazon and you get them in bulk so they only cost about a dollar a piece, well worth the investment. They are made from sturdy cardboard and in my opinion are the best and most cost affective way to ship comics. Now I'd only ship maybe 6 books max in one mailer if you sell a lot of books to one buyer then ship them in a box. I hate the dreaded yellow envelope. Sticking a book between 2 thin pieces of cardboard and sticking it in an envelope isn't the way to ship comics. Don't try and save a buck on shipping that way. Ship it to the buyer the way you would want to receive a book you bought.
Now I'm going to speak about some of the hassle of being a seller and having to deal with fraud and people trying to scam you. Again as a seller you have virtually no protection from eBay. Which is why I said its a necessary evil. We need eBay so we can sell spec books and flip hot books. Because it's fast. You can sell right away, you don't need to wait to go to a Comvention, because most likely that spec or hot book won't be hot for long, so we need to sell on eBay to move inventory. It's just not fun.
So heres a few ways buyers will try and take advantage of you,
Like I said before they have the feedback power, they can give you negative feedback for basically any reason. As a seller we cannot give a buyer negative feedback which I think is ridiculous.
So buyers try and use that to their advantage. For example let's say you sell a book that you list as near mint and your positive it's near mint, let's say you sell it for $50. The buyer gets it and sends you a message saying it's not near mint they claim it's only VF and ask for $20 back from you. First what you should do is tell them to send you pictures, there is always a possibility it may have been damaged in shipping. If they provide pics and it looks the same as how you shipped it them they're probably just trying to scam you out of some money to keep the book for a cheaper price. Now if you tell them no to the refund they can open a case with eBay and they could freeze the funds. Like I said a real hassle. So generally I say give the full refund, they have to send the book back first of course. Now you also have people that will keep your book and send back a lower grade copy and if that's done you're pretty much screwed because you can't really do anything. And they can still give negative feedback.
Also there is nothing that actually forces a seller to pay. If they win an auction and don't pay you, again you're out of luck. eBay would refund the seller fees but you lose the sale and you can't leave bad feedback. You can however block sellers meaning they can't bid on your items. I block any seller that doesn't pay.
So these are just a few things to consider when buying and selling on eBay. Let me know what you guys think about eBay.
First let me talk about buying because I have a lot less to say about it. As far as being a buyer you're really protected to the nines. And what I mean by that is if you make a purchase and you receive the item not as described you're basically guaranteed your money back. If the seller doesn't work with you then you just open a case with eBay and it will get resolved. Now you also have to hope that the seller posts accurate photos. Make sure you look carefully and decide a grade for yourself, don't just take their word for it. You also have the power when it comes to feedback. A sellers reputation is built on feedback and the want to be at 100% so they generally work to make sure you're satisfied. So buying is pretty straight forward. You bid on what you want if you win you pay for the item then it's shipped to you from the seller, you hope it arrives safely and its yours.
Ok now to talk about selling. If it's something you're interested in doing just be prepared, it does take a lot of time and it can be a hassle. Now like I said earlier buyers are protected to the fullest, as a seller eBay doesn't seem to care about you at all. Even though if there were no sellers there could be no buyers. For those of you that don't know eBay takes 10% of your sale, you also need a paypal account and PayPal takes 3% so you lose 13% of each sale you make. So take that into consideration when pricing your books. When you list an item you want to make sure you take a lot of good pictures that way the condition of the book is easy to determine. Leave any flaws in the description that way if a buyer tries to dispute the condition you can point it out that it was in your description. Like I said eBay doesn't protect us so we have to protect ourselves. Ok so how do you come up with a price? For me I genarlly like to put items up for auction rather than buy it now. I usually look at the sold listing and try and price my books competitively. After your item sells the most important part is packaging the item properly. You need to make sure it survives it's journey to the buyer. Assume the post office will treat the package poorly. I personally recommend you use Gemini Comic Mailers. You can order them on Amazon and you get them in bulk so they only cost about a dollar a piece, well worth the investment. They are made from sturdy cardboard and in my opinion are the best and most cost affective way to ship comics. Now I'd only ship maybe 6 books max in one mailer if you sell a lot of books to one buyer then ship them in a box. I hate the dreaded yellow envelope. Sticking a book between 2 thin pieces of cardboard and sticking it in an envelope isn't the way to ship comics. Don't try and save a buck on shipping that way. Ship it to the buyer the way you would want to receive a book you bought.
Now I'm going to speak about some of the hassle of being a seller and having to deal with fraud and people trying to scam you. Again as a seller you have virtually no protection from eBay. Which is why I said its a necessary evil. We need eBay so we can sell spec books and flip hot books. Because it's fast. You can sell right away, you don't need to wait to go to a Comvention, because most likely that spec or hot book won't be hot for long, so we need to sell on eBay to move inventory. It's just not fun.
So heres a few ways buyers will try and take advantage of you,
Like I said before they have the feedback power, they can give you negative feedback for basically any reason. As a seller we cannot give a buyer negative feedback which I think is ridiculous.
So buyers try and use that to their advantage. For example let's say you sell a book that you list as near mint and your positive it's near mint, let's say you sell it for $50. The buyer gets it and sends you a message saying it's not near mint they claim it's only VF and ask for $20 back from you. First what you should do is tell them to send you pictures, there is always a possibility it may have been damaged in shipping. If they provide pics and it looks the same as how you shipped it them they're probably just trying to scam you out of some money to keep the book for a cheaper price. Now if you tell them no to the refund they can open a case with eBay and they could freeze the funds. Like I said a real hassle. So generally I say give the full refund, they have to send the book back first of course. Now you also have people that will keep your book and send back a lower grade copy and if that's done you're pretty much screwed because you can't really do anything. And they can still give negative feedback.
Also there is nothing that actually forces a seller to pay. If they win an auction and don't pay you, again you're out of luck. eBay would refund the seller fees but you lose the sale and you can't leave bad feedback. You can however block sellers meaning they can't bid on your items. I block any seller that doesn't pay.
So these are just a few things to consider when buying and selling on eBay. Let me know what you guys think about eBay.
What about writing down serial numbers so if they try to send another copy back Saying it was yours?
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting idea. But comics don't have serial numbers.
ReplyDeleteGreat article!!! Ebay operates in complete opposite of traditional auction houses where 1) you can not bid on something and then back out because you didn't realize xyz in pic/description. A bid is legally binding. And 2) the buyer pays the transaction fees to the auctioneer not the seller.
ReplyDeleteEbay is trying to be a marketplace of sorts to compete with the amazons, targets, walmarts of the world and not an auction house. It's sad but unfortunately this is the place we're in.
Remember when you could post negative feedback on buyers (sorry, bad Southpark memberberries joke)...
Graded comics DO have serial numbers, I think that's what he was referring to.
ReplyDeleteEbay takes 10% but also charges you a percentage on the shipping fee you collect as well. Don't forget that nice little gouge.
ReplyDeleteI sell on the bay all the time did have a few buyers go the partial credit way and try to keep the book when I asked them to return the book they left negative feedback and kept the book.. partial refund is ome that used a lot
ReplyDelete