Ebay Sellers...are They Real People?

[OcalaFlGuy]

When I was a yoot, my Father had me read R. J. Ringer's books. I think it was in Looking Out For #1 that he details a lesson using a friend of his. I won't change it much to keep the flavor but hopefully Just enough.

 

He said his friend would just walk up to the very nicest looking girls and say, "Hi, wanna F?" (You know.)

 

The next sentence was, "Yes, he got slapped a lot but he got F'd a lot too."

 

My much cleaner version is, You can't get what you don't ask for.

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

[Sasha Royale]

Research. Find out the retail price and some of the "Buy It Now" prices, before bidding. I never offer "off-auction", unless

invited. Buying by the rules is fair. Fair is important to me. True, "winning" has some value, as well. I have 200 experiences

on Ebay. There were four or five problems that needed to be resolve, and were.

 

I don't call them names.

[JotterAddict62]

Greetings I'll place my 2 cents worth here. Now as a buyer on ebay I do not now very much about 99% of the pen brands out there.

I research the trends on Sheaffers & Esterbrooks on what model of pen they are and what the average sale price is. Now I have never bought a Fp made in this century brand new or used. Until I learn more about those pens at a pen show or at a pen shop I tend to stay away. Now comes the pen brand that I am really learning " PARKER ". Since I was looking for a decent pen to use at work about 5 years ago I'd remember the Jotter now I moved to the P51 & Vac's . Now since where I live near Parker Country and attending auctions in and around Janesville WI I'm learning what the wholesale price for Parkers are depending on the model.

There are at least a 1/2 doz. buyers with deeper pockets than me. I have been to only 3 auctions this year so far and bought pens at two of them was shut out on the one [ a few newbee's that I never seen ]. Now with this knowledge I use to base my top bid.

Lets step back here; there is one man I've met and getting to know [ know your competition ] I see what he buys at the auction and then puts the pens on ebay. Now I pay attention as to what he puts the pens up for depending on the model of Parker for a pen that needs to be restored. Now the vast majority of sellers that makes a business of ebay sells just about everything and do not specialize in one type of product. I could be on a forum for electric trains and writing this, but I collect and use Parkers.

 

Now when I bid on a pen and I will not be home I put my bid in what I'm willing to pay and find out when I get home. I still do not have a cell phone with access to the web. Now when I am home I'll place a bid just before the item ends. If It meant to be that the power greater than me says I should have it or not so be it and move on. One gal I worked with said this about going to see live music at concerts " We can't go to them all so we pick and choose on which ones to go to. " To me the works for bidding on ebay you can't buy them all but it is fun trying. Learn about your product before you buy.

 

Have fun

 

Ken

[Chrissy]

 

Interestingly, As a Bidder, I DO feel that Generally, Ebay will close near or at market value. However, as a Seller, auctions terrify me. As a bidder, I know that on any given day on Fleabay ANYTHING can and does happen and in my few Ebay Sales I've been skeered that that Anything Would Happen on MY item. (NONE of my sold Ebay items have been pens.) In my very limited Selling on Fleabay I have tended to go for a fixed price. The issue there is Fleabay's % is a bit higher if you do that. I think the total hit with Fleabay and PayPal on a fixed price item is 14ish %.

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

I usually buy and sell on ebay UK, so I may not have the full up to date info for ebay.com, but .co.uk usually follows what happens on .com.

 

So the final value fees for auction listings and BIN listings are now the same i.e. 10%, and that includes the item end price plus the price of any P&P (shipping). Also, for private sellers, instead of having up to 100 listings per month, at a start price of 99p, free of listing fees, there are now up to 20 listings per month, free of listing fees, for any start price. This has presumably been set up in time for the new seller standards coming in August.

 

On ebay UK, for private sellers who sell 20 items per month or less, there is now absolutely nothing to be gained by adding on P&P as an extra, rather than including it in the start price. In fact it is a great disadvantage to add it on as an extra, that because if you do your buyer can leave you a low secret rating star, whether you have overcharged on P&P or not. If it's inclusive that rating is greyed out and can't be left.

 

This may be because the sellers on ebay UK have historically been more inclined to try to include fees in P&P than on any other site.

 

PayPal fees are extra

Edited June 7, 2014 by Chrissy

[furious]

Personally, I rather enjoy the hunt and have been burned many more times than I have won. Although the agony of defeat may sting a bit at first, I remind myself that there will always be more pens just a click away.

[penmanila]

let's get one basic reality straight, boys and girls (this is mainly for the ebay newbies): if you've been an ebay regular like me for over 15 years, you'll know that you will lose 95-98% of the time--and you should, thankfully, because if you won most of your bids, you'd never be able to pay for all of them!

 

at any given time, i have maybe 10 bids going (sometimes i've had 20 live bids going in a week); on most of these, i've left a maximum bid, then walked away. if i win, fine (and it will then likely be a bargain, except for a very few, hard-to-find pens that i'm willing to pay more for, and go down the wire for); if i lose, no problem, there will always be other pens. so i "seed" my bids all over the place, then wait over the week to see what i've harvested. so, of course, i lose most of the time--and i expect to! (when i do win, it's payday--my most recent semi-sumgai--on another auction site, though--was a vintage montblanc 149 in perfect shape, for $140 plus buyer's premium.)

 

i make so many bids because i don't intend to keep most of the pens i win, but rather have fun with them for a while--fixing them up, etc.-- before reselling them for a small profit that will enable more purchases. this especially applies to lots (i like these assortments--90% junk, then there's that one pen or two that's a gem). i'm happy to be able to pass on good starter pens that my friends (many of whom don't have the time, the resources, or the savvy to go on ebay) can use or practice with. when i have the budget, i also bid on several pens of the same kind at once, pens i know i can move quickly--MB 149s and 146s, duofold big reds, duofold centennials and internationals, vintage flexies, and such. if i find a particularly good one (like a BB-italic 149 that i found on ebay canada for $270), i keep it, and sell whatever it's replacing. this way the collection keeps improving (at least in my mind!).

 

if you take the angst out of ebay, then it becomes just as much fun and as chancy as a weekend trip to a big flea market

Edited June 7, 2014 by penmanila

[OcalaFlGuy]

I think you can do Much Better than only winning 3-5% of the auctions you bid on if you will learn about What you are bidding on and what the market values are for it. I would get frustrated pretty quickly on Fleabay if I were only winning 1 out of 20 that I bid on.

 

I would say IF you can and will bid within the known market values for the pen, your odds are easily 50/50 of winning and you can bump that up a few percent by only putting one snipe bid in and using a appropriate ending increment based on the bids so far. One reason I say only 50/50 is that a Large Percentage of people bidding on pens haven't a living clue what they are doing, they are Very Apt to bid higher than the item is worth to Anyone except them. You can't account or predict those bidders and you're dumber than They are if you try to beat them out.

 

Now, I WILL grant that your win % May vary depending on if you are bidding on a pen for You or for one you plan to restore and turn around.

 

Once you include postage, if you resell on Fleaby you are looking at close to a 20% hit from Ebay, PayPal and postage. Of course, you can cut that down by selling small numbers of pens here on FPN. While I don't plan on getting rich (hahahaha) from selling the few pens I restore, I do like to make a Little sumpin' sumpin' for my efforts. Taking Some Small profit into account is going to lower the amount you are going to be able to bid and still earn some from your sale.

 

I'm sorry but I remain unconvinced that bidding ala the shotgun approach above is nearly as fruitful as educated, well thought out bidding on items you really want, either for yourself or to restore and resell.

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

[penmanila]

ok, bruce, maybe i've overstated the percentages a bit, and that, historically, my winning margin might actually be closer to 40-50%, because until a few years ago, i was bidding on fewer, more sharply targeted and more strongly coveted things.

 

these days, with few grail pens left on my list, i'm just having fun picking up the odd pen here and there, so i tend to be looser and more scattershot; to get one duofold, i'll bid on 3 or 4--which also means (and this is what i think surprised me) that i care a lot less about losing, because i lose so often i also "lose" a lot of bids because i pick up some of the best pens on the "newly listed, buy-it-now" listings, which i don't consider an auction any longer but an outright purchase.

 

the point i'd like to propose to ebay newbies is, losing--and even losing most of your bids--is part of the process, so they might as well get used to it.

 

of course that doesn't mean it no longer hurts when you miss out on that one pen you've been hankering for, for ages, by a buck or two (it still happens). it just doesn't linger as long as it used to

Edited June 7, 2014 by penmanila

[WirsPlm]

I don't wish to hash over old ground, nor antagonise anyone about this anymore, but just for information - I usually put my highest bid on in the last 5 seconds, and only when the current highest bid is significantly lower than mine. I accept and understand that a higher sniping bid will win. No complaints at all about that. What surprised me though was how many of those auctions were won just ahead of my highest bid. This suggests that discounting the winning bid my own highest bid was the highest of all the other bidders. A reveal of all automatic bids after the auction seems to bear this out too. Have I missed anything there? Seems pretty logical to me.

 

Somewhat academic I suppose. It's unlikely that I will do any more bidding. I just clearly do not understand the process well enough to benefit.

 

Yes, you were the 2nd highest bidder, but that doesn't mean anything in an auction (only the highest bidder counts), the person who won the auction was willing to go (an unknown amount) higher and that's all that matters, just like in every single auction everywhere, I don't see how you can be upset about this because it's just how auctions work. Most people lose most auctions and it takes a long time and a strict culling of auctions you bid on to get good at winning the items you bid on. If you don't like auctions than naturally eBay isn't for you (and I think the shipping to New Zealand is probably part of that, it doubtlessly raises the price for you much more than for other people), but if you do like auctions it's a great tool. Since it seems like you just don't really get along with auctions I think it's best to focus on other methods of pen buying for now, have you tried local garage sales (often cheaper, but with the same risks of used pens on eBay)?

Edited June 7, 2014 by WirsPlm

[JotterAddict62]

When the pen gods determined that it's your turn to have a pen you will get it.

 

Last week I saw two items on ebay and placed my bid;

 

First item: 121344941893

A nice Parker counter display for erasers. I bid 3 times in the last minutes and lost.

Would have been a nice addition to my Parker collection.

 

Second item: 251537557978

A Parker counter display for pencil leads & erasers which I won.

 

For me these two items I knew that I would have a better chance at the first item as I was home and for the second item

I was at work and placed my bid before I left the house for the day. I knew my bid would not hold up but at least I'd played.

 

I will be using the display for my Parker parts that I have for now and still trying to find a place to put it in the house.

 

Ken

[northlodge]

I usually buy and sell on ebay UK, so I may not have the full up to date info for ebay.com, but .co.uk usually follows what happens on .com.

 

So the final value fees for auction listings and BIN listings are now the same i.e. 10%, and that includes the item end price plus the price of any P&P (shipping). Also, for private sellers, instead of having up to 100 listings per month, at a start price of 99p, free of listing fees, there are now up to 20 listings per month, free of listing fees, for any start price. This has presumably been set up in time for the new seller standards coming in August.

 

On ebay UK, for private sellers who sell 20 items per month or less, there is now absolutely nothing to be gained by adding on P&P as an extra, rather than including it in the start price. In fact it is a great disadvantage to add it on as an extra, that because if you do your buyer can leave you a low secret rating star, whether you have overcharged on P&P or not. If it's inclusive that rating is greyed out and can't be left.

 

This may be because the sellers on ebay UK have historically been more inclined to try to include fees in P&P than on any other site.

 

PayPal fees are extra

 

Chrissy makes an interesting and valid point here, without following through on the implications for the OP.

 

The OP says he lives in on the other side of the planet, and yet competes on ebay UK & US. I do not charge postage for UK buyers, I charge approx £10 for a pen to New Zealand. For a pen worth £40, the OP would have to be prepared to pay 25% more than a local buyer, and given the number of buyers on ebay it is no surprise someone always seems to bid a little more.

 

Go for BIN bids and / or seek multiple purchases, as this reduces the cost of shipping per pen.

 

The seller is certainly human, often has a sense of humour, and may well share your real interest in pens.

[OcalaFlGuy]

(and I think the shipping to New Zealand is probably part of that, it doubtlessly raises the price for you much more than for other people),

 

I think this actually impacts Crypotos's Ebaying a lot more that it would appear to on the surface.

 

First, it's going to take some communicating with the sellers prior to close time to see if they will ship uninusred/untracked international to get the shipping down to even at or below $10 real cost. It would be a pain asking Every Seller of Every Item you were interested in this backchannel, so as I mentioned earlier, perhaps you only ask those sellers who's items And bidding are Still attractive about 48 hrs prior to the close.

 

There also appears to be very few pen repair places or sources of repair materials in NZ or Australia too. That gets you right back into the high shipping cost maelstrom should an Ebay purchase need to go Back Out for restoration or repair.

 

Thusy, I am beginning to think the Best option for Cryptos is to purchase from a known restorer/repair person with a good reputation for sending pens out that are Right to Write first time, every time out of the shipping box. That can still be done on Fleabay if he so wishes via TBickiii and Ros 7261 or another Known Good Guy Ebay restorer/seller though I would also have that untracked/uninsured shipping chat with them ahead of time too. IF the pen were > $100 I would be more inclined to pay extra for some insurance IF I could get that reasonably priced, perhaps, exclusive of any tracking option being included.

 

After I won or purchased the item, were I Cryptos, I would probably Restate the logistical issues with being in NZ to the seller and request that they take a few extra minutes to Be Sure the pen is completely serviceable Before it's packed for shipping to further help reduce the chance of a needed return. When I purchased my M605 from Regina Maritini in Germany, I did just that, I asked her to be sure the pen was a smooth writer and around a 7 on the wetness scale if she wouldn't mind for me, to help alleviate the chances of it having to come back to her. (It was a new pen and Chartpak doesn't warranty Pels bought overseas, the 605 would have had to go back to Pel in Germany.) I don't know whether she actually DID anything or not about that but the pen arrived writing as I wanted it to, no return necessary.

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

[Left FPN]

I recently made an offer for a pen (more like parts) that is on open auction. The seller informed me that he/she had received a number of very similar and close offers to mine and that as such he/she would let it run. It's a nice pen albeit just 3 parts, so I replied doubling the offer to which I have yet to receive a reply. PS the pen needs work, is missing one major item which will have to be replaced with an after market item thus reducing its repaired value but still making it worth while.

 

No reply, so I think the seller has established he/she may have a pen worth more than they think.

Edited June 8, 2014 by Force

[pajaro]

I win a good percentage of the auctions I bid on, because I concentrate on things I want to try out, and only bid on what I want, and then snipe without putting any info out there as a target for any of you.

 

Then there are a few fun auctions where I recognize from the coded name and feedback number somebody who has repeatedly jerked me around. I never intend to win these.

[Tancred]

Had to laugh. I contacted a seller this evening an made an offer on an item. A good offer at that. You know what they told me? "... try bidding you might get it cheaper than your offer"

 

Yeah, like that has ever happened!

 

Gotta love the lure of that extra dollar. It is so important to so many people.

 

 

 

 

Was this a pure auction or was the seller inviting offers? If he wasn't inviting offers you should not have made one. This always annoys me when I put something up for auction.

[Cryptos]

I was so frustrated at having to deal with the auction process that I approached several sellers to ask if they would be sell anything in their inventory without putting it up for pure auction first i.e. as a BIN or BIN+auction. I don't think that is an unreasonable request. My reaction to the response (i.e. this ranty thread) is unreasonable I grant you, but then who among us does not throw the toys from the pram on occasion, hmm?

Edited June 11, 2014 by Cryptos

[OcalaFlGuy]

 

Was this a pure auction or was the seller inviting offers? **If he wasn't inviting offers you should not have made one.** This always annoys me when I put something up for auction.

 

That is simply your opinion, no more, no less.

 

For Auction listings, it is within Ebay rules to submit a BIN offer if no other auction bid has been placed.

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

[penmanila]

^very true. there is nothing unethical for me about submitting a BIN offer, for as long as it keeps within ebay rules, ie, the transaction is consummated within ebay, so ebay receives its commensurate fees; i would not make a BIN offer if a bid has already been made. i would also avoid making shamefully ridiculous lowball offers.

 

buyers can politely ask; sellers can always politely decline.

[OcalaFlGuy]

i would also avoid making shamefully ridiculous lowball offers.

 

buyers can politely ask; sellers can always politely decline.

 

Ewwww. Now you've opened Pandora's box.

 

For me, the water can get muddy there.

 

If the listing were a decently done listing, the seller actually took a bit of time to find out what he had or HAS some idea about other pens he has, generally, the seller actually put some effort into the listing but just misvalued it, yeah, I'm inclined to agree with you here.

 

On the other hand, there are those sellers who Clearly have No idea what they are selling, they KNOW they have no idea what they are selling and most of all They Don't Care that they Don't Know what they're selling, well, I have 8 words for them. Caveat Emptor is for the seller too. Sport.

 

You stick 2 Esties up at Auction, title it, 2 Esterbrook fountain pens. With 2 out of focus pics [1] and you say, "2 Esterbrooks, one Green one, one Gray one, they look fine to me." Well Bubba, all bets are off then.

 

[1] But you can still clearly see that one pen is a Green Transitional and the other is a Gray Visumaster.)

 

So yeah kinda, but it depends.

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

[JotterAddict62]

When I put pens up for sale on ebay I do the research on the pen in question and place all the information that I gathered

in the description look at trends on the item on listing and sales price factor in my cost what I paid and try to make my profit on the pen. I learn to know what I'm selling.

 

I had 2 Parkers about 2 yrs ago that did not sell then I had an email from Parkercrazy and he made me an offer on the two pens.

Well I looked at what he was selling and asked about a trade for one of his pens. A good deal for the both of us.

 

On another observation when I go to antique & resale shops and I see over price Parkers [ Vac's ] that need to be serviced for $200 -$300 and they still sit in the shop for years.