Haven't sold vintage toys on eBay in 10-15 years. What should I know before I get back into it?
Hi, this isn't necessarily a toy-specific question, but most of the collectibles I'd be interested in selling are toys or models, so here I am.
Has a lot changed with regards to shipping charges and how eBay calculates that and takes its percentage?
Many years ago I purchased a postal scale with the intention of using it to accurately calculate shipping prices for eBay listings, but I never really sold anything on here after I made that purchase.
Is it still a good and viable practice to weigh and measure my items in their boxes and then plug that info into eBay in order to generate an accurate shipping cost for the listing?
Any pitfalls I need to be on the look-out for if I do that?
I'm not trying to do this as a business or a side hustle. I'm just a lifelong collector, mostly of science fiction and monster toys, and I figure it's time to sell some of them.
Thank you for whatever input you might have.
stephenmorgan
·1 year agoSometimes with the FedEx tracking number you can look up what was purchased and it will show the package size entered, they weight and the type of service purchased. Can you post the Tracking Number?
poppyland
OP1 year agoYes, thank you for all your help! I'm just waking up, but I'll get that tracking number and post it later.
poppyland
OP1 year agoThe FedEx tracking number is 288267847168
I clicked on "sell similar" as you suggested, and I see the shipping info in the following screen shot.
Is it possible the error was mine, because that drop-down menu for "cost type" promises the buyer flat rate shipping?
poppyland
OP1 year agoOK, yeah, I see when I change the drop-down menu to have the cost calculated based on the buyer's location, the price the buyer pays is changed.
So I guess this solves the mystery. I unknowingly offered buyers a rock-bottom shipping cost, which would not change regardless of where they lived.
glorybells
·1 year agoOh, dear. I see you’re using FedEx. They’ve developed a nasty reputation for tacking on mysterious fees without warning. Use UPS or USPS instead.
Also wanted to mention, be sure you put the flaky guy who accused you of shill bidding on your blocked buyer list so you never have to deal with them again!
poppyland
OP1 year agoUPDATE:
I spoke to a very nice person at eBay support. He could not see the dimensions and weight I had entered when I created that listing, BUT he thought the issue might have been that I had used the old interface, and not the new Seller's Hub.
The support specialist said he's escalating the matter to his IT team so they can determine whether something went wrong on their end. He said they'll let me know either way, and if the error was caused by a problem with the site, then I'll likely be issued a credit.
Moving forward, he did have me click on "begin using Seller Hub," so any future listings I create should be protected from whatever mishap might have occurred with the listing in question.
poppyland
OP1 year agoThe above issue is especially confusing because with my previous sale, which was shipped via USPS, the amount I paid for the shipping label was identical to the amount the buyer paid for shipping.
poppyland
OP1 year agoNext question:
On my most recently completed sale, I was shocked to see eBay took $33.90 from me for the shipping label, despite the fact that the buyer had only been charged $14.70 for shipping, and that cost had been based on my careful weighing and measuring of the item in its package.
But upon further examination, it appears this $33.90 charge might be temporary, and is eBay's way of protecting itself from getting stuck with the shipping cost if the buyer happens to complain about something and demand the deal be called off and his money refunded.
Is that correct?
That is to say, once FedEx confirms the package has been safely delivered to the buyer, do I get that $33.90 back?
Thank you!
stephenmorgan
·1 year agoThe way shipping works on eBay is you offer shipping options to the buyer. It could be one option or it could be several options. Unless you set shipping as free or flat rate shipping then will you decide if you want eBay to base their rates to the buyer on the retail rate or their discounted rate.
Your item with shipping of $5.62 looks like it may have been a item under 13 ounces set to bill the buyer at eBay's discounted rate.
You item with shipping paid of $14.70 that you shipped with FedEx for $33.90 looks like you may have used a different shipping option then what the buyer paid for. Another possibility is that when you entered the shipping information into the listing you entered something wrong such as package size or weight.
In either case eBay has no idea how much to charge for shipping so the price they quote in the listing is based on the information you input within your listing.
No, eBay is not withholding the shipping fee to make sure item is delivered. If they were going to do this they would put a hold on the entire amount, not just the shipping.
All you can expect from that order is the $40.82 as shown.
If you could post a screen shot of what you entered into the shipping section of your listing then it may could be explained why there is a big difference in the shipping charged to the buyer ($14.70) and the amount you paid ($33.90).
poppyland
OP1 year agoHi, I just typed a reply to you, but it seems to have disappeared. Apologies if the following is a double post.
I did not, to my knowledge, offer more than one shipping method on this auction. After I entered the weight and dimensions of the package, I saw that USPS and UPS would charge about $40 to $50 for shipping, while FedEx only wanted $14.70. That seemed like a no-brainer, so I created the listing with only FedEx as the shipping.
Now I have questions:
1. If you're asking me to find the weight and dimensions I entered, after the fact, I can't figure out how to view those values now the the listing is complete. Where and how would I see that?
2. When I create a listing, it appears to me the interface is requiring me to choose one specific shipping method. Assuming I am mistaken in that perception, is there anything I need to know about how to allow buyers to choose from multiple shipping methods?
Thank you!
stephenmorgan
·1 year agoYou can go to your ended listing and click on sell similar. This will open the listing with most of the information prefilled out like it was when you sold it. After you have the listing opened scroll down to the shipping section. From there is will show the shipping options with the measurements and weight you entered. This is what the eBay shipping will be calculated on.
I see FedEx is offered on you listing so I suspect the issue is either that there is a difference in what you had input into the listing and what was input when you purchased the shipping, or you purchased a higher cost FedEx shipping. To know for sure if there is a difference you will have to know the measurements and weight you used when you purchased the shipping. I see the Kenner DC Super Powers Hall of Justice play set, 1984. That looks like it may take a large box to ship in.
Shipping section within listing. To add additional services click on the +Add additional services near the bottom of the section. It will open a scrollable list of various shipping options (see picture 2). I believe you can only offer up to three of the shipping options.
poppyland
OP1 year agoAnd here are screen shots of what shipping info I can see on my listing....
grand-and-glorious-purpose
·1 year agoThis place isn't instant windfalls like it used to be.
Auctions are not a thing anymore and a waste of time unless you have the rarest of the rare in the rarest of rare condition. The best way to sell a $100 toy for .99 is to have an auction starting at .99
You need to fully understand what the MBG means and that "no returns" means nothing.
Buyers will lie, cheat and steal and ebay will do nothing unless sellers report them.
You will be treated as a new seller and ebay may hold your funds until items show they are delivered. You will need to prove your identity and provide a bank account if you want to get paid.
Toy trends have most assuredly changed and we have had 2 or more economic collapses since you were active last. You are going to need to stay frosty and pivot on a dime to stay current.
poppyland
OP1 year agoThank you for this input! Do you think maybe Facebook Marketplace makes more sense for somebody like me?
By the way, this auction of mine seems to be doing well. I'm happy about that!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/205442850939
poppyland
OP1 year agoThank you all again for your advice and input!
Now I have more questions.
Why can't I lower the Buy It Now prices on the following two non-auction listings?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/205437544969
https://www.ebay.com/itm/205437606115
For the one with the sneakers, the interface allowed me to enter a lower price, but that lower price did not "take."
For he one with the RC truck, the interface won't even allow me to get into the field where one might change a price. This is most confusing.
stephenmorgan
·1 year agoI take it you know how to open the listing with Revise Listing. When the listing is open go the the section PRICING and make your adjustment.
One thing that may prevent you from changing the price is if you have an pending offer on the item. If you do have a pending offer then you would have to wait until the offer expired before you could make changes.
poppyland
OP1 year agoThank you! For whatever reason, I was previously unable to lower the price on the sneakers, but now I have succeeded in doing so. I don't think they're gonna sell even at my new price, but that's cool; I'm still learning.
Regarding the RC Truck, I had sent a lower offer to the one person that eBay said was interested. So I guess I won't be able to change my price unless or until that person accepts or rejects the offer.
Thank you for enlightening me!
poppyland
OP1 year agoThank you so much, everybody!
Next question:
Do you recommend doing promoted listings? Or is that a waste of money?
mudshark61369
·1 year ago@poppyland,
I see you have your first item listed as an auction with a $1 starting bid and a $60 buy it now. I'm guessing you did that because of ebay's advice to; Start auctions with a low starting price to: Encourage bidding. That is not how you should list auctions. Your starting bid price should be the least amount you are willing to accept, if there is only one bid.
In this case you should end the auction for several reasons;
1) The item title is confusing because you gave two years. It didn't come out until 1996. You might want to mention a few of the stars in the title Randy Savage, Rick Flair etc.
2) If you are lucky enough to get one bid, by the time you get done paying ebay's fees on the sale price and shipping cost, you will receive about .65¢ Some people are selling those old wrestling tapes for $20 + as buy it now sales, and getting those prices. That is how you should list it.
3) if you have not played the VHS tape recently, it may no longer be playable, the sound and/or picture may have really poor quality because the magnetic tape used in VHS cassettes degrade over time while sitting. Many of the seller's of VHS tapes have non positive feedback for tapes not playing well, and as a seller with (0) feedback a negative could give you a very low percentage for a long time.
As for using Promoted listings, Do an online search for " Sponsored/Promoted listings, ebay selling "
There are extra fees involved and depending on the product and category it may not be worth while. Most sellers who use sponsored listings have many items for sale and can afford the extra cost. You may want to use the Advanced search option of sold/completed listing to get an idea of trending prices. Do keep in mind that with vintage items, condition is a big factor in the selling price. So open some of the results to see if what you want to sell matches the condition of some of the higher priced items. Also toggle between Buy it Now and Auction only listings to see which works better for an item you want to list.
FYI in case you do not know about it, ebay will place a 21-30 day hold on your first few payments to find out more about it open the link below.
https://export.ebay.com/en/fees-and-payments/payments/payment-holds/
poppyland
OP1 year agoThank you so much for all the info!
These are sage words and good advice you've given me!
I always used to enjoy starting auctions at one penny and seeing where they might go, so even though that's not necessarily the best strategy, I figured I'd roll the dice and see what happened.
soh.maryl
·1 year agoIf you actually plan on starting listings at one penny, hope you are prepared to lose money.
Perhaps you really should re-read all the information available for sellers before you embark on this misadventure. If your plan is basically to give your things away, why not save yourself the hassle of listing, packaging and mailing (and the attendant cost) and just donate to a church run thrift store?
soh.maryl
·1 year agoOOPS-- Just now noticed the date of the original post.
mudshark61369
·1 year ago@poppyland,
There was a time, years ago, when starting auctions at a very low price did work more often than not. That was when 80+% of ebay listings were Auctions though, and having only one outlet to buy previously hard to find items brought in bidders.
Now there are more sites to shop on, and fewer people participate in auctions since there are often more Buy It Now listings for the items available. Add to that, there is less disposable income available to many people and that can lower the number of bidders and prices you get for some auctions.
poppyland
OP1 year agoI hear that!
mudshark61369
·1 year agopoppyland
OP1 year agoThank you Mud Shark, you are very nice. I appreciate your help!
mudshark61369
·1 year ago@poppyland,
"What's the latest thinking regarding shipping methods? Are people having good luck with plain old USPS First Class? Is insurance worth paying for? Is UPS a better option... And if I'm selling this close to Christmas, should I be offering faster shipping methods?"
I always offered two shipping methods USPS Ground Advantage or Priority Mail using calculated costs based in the buyer's location. I let them decide on which service they want to use. The first one you list will be what shows up on a listing page, but I always mention there are two options to choose from at checkout in my description.
As far as what service to use at this time of year, You may want to check out the USPS cut off dates for delivery by Christmas.
I add that the cut off info for the service's to my description as well, but deduct two days from the dates in case someone makes a purchase & pays, after my carrier has come and gone usually by 12pm or there is bad weather that slows delivery.
poppyland
OP1 year agoAnother question occurred to me:
What's the latest thinking regarding shipping methods? Are people having good luck with plain old USPS First Class? Is insurance worth paying for? Is UPS a better option?
And if I'm selling this close to Christmas, should I be offering faster shipping methods?
stephenmorgan
·1 year agoUSPS First Class is no longer available for US package shipments. Now there is Ground Advantage and it comes with $100 of insurance.
Check out the eBay Shipping Calculator to view current USPS prices.
https://www.ebay.com/shp/Calculator
stephenmorgan
·1 year agoAlways a good idea to input the exact the size and the weight of your shipping container.
Congress has decided to monitor financial transactions on eBay so that any appropriate taxes can be collected. They do this by requiring eBay to issue IRS Form 1099K after a certain amount of income goes thru your eBay account. Since you are just selling your personal collection decide on how you will account for the income to IRS.
Many science fiction and monster toys have become valuable and you will likely have Capital Gains on them. Start keeping and creating records for how much you paid for your items and how much you sell them for.
You will have to provide eBay access to a bank account to transfer your sales money to.
As a new seller, expect eBay to place restrictions on you account for selling and receiving your funds until they decide to lift the restrictions.