The 80s: The Decade That Made Us (doc on Nat Geo)

[Shockwave]

Sorry, but this is bullshit. eBay fees are nominal at best--I've sold a good two dozen things or so, and never had to pay more than $5 a month. As for shipping: Price that shit fairly. Buyer pays shipping. Most Deluxes or smaller can fit into a bubble mailer in a Ziplock baggie and some bubble wrap, which will be about $2, and then about $3 to ship. So you put the auction up at $5 for shipping. Set the minimum bidding price about $2 less than the average going price, and set the BIN about $5-10 more than what you would personally pay for that item.

I sold a bunch of Universe 2.0 stuff (Hot Shot, Galvatron, Octane) for literally $25-30 EACH. I put Human Alliance Barricade up for $55 buy it now (ridiculous) and SOMEONE BOUGHT IT, within a half hour. I shipped it in a bubble mailer for $3, and paid about $2 in fees. And, spoilers--eBay generally has no upfront listing fees anymore, so you only pay the fees if the item sells. Don't be afraid to price your shit competitively--if you are selling on eBay, you are doing it because you want money, not because you want to be nice to a fellow fan. (If ShockTrek or Dom is buying something from me, I'll give it to them for retail, and if it's a small box, I'll axe shipping. But, if I'm putting it on eBay, you can bet that I'm going to price it what it's actually fucking worth.)

And I don't...I don't understand how you could be "taking a loss." This is a thing you literally do not want to have anymore. It doesn't matter what you "put into it," as long as you're getting some amount of money, then you're walking out of it with a profit. Shit, let's say you're selling an Energon Deluxe--if you price it at MODERN Deluxe pricing, you're walking out $5 richer. If you price it at $20 or even $25, and make the sale, then you're in. (Never underestimate a buyer's BIN impulse. There have been times when I paid more money for a BIN auction even if there was a cheaper one on eBay that I would have to get into a bidding war for. And I was happy to do so, to avoid having to deal with that.)

Trust me, I was like you--I said the same shit for YEARS before, but after things started to get tough with my unemployment and I realized I was rapidly running out of room to have toys, I decided some of them had to go--and selling them on eBay was actually, functionally, the easiest thing ever, and after only a few weeks I was sitting on literally $150+ that I didn't have a few weeks before. (I bought a cheap G1 Jetfire with some of it, and paid my rent with the rest.) You just have to actually be psychologically ready to deal with not having the toy anymore--which is, I think, the real barrier.

I'm too poor to afford it right now (and my Xbox doesn't have enough space, to boot) but this thing is firing all my cool buttons. But then, I'm the guy who made The John Carpenter EP, which is basically the exact same idea. (80s-themed things that come out today have received the unofficial moniker of "coming from Dimension Z," that is, they are legitimate 80s products from an alternate dimension.)

You uh... you haven't sold on ebay recently have you? It sucks. There actually are seller fees up front now and, while USUALLY nominal, they can add up. Also, the thing that really sucks about selling on ebay is the fact that it's just way too easy to get screwed. Sellers cannot leave negative feedback for buyers and, ebay will actually hold your money hostage until the buyer receives the item and leaves positive feedback. In other words, if you get just a neutral or no feedback at all, you're screwed. The buyer gets your item AND their money back and there you are just fucked up the ass. Sorry for the language, but I just discovered this last year around July and, while thankfully I haven't been scammed, I'm sure as hell not giving them the chance to do so.

So yeah, to summarize: Fuck ebay. Fuck 'em hard.

Also, your John Carpenter EP gave me an idea: Hair band versions of iconinc movie themes. Imagine the Superman theme done by KISS or the Imperial March by Metallica. Or the Jurassic Park theme by Def Lepard. Just sayin' that could actually sound pretty awesome.

[Onslaught Six]

You uh... you haven't sold on ebay recently have you?

The last thing I sold was in February or March. I have had zero up front fees since I started, and I've never had a problem with a buyer leaving negative feedback. Also, as a buyer, eBay will also not let you leave neutral or negative feedback unless you actually open a fucking case with them and dispute the purchase--which is a rare occurance. Yes, you can game the system if you want to, but most people don't. I have had nothing but great experiences with eBay--literally the only time I had a problem, it was as a buyer, and it was really my own fault. (I paid $7 to a shady-looking Chinese seller who supposedly had some unpainted GI Joe test shots, and never received it, and also never got my money back. Live and learn.)

You say the fees can add up, but like I said--I sold about two dozen items (maybe more) over a three month period and never had a bigger payment than $5 or so, a 'month.' That is more than enough of a tiny cut from the profits I was getting. (I was selling items, on average, for about $8 for a GI Joe and $15-20 for a TF.)

But yeah, it's a lot harder to scam a seller than you say it is. Go on--buy something and then actually try to leave neutral or negative feedback.

[Mako Crab]

Huh. I'll try putting something small up on ebay and see how it goes. It's not that I'm having trouble parting with my crap. More like, I've never used ebay before to sell, and I don't like dealing with figuring out the shipping fees and all that. CraigsList was easy, because it was local and people could just drop by and pick it up. Done deal. No muss. No fuss.

I do have an ebay and paypal account already set up. It's all ready to go. I just gotta actually list something and then be prepared to send it out the door.

The interesting thing is that I think we ALL have some degree of this. How often have preview pics for a new thing came out, and we go, "Oh, wow, that checks whatever arbitrary boxes my preferences are at this time, I NEED to have that." For example, I "need" to have the new Springer. (And Blaster, and Grimlock.) Functionally, the last thing I need is more toys...bbbuuuuuuut these are new, shiny toys that fulfill whatever strange holes I do have. (The important thing is to realize when you have a problem, and also realize that if you aren't happy in your regular life, possessions probably won't change that. Thankfully, I have a job, and a live-in girlfriend, and a very creatively fulfilling music career, so I'm pretty good.)

I don't disagree there. I'm still on the hunt for BH Shockwave. When I factor in all the time and gas I've spent driving around looking for him, it's kinda crazy. I know that i don't need him. But I wants him. And since I almost never collect Transformers, I'm making an exception this one time by buying the entire onscreen cast of TFP from the first 2 seasons.

Before this I bought maybe 1 or 2 TFs from each new show, but never more than that. And funnily enough, I sold off most everything except my Beast Wars collection. I really loved the feeling of moving out this stuff, that I wasn't using, displaying or doing anything with and having some money roll in.

[Shockwave]

You uh... you haven't sold on ebay recently have you?

The last thing I sold was in February or March. I have had zero up front fees since I started, and I've never had a problem with a buyer leaving negative feedback. Also, as a buyer, eBay will also not let you leave neutral or negative feedback unless you actually open a fucking case with them and dispute the purchase--which is a rare occurance. Yes, you can game the system if you want to, but most people don't. I have had nothing but great experiences with eBay--literally the only time I had a problem, it was as a buyer, and it was really my own fault. (I paid $7 to a shady-looking Chinese seller who supposedly had some unpainted GI Joe test shots, and never received it, and also never got my money back. Live and learn.)

You say the fees can add up, but like I said--I sold about two dozen items (maybe more) over a three month period and never had a bigger payment than $5 or so, a 'month.' That is more than enough of a tiny cut from the profits I was getting. (I was selling items, on average, for about $8 for a GI Joe and $15-20 for a TF.)

But yeah, it's a lot harder to scam a seller than you say it is. Go on--buy something and then actually try to leave neutral or negative feedback.

I wouldn't put it past ebay to have different policies for different users and yours must be pretty lax. They actually told me (and I was on the phone with a supervisor trying to get this rescinded) that they absolutely will not release money I make on an auction until the buyer leaves positive feedback. Oh and on top of that and because of it, I also have to go through ebay for the shipping which means I'm paying whatever price they quote, not what the post office charges when I go in. And the last round of sales I put up, the total for the month was on average around 25-35$. Granted, I was selling a much higher volume and at higher prices, but still.

[andersonh1]

I used to buy and sell on Ebay a fair bit, but I haven't for a few years now. Sounds like things really have changed for the worst.

[Onslaught Six]

I wouldn't put it past ebay to have different policies for different users and yours must be pretty lax. They actually told me (and I was on the phone with a supervisor trying to get this rescinded) that they absolutely will not release money I make on an auction until the buyer leaves positive feedback. Oh and on top of that and because of it, I also have to go through ebay for the shipping which means I'm paying whatever price they quote, not what the post office charges when I go in. And the last round of sales I put up, the total for the month was on average around 25-35$. Granted, I was selling a much higher volume and at higher prices, but still.

No, dude, you went about it all wrong! I dunno how you did it so that eBay was calculating your shipping for you--I just put it up for whatever price it is (usually $3 for a bubble mailer--I don't even charge for the actual cost of them because I always have a bunch laying around to ship CDs in) and then give eBay the tracking info when I send it. That's absolutely fucked up, and I never had to do it that way.

[Shockwave]

I wouldn't put it past ebay to have different policies for different users and yours must be pretty lax. They actually told me (and I was on the phone with a supervisor trying to get this rescinded) that they absolutely will not release money I make on an auction until the buyer leaves positive feedback. Oh and on top of that and because of it, I also have to go through ebay for the shipping which means I'm paying whatever price they quote, not what the post office charges when I go in. And the last round of sales I put up, the total for the month was on average around 25-35$. Granted, I was selling a much higher volume and at higher prices, but still.

No, dude, you went about it all wrong! I dunno how you did it so that eBay was calculating your shipping for you--I just put it up for whatever price it is (usually $3 for a bubble mailer--I don't even charge for the actual cost of them because I always have a bunch laying around to ship CDs in) and then give eBay the tracking info when I send it. That's absolutely fucked up, and I never had to do it that way.

They had my account rigged to where I HAD to ship it through the ebay sit via USPS Priority (I had to basically click on the link that says "print shipping labels" which takes you to the USPS website to pay for it). The real reason I was forced into this was because I had no actual money in my account to actually cover regular shipping otherwise. Otherwise I would have just done like I normally do.

Either way, they definitely have my account rigged so that I don't get paid until the buyer leaves positive feedback and I ain't falling for that trap even once.

[Onslaught Six]

Was there no option to simply "add tracking?" Because that's what I do. Set the shipping when you put the auction up, and there you go. Maybe you set the shipping options up wrong? There's a drop-down menu that lets you set that up--I always picked First Class mail, which is what I shipped it as.

And they wouldn't let you have the money until you received positive feedback because you didn't give eBay the tracking information. If you do that, as soon as USPS' tracking info gets updated that the package was delivered, it notifies eBay and a few days later, the money arrives. I never had a problem.

[Shockwave]

There was but without ALREADY having enough money in my account to actually go to the post orifice, I couldn't do that. Part of the money I was counting on receiving was actually going to pay for shipping. Without that, my only option was to do it through ebay directly so that they would use my pending sale amount to pay for the shipping. Seriously, when I had this problem it was at the end of a month and I had like, literally a dollar to my name and that was it. This was also for a one of the He-Man Classics figures that I was stuck with last year and I was shipping it sealed, box and all. So it wound being more than just sending a loose deluxe TF.

But the whole "send item first, hope to hell you get paid" policy is enough of a deterrent for me to avoid ebay as a selling option. I'll buy on there still but I sure as hell am done selling.

The other thing that turned me off was that I had actually called them and asked if they could release the funds based on my long standing history as a good seller on ebay and they wouldn't budge. The supervisor I talked to was a fucking robotic tool, literally just quoting policy verbatim with no variation whatsoever. The experience all around was shitty enough that I'm done with ebay. Fuck 'em. Fuck 'em hard.

[Onslaught Six]

Well, that's honestly your own problem--if you're going to ship something, you should absolutely have enough money to ship it to begin with without having received the money from the buyer. That's how things have worked for 'years.' You pay x amount to ship it, and charge the buyer the same amount to reimburse you. "This thing is going to cost me, out of pocket, $7 to ship, so that's why shipping is $7." To expect them to give you the money to ship it first is ridiculous.

And again--once the tracking info updates to indicate the seller has received it, then the money gets released a few days later. You can't sit there and count on eBay to make bills or do things that are time-sensitive--you can only use it to supplement an actual income, or make some money off some stuff.

I've had nothing but positive experiences, and it sounds like you had crappy ones. They don't release the funds until either the tracking is updated (which it sounds like you either didn't get tracking to begin with, or you didn't give the info to eBay) or the buyer leaves you positive feedback--which they are REQUIRED to do unless they have an actual grievance, and then they have to open a case with eBay. It's not actually fun or easy to do; it's a pain in the ass.