My first Ebay

[B Electronic]

Well I did it! This, ladies and gentlemen, is my very first ebay auction ever! I'm bloody nervous now and feel the adrenaline pumping through my veines! I really hope I didnt forget to mention anything or screwed up with putting in the shipment details or crap like that |I :medic
Now I have to hold my breath and hope for dear god that it doesnt sell for a dollar because then I'd really go insane in the membrane! :bonk :bang2

Thanx to JS for all his help btw. Js was kind enough to answer every question I could come up with before I even dared to go near evilbay.

So if you want, go check out my auction and gimme some comments so I can do better next time.
My first ebay auction (http://cgi.ebay.nl/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6550464600&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1)

[adoptedscot]

That looks great B, nice job !!!

If I had the spare money I would buy it from you.

Hope your sale goes well :wave

All the best


shell
x
:toast :gimli

[scriff]

looks good mate :rock

Scriff

[TolkienCollector]

Looks good to me B, only question I have, is how much would it cost to insure the Beastie :dunno :dunno :dunno

TC :bonk :eye :bonk

[FrodoEyes]

Good luck! I've never sold anything on ebay either, it's just buy buy buy!

The only two things I would say to you would be: Sell in winter, it may sell well now but things get more expensive then! And also I would put a reserve price on it, just to make sure it doesn't sell for anything less than what you're after.

Good luck again! :wave

[JSAuctionService]

Good luck my friend! :toast :clap :win

I hope I've informed you well for your new selling exploits! :speech

Here's looking forward to you raking in the big bucks! :D

[Revilal]

You could improve it by adding a BuyItNow of 100 euros. :hat

ps. notice you live in rotterdam. I work here, and you can usually find me at stadhuis on thursdays !

[CaptainCaveTroll]

Looks fine to me. The only thing that would worry me a little would be:

Once shipped, I cannot take responsibility for lost packages or breakages because of bad handling during shipment. No refunds will be given.

With sales of the statues, I always insist on the buyer paying for insured postage which means that damaged items would have to be claimed for. However, I have seen some auctions which have stated 'no responsibility...' and I have avoided them as I have suspected that it may have already been damaged.

I am 100% sure that this is not the case in your auction but this may be the perception that some people may have.

Good luck in your auction.

[B Electronic]

Thanx for all the feedback guys!

Actually, it seems not alot of people have been reading it carefully enough ^^. For the EUR 30,- the insurance is included. It comes with a tracking number aswell. It all says so in the auction :)

[CaptainCaveTroll]

Actually, it seems not alot of people have been reading it carefully enough ^^. For the EUR 30,- the insurance is included. It comes with a tracking number aswell. It all says so in the auction

I did read it thoroughly. In combining this with the no returns policy, some may perceive that it could be broken and that the insurance is a way of sorting out the problem.

I have suspected some sellers in the past to do just this. Sell an item. Declare that no liability will be had for damage in the post. Send a damaged item via insured postage and then leave the buyer to file a claim with the postal company.

[Lasher33]

We've been through this several times in the past, but the last time was quite some time ago.

This may be slightly different for other nations, it is however how it works in the EU. Unfortuntaley I found out that it works the same from NZ too, when I received a broken Witch-king Crown last year.

Postal insurance:
Once a package is signed for, the postal service will deny any responsibility for damages.
The obvious thing then would be to inspect the contents before signing. Unfortunately, the postman is not allowed to let you do that.
Catch 22 indeed...
So, unless it is obvious from the outside of the package (damaged/ripped/severly beaten/sounds of fractured polystone when you shake the box a bit, etc), there is no way of knowing that the contents are as they should be. Signing for it means that you accept it as it is, releasing the postal service from responsibility.

Now then, should you find the contents FUBAR or at least not as they should be, the only thing you can do is contact the seller, hoping that he'll do something for you. Mind you, he is not obliged to!

So what good is insurance then?
Not a lot IMHO. The only time it can help you, is when the parcel went AWOL. And even then it is not a nice thing to deal with...

For starters, the only one that can try to file a claim is the sender, not the receiver.

Second, you need complete evidence to show that you sent what you claim you sent. That normally includes an original purchase receipt.

Third, honoured claims will only pay out either the amount of the original purchase price OR the maximum possible insurance amount, whichever is lower. In the EU, the max insurance is about E550,- From the EU to the US is probably even lower.
Letter post (for those of you that send autographs and stuff) carries no insurance at all, nor can you purchase it for this.

Fourth, should the postal authorities be aware that it is a collectible or an antique (or something of a similar nature) that you try to claim, then they will in all probability deny the claim in full. It is in their general rules, which of course nobody ever reads.

How do I know all this?
I'm sad to say that it is experience talking here...
From the five claims that I had to make as a seller, only one was honoured. It took close to a year and only paid out E550,- for a missing Cave Troll that had sold for E950,-

So... indeed, I deny all responsibilities once it's dropped off at the PO.
Should a package go walkies, then I will naturally fully co-operate with the buyer to reclaim funds, but I will not be held to pay back money that cannot be retrieved.

BTW before I knew how all this worked, I was scammed out of a mint statue by a dishonest buyer. I refunded the money he had paid me for the statue and got it back in pieces, just like he said he received it.
Postal services denied responsibility, so I was left with a polystone puzzle where I used to have a mint statue.
When I sent it for restoration (much later), it turned out that a piece was missing and there was substantial evidence that it might now be the one I sent in the first place.

So in effect what happend was that the buyer bought a statue he already had, but was broken. He received mine in mint condition, but claimed it was broken in transit and requested a refund. Refund was sent and he returned the broken statue. He now had a perfect item, effectively swapped his old and broken one for it, and it had cost him zilch.

Honesty prevails, but be careful out there.
As they say: "trust in God, but lock your car door"

[CaptainCaveTroll]

Once a package is signed for, the postal service will deny any responsibility for damages.

This was not the case in my experience. I sent a statue within Europe via UPS. It arrived damaged and a claim was made and subsequently honoured.

I don't think that any postal service could deny any claim just because of the fact that it had been signed for (unless inspection was permitted). The companies with whom I have dealt all have a time limit for claims (anywhere between 7 and 28 days). If a claim is made within their specified timeframe then they will investigate and honour it of found to be justified.

[Makiyu]

What Peter is mentioning is the regular (Dutch) postal service. I guess it is different for carriers like UPS.

[CaptainCaveTroll]

That is very strange then. I cannot see how that could be allowed but thank God I don't live in Holland as that would be a pain in the ****

[The Dwimmerlaik]

Thats great, when you start you never stop.

[LOTR Fan]

Yikes that is a horror story to say the least Lash, I hope that is only true in select countries and with some carriers. :google

[CaptainCaveTroll]

Thats great, when you start you never stop.

What does that mean?

[B Electronic]

LoL, I think he ment that towards me CCT.

Anyway, thats why I also state I'll provide photo proof if people so request to prove its in one piece. I would like to help out the person as much as possible, but I am also looking out for myself. I dont wanna be scammed. I've heard enough horror stories over here to last me a lifetime :hang

[Lasher33]

UPS is not a postal service, it is a courier company just like FedEx and DHL.
You may rest assured that UK Royal Mail has the same rules as the Dutch Royal Mail, as I think it is a European convenant.

Courier services may well have different rules; they certainly have different rates...

The main reason why postal services deny responsibility after a signature is that they have no way of telling whether damages were done before or after the handing over of the parcel. Or perhaps were already in that state when wrapped up.
Because it would be damn easy for a seller-buyer team-up to fraud the service out of some money.

Let's say I have a broken statue and I want money for a new one. I find an accomplice and strike a deal. He buys the statue from me as if it were new, fully knowing it to be broken.
He pays full market value and the statue is send over. Upon receipt the claim is made and money is refunded. Now the seller has the cash to buy a new one and the insurance has taken one up the behind.
This would leave a security leak the size of Lake Geneva... think of broken watches, designer sunglasses and things like that.

And from that point of view, I can definitely understand te postal services' standpoint.

Like I said in my post above, it is certainly not just the Dutch Royal Mail taking this route. AFAIK, all the EU postal services work this way and a fair bit of services around the globe apply the same rules. I know that a lot of people pay insurance for their parcels, but it may be worth it to check the extend of the coverage. Nothing is more frustrating than having a false sense of security shattered when claims have to be made and you end up with nothing but a middle finger, endless e-mail conversations and a pile of polystone shards.

[The Dwimmerlaik]

Lol sorry i was writting another thing lol.

[CaptainCaveTroll]

may rest assured that UK Royal Mail has the same rules as the Dutch Royal Mail

Within the UK, the service that I use is called Special Delivery which is the best option. I have sent about 50 statues by this service with only one arriving damaged - a Moria Orc Archer. On this occasion, a claim was made and after about six weeks the full sale price was refunded, along with the postage costs and the buyer was also allowed to keep the amaged statue (the only damage was to to chainmail that hangs down between his legs).

I fully understand about the ways in which two or more devious people could manipulate the system in order to get the money for a damaged statue but there are always those who seek to exploit any system. I think the money lost by these individuals is a small price to pay for the business that they receive by offering insured and guarenteed deliveries. Admittedly this should not be a cost that the postal service should have to bare but it would be a small fraction of their business. I would also imagine that they monitor the frequency and location of claims in order to spot any persistent claimers.

[B Electronic]

Hmmmm......I'm wondering about something here people. I listed my auction on ebay as available for shipment worldwide. Yet, when I try to find my auction with the American ebay version, I cant find my auction at all! Does this mean my auction is only available to Europeans?? Because if thats the case then I'm not going to be very happy. That means there will be alot less chance my auction will go for a nice price.

[creecher]

You live and learn B. I had my first auction the other week, and my title was deficient, so I had the same problem, that the item wasn't as exposed. You, however, have given all the information in your title, so I don't know what is going on there. What I did, because no-one had bid on it yet, was to up the starting price from ten cents to $50. All I got was $50, where the same thing hadn't sold for under $75. That's the way it goes sometimes. Maybe you have time to put in a higher starting price.

[B Electronic]

I already figured it out :) I had to tag the "search worldwide" option in order for it to search the rest of the world :doh

[creecher]

I had better clarify my last post then. I live and learn. :lol
Thanks for that B E, I wondered about that. I will know the next time. Hoping your auction gets some more attention and you get more Euro's. 7 bids so far and four days to go. Lookin good.

[RoboDad3000]

I had to tag the "search worldwide" option in order for it to search the rest of the world
And that is, IMO, one of the biggest bugs/flaws in the eBay search system. If you don't explicitly check that box, what is the default scope of your search? It certainly isn't limited to your own region. I know, because I rarely remember to check the box, yet I almost always get results in my searches from far distant lands (I'm in the US, and I frequently see auctions from the UK, France, Italy, Australia, Germany, Singapore, and numerous other countries, all without the box checked). And yet, without checking the box, I couldn't see your auction.
:dunno

[B Electronic]

I'm pretty damn sure it has not always been like that. They added that feature only recently. I dont like it at all though. I can understand if you want to limit the search to your own country, but most of the time, we are just looking for the best/cheapest price.

[Winged Shadows]

As far as I know, it's a feature that has always been there.

But, as someone living in the UK.. I usually like to see whats available here in the UK/Europe first as it's cheaper to ship and there ain't customs to worry about. It's no big hassle checking the "worldwide" box anyway.

[B Electronic]

Well I just sold mine for EUR380 or $470 :hat Not too bad. I was aiming for $450 so I think I've pretty much got what I wanted for it. The only mistake I've seemed to have made is the time the auction ended. I should have let it end at a time when there's more people online so they can bid on it. Having it end at 11:30 in the morning isnt the best choice I've noticed. Oh well, a lesson learned for next time :idea

[big al]

The best advice i could offer would also be,
if your selling a statue youv seen go before for high price, ie your fell beast, list it so that it ends about 2 days into the new month, everyones got paid the end of the month, and feels more comfortable spending there hard earned cash then!
It seems to work for me!
:p