Selling on eBay

[Undead Dan]

Hey all, I'm going to be using eBay to sell some gear for the first time ever, basically a few of my armies and some books and things, I know that lots of you guys have used it pretty extensively, anyone got any advice for me?

For example, I have Night's Dark Masters. I see it for sale for pretty crazy prices (£40 from the other side of the world with massive postage, or £150+ from Amazon), what kind of price should I start it off at, and how long should the auction run?

On the other hand, an army of High Elves (standard kind of contents), basically fully painted. Would it be best to separate it into individual units, or sell it all in one go? Again, how long to list for would you recommend?

(I also have Daemons and Vampire Counts I'm selling, contact if interested ;) )

Thanks for any helps!!

[fatolaf]

For example, I have Night's Dark Masters. I see it for sale for pretty crazy prices (£40 from the other side of the world with massive postage, or £150+ from Amazon), what kind of price should I start it off at, and how long should the auction run?

Start off low, to encourage bidding, have a buy it now price for what ever you really want for it (will only costs a few pence extra) but this will disappear after the first bid but is worth a go for those punters who really want it. Start your auction at £4.99 and run it for 10 days, you will get a good price, dont worry..

DO REMEMBER THAT EBAY NOW TAKE 10% AND ANOTHER 4% IF THEY PAY BY PAYPAL.

If it's heavy do not sell abroad as you wont be able to post it safely! DO NOT EVER post to ITALY!

On the other hand, an army of High Elves (standard kind of contents), basically fully painted. Would it be best to separate it into individual units, or sell it all in one go? Again, how long to list for would you recommend?

Sell it as an army, 10 days, £4.99 starting cost

If you want for a small commision, I could sell it through the OG Games Ebay account, 1750+ Pos feedback as a seller, and take care of piccies, listing, questions and postage for you?

I recently sold Gary's CoC stuff and got him £112 for one booster pack  and sold Steve's IG army and got him over £500..

[Mike]

I echo Ols' 'Never post to Italy'... and throw in a 'NEVER post to Spain'.

As Ol says start low... you'll always see a flourish of activity in the last 5 mins. 
make sure you take good photos... very essential with models.

never ever EVER!!... use the Term 'Pro Painted'  I want to personally Face F$%k anyone who puts that.  I always put 'Unlike many falsely claim this is not Pro-Painted... im not a pro its my hobby.  It is however painted to xxxxx standard'  People seem to like that.

The debate between selling a whole army compared to individual lots will go on forever.

I broke down my Skaven into individual units and made a killing..... but it was a pain!
Worth putting a reserve on a whole army to stop it going for much less than you expected.

[maelzch]

I'd say also never post to greece, been screwed on that before.

The selling a whole army or individual lots I find comes down to what you've got. If its all quite stock stuff, with nothing rare/converted/otherwise fancy, I'd say sell it as a lot. However, if you've got anything that would fetch a decent price on its own (oop/converted/rare), its definately worth listing those seperately. I've made a killing over the years in flogging rarer minis

[Undead Dan]

Cheers guys, lots of great advice to take on board (Will PM Ol especially). Is it okay to only sell to Britain?

[Tom Hale]

never post in belgium, got burnt on that one. my opinion the sum of the parts is greater than the whole: you make more money by breaking down armies into units

[Mike]

Dan,

I tend to put UK only on my sales.  Also if you sell on ebay.co.uk then I believe only people in the UK can bid... unless you specifically allow someone from abroad by approving them.

That said.. people get around it.

I just got someone banned on ebay.co.uk because they lived in Brazil and put the last line of the address as:

Brasil
London
United Kingdon

To get round the UK only bit... they then claimed after 5 months to have never recieved the items and kicked up a fuss!

Moral of the story... UK only is best to avoid hassle.

[fatolaf]

Is it okay to only sell to Britain?

I do all the time, as Mike says you will occasionally get some people faking their address, but just report them, cancel their bid and give it to the 2nd highest bidder if it happens...

IMO do not ever put a reserve on it, it puts bidders off and costs extra as well.

[Undead Dan]

Got a Polish guy asking if I'll ship (just the book on eBay so far) to his country. Think I should allow it? I have 5 watchers so far...

[The Trampoline]

Yes, don't limit your market to just the UK Dan, sell abroad, you open yourself up to thousands more bidders. If you're really worried about Italy and Spain specify that you won't sell there.

The main piece of advise I can suggest is to weigh your items and accurately work out postage rather than guessing especially if you ship abroad.

Also the thing with Italy and Spain is that the postal service isn't very well regulated so items that have a large postal value (i.e. the amount you spent posting them) can tempt posties to nick them in the hope that something valuable is inside.

Andy