hi all,
just curious where does everyone sell their stuff? eBay is great for buying, but no longer awesome for selling. I sold a $202.50 item the other day and got flogged $22.03 in fees and then on top of that almost $6 for paypal! Hardly worth it IMO.
Keen to hear from others what they do.
Cheers
Gumtree
You can also sell on Ozbargain list your item on classified
Never get a decent price for your stuff on here, too many tight@rses
Just so you know gumtree is owned by Ebay, they bought them out when they started becoming an alternative. I guess so they could make sure the free alternative never became as fully featured as the priced one.
The largest next best thing is quicksales.com.au but they are filled with people flogging off everything and everything so it's a big time waste to navigate their site.
Doesnt facebook have market place? They are the only ones who can compete to ebay. besides aliexpress
For me its Gumtree as well as many subreddits such as /r/melbtrade, /r/hardwareswap, /r/mechmarket, /r/avexchange and /r/shave_bazaar and others depending on what I'm selling.
Edit: reason for replying to the top comment isn't for votes but because I'm on my phone and can't find the normal reply to post button.
i cant believe i looked that up!
Yeah Gumtree, but the problem with Gumtree is that your listed item slips low over time. Happy to try it.
Delete your ad and then relist it.
You don't need to pay to bump it up. You could also pay a flat fee to have your item 'featured' for several days or make it an urgent sale.
gumtree also has a duplicate post detector built in. If you post several ads selling the same type of item, make sure the description is different (worded differently). That way, you can post multiple ads and increase the chances of it being seen.
It also helps to copy the ad before deleting it. That way you can copy pasta when making the new ad.
An even better trick. Pay for top ad until there is 1 day left, than create another ad for a fake item. Then change your description of your PAID ad to the same of the new ad you posted. The automatic detection system will delete your PAID ad, and refund all premium fees automatically. (You have to pay $1.99 to bump the ad up when editing though) but still you get back $8.00
:)
That's underhanded, but great trick nonetheless. But I don't feel any guilt knowing Gumtree and eBay are the same company..
How does this work? Does Gumtree refund fees for items that are not sold?
I love copying pasta specially when it's doughey carbonara ;)
People posting multiple ads for the same item, or employing tricks to bump crap I've already rejected back to the top are the main reasons I no longer waste my time with Gumtree.
I certainly sympathise with those looking for alternatives to eBay's ridiculous fees, but I'd advocate a different approach.
Isn't it about time a disgruntled eBay seller started a petition at change.org? With so many sellers becoming justifiably peeved, wouldn't a mass eBay boycott by all small-time sellers get some media attention and potentially apply a blowtorch to eBay's fee structure?
We tried that in 2006, even had one of the longest forum posts in history on ebay (petition thread).
Imagine if having tried to pass legislation to ban slavery, elected officials didn't bother to try again because it was defeated the first time. It's been eight years. Just because eBay didn't give a damn the first time isn't a good reason not to try again.
@woz:
Believe me, they give a damn even less now.
I've had more than a few run-in's with them this year to know, including tackling them personally at PeSA.
If I thought a petition would do anything, I'd be first in the queue. Plenty on ebay know me well enough to know mean that.
and also dont forget alternative for australia post. they are expensive too
what are the alternatives to Australia Post (for smallish ~1kg items)?
i dont think there is an alternative
There isn't but you can still buy satchels in bulk saving some money if you plan on selling a few things.
And when they aren't increasing prices, they are decreasing value in other ways. Up until recently you could put up to 15kg in a Bx1 mailing box. Aust Post have reduced this down to 1kg! Bx2 and Bx4 have also been significantly reduced.
I'm not on facebook personally but my partner has bought some things (mainly baby stuff though) from facebook selling groups. It is free but no idea how it works. She says it is popular and it seems just as easy as ebay. I imagine this would work best where you can physically pick the item up.
this ^
I'm on bunch of these pages and it is quite easy to buy/sell. All you have to do is make a regular facebook post but with a picture of the item with a price, dead simple. You can also find a bunch of awesome deals and freebies on the pages too if you keep your eyes peeled.
How do you search for these pages? Need to sell off a few baby/kids stuff. thanks
Search in general keywords into the search bar like:
Buy, Swap, sell, (Location) etc.
If you are having trouble just give me the town/area you live in and I can help you find some pages :)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/pakenhambuyswapsell/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/melbcheapandfreestuff/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/caseybuysell/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/307939889230809/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/247338465302521/
These are just a few pages that I am also on. Some are more active than others but all seem to work quite well. Best of luck selling your stuff :)
Be specific for your area. I'm subscribed to the one's below specific to my location.
Your town Buy and Sell
Your town everything for sale
Your town Give Away
Isnt there a proper place to sell, ie the marketplace
ebay is more and more becoming a department store, they're constantly chasing the big names to open up on there. Those big stores (platinum & diamond rated) get very well looked after.
It's the "lower ranking" sellers that get the full brunt of fees, more so now since they "steal" a cut of the postage now.
I just wish there was a real, viable, alternative here.
I mean, I understand why ebay wants a 'cut' of the postage, as its to stop these $1 items with $45 postage. That I understand!
BUT ebay could have given 'free' fees on postage if you use the prepaid services that stop this issue or keep your postage fees under xyz amount.
Whats WORSE as a seller is this… I sell a item for $100 ebay, list postage as $7.15 being the cost of a prepaid bag via ebay, the buyer pays by paypal and ebay takes the following
A cut of 10% for the item sale, PLUS the postage via ebay fees
A CUT of everything AGAIN via paypal ~ 3%
SO on the postage, I lose out nearly 13% because of paypal/ebay fees, plus I haven't charged anything for packing, time to post item etc. BUT if I charge more for postage to cover it, people complain I'm making 'profit' on postage. FML!
I have a calc for items listed. Here is my example for $100 item sold charging $7.15 for postage. (ebay fees include the $3.50 listing fee for once you use up all your fee listings, so you can take this off if still in the freebie listing numbers)
Item Final Price / BIN $100.00
S&H Charged $7.15
Ebay Fees $14.11
PayPal Fees $2.87
So $17 in fees! So I pocket $83 for my $100 item, oh and thats not profit if I had to BUY the item for sale!
you actually lost $24.13 instead of $17
have you forgotten the postage fees?
$14.11 + $2.87 + $7.15 = $24.13
$100 - $24.13 = $75.87
and that does not include any fraud risk, lost in mail, packaging & your personal time….
also dealing with unreasonable customer & negative feedbacks!
"eBay is great for buying, but no longer awesome for selling."
yep, and since the high fees are chasing the sellers away, it isn't so great for buying any more either.
You Have No Choice they Are Rip off
Why do people type like that? It seems like it takes way too much effort and time. Or am I mistaken and you're quoting the name of a song?
How Can Mirrors Be Real If Our Eyes Aren't Real?
Yep totally agree, we have decided to no longer sell on ebay.
The one thing I did when recently selling a guitar, value ~$600, was put my mobile number at the bottom and say offers accepted.
I put the listing up as a buy it now $700 or best offer. If someone clicked buy it now for $700, even after fees I got what I wanted for it. But in the end I got people contacting me directly way and sold outside ebay with zero fees. Eat my dust ebay, and thanks for the free advertising.
I do the exactly same thing.
That is the problem now, ebay have forced people to up their prices so the place is no longer the "bargain centre" it used to be. Add to that the way ebay treats it's customers (the sellers) and you have a disaster in the making.
The only once who can afford not to increase prices are the big boys who get preferential treatment anyway. (though ebay always say no one gets preferential tretment - hah!)
This. I always say "can I come and have a look at x?" then just go and offer cash for it.
I didn't think Ebay allowed you to put phone numbers in listings? That sounds good if they do!!! Great tip! :)
Yeh it's weird I didn't think they did either but I didn't have a problem. I think numbers are fine but they filter out email addresses, at least the definitely do from ebay messaging.
Not always
Just keep in mind that if you transact away from the ebay/paypal system then any financial protections are lost .. both in terms of paypal protection & feedback. More of an issue for the buyer though than the seller.
Have just come across kioskonline.com.au as an alternative to ebay. To list ad is free & it appears there are no selling fees. Has anyone used this site before?
Shopping centre forsake boards are cheap or free… the shopping guide in the weekend paper has free adds for under $500 sales (or did, the levels may have changed) and gumtree but beware scammers
Gumtree is owned by eBay and continue to introduce paid options, if this trend continues I would say that Gumtrees days of being totally free are numbered.
To be honest I have never come across kioskonline before and after taking a brief look, a lot of their listings appear to be dodge, for example a seller (who says they are in Sydney but also has identical ads listed on a Nigerian classifieds site) with an iphone 5s for $550 when legitimate retailers have them listed for $700+.
Unfortunately this is what happens when you open up a free classifieds site but dont effectively monitor what gets listed.
I would suggest trying quicksales.com.au which is run by carsales.com and is 100% free to list and sell.
The thing to keep in mind is that none of these alternatives will receive the same amount of traffic as eBay, as you simply can not run a free site and then pay for visitors which is what some of your eBay fees go towards.
So if your serious about selling successfully on a free marketplace you may want to consider some low cost ways to increase your traffic such as promoting your listings via facebook or a blog or even running a low cost adwords campaign.
ebay is hurting from loss of sales to gumtree (even though they own it)… But the GREED by ebay in fees is the cause of that. I use to be happy to pay small fees to ebay, but its now upto 13ish% if paid via paypal of the final sale and POSTAGE costs. Its just getting too much! ebay sellers have had to increase postage costs charged to cover the ebay/paypal fees they are getting charged, so they don't start losing money on postage. Its a rip off!
Try Quicksales.com.au - no fees whatsoever.
You mean slow sales
I defy anyone to prove otherwise.
I was heavily involved with the site when it was Oztion, it never has really worked as a feasable alternative to ebay. Many sellers say the same.
So…….neg away!
Yup same here. I just wished Oztion introduced the new fee structure and relist for free feature when it was trying to get attention. A little to late for quicksales.
you guys are late, there used to be YAHOO AUCTION/BID…..and they pulled from the Aussie market :-(
Ebay sucks for selling. They have a monopoly which is why they can get away with it.
You are forced to go through their own payment system - Paypal where it's like a second tax.
Seller protection is a joke.
They take cut of P&H too and given Australia's expensive rates it's absurd.
And yes, Gumtree is owned by Ebay…
You can put your phone number in ebay listing but if it gets reported by another user you'll get a strike.
They take a cut from the P&H because people were abusing it before, making the item cost 0.99c then making the postage and handling to be huge, so it bypasses their commissions.
Seller Protection is a joke, however buyers protection isn't, so buyers rather buy from eBay than on Gumtree.
Basically eBay is good for buyers but bad for sellers.
eBay has a monopoly on the "Auction" websites, as it has such a large customer base. Items which aren't the current "craze" is easier to sell on eBay. If you have a highly sought item, then Gumtree would work.
when there's "second to none" protecting the seller, why would seller still sell on eBay?
when there're less seller on eBay, buyer lose the opportunity to get bargain too!
When is Amazon coming to OZ, would that not be a good alternative?
They're already here selling books. Won't be long until a full roll out.
May force ebays hand but Amazon isn't much better to deal with, as a seller.
If you think the AU Amazon prices won't be 'Australianised' and shipping from the US/UK Amazon sites cut off you're dreamin'.
Edit: That includes fees for their partners.
I don't think Amazon will launch an AU store until the govt charges GST on items under $1000. Until then it would more often be cheaper to sell it from the US and pay the shipping costs.
They are though
I sell on eBay on the only way you can try and win is by overcharging buys on both the product and postage. Otherwise like you said its hardly worth it. Eg if postage costs me $7.00 I will charge $10.00 to cover some of the many fees. I wish there was an equal alternative to ebay because they are a bunch of greedy thieves. I cannot fathom how they take percentage of postage as a fee. Their arguement is so everyone can put free postage on their listing. As a seller this is a big problem because if the buyer puts in PayPal claim they will refund the whole amount which includes postage. If your separate the item and postage then they will only refund the purchase price. I also agree seller protection is non existent. They will always take the side of they buyer no matter how riduclous the claim.
Yes, you gotta love ebay trying to push sellers into offering "free postage" over the years, just so ebay themselves could maximise their commission. Sorry ebay, but postage is not free. It shows their disdain for both sellers and buyers.
As a seller, we charge more on eBay for the same product so we can "train" customer to shop direct
If they don't learn, that's fine. We charge around 10-20% more from our eBay store
Not sure why, but some sellers charge less on their eBay store:
ie. PC Byte:
64GB Sandisk Micro SD card on their eBay store: $47
64GB Sandisk Micro SD card on their website: $49.95
It's weird. Items purchased directly from a company's site ought to be cheaper than the same product sold on Ebay/Amazon/etc, but as you mention, sometimes it is the inverse. I inquired about this, and a sales rep told me it is because there is a lot of competition on Amazon, and the majority of their stock is sold on Amazon. It was for a slide type belt by the way.
Coolstuffinc (a gaming store) charges much more for items listed on Amazon than on their own site, and they give discounts to people depending on the amount they have spent, up to 3% off, which is nice.
Lastly Abebbooks has even higher fees than Ebay, almost 20% now including a credit card surcharge. Their fees have apparently climbed steadily over time.
For boardgames/compter games and RPGs, the BoardGameGeek series of sites has a marketplace.
I only started selling things in June and got a bill for $142 from ebay.
I contacted them yesterday about this shocking bill and was told they cant provide any discount. I told them I can't afford paying that much at once and asked what is the consequence if I don't pay.
I was told ebay will deactivate my account and that's about it. no other action would be taken..
Are you sure they won't get debt collectors on your butt? Default list your credit report? lol.
Not sure if is worth the risk. Getting a smudge on your credit report because you forgot to read the page which talks about their commissions.
eBay has changed their commissions to 10%, which also includes postage costs.
Well you should have looked at their fees before posting anything. I'm not saying they make their fees easy to find. In fact, all their rules are hidden somewhere in the Amazon forest. EBay is a pain I have to put up with everyday, I feel your frustration.
@Iplau: I wonder if you register eBay account on a company then do you get a smudge on credit report too?
Haha I'm not sure actually. I am guessing as a company which is Pty LTD is considered a seperate entity then you wouldn't get a smudge on your own credit report. Which is why when a pty ltd company goes bankrupt you don't see the owners having to pawn all their stuff to pay for it.
However if you are a business on a ABN then generally speaking the owners themselves are liable which means you may get a smudge on your credit history when sh1t happens. Since Businesses on ABN are not considered "seperate entities" the owners are the entity of the business themselves.
I once got a letter from eBay once for not the 10% of the item I sold they were going to take legal action.
Ebay own Gumtree. Next year we'll have Amazon at least.
I hope Alibaba kick eBay's arse when they have their IPO, although Alibaba dont seem much better than eBay in terms of their business practices.
You should be very careful with AliExpress (alibaba's direct to wholesaler site).
I signed up to buy 3 items off them for super cheap direct from supplier. Within 5 minutes of signing up I had a notification from Facebook (used same email) that my account was attempted to be reset from Shenzhen, China.
Dodgy…
You have to be careful about visiting any websites from China.
After getting my wife off chinese sites, her comp hasn't been hacked or infected by viruses.
How much did it cost to deliver your wife from China?
I Use ebay. i acdept the fees for what i sell. Its a larger market.
Traderoo, quicksals, tradertag, trading post & Craigslist are all junk and get no hits
Gumtree is good, but expect a lot of time wasters, and lower prices.
Ebay, for what i sell on there would net me 20-30% more in sales than any of the above. i accept i lose 14% in fees, but overall im better off.
Ebay invoices last couple months
$780 April
$530 May
$340 June..
sucks, but oh well
Agreed. People pay stupid amounts of money on eBay. It's like their common sense dies the moment they log in, and I regularly get 'sky high' prices for items. I invest a lot of time in creating the ads with tools such as GarageSale to ensure that they stand out from the rest and contain mountains of supporting information.
Gumtree face to face only cash or direct deposit
worth waiting for Amazon or other players sick of eBay high fees
I try to sell locally via gumtree first. If they do not sell. I go to Ebay. To be honest, I get more from Ebay even after they take their cut.
Plus I do not have to deal with low ballers who make themselves sound like they are doing you a favour.
True, the buyers from gumtree are mostly cheapskates.
There's a lot of cheapskates on ebay too.
Not nearly as many as here.
I sold 2 GPUs on ebay for approx $500. However, cost of postage and other fees resulted in my fees being north of $90. Was my first and last sale as I don't see why I should pay ~25% in fees for stuff.
I sell on Gumtree. I have been selling on Gumtree since 2012 and have never had any problems and have not paid a cent to use the site. Like others have said, when your ad is dropping off the radar just delete and repost. I know it can be a pain in the arse but it really does work. I recommend trying Gumtree for awhile and seeing how you go.
I did that quite a while ago, my email & IP got banned from using gumtree as I simply delete & repost!
funny thing is I am not selling thousand or even hundred of stuff, all I was selling are 3 items……
I have to charge sky high on eBay to make up for the ridiculous fees. Would be more than happy if a buyer asked me to deal outside the system, or if they wanted to cancel the transaction after completion to refund the 9.9% of fees. Sadly, none of that has happened and buyers probably aren't even aware of how badly sellers are ripped off by the system.
eBay also supports VeRO which has unfair listing take-downs…
Success selling on eBay - OK, not amazing, the fees do hurt but budget that into your price
Success selling on Gumtree - 0%, just time wasters
Try offloading your spare stuff at Cash Converters or the like and see what you get. They make the 10% fees on eBay look like a bargain.
I sometimes have asked vendors if they are willing to accept a direct Paypal deposit and discount me 5-10% off off the sale price, but usually only the Chinese ones are willing to sidestep Ebay's draconian policies.
swap4beer.com.au
think its owned by coopers brewery
Seen it advertised on front of a shop…
I made an account a few years ago on Ebid (http://au.ebid.net) but found lack of customer base / awareness meant things didn't sell. It may be better now, unsure as I haven't used it since.
With more traffic it could be an alternative.
Gumtree