Is eBay the best place to sell a new laptop?

[Phil]

I am considering selling a new Sony TZ90, and was wondering is eBay the way to go?

I don't use my eBay account a lot, I've got 4 positive feedbacks, 100%.

I'd like to hear your opinion.

Also, I did see a thread on how to buy, i did not see a thread on how to sell.

Are there any good resources on how to sell ?

thanks in advance

[mikeuvsc]

Ebay is a great place for laptops. They usually go at a fair price or better. Meaning the seller makes more money than what the laptop is worth used. I have sold a laptop on ebay and it was a good experience. However other experiences may vary.

A tip would be to post as many photos as possible.

[Phil]

Great to hear your experience!

What about the auction. Is there a optimal timeframe?

And would it be best to have your auction end in the weekend?

[mikeuvsc]

Yes night time or weekends is best, larger audience.

7 days is pretty tested and true.

[theorist]

it's OKAY. sold several laptops. usually fetch around 60 - 80% of the retail value. sonys and toshibas sell well.

this is from my personal experience. i hope you net something decent.

also your 4 rating may be a turn-off to some potential buyers, especially when dealing with money like that but if paying through PP, then it helps since they can use PP buyer protection.

personally ebay and PP have taken a good hack at whatever i make.

at the risk of ranting, i think getting charged by both ebay and PP is sort of rediculous since they are the same company. i lose a bit of the profit getting hit by both of these.

[rachuk]

Ebay is ok but then i have reached better prices selling laptops by selling in local listings. I also have no fees to pay to Ebay or Paypal if i sell locally.
I see that you live in the Netherlands i don't know about the local listings there but i use www.loot.com in the UK. I don't know if you have something similar to that where you live?

[Phil]

I found this webpage to be interesting:

I recommend the following steps:

1. Research the hell out of each item you post. Dig through eBay to find what similar items fetch (and how often they sell). Check other places (Amazon, abebooks.com, other forums) to see what they charge for the item.
2. Use low starting bids. Low starting bids cost less to list, and they encourage participation. The more popular you expect an item to be, the lower you should set the starting bid. If you expect only a few bids, start bidding closer to your minimum desired sale point. For example, I sold some Tolkien videos on VHS that I thought would receive few bids, so I set my minimum bid at about $10. Do not use a reserve.
3. Start your listings on Thursday afternoons and evenings. Run ten-day listings. Time your auctions to end on Sunday evening between seven and ten Eastern (four and seven Pacific). This gives two weekends to attract bids.
4. If needed, pay the extra ten cents to prepare listings in advance and schedule them to start on Thursday evenings. Prepare a group of listings in advance, then schedule them to start within a couple of hours of each other. (Don’t have your listings end closer than within two minutes of each other.)
5. Offer free shipping and delivery confirmation. You could charge for these, but free shipping builds goodwill. Delivery confirmation gives you peace of mind. Free insurance is of dubious value; I sometimes offer it, but generally only on expensive items. You might offer it as a customer-paid option.
6. Offer a money-back guarantee, but only for when the item is not as described. (Not for when a person changes his mind or makes a mistake.)
7. Craft your auction title with care. For example, I recently sold a book entitled The Hidden Game of Baseball by John Thorn and Pete Palmer. I could have put all that into my auction title, but it would have been a waste. My title was geared toward keywords that I believed interested buyers would use: HIDDEN GAME OF BASEBALL Thorn Palmer SABR Bill James. Bill James had nothing to do with the book, but fans of Bill James would be likely to purchase it. You want many people to see your items in their search results.
8. Write a good description listing the strengths and flaws of your item. Write things like “I think this book is in great shape, but be aware that the cover has a small tear and the previous owner’s name is on the flyleaf”, etc. Try to place additional keywords in the description, but sprinkled into conversational sentences. For example, in my auction for the Tolkien animated films on VHS, I used the names of Peter Jackson, Liv Tyler, etc.
9. Be thorough. Many people advocate short descriptions. I disagree. I think that long descriptions are best, especially if they use bold text and highlighting to emphasize the important aspects of your auction.
10. Refuse to accept bids from headaches: people with negative feedback, people who haven’t been paying, foreign bidders. (Note: foreign bidders aren’t a headache for everyone; if you love ‘em, let ‘em bid!)
11. Take photos and post them in the description. Use the 35-cent gallery feature so that your photo appears when people browse listings. If condition is a concern, use many photos to convey the state of the item.
12. Answer questions. You will receive many questions about your items. Some of the questions will be stupid. Answer them anyhow. If it’s a question that many people are likely to have, post the your response publicly.
13. Be amiable! A friendly, easy-going persona is going to receive better response than a brusque, business-like persona. Make jokes. Show enthusiasm.

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/20...able-auctions/

[Phil]

Originally Posted by theorist

personally ebay and PP have taken a good hack at whatever i make.

oh right, PP also takes another 3% right. Is it normal that the seller pays that or the buyer?

Originally Posted by rachuk

I see that you live in the Netherlands i don't know about the local listings there but i use www.loot.com in the UK. I don't know if you have something similar to that where you live?

Yes we do, and they are pretty big (www.marktplaats.nl and www.speurders.nl)

I will use them definetly, althoug in this case, the laptop is quite specialized, so i am not to sure about those websites.

[ToKu]

Originally Posted by PhilFlow

oh right, PP also takes another 3% right. Is it normal that the seller pays that or the buyer?

The buyer eats that unless its listed in the item description (I never see it or do it myself).

On the note about shipping, its expensive, if you offer it free your going to take a hit on sending it out, especially overseas if it sells outside of your country. Goodwill is good and all but this would be a considerable cut. You can offer it discounted I suppose.

[TylerS23]

ebay is the best place hands down, i've sold many computers on there..i have 160+ positive feedback and haven't had many problems, you just have to know what your doing. Also i'd reccommend only 3 day listing, but its up to you.