<p>Novelisto, you can now search on eBay to see what the results of completed auctions are (maybe you already know this; like I said, I am the inexperienced one :D). Anyway browse around and see if any of your “stuff” is bringing the real bucks. That should be a motivator. </p>
<p>It’s not very difficult to do it once you get started. Take some digital pics, fill out the listing info and see what happens. Sign up for PayPal too, if you’re not already registered.</p>
<p>You can get it all done while sitting on the couch watching Seinfeld reruns/March Madness/Masterpiece Theatre/CNN (pick your poison) with the other eye.</p>
<p>Novelisto, I started when I was getting rid of stuff, and could not have a garage sale. I had these leftover pieces of plastic tubing from a cage that was meant for a ferret but we used it for a rabbit. The used cage we gave away, but I had these ten pieces of connector new tubing. On a whim, I checked completed auctions and found people were always looking for more of these, and they were not sold separately. I thought getting $5 AND having someone pay the postage would be a great deal. I listed them for 25cents for the lot. The final bid came in at $45. Yep. After that, I was hooked. I sell in spurts. 10-15 items at a time, maybe once or twice a year. </p>
<p>I buy probably 15 times a year as well. I leave my profits in my Paypal account to use for my purchases. </p>
<p>I also bought two bassoons (and sold one of those) and one oboe on ebay!!!. Looks like soon I will be selling them again…</p>
<p>There are all sorts of forums on Ebay with information and advice.</p>
<p>oldfort’s post reminded me of something I’ve learned. I always use PayPal, but fund it with a credit card rather than a bank account. Paypal makes this as difficult as possible. They force you to enter back account info, and this always comes up as the default. You can select another form of payment, but then a dialog box comes up asking if you really want to do this, and claiming that you will get better protection by using the bank. This is not true. I always go through the hoops to use the credit card.</p>
<p>Well, using the credit card may offer more protection to a buyer, but in the case of a $6000 musical instrument of the seller, asking to be paid by Paypal via bankaccount/electronic check offers more seller protection. But Paypal seems safe, none the less.</p>
<p>No, you would get more protection using AmEx (not Visa or Master), and I not getting paid by AmEx. AmEx will credit your acct as soon as you put a claim on a purchase. Say if I bought an “authentic LV bag” from a seller, if the bag turns out to be a fake I could ask AmEx to refund that money back to me. More often than not, whenever I have informed seller that I was going to report it to AmEx, money is usually promptly returned back to me by seller. It works whether it’s a $5 purchase or $6000. I personally have not been happy with PayPal’s protection or customer service.</p>
<p>Paypal is not 100% safe either. My friend sold an item to a nasty buyer, three months later the buyer opened a dispute claiming that the item arrived broken. My friend had overwhelming evidence that the item was in perfect condition and that the buyer was dishonest, my friend had about 300 positive feedbacks and the seller had none, my friend had evidence that the buyer was using multiple ebay accounts (which is not allowed).</p>
<p>The problem was the seller filed the dispute with his credit card company, not with Paypal, so Paypal was expected to represent my friend in this dispute against the buyers credit card. Of course despite overwhelming evidence Paypal could not care less about the outcome and credit card ruled in favor of its client - the buyer - no appeals, no recourse short of suing the buyer directly. Not only Paypal returned the money to the buyer, my friend never got the item back either.</p>
<p>This is probably quite unusual but just keep in mine that using Paypal is not bullet-proof either.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. I feel a little braver now. </p>
<p>I really like Ebay. Just bought a Wii there. The stores are still doling them out a few at a time and I just can’t get up at SIX O’Clock to wait for a store opening at 10 only to find they gave out vouchers at 4 am. Crazy.</p>
<p>It’s actually not at all unusual to have problems with PayPal. Just do a bit of googling. The only safe method of payment is a US Postal Money Order. That said, I use PayPal a lot, but only with people that have a high rating and only on things that have little dispute capacity. A way to limit the bite that PayPal takes is to specify ECheck only. That limits PayPal’s bite to $5 even on expensive transactions. It’s also not unusual to use a front account separate from your main bank account for PayPal use. This keeps PayPal from removing funds because they aren’t there. I’m a 500+ eBayer, buy and sell.</p>
<p>We have sold our own stuff on ebay for years. It is quite doable for the average person. </p>
<p>I would think that the major disadvantage of hiring someone to sell your stufff is that they take a percentage, cutting into your profit. If they don’t really know the value of your item, they may not describe it in such a way to sell it at its highest potential value.</p>
<p>Be knowledgable of Ebay fees, Paypal fees and shipping charges. I sell everything from books/DVD to rather expensive things like harps (I just sold a harp for $500).</p>
<p>Thanks, FresnoMom. I have soooooo much stuff I’d like to get rid of – some good and some cr*p – and I hate to just throw it out or donate it to Goodwill. And lord knows I’ll never have a tag sale. I’ll look into all the fee things on eBay.</p>
<p>In the end, I sold the instrument via craigslist instead of eBay. Purchased by a dealer on the opposite coast from me! He sent check, allowed me to wait until I was totally satisfied that it had cleared and then arranged for his shipper to come and get the item.</p>
<p>It’s a whole new world to me - I can’t imagine sending some stranger a multi-thousand dollar check and trusting them to later release the item in question. But that’s how it worked.</p>