eBay

treasur75 · ‎07-01-2024

I have a rare vintage or antique Swiss watchmaking kit and I don't know it's value. It may be worth $400 or it may be worth $3000. I'm new to ebay and I was wondering the best way to sell this thing. I'd like to post it for sale and only take offers. Can I do that? I don't really want to give a price minimum because all I can find is a photo of a smilar item on the internet and it's not for sale that I can see. I'd also prefer to just leave the shipping situation alone so the buyer can make a suggestion if possible.

I'm just curious what my options are.

msau4301 · ‎07-01-2024

Unfortunately there is not a way to do up a listing without setting a price. I would suggest pricing it on the high side with the option set up to "Make an Offer", you can then either accept or decline the offer but you have to start with a price or you won't be able to set up the listing.

For shipping, you will also have to have a shipping cost/method set up. We used to be able to have an option "Contact seller for costs" but unforunately they stopped allowing that.

A couple of important notes if you are going to try selling here, even if it is only once, as a new seller I would recommend selling to Canada and US only to start. International selling is much more complicated, and pricey (especially if your item is high value). Also as a new seller eBay will hold your funds for at least 30 days until the item can be confirmed delivered (again why international selling should be avoided at this early stage.) Lastly you will have to be set up for Managed Payments (how you will get paid here) or if you do sell the money will be in limbo until your payment info has been set up.

It sounds like you want to just put out some feelers to get the value before committing to selling but you have to have a price point to do the listing. Hopefully you'll get an idea of value once offers come in (or if none come in you may know you're too high).

When I started selling I started with low price items just to Canada and US until I was comfortable. Jumping in first time with a valuable item is a little scary. Others here may have suggestions, options but my understanding is you will have to have a base price to set the listing up. Good luck!

treasur75 · ‎07-01-2024

Thanks. I may list it with a high price then. I have already completed one sale and got feedback. I have two more auctions ending today. I set up my payments with my bank account but they only held the funds for a couple weeks I think. Will they continue holding funds?

mrdutch1001 · ‎07-01-2024

If you are listing/selling high value items, yes, eBay may continue to hold funds...

msau4301 · ‎07-01-2024

I'm glad you have already set up with payments, made a sale, received feedback and had funds released. That's awesome so you are already familiar with the process and know the funds make it through to you.

But yes, as mrdutch has also said if it's a high value item funds can be held for longer.

I do agree to list it at the high end and have offers open until you get a feel of the response. You can always re-list it differently if it gets no action (and you know it may be too high). It's always hardest when you don't have similar items to compare it to.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎07-01-2024

@treasur75 wrote:
I have a rare vintage or antique Swiss watchmaking kit and I don't know it's value. It may be worth $400 or it may be worth $3000. I'm new to ebay and I was wondering the best way to sell this thing. I'd like to post it for sale and only take offers. Can I do that? I don't really want to give a price minimum because all I can find is a photo of a smilar item on the internet and it's not for sale that I can see. I'd also prefer to just leave the shipping situation alone so the buyer can make a suggestion if possible.
I'm just curious what my options are.

@treasur75

You may want to do some due dilligence research both on eBay and Google prior to listing. Get an idea of what other similar type lots have gone for recently. Who knows? You may have a real gem but better to find out now vs later. Even Google lens can bring up some interesting helpful results.

To this day I regret selling my Unit Serial #1 of this item. Live and learn!! 🙂 I could have retired!!!

-Lotz

msau4301 · ‎07-01-2024

I wanted to add something after peaking at your listings. If you are going to do this new item as an auction (as you are currently) the "Make an Offer" button is only valid when there are no bids. Once you have bids (even one) the option to make an offer disappears so you would have to sell for the price at auction end. For this reason make sure you start it at the lowest you would be willing to sell it for and hope it gets bid up. Alternatively you can do Buy it Now (higher end price) with the Make an Offer option to get a feel for it, you don't have to accept any offers though you can chose to automatically "accept offers of at least $.....".

I also see you have a few followers already which is a good sign if you are selling similar vintage items.

My followers/repeat buyers are by far the biggest part of my sales.

treasur75 · ‎07-01-2024

Thanks, I didn't realize offers only worked with no bids. I actually did just find an auction house that sold the same item in 2016 and it went for $1300.00 (USD I assume). And in thet case the description states that one of the movements didn't work when wound.
They didn't even have the same in the description and only had 2 low quality pictures.
I think mine works but I haven't checked yet.
Now I'm just thinking about the fact that I'm new and people may be reluctant to buy something that expensive from me. And also, someone could buy it and say they didn't get it.
I'm also still trying to wrap my head around the shipping options.
I guess I gotta take the plunge sometime though.
A few questions of anyone's up for it.
Is Canada Post still a good option with something that expensive even with tracking?
Is it OK to offer Canada Post and then write in the description that I'm open to suggestions after the sale on how to ship it, in case the buyer has a preference? I don't mind paying an extra $20 if it'll make the buyer happy and it's safer.
What are the most likely things that could go wrong?

reallynicestamps · ‎07-01-2024

About Held payments:

Until you've been selling for 90 days and sold 25 items your payments will be held until tracking shows delivered, or in 21 days if there's no tracking. They can hold the payment for the full 21 days if you're selling in a high risk category.

You can put either Best Offer or Buy It Now on an Auction.

But not both.

And as mentioned BO ends with the first bid.

Auctions have a much much higher rate of Unpaid Items than Fixed Price.

With Fixed Price listings you can opt for Immediate Payment Required, and the item will remain visible and available until someone actually pays.

The Thing is only worth what someone will pay for it.

How much did you pay (include taxes and shipping and any time you spent preparing the listing)?

How much would you be content to get?

How fast to you want it to sell?

If you want it to sell fast, keep the price relatively low, don't use Best Offer (which is usually lower), use Auction in hopes it will go higher, included Buy It Now at a higher price.

Expect that the bidder won't pay.

If you want a higher price use Fixed Price/Immediate Payment Required, don't use Best Offer, and be prepared to wait for the buyer.

If the winning price is over $750, used Signature Confirmation.

Careful packaging is more useful and effective than insurance.

treasur75 · ‎07-01-2024

I never even thought of the "signature required" thing. Is that something I have to specifically ask for at Canada Post? Without that would they just leave it on the porch? I doubt the buyer would want that any more then I do with something worth over a grand.
The first auction was under $100 and sold within Ontario. I think the buyer said he had to go pick it up.

byto253 · ‎07-01-2024

To research past prices, ebay has Terapeak which lets you check back on prices for up to 3 years.

https://www.ebay.ca/sh/research?marketplace=EBAY-CA&tabName=SOLD

You can also do a few searches on Worthpoint for free once you register.

For the type of item you have, suggest making use of these to both get a feel for value and see if they come up very often.

If you can get a decent idea of the ballpark value, you can consider a straight forward fixed price listing somewhere in that range. For interesting items like this, when I get a decent idea of value and a price I would satisfied with, I sometimes put it up for auction to see if there is upside on that price.

reallynicestamps · ‎07-02-2024

@treasur75

Signature Confirmation cost about $1.50 /$1.75 and is worth ten times that.
I sometimes use it when the value of the sale is lower than the $750 but there is something odd about the transaction.

I am old and cranky.

EBay will require SC if there is a Claim and the value of the item is over $750.

Canada Post does not usually "leave it on the porch" but USPS does.

Properly the buyer should be getting a Notice if delivery was not possible, and theNotice tells them where and when they can pick up their shipment.

Couriers are much lazier about this.

reallynicestamps · ‎07-02-2024

@treasur75

I would strongly advise you not to list anything with a value over $25-$50 until you have at least 10 DSRs, know what a DSR is, and understand their utter unimportance.

Do some buying and build feedback before listing anything higher than $50.

You are fresh meat for scammers, offering high value/high fraud items (watches and accessories) with no feedback - which signals a lack of knowledge of online selling.

I think everyone who has responded would worry about such a listing going pear shaped.

treasur75 · ‎07-02-2024

I hope things aren't that bad. Career scammers don't really do anything involving paying first and then hoping your plan works. That leaves people who suddenly decide to trade in their account to pull off one scam and really, there's not much any of us can do about that, is there? If someone wants to trade in their ebay career for one free $150 item than they can try. Other than that I guess people can create a fake account or sign up for an account and try to buy something with little or no feedback. In that case I assume that requiring a signature should keep them from being able to scam me shouldn't it? I mean, if I have even 3 sales for $100-$200 collectibles and great feedback, then someone with no feedback tries to say they didn't get something, is Ebay going to side with them? The post office offers $100 insurance, is that something the buyer or the seller has to deal with?

I'm sure there is plenty of fraud on here but so far I've just had people with good reputations and history buying from me. My guess is that it's not so risky until you get someone with questionable history or no history and that's why I ask about the possible ways it could go wrong. How do I protect myself?

flipistics · ‎07-02-2024

@treasur75 wrote:
I hope things aren't that bad. Career scammers don't really do anything involving paying first and then hoping your plan works. That leaves people who suddenly decide to trade in their account to pull off one scam and really, there's not much any of us can do about that, is there? If someone wants to trade in their ebay career for one free $150 item than they can try. Other than that I guess people can create a fake account or sign up for an account and try to buy something with little or no feedback. In that case I assume that requiring a signature should keep them from being able to scam me shouldn't it? I mean, if I have even 3 sales for $100-$200 collectibles and great feedback, then someone with no feedback tries to say they didn't get something, is Ebay going to side with them? The post office offers $100 insurance, is that something the buyer or the seller has to deal with?
I'm sure there is plenty of fraud on here but so far I've just had people with good reputations and history buying from me. My guess is that it's not so risky until you get someone with questionable history or no history and that's why I ask about the possible ways it could go wrong. How do I protect myself?

The best way to protect yourself is to understand the process and ask questions if you're unsure. It's impossible to not get scammed eventually if you sell long enough, but hopefully that's for an extremely small percentage of your sales. Many (but certainly not all) scams rely on new sellers not understanding how to handle returns and things like that. Retail businesses obviously deal with it too (try hanging out in the Walmart return line for a while), so it's not something special that just happens with eBay or other online platforms.

People with low feedback scores selling high value items are more likely to be targeted by scammers because they're less likely to know how to handle the situation. That's why it's often good advice to avoid selling high dollar value items until you build up your feedback. Additionally, if you gain top rated status, you have some extra protections to help mitigate the damage from scams should they occur.

With regards to signatures, eBay requires it for items over $750, but I'll often include it on higher value items well under that threshold (maybe in the $200+ range) as it prevents the item from being left on a porch or out in the elements somewhere.