I Say Yeah To Ebay (gasp Shock)

[Derek Pearson]

Confession time - I've got literally hundreds of 45s in boxs marked 'To sort', records that I didn't honestly know what to do with. Hopeful buys from junk shops and car boots. Mad buys at venues from mates telling you "they're the next big thing" (yeah right). Crap sixties dancers, ballads that go no where, average records in VG nick, shit 70s with squeaky vocals. They probably should be worth £3-10 but where could I sell them? I don't want to drag them 'round venues and end up selling 3 for a tenner. Yes I suppose I could make a list and post them up here, that would save a lot of ballache. But I don't wanna waste people's time by sticking up dozens of things that aren't very good in my opinion. (Wish my judgement was good enough to stop me buying them in the first place laughs..). Its not worth dumping them in the local record store, you'd only get 10p each if you were lucky. Besides I'm too tight to do that hehe.

And that's where the fun of Ebay come in I guess to a man like me that doesn't gamble. Will it sell won't it? Will it make a reasonable amount? Here's an example: I tried to flog ex condition copies of King Floyd and The Hearts Of Stone both on VIP about 12 months ago through Ebay, starting at $5 but got no bids. I trailed them around venues but nobody sniffed. So I stuck them on Ebay over Christmas starting at $2 and I know what the arguments are. Some would say the time and effort of scanning them, putting them up, selling them, all that emailing and finally posting them off aint worth the measily quid you might get back. I quietly overlook the fees (Ebay 35 cents per record plus 4% Paypal fees) which dents profits hehe. But that's where the gamble lies yes I'd like to get $6 for them but if they go for $2 I have to think oh well at least they've gone. If you add on say $2 postage my Paypal account swells (steady) by $4 for every record I sell. Fortunately I have a long lunch hour and work close to a post office so I can make time to pack them up. I might have paid a couple of dollars for the records years and years ago so I'm only getting back what I paid for them. I go back to time and effort again - what would I rather be doing? Pottering about selling records or watching shite TV like Big Brother. Alright no contest! The argument could be why don't I use my time efficiently selling more expensive items?

The crazy thing about Ebay is I recently shifted 3 Midas records at $3, $3.25 & $5.50 a piece making the whopping total of $11.75 whereas 2 of the same records had earlier sold for $11.49 & $9.99 each totalling $21.48 - figure that out? Manships rates the 3 records I sold at £60 (coughs). Maybe I sell them too cheap? Start at $2 and some might think they're too cheap (but is that possible? I'd like to buy every record for a dollar!) I regularly see records that I've sold at $3 not selling at the starting bid of anywhere from $5-9. I'd rather under price and sell.

To me selling these records is just one big game, I'm glad to get shut of them to be honest and clear some space. When I had a lot of time off over Christmas I could put all these things on the web. Has it paid off? Well I shifted 18 records for $83 and by the time I added on $27 on for postage $110 went into my paypal account. Richard Branson better watch out eh! £50 phew! I can use this to buy other records either to keep or resell. I pay for the postage out of my pocket so I don't miss the odd couple of quid here and there. Its all good fun I say and hopefully I'll just keep ticking away untill I empty these damn boxes.

derek

[jazzyjas]

Derek,

Put them on in lots and you'll do better. People are looking for bargains and are going to be more likely to buy in bulk and/or take the whole lot off your hands just to get to a few records you didn't realize were sought after. It's all in the title of the auction. People might be looking for drum breaks, samples, whatever...You'd be suprised. Get out of the northern mindset for a moment and look at the behaviors of other types of buyers and find out more about what you've got.

If anything, keep that box near your feet at work and look every single item up on ebay if you have to while you secretly surf the net, just to see what the market is. There could be a couple of big items on someone else's scene in there. Sell the remainders in lots and break them into different price categories.

Hope this helps.

KTF

Jas