I am going to start selling a few duplicate slabs on eBay, which is something I have never done before.
Are there any tips that people have about how to minimise the risk of selling to scammers and time wasters? I understand there might be a way to stop people with ‘dodgy’ histories being able to see/buy, but have no idea if I made this up in my head.
Any other tips about successful selling greatly appreciated.
You can block buyers with bad feedback or if you’ve personally had a bad experience with them. It’s hard to do in advance without knowing their user I’d, though. Probably not possible.
You can, however, review a bidder’s feedback during auction bidding or when they pay and Vance the order if they don’t meet your standard of feedback.
There are some buyer requirements that you can set at
https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/buyerrequirements
You can block known bad buyers and stop buyers who might have cancelled other purchases that they never followed through on.
You can set the Immediate Payment option on Buy It Now listings so that items aren’t actually sold until payment is received. This isn’t an option for auctions.
Anything that is high value should be sent with Signature Confirmation. Sometimes, just stating in your listing that you will ship with Signature Confirmation will deter scammers.
Remember that even though you can say there are no returns allowed, there are always returns allowed. The SNAD (Significantly Not As Described) return option is always available to all buyers regardless of whether or not the seller states that they accept returns or not.
If there is an issue, make buyers return everything and make it as easy for them to return as possible (i.e. send them a return label). Scammers will expect sellers to fight returns and that puts sellers in a bad light with eBay when an issue is escalated to them as they are the ultimate judge. You don’t want eBay to refund the buyer and let them also keep the item.
Always be professional in any communication with a buyer who has an issue and only communicate through eBay Messages. eBay sees these messages and can use them in determining your case.
Unfortunately, you will have to accept that scammers will be able scam you the first few times that they try. eBay will side with buyers for the first few times that there are issues until a pattern of bad behavior exists.
Post them here for sale first and maybe avoid seller fees and headaches
Sell them on shortboxed app, cheaper fees
In my experience, ebay always sides with the buyer in a dispute. Thus, if a buyer raises an issue, try to
work it out with the buyer. I personally hate selling on ebay but it is the market with the most exposure. Really cant stop scamming buyers since Ebay really does not care about the seller
I have been selling on Mercari and have had no issues with scammers or people wanting to return. Plus, I am selling many books above eBay prices.
With the few books I’ve sold so far on Mercari, I’m super happy so far.
I’m also happy that it only takes a fraction of the time to list something. eBay seems to be in category overdrive… too many things to check off and only some to revert (like the damn no best offers BS they try to pull, etc).
Most comic book collectors know what they want without all those damn details involved in the listing.
Thanks for your help all. Much appreciated. I wanted to give Mecari a go, but they have pulled out of the UK. When my duplicate slabs arrive I will offer them first here (at very reasonable prices of course : )
Prior to 2015, I was selling on Instagram and making about $500 profit a week.
I cleaned up my instagram when looking for work, and lost my comic book buyer following.
I have since tried to re-establish it but it’s been difficult.
There was a comic book sellers group on FB as well of over 25K people but that has long since shut down. Find what works for you for the most profit.
This past week I sold 4 items after not selling anything since Feburary. I baited people though by posting a bunch of stuff, then posting a highly sought book (Invincible 110-111) which must have grabbed a lot of people’s attention of other stuff I was selling cause, yeah… ever since I sold that Invincible, the views on my page have gone down over 80%… so yeah, find a bait book you can let go off, price it high enough that no one buys it but low enough to garner attention to the rest of your items.
Good ideas - thank you.
I use to keep an overpriced Ultimate Fallout 4 for sale to draw in potential customers but after 6 months that Ultimate Fallout 4 sold and wasn’t overpriced anymore. lol