Selling on eBay. I wish there was a better venue

I have a been a seller on eBay for many years. I have a store in which I sell mostly coins. Not important on this forum, but I have sold printer toners, computers, computer parts, multiple collectibles and paper money. I find that eBay is a good way to sell without having to have your own website and try to promote it. The drawbacks are the deceptive buyers, fees and competition that brings the cost of selling up and sometimes ask prices down below market. Some examples are: I sold a complete set of Mercury dimes at $900. I know the set was worth at least $1200., but I could not get what I was asking, so I had to keep bringing the price down until it was sold. I sold an almost complete set of Buffalo nickels for $300. with many High grades included. That set should have sold for $450. I have broken down a complete set of Barber halves and sold them individually. I took a hit on that as well. Let’s talk about deceptive buyers one jerk ordered a coin from me. Then he opened a case against me stating I sent him the wrong coin. He sent it back to me. When I had opened the non-padded regular mail envelope, I found that he had cleaned the coin (it was really shiny) and he swapped out the archival 2x2 safety flip with a computer-generated insert with a Mylar stapled flip. I had no choice to re-imburse him since eBay side with the buyer. The competition is big as well. There are sellers that will sell coins so cheap that some coins it is not worth selling after fees and postage. There are fees for selling on eBay. Let’s say I have a Walking Liberty half dollar on eBay and I am selling it for $13. eBay charges a fee 12.55% plus .30 insertion fee. That makes it $11.o6 now if I don’t charge for shipping it cost me $3. –$3.25. now I am at $8.06 now. My padded envelope and label cost is .10 now I am at 7.96. I have not included the monthly store fee, time and gas to go to the post office. Melt for a walker is 8.72 as I write this article. I am at a lost selling on eBay. If I charge for shipping, I do not get anyone buying and If I raise my prices, I don’t get anyone buying. Are there any sellers out there that can recommend a better venue?

 

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No one forced you to sell at those prices. If you decided that’s what you were willing to take for them, then don’t complain.

That’s why you record packing and unpacking. The TPGs and many dealers do this explicitly to cover their butts when these scammers try to pull such a stunt.

Then don’t sell there.

There is a huge coin market on Facebook and Instagram. I’m in a Facebook group where the average sale is about $40, and in another where the average sale is about $20,000.

 

Some material does well on ebay and other material does not. I sell my coins at a variety of places; wherever I think that material will get the best price. Try selling junk silver in bulk to spread out the overhead. Nobody is forcing you to sell unprofitably.

 

The overhead costs will eat you up. In any business. A lot of people don't understand about fees and operating costs. Plus everything from taking the time to take reasonably good pictures to having a stockpile of various size boxes cluttering up the closet/room/house. I tend to use small and medium size USPS regular and flat rate boxes exclusively.

In response to your question if not ebay, who? I have seen posts in this forum of other sale and auction sites. I've used usacoinbook, despite it looks to me that they are primarily for cheap common coins and people looking for a deep discount. I've had some success there. As you indicate, there is the consideration of how long to hold something at market price vs. letting it go just to move it and keep cash flowing. Certainly your situation as a business is different than mine as a hobbyist, but sometimes I put coins at auction on usacoinbook with a ridiculously low starting bid just to "get rid of them."

Good luck with finding a site with low fees, high traffic, and buyers!

 

The old calculator in my head can't handle the confusion eBay puts into the process. Years ago I sold excess coins on eBay but not anymore.

 

there are lots of other places one can sell besides E-bay you just have to find them

 

To all those in the know, how about sharing some specific alternative websites to buying and selling coins on eBay.
Ebay isn't doing any seller any favors with their fees, terms, and conditions. Yeah, I know the mantra, "then don't sell on eBay." Competition is good, name the sites with web addresses.

 

I don’t buy or sell on eBay and you’ve stated the reasons.

 

I think Facebook is the way to go they have several coin groups on Facebook and no fees. When I was selling a few things on FB it was great with lots of action on my items I got very close or over trends for most graded things and 50-75% on raw coins, as for payment I preferred E-transfers the money is in your account instantly.
I also use well known Auction houses for best results, E-Bay is way to much trouble + time spent for the money you receive on your items they have priced themselves out of the market.
Good luck with what ever way you choose to go.

 

I am a long time seller on ebay also and after reading your post it was almost like I wrote it myself. I have experienced the exact same issues and exactly as you described them only with different names and different people. I am selling more and more on Proxibid.com now and doing slightly better than my ebay store. I am considering tranferring all of my online coin and bullion sales to proxibid you might want to go check it out. It,s free to look around and see

 

There is Web Store which offers many different items, catagories but it will in no way have the coverage EBAY has.

 

I've tried Proxi Bid several times and always get an error message or a message to submit an ticket for an error. Have never been able to get through.

 

richard go to USACOINBOOK.COM YOU CAN REGISTER AND SELL YOUR COINS THERE READ THEIR RULES BETTER THEN EBAY.

 

Have you tried researching all the local/regional (within reasonable driving distance/expense) flea markets, swap meets, and LCS/club shows and such, and setting up at those events as much as possible...? Seems like you could do as good/better there...at least no shipping issues/costs to worry about. FWIW.

 

There is an online auctioneer (uses the Hibid.com auction platform) who does not charge you a commission to sell your coins in his monthly auction, so long as the coins are medium to high quality type coins (you'd have to discuss that criteria with the auctioneer). He does charge the winning bidder a 20% buyer's premium, which is how he makes his profit. But, he handles the invoicing/shipping, etc., so you don't have to worry about that stuff. He sends you an inventory list of what you have submitted, listed by lot number, prior to the auction so that you can track your consignment prior to sale and during the sale to see how the bids are going. He sends you a post-auction results list, showing how much you'll receive. He then sends you a check about 30 days after the auction has been concluded. His auctions attract a lot of online buyers, primarily because of the above average quality of coins he offers. He is very knowledgeable of coins, and for raw coins his opinions on the likely grades or if details (or if counterfeit) are spot on. Only criticism I have is that he does provide prospective bidders his estimated value range for the coin in the lot description, which I often think is a little low. That obviously can influence the bid amounts that are submitted.

The auctioneer is MintProducts Auctions, out of Manchester, NH. Their website: MintProducts Auctions Homepage | MintProducts Auctions

I've had very good experiences consigning my better coins for his auctions. Jeff, who I think owns the company, is extremely professional and courteous.

Disclosure: I have no financial affiliation with the company or Jeff, other than as an occasional consignor. Just providing an opinion on an alternative platform for folks who may be wanting to sell some medium to higher quality coins with less hassle and closer to optimal results.

 

What you've described is a generic auctioneer.

And that 20% he charges the buyer results in a 20% lower hammer price. So the seller is paying 20% to sell, it's just not called a commission.

 

First, I think it's a question of what you consider a "generic" auctioneer. I tend to categorize them more as a good, average, or below average auctioneer, and Jeff ranks at the top of the scales of good, imho. Second, Yes, there is a 20% BP, but have you consigned much to online auctioneers? Many (no, make that most) will charge you a seller's commission (10 to 20%) and then also charge the buyer a buyer's commission of 10 to 18%, getting commission on both ends. In those arrangements, it's definitely a losing proposition for consignors. For the 20% that Jeff charges to the buyers, you at least know (as the consignor) that he has a large online auction following due to his integrity and reliability (and quality of his offerings), that he'll deal with the hassles of collecting payments, insuring deliveries, handling the mailing costs, and provide you with professional documents regarding your consignment and sales. In the alternative, you can go with Ebay, pay about 15% in commissions and other related fees, pay the shipping/insurance costs (unless you charge it to the buyer), deal with USPS, FEDEX, or UPS (whomever you choose to ship), and deal with payment collection and return hassles if they arise. Just saying that dealing with good auctioneers such as Jeff/MintProducts Auctioneers will probably net you just as much as trying to sell on Ebay, but without the Ebay-related hassles that Ricardo Vales' thread described.

 

This is a nice area to learn. I don't sell on ebay, but I have bought some things from ebay. I have a goal of collecting a certain range of coins i.e., I want to collect all of the Wheat Cents. I am just about through with my IHCs. Most of you know which coin I am still looking for 1877. I've got all of the War Time Silver Nickels. I'm working on getting all of the Mercury Dimes. I've got all of the FDR Silver Dimes, and I am trying to fill the gaps in my Walking Liberty Halves Dollars, Franklin Halves, and the Kennedy Halves, although the Kennedy Halves will never complete.
I say all of this, because I can't wait to get any of the coins I'm looking for in circulation, so, I search on ebay to find coins in great shape and a reasonable price. I don't do Biddings on ebay because I am an impatient collector, but I do like to search ebay on Buy It Now side. Most coins are in very nice shape. If not, I'll wait and search another day. I have had a great time looking for the coins. I don't send any of my coins to TPG's beacuse most of the coins I buy would cost more the the price of the coin.
I have found their are great sellers on ebay. Those sellers that are selling great coins, I watch their site especially and I try to give timely ratings.

 

I buy but never sell on eBay. In fact I never sell any of our coins. I enjoy our collection and will leave the hassle to my heirs, I won't know anyway!

 

You are right, the seller is really paying a commission with buyer's fees. But it is only 16 2/3 per cent, not 20 - still a fairly steep commission, but probably about the same as selling on eBay since the auction house pays for shipping and there is no money transfer fee. [You could have gotten $120 and paid a $20 commission. Twenty dollars is 16 2/3 % of $120.]