Selling on eBay...

[StuartDH]

...and donating to Wild About Britain.

We've recently set up an account everyone to be able to sell items on eBay and donate a percentage of the selling price to Wild About Britain at the same time.

The system is operated by MissionFish and our dedicated page is here

A recent sale of books by taptradeltd donated 60% to the charity and they're now selling a propane space heater and donating 70% of the selling price to us.

It's a great way of selling any of your old items and it's a great way of donating to Wild About Britain, so please help out wherever you can.

Thanks

Stu

[Kev Lewis]

a very neat idea. Gonna sort through a heap of photo gear I don't use any more

[Bushcraft]

Nice idea, I just hope you don't encounter the problems that have cost me thousands with them and Paypal.

[Kev Lewis]

Originally Posted by Bushcraft

Nice idea, I just hope you don't encounter the problems that have cost me thousands with them and Paypal.

care to elaborate Bushcraft? via PM if it could be a issue

[StuartDH]

Originally Posted by Bushcraft

Nice idea, I just hope you don't encounter the problems that have cost me thousands with them and Paypal.

...and now scared everybody off from wanting to sell anything on eBay and donating to Wild About Britain.

I guess you'd better tell us the whole story Bushcraft, as I've personally never had a problem with eBay and only heard of problems when buying stuff that turned out to be fakes etc

[Boddie]

I too have had an Ebay account for some 6 years and have never had a problem. I have heard that some naive people have suffered but those displaying common-sense should be fine.

Besides, surely we are talking about the odd fiver here and there and not the heady heights of your thousands Bushcraft

[Kev Lewis]

I've used ebay regularly for a number of years and ignoring the scams and fakes that anyone with an ounce of commonsense will instantly recognise then I don't have any problems with it. Just curious what happened with Bushcraft

[Alan]

I've been an ebay seller for a while now, and have two accounts going. One seller account and a private one.

In the last six months, and among other things, I've sold a Nikon F5, an Nikon F3 and a Nikon F90x. About £500 worth of books, and many other items including paintings and artwork etc.

I've also bought a lot of photography gear off there, and many, many books lol!

One of my brothers even bought a BMW off there last year!!!

I've had no problems, and I don't know personally anyone who has. You'll always get exceptions, but it's the same in whatever method of shopping you use!

[JeffH]

Come on Bushcraft, tell us more please. My son and daughter are regular e-bay buyers and sellers and have never had any problems. Only yesterday I made my first e-bay purchase (a camera lens) and 10 mins ago I put my first sale item on - I'm a bit worried now!

[Boddie]

Jeff

There is absolutely nothing to be worried about. I am shocked that someone with Bushcrafts apparent business acumen could have allowed himself to be taken for 'thousands', as, as you so rightly pointed out, your kids seem to manage just fine

[bendog]

I had a problem a couple of years ago. I bought and paid for an item using NoChex. The guy selling provided me with a shipping tracking number that did not exist and then ignored subsequent emails. I discovered that I was not covered by my credit card as the transaction was recorded as being with NoChex rather than the seller. Eventually Ebay paid me, but I lost over £100 in the transaction, due to their payout limits. EBay suspended the seller, but I was contacted by other people who had also lost money to the same person. My legal advisor discovered that the address supplied to Ebay was, in fact, an empty office in a multi-occupation building. No records of the "company" had been lodged at Companies House. I have since made many sucessful purchases, always using PayPal.

[Alan]

Originally Posted by bendog

I had a problem a couple of years ago. I bought and paid for an item using NoChex. The guy selling provided me with a shipping tracking number that did not exist and then ignored subsequent emails. I discovered that I was not covered by my credit card as the transaction was recorded as being with NoChex rather than the seller. Eventually Ebay paid me, but I lost over £100 in the transaction, due to their payout limits. EBay suspended the seller, but I was contacted by other people who had also lost money to the same person. My legal advisor discovered that the address supplied to Ebay was, in fact, an empty office in a multi-occupation building. No records of the "company" had been lodged at Companies House. I have since made many sucessful purchases, always using PayPal.

Exactly! It didn't stop you from using ebay did it Ben?

You cant tar all the dealers with the same brush because of one or two bad experiences!

[glsammy]

Originally Posted by Alan

Exactly! It didn't stop you from using ebay did it Ben?

You cant tar all the dealers with the same brush because of one or two bad experiences!

Just to add to the confidence side, I've been using ebay and paypal for years. Over 100 successful transactions, never had one problem. Yes I've bought a dud motherboard, but even there the problem was sorted out with no problems.

I'll definitely be using this service, it's a great way to help WAB.

[Alan]

Within the last year or so, my sister, my brother and myself (we all deal on ebay, and in my sisters case runs a worldwide business from ebay as well as her own website) have had something like 5000+ transactions through there. I can only think of a handful that went wrong, and this was usually a mix-up with order numbers etc, which are usually sorted out without any negative feedback.

[Tinkerbell]

Quote from glsammy 'I'll definitely be using this service, it's a great way to help WAB'.

Nice to see some positive feedback from you and other members Graham. And thanks for committing yourself to helping WAB. Much appreciated.

Tink

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by StuartDH

...and now scared everybody off from wanting to sell anything on eBay and donating to Wild About Britain.

Not at all Stu , it takes more than a little scare story to worry me. but then I "look danger in the eye and laugh in the face of terror" or somethunk

I agree with you that most problems come from buying from con artists not in selling stuff , My intention is to print up some of my shots and stick them in nice hand made wooden frames (I'm into my wood work too) the bash them on ebay and give wab a percentage. I was going to do this anyway, but this brilliant initiative has made it far easier for me.

Incidentally I am also contemplating doing a few craft fairs round xmas both with prints and with my wood turning and to donate a percentage of that to WAB also

[JeffH]

Originally Posted by Boddie

Jeff

There is absolutely nothing to be worried about.

Cheers Boddie (& others) - I'm feeling re-assured, but would still like to hear more about Bushcraft's problems

[Boddie]

Originally Posted by JeffH

Cheers Boddie (& others) - I'm feeling re-assured, but would still like to hear more about Bushcraft's problems

Which ones?

[Bushcraft]

Originally Posted by StuartDH

...and now scared everybody off from wanting to sell anything on eBay and donating to Wild About Britain.

I guess you'd better tell us the whole story Bushcraft, as I've personally never had a problem with eBay and only heard of problems when buying stuff that turned out to be fakes etc

It was certainly not my intention to scare anybody off and im sure this will not be case as we all have our own opinions and experiences, I was just stating my ones.

I used to run an import and export business and dabbled in selling via eBay. In my time doing so I encountered many genuine buyers and sellers alike, but I too had a large volume of problems and I am quite happy to go into detail via PM if you want me to.

All I meant by my comment was I hope that a charity does not encounter the same problems that I have encountered which cost me a lot of money. People don't realise that when you get paid via Paypal the funds can bounce for up to 180 days!!! they have since put measures in place to aid these problems but it does still happen.

Im sorry if my comments upset anyone, this was not my intention and should have been removed if this was the case. I simply wanted to warn others that its not all as genuine as it may seem. I know this is the same with everything in life but IMO it was pretty much 50/50 while using the site. I won't lie I do still use eBay but I have had to put many measures in place to help prevent problems.

Best wishes
Kris

[eeyore]

Kris , perhaps you could list out the precautions you have put in place and PM them to stu if you think they might be useful for us ?

[Bushcraft]

Originally Posted by eeyore

Kris , perhaps you could list out the precautions you have put in place and PM them to stu if you think they might be useful for us ?

Hi eeyore,

I have already sent Stu a PM as I would like to pass them on to prevent them happening to anyone else, in eBay's early days I used to run part of my business via them so I have a lot of experience with them, some good, some bad as with everything in life but a lot of people leave themselves wide open to potential problems without knowing it.

Best wishes
Kris

[StuartDH]

Bushcraft,

I think it would certainly help if you could give members any pointers that would save them from having problems when selling items on eBay. I think your first post may have definitely scared a few members and so a more comprehensive explanation would probably help quite a lot. How did you lose thousands and are members likely to lose thousands as well?

Obviously, if you can keep the issues relevant to things that can happen when selling now, rather than old eBay/Paypal problems from years gone by that no longer apply, then that would certainly be very useful.

Also, if you could give some sort of perspective to the problems then that would also help. Are members rarely/occasionally/likely/very likely to have minor/major problems. From my own experience and that of most of the people I know, problems are more likely to occur when buying, and even then they are usually quite rare.

It's taken quite a bit of time to set up the facility to sell items on eBay and we hoped it might be a good way for the charity to raise some much needed money. However, we certainly don't want members to do anything that might result in them encountering problems that could cost them thousands.

Many other members have posted that they have very few, if any, problems with eBay, but if we're missing something then your info and experiences could be a big help. If necessary, we could even maybe get eBay to add your info to the charity's selling page as a caution.

Stuart

[Bushcraft]

Originally Posted by StuartDH

Bushcraft,

I think it would certainly help if you could give members any pointers that would save them from having problems when selling items on eBay. I think your first post may have definitely scared a few members and so a more comprehensive explanation would probably help quite a lot. How did you lose thousands and are members likely to lose thousands as well?

Obviously, if you can keep the issues relevant to things that can happen when selling now, rather than old eBay/Paypal problems from years gone by that no longer apply, then that would certainly be very useful.

Also, if you could give some sort of perspective to the problems then that would also help. Are members rarely/occasionally/likely/very likely to have minor/major problems. From my own experience and that of most of the people I know, problems are more likely to occur when buying, and even then they are usually quite rare.

It's taken quite a bit of time to set up the facility to sell items on eBay and we hoped it might be a good way for the charity to raise some much needed money. However, we certainly don't want members to do anything that might result in them encountering problems that could cost them thousands.

Many other members have posted that they have very few, if any, problems with eBay, but if we're missing something then your info and experiences could be a big help. If necessary, we could even maybe get eBay to add your info to the charity's selling page as a caution.

Stuart

Hi Stuart,

First of all my first post of this subject could have been much clearer and I didn't mean to frighten anyone off. Second thing is its not that common to have huge problems like I have had, small ones fairly common but they are usually only small and if everyone sticks to the terms they are almost always resolved.

A common misconception is that the buyers are more at risk than sellers, I would have to say this is pretty much equal, and below I will state why.

In the early days of eBay I sold thousands upon thousands of items, and then it became very popular and more problems began, and it got to a point where the trouble far outweighed the benefits, this has now changed! Some of the drawbacks are these.....

Payment to sellers can and do bounce, but they may take up to 180 days to bounce! and when someone goes on a spending spree and they have hundreds of only positive feedback's you think you will be fine. And yes mostly you will be fine, but not always, I have lost an awful lot of money from being paid with fake cards this way but security is now tighter and its getting better with each day that passes.

Security is now tighter but it does still happen. Paypal have now introduced tighter rules and if stuck to you are safe, although sticking to these rules is very difficult because the buyer must have a confirmed address and a verified Paypal account, the flaws here are that the buyers do not always do this and once they pay via Paypal in their eyes they have paid so to refuse the sale sometimes causes problems between seller and buyer. BUT to accept a sale like this can cause bounced money which you may only find out about once the item is shipped and its too late to do anything about it.

The best way to avoid these problems are

1, Never accept payment from a Paypal account if its not verified and or has a unconfirmed address (Hard when someone just pays without sticking to your terms).

2, always check feedback's.

3, Ship goods in a timely manor as Paypal will refund the buyer if its not in reasonable time, this means loss of goods and the payment!

4, Always use special delivery if you may need to make a claim as items do go missing quite regularly if your selling lots. Tracking is essential!!!

I won't mention all the other potential problems as I could go on all day. I have sold more that most people so am far more likely to encounter problems so on a smaller scale its not that common.

What I was trying to point out is that problems do occur for both buyers and sellers and to not mention these would be unfair, it looks simple, stick to the terms and you will be fine and 9 times out of 10 this will be the case but they are sometimes difficult to stick to (Very often unknowingly).

Anyway, I don't want to put anyone off, far from it, just be careful as there are some nasty people out there, and they don't care if its for charity or not.

Best wishes
Kris

[Boddie]

So I guess you might warn somebody never to buy a house because your mothers brothers aunties sisters sons brother-in-law once got guzzumped, or because you once had someone pull out of a sale.

I have never heard such nonsense.

I do not know a single person that has had a major problem with Ebay. I should have guessed that with you having lost thousands of pounds you would have made thousands of transactions too.

What was proposed by Stuart (I guess) was for people to sell something that may be gathering dust in the loft, garage or shed and maybe get a fiver for it.

You business empire example hardly seems relevant.