Any ebay sellers here?

There is a big market for those old Lionel toy trains. You should do really well with that. eBay is a little scary with things like that as there is a very popular scam that involves PayPal as well. The buyer does everything correctly, pays and you ship to them. They then dispute the charge through Paypal upon receipt saying that the item is "counterfeit" which then prompts Paypal to refund the buyer's money, and they then instruct the buyer to destroy the item as counterfeit goods cannot be sent back through the mail. This happened to a close friend on a large ticket item, I thought his head was going to explode. eBay scares the shit out of me, but as you can see from this thread, people use the platform to make a substantial living, and have likely learned how to navigate all the scary stuff.

And what about sales tax?

 

Income tax minimization? How does that even work? Does paypal send you a 1099?

Roman, do you have a master list of all the items that you have? Any interest in selling the whole lot?

There is a big market for those old Lionel toy trains. You should do really well with that. eBay is a little scary with things like that as there is a very popular scam that involves PayPal as well. The buyer does everything correctly, pays and you ship to them. They then dispute the charge through Paypal upon receipt saying that the item is "counterfeit" which then prompts Paypal to refund the buyer's money, and they then instruct the buyer to destroy the item as counterfeit goods cannot be sent back through the mail. This happened to a close friend on a large ticket item, I thought his head was going to explode. eBay scares the shit out of me, but as you can see from this thread, people use the platform to make a substantial living, and have likely learned how to navigate all the scary stuff.

 

Damn, I had no idea about that new scam.

 

Terrible. Exactly why I don't use FeeBay anymore.

 

Roman, use ebay to advertise what you have. Offer local pickup and best offer. If people need it shipped, they will send you a message asking if you ship. Then, take your business off of ebay and handle the transaction as a private sale through email.

 

Yes, paypal will report all transactions and you will pay taxes, I believe when it gets over $10k.

 

Tax wise, its best to deal with cash. But, you would probably need to set up a legit business to save a bit, and I don't think it's worth the trouble unless you're expecting big money from these sales.

 

Also, try finding local train shops or calling them and letting them know what you have. Ask if they want to buy it, or if they will take it on consignment. Might be cheaper and a better option. Just be sure to know your stuff when dealing with the professionals.

 

Interesting info. What kind of stuff are you guys selling through your ebay stores?

 

I used to sell shoes.

 

Now, if I were to get back into it, I would get into cheap, light, easy to ship electronics/accessories. Its hard to compete now. Gotta have a high turnover just to make a buck

And what about sales tax?

 

Income tax minimization? How does that even work? Does paypal send you a 1099?

 

Yes, Paypal will send you a 1099 as soon as you hit $20,000 per year in payments received (keep in mind that is before fees, so you will net much less than that). Amazon is the same.

 

And not that I am giving tips on tax evasion, but that is how most Mom & Pop sellers avoid reporting the income. (keep yearly sales under $20k, stay under the radar).

Another item to protect yourself would be to put a bidder filter in place. I have mine set so people with 0 feedback cannot bid. I have had MANY people bid and win who have 0 feedback and they do not pay or communicate at all. Then you have to wait for the dispute to be resolved, which can take 2 weeks.

 

I also prefer using UPS for shipping. They will stop the shipment if needed and have it sent back to you. USPS does not do this.

 

I would suggest to confirm the shipping address with the buyer once they win and pay to make sure it is being sent to the correct address. Some people do not always update their address on ebay or paypal.

I wouldn't deal with Paypal if I were kidnapped and held for ransom by ISIS.

I wouldn't deal with Paypal if I were kidnapped and held for ransom by ISIS.

 

What he said. Honestly, awful to deal with.

So yours is straightforward - - a couple of pictures since those buying will know what it is. Then condition meter 1-10 as you would guess. Then copy pasted message that youre selling your lot on pieces. Youll need an easy way to ship best if mailman can just come get it. Then pricing thats gonna take you some time to figure out. If you ship promptly then customer emails will be low and wont take time. Sales tax if buyer is in your state i think its an option they pick when paying or its alteady included by pp. like i said id worry that id spend a lot of time prIcing the stuff.

Roman, do you have a master list of all the items that you have? Any interest in selling the whole lot?

 

I have a partially completed master list... He died before he finished... Its 17 pages long... And it only covers 28 0f seventy something boxes....

I have a partially completed master list... He died before he finished... Its 17 pages long... And it only covers 28 0f seventy something boxes....

 

 

What condition is the stuff in? New in box? Does your boy have any interest in the trains at all? If not, I'd rather sell the whole lot in one piece and be done with it. Each one of those 78 boxes represents dozens of ebay douche bag buyers and headaches.

I wouldn't deal with Paypal if I were kidnapped and held for ransom by ISIS.

 

So who would you recommend?

Roman, do you have a master list of all the items that you have? Any interest in selling the whole lot?

 

 

+1 on this.

 

 

Ebay is a total scam these days. I'll buy this or that, view the cars.. but sell? Nope. I have so many things sitting here that I am compelled to ebay, but to hand them 15% in addition to the risk of being scammed, walking on eggshells regarding the listing verbiage.. eFF them.

 

 

There is a place in my town called Niagara Hobbies and Craft Mart, Cheektowaga NY. They do trains. I'd rather take the 15% loss and sell the whole lot to a small local business than make ebay any more rich.

 

I'm not sure it's been mentioned, but I'd bet a toe that there is a Train Forum much like this forum.. You could direct sell to collectors. Or= subcontract that out to a neighborhood kid.. your kid? (if you have any).. It would take you less time and be less of a hassle than listing on ebay.

 

 

 

I wouldn't deal with Paypal if I were kidnapped and held for ransom by ISIS.

 

 

This too. lol. Paypal is convenient, but man they sure can ruin your day. I bought a couple of parts this summer for my car, the jerkoff left parts we agreed on out of the box. Option 1 was to ship the parts back, truck freight for $200 for a full refund or eat ass. I grabbed a bib. Scumbags.

What condition is the stuff in? New in box? Does your boy have any interest in the trains at all? If not, I'd rather sell the whole lot in one piece and be done with it. Each one of those 78 boxes represents dozens of ebay douche bag buyers and headaches.

 

Some NIB... The older stuff- some has beaten up boxes... Some just loose...

Apologies if you've already come across this, but the following page has a lot of guidance for your exact situation.

 

https://familygardentrains.com/blog_like_co...l_my_trains.htm

 

I think it would be difficult to decide on a path forward without having a good idea if your time spent will be worthwhile financially. It looks like building an accurate inventory first would be ideal. Once you have an accurate summary you could send a "batch" email to hobby stores who may consider buying the lot. You could also post on some train hobby forums at the same time. There looks to be various national and state level organizations.

 

As mentioned above, paying a younger family member to note and photograph each piece might be money well spent. Dump it all in an excel file and forward as needed.

 

 

So who would you recommend?

 

I am completely out of touch, I haven't sold anything on eBay for over 15 years but when I did I was taking money orders which I used to cash at a Post office.

 

Something like this but it was an international one, there were no fees at my end in order to cash it, there was a relatively small fee at the senders end.

 

Haven't used ebay in years. It was a pain from what I remember. Start with the smaller ticket items and get after it. Once you build a reputation you can start with the higher end stuff. If you have a solid rep you end up getting more for the more rare/expensive pieces.

I am completely out of touch, I haven't sold anything on eBay for over 15 years but when I did I was taking money orders which I used to cash at a Post office.

 

Something like this but it was an international one, there were no fees at my end in order to cash it, there was a relatively small fee at the senders end.

 

 

Ahhhh yes, I remember the good old days of accepting money orders as well. Unfortunately nowadays, it is impossible to run an EBay business without Paypal. NOONE sends money orders anymore due to fear of scams. And as big of a scam as Paypal can be (do a search if you want to read about some of the HORROR stories out there in regards to them holding money in people's accounts, debiting your bank account unfairly, etc.), it is almost a monopoly for online e-commerce. There was actually a thread here on LP a few years ago where a member described the nightmare he dealt with trying to get them to release funds to him, after he had left 5 or 6 figures sitting in his account and they locked it. It is absolutely criminal what they can get away with.

 

It used to be easy to do local-pick-up only back in the day as well. Nowadays, you have to be careful as it is hard to prove that the person actually picked up the item (even if you have all the messages through EBay messaging showing that you arranged a pick-up and that they were supposed to arrive). They can then drive back home, claim they didn't make it to your house and never picked up the item, and again, it becomes a case of he-said-she-said.

 

I don't blame anyone for not wanting to deal with the headaches that EBay/Paypal brings nowadays. As I said, it can be lucrative, but it is so buyer-friendly now, sellers can get screwed at any time. You really have to screen each buyer before and after the sale happens, and do everything you can to cover your as$$ so that you don't get taken to the cleaners.

 

RD if you are unable to find a buyer for everything and decide to go the EBay route after all, I would definitely look into selling things in lots and save yourself some time, effort and headaches. The fewer transactions you have to process through there (meaning EBay/Paypal), the better.

 

PS - I am sorry to hear about the loss of your Father. I didn't know or I would have said something to you earlier.

Oh this is rich. For once I'm actually the smartest guy in the room. Or at-least, willing to say it out loud.

 

First and foremost - Roman - I'm very sorry about your loss. I hope that those surviving your Father are moving forward, and productively. And I appreciate your long history of service to this forum as a fair moderator.

 

I could write alot here but likely most will not get read and I (generally) try not to be too boring. I'm going to keep this as concise as possible. I don't think that I'll be checking this thread much so PM for more info, Roman.

 

Ebay is great. Don't like it? Make your own website. Sure as a seller there are challenges but they're IT for certain things so take it or leave it. They are the biggest and they're very smart. I've met with higher-ups on 4 occasions now; they're not going away anytime soon. Me? I'll take it. Revenue from ebay comprises 85% of our $3 Million/year business.

 

How is ebay great? Well - it's great for buyers on commodity products. Don't you like buying cell-phone chargers for $1.99/delivered?? Or beating the dealer on parts pricing plus getting it quicker than when some bonehead at a parts counter has to first order it from the manufacturer?

I'm a buyer and a seller on ebay and as a seller, I avoid the above scenario as-often as I can. But that's based on our particular business model.

 

But for truly special and unique items - it's great for sellers. Case in-point:

http://ebay.com/itm/171802989110

http://ebay.com/itm/172403882153

 

We have 1800 SKU's and the above are the two most expensive. Our offering is rounded out, but within a particular niche.

Roman - what you have - likely falls into the second category; where ebay is great for sellers. If you're willing to make this a part-time job - based on what I'm hearing you will make alot of money off of this. If you have no interest and/or don't need the money, then dump the load. But you'll be getting pennies on the dollar from what the stuff will ultimately sell for, because you'd be taking the easy way out and someone else will be doing all of the work and reaping the reward. Sometimes a franchised car dealership calls us to buy hundreds of pieces of new, written off inventory. We pay extremely little for it. Because we're the ones doing all of the work to get it out there. We do this because we have a mechanism in-place that accommodates this.

 

Expect what you've described, to take years to fully unload. How are you with that? If you're ok, then this is for you. There is no other venue. You're not going to spend your life going to trade shows that specialize in this product and have people grinding you on price anyway. Ebay is the only site of it's kind for this stuff that truly reaches the world.

 

 

For those looking to get into this business - I've been doing it for nearly 20 years - 16 as a livelihood. Alot has changed and competition is fierce. You'd better strive to be different or you'll get lost and waste time and money doing this. The novelty of ebay has long-since worn-off and we have plenty of prior vendors whom we now compete with since they have since gotten into it. I'm not going to get into the things that we do to make us different, any more than any of you are going to let me have sex with your wife.

 

For the whiners - yes - you can and likely to some degree will get scammed. Deal with it. Or don't do it. The system is rigged for buyers and scumbags take advantage. Last summer, some POS across country complained about nothing on a set of $3k wheels/tires. We sent him call-tags and ate $600 in round trip shipping. We received the boxes back and opened them up. Instead of sending back the originally-shipped wheels and tires, he sent a set from a junkyard vehicle. Credit card companies always side with the buyer - saw that we received four packages, and he ended up getting the wheels for free and we lost the item plus the round trip shipping. It happens. If you can't handle the very real possibility of that type of injustice then this is not for you.

 

Our fees average 8%. Obviously that's based on our volume but more than that our CSI and reputation; we've processed nearly 70,000 transactions. If they make you pay 15% in fees - again - where else are you going to go? The best thing about selling on ebay is that the entire world is your marketplace! We sell some items on Amazon but it's just not the same due to how their SKU's are set-up. You have to conform to existing SKU's and making new ones won't land searches well.

 

Paypal is the accepted bank. Don't like PayPal? Tough. They go hand-in-hand with ebay in a take-it-or-leave-it relationship. Some sellers try to force buyers to use their own merchant banks and that scares off probably 90% of buyers; I've seen it. And expecting Money Orders only for payment? That ship sailed in 2002. I watched it leave the port.

 

Roman - if you want full-pop and have the time - sell it yourself on ebay. Come up with an appropriate username. Do the research on each item to see what others have SOLD for - not what people are asking. Try to use Buy-It-Now as often as possible. Only use the auction format when you have something truly special, and you only have one or limited number of them. Sell one-at-a-time via auction. Used to this alot but rarely now based on our business model. But it is fun to watch to or three people go at it especially at the end. Again, has to be truly unique. Otherwise buyers want the instant gratification from Buy-It-Now.

But view this entire process as a part-time job, and as a journey. It's like a very long drive; you're not going to get there right away nor even nearly soon. So accept that and lay in for the long haul. Seek to enjoy the ride, not expecting the destination.

 

I've said alot here and it was fairly rambling. Hope this helps.

 

Godspeed

What condition is the stuff in? New in box? Does your boy have any interest in the trains at all? If not, I'd rather sell the whole lot in one piece and be done with it. Each one of those 78 boxes represents dozens of ebay douche bag buyers and headaches.

 

Hands down the best advice in this thread. Sell it en block. Even if you net a 10% less it would be worth it to avoid the hassle of dealing with multiple buyers, researching prices or rare items, packaging fragile items, scams, returns, etc.

 

 

Hands down the best advice in this thread. Sell it en block. Even if you net a 10% less it would be worth it to avoid the hassle of dealing with multiple buyers, researching prices or rare items, packaging fragile items, scams, returns, etc.

 

And if the loss were closer to 50% without an inventory and sold as a lot? There may also be a sentimental factor of "dumping" a collection that was so carefully acquired over.

10% less

Even 50% less?

 

Guess again. On what it sounds like he has - to get someone to buy all of that and take it on???

 

He would be fortunate to be able to sell for 5 cents on the dollar, of what the final gross will be selling it off piecemeal. Yes - with all of that to liquidate - he'd be damn lucky to get even $5,000, on what would ultimately sell for $100,000.

10% less

Even 50% less?

 

Guess again. On what it sounds like he has - to get someone to buy all of that and take it on???

 

He would be fortunate to be able to sell for 5 cents on the dollar, of what the final gross will be selling it off piecemeal. Yes - with all of that to liquidate - he'd be damn lucky to get even $5,000, on what would ultimately sell for $100,000.

 

 

I somehow doubt Erik wants to make this into a year long project. Perhaps it would be best to break it up into 78 blocks of trains rather than selling each individual piece separately?

E, does your boy want a year long hobby, to learn how to make money and get a better allowance while at it?