I've sold hundreds of $20 gold /$10 Indians over the years on E-Bay.
Have small problems popped up? Yes.
1) 2 coins were returned as buyers didn't like the coins.
2)Tracking showed coin arrive in China. Coin was shipped to Chicago and buyer indicated he received the coin.
Problem .. I pay Paypal 3% + I pay PO $25/coin (all shipments go registered). so a $1400 coin has $67 in fees. Adding in $70 from E-Bay and I'm at $137 in costs. I need to be at $90 max so I need the E-Bay promos.
I assume the large dealers pay $7 to ship? A substantial discount to E-bay and Paypal?
I can't compete without a promo and I'm more than willing to hold off until I receive one.
New problem is that on a return the Paypal fees are no longer refunded. On a $1500 coin that is $45 plus two way shipping.
2 out of 200?
I can handle the extra fees for that ratio,
All good and well until a $3000 coin comes back with a total return cost of $120. If you can buy them for $2000 no problem. Not possible on properly graded coins.
I've sold hundreds of $20 gold /$10 Indians over the years on E-Bay.
Have small problems popped up? Yes.
1) 2 coins were returned as buyers didn't like the coins.
2)Tracking showed coin arrive in China. Coin was shipped to Chicago and buyer indicated he received the coin.
Problem .. I pay Paypal 3% + I pay PO $25/coin (all shipments go registered). so a $1400 coin has $67 in fees. Adding in $70 from E-Bay and I'm at $137 in costs. I need to be at $90 max so I need the E-Bay promos.
I assume the large dealers pay $7 to ship? A substantial discount to E-bay and Paypal?
I can't compete without a promo and I'm more than willing to hold off until I receive one.
New problem is that on a return the Paypal fees are no longer refunded. On a $1500 coin that is $45 plus two way shipping.
2 out of 200?
I can handle the extra fees for that ratio,
All good and well until a $3000 coin comes back with a total return cost of $120. If you can buy them for $2000 no problem. Not possible on properly graded coins.
I hear you.
I'm not trying to make money on my coins. I'm trying to realize the best after cost return on the coins I sell relative to other venues. Thus, if I can sell each coin for $50 more after costs than anywhere else, the $120 offsets two to three coins add'l revenues.
e that is standard CC practice and I doubt PayPal was eating the fees on my behalf.
The big folks (Apmex et al) are also dealing with the same issue, so that doesn't obviate the posters point about needing a fee promo to be able to compete.
What is your return rate? Mine remains about 1 in 500+ in which case that $45+ is spread over 500+ packages making the cost of PayPal returns only about 10 cents per package not $45.
First off, I admire your business practice of sourcing relatively inexpensive items and working on a substantial margin on Ebay. I never figured out how to do that and from the get go sold higher ticket items with short margins that got eaten alive by the dramatic increase in Ebay and Paypal fees plus the draconian return requirements virtually demanded. I sold a high volume of $20 golds on the site when the fee was 2% on a $2000 sale. At 5.65% it is impossible unless you are getting the Apmex sweetheart deal.
My historic return rate is 1.5%. 90% of sales have been PCGS and NGC holdered coins. rest have been Anacs and the occasional raw lot.
The new Paypal policy is no problem if the margins are there. For $1000+ properly graded coins, GC is my best option.
Ebay was once red hot on a Sunday night. I have my search set to PCGS/NGC/Anacs coins receiving at least one bid, ending soon. Hundreds of coins would end with successful winners. Now it is dead and most of that activity has shifted to Great collections. Ian is brilliant, Ebay leadership are morons.
I don't know about substantial returns. But I've sold coins from 99 cents to $9000, so I've run the gamut.
All good and well until a $3000 coin comes back with a total return cost of $120. If you can buy them for $2000 no problem. Not possible on properly graded coins.
I don't think you are following. No one can afford to eat $100 on a single coin. But you should not be applying the return fee to the single coin, you need to spread it (like insurance) over all sales. You will probably end up losing money on that single coin, but that's one coin out of 1000.
All good and well until a $3000 coin comes back with a total return cost of $120. If you can buy them for $2000 no problem. Not possible on properly graded coins.
I don't think you are following. No one can afford to eat $100 on a single coin. But you should not be applying the return fee to the single coin, you need to spread it (like insurance) over all sales. You will probably end up losing money on that single coin, but that's one coin out of 1000.
I am following. The margins are no longer there on high ticket PCGS graded coins (our forum host.) Before Ebay fees shot to 6% on coins, they were 3% on the first $1000 and 1% above that. PP was 2.2%. A three thousand dollar coin carried a total fee of $116. One could flip higher grade Morgans and MS66 Saints with a $300 gross margin with $184 left for the seller.
Today the fees on the $3000 coin are $170 to Ebay plus $87 to Paypal. The $300 gross is whittled down to $43. Truly not worth the risk and as an earlier poster noted, one return takes out the profit from the next three sales.
I give credit to EOC who has found enough margin to make it work and to you JM for the same reason. look at the Ebay vs GC transactions tonight and you will see where the action is, and it is not on Ebay.
I don't save money by using GC, but he is doing all the work. That is a benefit.
Just for the record, I am not a dealer. Got into the hobby via inheriting brother’s estate. Liquidating coins where all proceeds go to sleep apnea charity. Agree, it was totally my fault for shipping to a different address - mistake not to be repeated again. Just surprised that eBay takes absolutely zero responsibility for their buyer accounts getting hacked
@shaf2b said:
Just for the record, I am not a dealer. Got into the hobby via inheriting brother’s estate. Liquidating coins where all proceeds go to sleep apnea charity. Agree, it was totally my fault for shipping to a different address - mistake not to be repeated again. Just surprised that eBay takes absolutely zero responsibility for their buyer accounts getting hacked
Ebay would have paid you IF YOU HAD FOLLOWED the rules. Why would ebay pay for a mistake they weren't a party to?
@shaf2b said:
Just for the record, I am not a dealer. Got into the hobby via inheriting brother’s estate. Liquidating coins where all proceeds go to sleep apnea charity. Agree, it was totally my fault for shipping to a different address - mistake not to be repeated again. Just surprised that eBay takes absolutely zero responsibility for their buyer accounts getting hacked
Ebay would have paid you IF YOU HAD FOLLOWED the rules. Why would ebay pay for a mistake they weren't a party to?
I will not sell on any site, without reserves, if they supply me with coins.
I've done over 17,000 sales transactions on Ebay, and never a PayPal charge back. The reasons may be is because I fully understand the rules, stay undated on the rules, and know the scams from reading about them.
Considering that I've never been scammed on Ebay, my "worst situation" was a buyer placed a total 4k order, which was great. That's a big order for me. And he paid with PayPal. But I googled his shipping address and it looked suspicious. I contemplated not shipping the order just because of that. However by spending around twenty minutes more googling everything I could find about the buyer, i found a link to a forum which had posts about this guy being a clever scammer.
That info made the decision easy. I cancelled the order, the money was refunded thru PayPal, I blocked him on Ebay, and I sent him a note thru Ebay just simply saying I wasn't going to complete the transaction.
Well about a day later he negs me. I phoned Ebay and they were hesitant to remove the neg. However i strongly persisted on the phone, and they finally agreed to remove the neg.
There is no doubt in my mind that if i would have shipped the items...in some way, shape or form he would have scammed me, PayPal would have refunded his money from my PayPal account, and I'd be out 4k worth of merchandise.
There is an old business adage of a sale isn't complete until you get paid. Ebay has made that adage a bit obsolete. On Ebay, not only do you need to get paid, you need to stay paid. That means being careful at all times, particularly on a large dollar transactions.
I keep doing more shows and less and less eBay.
More fun, less hassle and I get to actually meet and talk to people.
Many many times more satisfying.
eBay's hooks just keep digging deeper and deeper.
The successful parasite needs to keep its host alive as long as possible.
Either that or be able to jump to a new host.
And eBay will eventually run out of hosts.
Comments
Hello Ebay and Paypal, Thank you for helping me to build a fantastic coin business.
All good and well until a $3000 coin comes back with a total return cost of $120. If you can buy them for $2000 no problem. Not possible on properly graded coins.
I hear you.
I'm not trying to make money on my coins. I'm trying to realize the best after cost return on the coins I sell relative to other venues. Thus, if I can sell each coin for $50 more after costs than anywhere else, the $120 offsets two to three coins add'l revenues.
e that is standard CC practice and I doubt PayPal was eating the fees on my behalf.
I don't know about substantial returns. But I've sold coins from 99 cents to $9000, so I've run the gamut.
GC has its place, as I've said.
I don't think you are following. No one can afford to eat $100 on a single coin. But you should not be applying the return fee to the single coin, you need to spread it (like insurance) over all sales. You will probably end up losing money on that single coin, but that's one coin out of 1000.
I am following. The margins are no longer there on high ticket PCGS graded coins (our forum host.) Before Ebay fees shot to 6% on coins, they were 3% on the first $1000 and 1% above that. PP was 2.2%. A three thousand dollar coin carried a total fee of $116. One could flip higher grade Morgans and MS66 Saints with a $300 gross margin with $184 left for the seller.
Today the fees on the $3000 coin are $170 to Ebay plus $87 to Paypal. The $300 gross is whittled down to $43. Truly not worth the risk and as an earlier poster noted, one return takes out the profit from the next three sales.
I give credit to EOC who has found enough margin to make it work and to you JM for the same reason. look at the Ebay vs GC transactions tonight and you will see where the action is, and it is not on Ebay.
I don't save money by using GC, but he is doing all the work. That is a benefit.
Many coins I buy from GC I retail on eBay or shows.
shhhh!
Just for the record, I am not a dealer. Got into the hobby via inheriting brother’s estate. Liquidating coins where all proceeds go to sleep apnea charity. Agree, it was totally my fault for shipping to a different address - mistake not to be repeated again. Just surprised that eBay takes absolutely zero responsibility for their buyer accounts getting hacked
I actually use GC as a supplier. That's why I think we're seeing increasingly high reserves on GC
Ebay would have paid you IF YOU HAD FOLLOWED the rules. Why would ebay pay for a mistake they weren't a party to?
I will not sell on any site, without reserves, if they supply me with coins.
Everyone is a supplier.
I couldn't help it....googled eBay elephant and it was a little disturbing....
I bought it on ebay for $800 and sold it on GC for $10,005.
I love ebay....as a seller and buyer.
bob
I've done over 17,000 sales transactions on Ebay, and never a PayPal charge back. The reasons may be is because I fully understand the rules, stay undated on the rules, and know the scams from reading about them.
Considering that I've never been scammed on Ebay, my "worst situation" was a buyer placed a total 4k order, which was great. That's a big order for me. And he paid with PayPal. But I googled his shipping address and it looked suspicious. I contemplated not shipping the order just because of that. However by spending around twenty minutes more googling everything I could find about the buyer, i found a link to a forum which had posts about this guy being a clever scammer.
That info made the decision easy. I cancelled the order, the money was refunded thru PayPal, I blocked him on Ebay, and I sent him a note thru Ebay just simply saying I wasn't going to complete the transaction.
Well about a day later he negs me. I phoned Ebay and they were hesitant to remove the neg. However i strongly persisted on the phone, and they finally agreed to remove the neg.
There is no doubt in my mind that if i would have shipped the items...in some way, shape or form he would have scammed me, PayPal would have refunded his money from my PayPal account, and I'd be out 4k worth of merchandise.
There is an old business adage of a sale isn't complete until you get paid. Ebay has made that adage a bit obsolete. On Ebay, not only do you need to get paid, you need to stay paid. That means being careful at all times, particularly on a large dollar transactions.
I keep doing more shows and less and less eBay.
More fun, less hassle and I get to actually meet and talk to people.
Many many times more satisfying.
eBay's hooks just keep digging deeper and deeper.
The successful parasite needs to keep its host alive as long as possible.
Either that or be able to jump to a new host.
And eBay will eventually run out of hosts.