I'm trying to cough up some money right now, so I'll be parting with some of my rarer games, to be sold on eBay, including some hard to find ones like Deus Ex, Half-Life (first print) and Wizardry Gold. It's a fine lot of about 15 games, and I am aiming for a price tag of about $400, not including shipping (which I'm rounding to be about $120).

This is the first time I'm actually selling stuff on eBay, so I consulted some of the sellers whom I've bought stuff from before. Apparently, both eBay and PayPal take a cut of around 25% of the total declared value (+shipping) of all the items - is this true? Sounds like a hell lot if it is. To anyone who's had experience selling through eBay, is the cost borne on the seller really so high?

Secondly, my listing is probably going to be a Buy It Now option. Can I list the item forever without it ever expiring? I don't want to have to re-list it constantly.

I have many more questions, but off the top of my head these are just a few. Thanks and much appreciation in advance for any help given.

I hear selling on eBay is very difficult as the buyer can fuck with the sellers(if they have no real standing there yet to show otherwise/that the buyer is scamming) in many ways....like saying they didn't get the shipment or it was damaged upon arrival/etc.

Also yes the fees are high for a glorified Craigslist......say, did you try craigslist yet? :\

I would definitely see if you can sell anything through Craigslist before using eBay, or some equivalent.

Heck, if you sell those games separately(or sell some off that way as people want to buy them.) I may even take a look see at what you have.

With Craigslist you can deal only locally and in person, this is a great way to avoid scams. Seriously, look at all scamming methods, nearly all of them rely on the scammer being hard to track down and square with after the transaction.

Craigslist is like a free newspaper classified ad, where you can post sales and some photos of your merch.

Definitely worth a shot....just be careful where you list your stuff...make sure you list it under games/etc section, and also in the areas you want to sell to.....as each locality has it'w own subsection(miami/ny/etc)

I had no idea there was a Singapore Craigslist! Make sure you list it under the location you live. :)

http://singapore.craigslist.com.sg/

Buyer protection on Ebay is a mofo. People can order something overseas, say they didn't get it, and get a refund with a free item. It happened to me more than once. Sellers protection blows.

FWIW on craigslist I have gotten scammers offering dubious payment from locations signifcantly removed from my own, so it's not just ebay that has them. I usually add a tag line "local sales only" in all caps to whatever I'm selling. Some people still don't get it.

I've never sold anything too rare on Ebay, but I used Ebay selling for a couple years to actually get by after I was cut off by federal funding for my education.

If I remember right, Ebay takes a sliding scale percentile off the top of a auction's final bid. It really depends on the item, and it's explained somewhere in the FAQ on selling. They also have a fee calculator you can check out here: http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/news/Feecalculator.html

I did a quick run through with 200 listing price, 400 final price, and ten dollar shipping. The fee was $36.45 for that.

And after that, Paypal takes their own fee, which appears to be around 2.9% of the final purchase price + $0.30 on top.

Another thing to keep in mind, is the policy shift on Ebay. It used to be buyer beware, where a buyer would be subject to the mercy of the seller. Then Ebay instituted fierce rules to protect the buyer. Now, Ebay's gone even further so that it's seller beware. No matter how long the buyer takes, as long as the item is still open (you haven't gotten it closed over a dispute), the buyer can pay for the item and you must deliver it. You also cannot leave a poor buyer negative feedback of any kind, which used to be the basis of most trust-based transactions on Ebay.

I wouldn't recommend selling anything expensive or rare on Ebay. Perhaps shopping them around on sites like this and selling one to one would be best. But for average run of the mill things you can get 10-100 dollars from? Ebay's pretty good.

Yes, but you can always avoid them by following one of CL's top rules: only deal locally. Obviously you know that since you that's what you do. Regard the scam offers as spam, they're about the same thing.

What if you don't want to refund the person?

eBay then presides/arbitrates the case and usually gives it to the buyer and you're forced to refund them.

But how do they force you?