gcbma

I have a slew of DVDs that I bought over the years that I'd like to sell. I've looked into eBay, and there are many options for selling; for example, setting reserve price, setting purchase price, setting auction time limits, etc. How do you figure out each of those for each DVD? If you had any experience good or bad with using eBay as a seller, what's the best pricing/timing strategy to use for selling DVDs to get the maximum return? What's the best resource to use for setting prices, if at all?

As an alternative thought, I'm considering that eBay is not the best way to go for selling fifty or so DVDs, as the time involved in advertising, monitoring, dealing with buyers, packaging and mailing each one may not be worth the small amount of return. Is it better just to use eBay for selling the more expensive/OOP disks?

Max Bottomtime

I've sold a few DVDs on Ebay. Unless you are selling rare out of print titles you should not expect to make much profit. It is a good way to get rid of DVDs you no longer want and get a little cash in return. First thing, though. Don't set a reserve price. That turns away most potential bidders. When you see an item with a "reserve not met" sign your first thought is that the seller expects too much. If you are only willing to accept a certain price, set that as the opening bid. Also, be honest with your description. I bought a DVD two weeks ago, but when it arrived it was an Asian bootleg, not the Region 1 version shown in the auction. I had trouble getting a refund from the seller and left a negative feedback. Until that week, the seller had a good rating with a few thousand positive feedbacks. He received five negative feedbacks that week and closed his account.
Packing and shipping DVDs is fairly cheap. Buy the padded envelopes in bulk for about 35 cents each and ship via USPS anywhere in North America for around $1.50. Don't charge the buyers several dollars for shipping. One of the costs I look for when buying DVDs is the shipping costs. It doesn't make sense to pay only a few dollars for a DVD if the price plus shipping equals close to what you can pay for a new one.
I always use a seven day auction. It doesn't cost you any extra and that gives the item plenty of time to be seen from home and work. Make sure you have a Paypal account to accept payment. The majority of bidders use Paypal, and it's safer and faster than waiting for a check or money order to arrive by snail mail.
Check out similar items for auction before selling yours to know what to expect. If there are several similar DVDs selling for around $7, don't expect to get any bids if you're asking for a minimum of $10.

Chris777

Find an auction that has your movie(s), keep an eye on it, and if you have patience do this with similar auctions over a period of time (weeks, months?). I've noticed some times the item will go extremely high or surpringly low, so if your movie is "hot" at that certain time pop it up for a 7-day listing starting at "9.99" if it's really valuable throw in a reserve, one more observation is that Bidding Items almost certainly go higher than Buy it now items... Why? Hell lol i don't know, i guess people get a thrill and really want it.

I've seen for example Wrong Men and Notorious Sealed (OOp Criterion box set) go for 168 in a 7 day bidding war, while another (at the time) seller had several buy it now boxsets of them for 102, both had perfect feedback, or close to it if i can recall.

Oh yeah, provide pictures, those idio... i mean "bidders" like those

hope that helps.

LucyMonostone

for one you must have pictures of the actual product.. i refuse to buy from anyone who doesn't have a picture i find people without pictures tend to be conmen moreso then people with from my own experience so for me the seller must have a picture.

then you of course have to have good feedback as a seller... i tend to not buy from anyone who has under 1000 positive feedback... anyone with like 100 and under is a definite no-no... so spend time building a positive reputation.

then don't try and rip people off with insane shipping prices... i really hate that.. you see an item for a reasonable price then look at shipping and it says 15 dollars shipping from the usa to usa.. hahahaha... wtf is that.. i sometimes mark a seller down who does that and never buy from him.

always offer a buy it now price.. i usually will pay a little extra to end auction right away.

of course accept paypal as payment.. that is the only way i pay.

and finally give as much detail on the product as possible.. make sure to let people know it is not bootleg or is bootleg... and if it is sealed and not sealed.. and what distribution company it is from and what region it is.

thats generally what i look for when buying.. i do alot of shopping on ebay and been burned only once out of about 6 years and i think more people are becoming more prudent in their ebay shopping so sellers are going to have to do more than just throw an item up there and say buy it.

sirbrady

Look at recently completed auctions to get an idea on pricing for each title. If more than $6, or OOP, sell them separately. Then put the cheap ones in a Lot. (Not worth the time or fees). You may get more that way. The shipping price per DVD is much less, esp if you use Media mail. So that may attract more bids.

DVD prices are plummeting, so it may be tough. It doesn't help when you see 100 listings for each title either. If the title has been reissued, that usually hurts resale value. Many did better with the $8 Blockbuster trade in deal last year.

Paypal is a must. I dont think anyone uses money orders anymore. Don't overcharge on shipping. Use a real picture, not the Ebay stock photos.

gcbma

Wow, great responses and advice. Thanks.

Easy

I disagree with this point. People with a 1000 feedback tend to be in business and simply sell so much that any negative feedback is quickly buried. I have had more bad experiences with powersellers than little guys. I look for small sellers with good feedback. They tend to be people selling off a "blind buy" they didn't like.
Having said that, I usually don't use ebay auction at all anymore. I think the whole ebay listing/auction process is a pain in the ass. If I want used or have a couple I want to unload I go to half.com (owned by ebay). Listing is fairly painless and selling automatic. You list it and forget it. They send an email if something sells and you send it out. Funds are deposited to your checking account. No muss, no fuss.

johnbook

Totally agree 100%, definately with the half.com suggestion, so much easier.

IDrinkMolson

I agree with your disagreement. I don't use ebay that much, and have under 50 feedbacks, all Positive.

The other thing I would mention is your title for the auction. Most people only search on the Title. Make sure it's accurate. Put as many words related to the dvd as possible. DVD, OOP, actor's names, new, sealed, # of discs, etc.
I frequently search on only "DVD OOP".

visitor Q

All great advice. Not sure about the Paypal versus Money order theory though. I understand the premise, but speaking from someone who has ran about 20 auctions over the last 3 months .. I've had no difficulty selling items while only accepting cash/money order payment arrangements. Would I have received higher bids if I accepted Paypal .. I think the answer to that is negligible.

Summary:

Shipping - (agreed with all above) Keep it low
Description - Thorough as possible [if you're going to set up a lot of auctions .. just make a general template and stick to it - makes setting up auctions much quicker]
Photo - One good photo goes a mile. If I am a buyer, I won't even entertain a DVD seller without one. One photo is free .. additional are $0.15 (and I don't think worth it - unless you're selling a hard to find or limited edition title. Even then, it depends on what it is)
Research - see what the going rate for similar titles are going for and don't set yours unreasonably high.
Price - eBay charges an additional $0.40 I believe if you set your starting price at $10 - [correct me if I'm wrong] ... but I know I'm close. Keep your starting price as low as possible. When you're averaging a sell price of $6-7 per title, $0.40 adds up quick.
Honesty [see description] - once your feedback increases and your descriptions are realistic, people will be more willing to buy from you.

nodeerforamonth

Yep. I agree with this 1000%.

I've found that power sellers have way too much going on to be able to accurately do every order the right way. The only problems I've ever had were w/ power sellers and it takes FOREVER to get the problem fixed (if at all).

Yahoo Sirius

For OOP DVDs I'd consider using Amazon.com and listing in their Marketplace. You can often sell stuff for a LOT more than what you would get on Ebay. It seems to me that there a lot of buyers out there who go straight to Amazon and don't even bother with Ebay. Yet, Amazon isn't quite as popular a selling place as Ebay so it isn't flooded with bootlegs and import versions.

Plus, you don't have to bother with pictures, titles, etc. because it's already up there on Amazon. You list the item at the price you want to sell it for and then just sit back and wait until it's sold. Also, your listing is good for 60 days and they only charge you a .99 listing fee if your item sells (unless you pay to be a Pro Merchant seller, then all listings are free). Of course, their commision is a whopping 15%, but even with that I find that I can make a much larger profit selling most of my OOP DVDs on Amazon than on Ebay.

SideShow

I sell DVDs on Ebay once and a while, and it's pretty fickle. Sometimes I'll get double what I paid, sometimes no one even bids on something really great. If you want to move a bunch of DVDs fast, I recommend sorting out whatever is currently fetching a lot on the secondary market, then maybe doing a "lot" with related films containing about 5 DVDs. It's not the most profitable way to sell, but a lot of buyers like buying a small lot (especially since it saves on shipping) and you'll usually make a nice sum. The key is to not make the lot *too* big, and be descriptive and honest about the condition the discs are in. I find the more info I include, the more bids I get.

A little off topic but when I just want to get rid of some discs so I can buy more dvds I want (oh, vicious cycle!), Digitaleyes.net is really good with store credit.

PenguinJoe

I have some OOP Criterions DVD I'm trying to unload, I have a question is it cheaper to do a 7 day auction or should I just has a set price and do it until item is sold. I'm trying to get rid of the stuff because I don't have much space for it. Or should I just start a store? Which is the cheapest?

SterlingBen

I have had luck with just setting a price and making it good till canceled, although it can take years to sell sometimes.

mythmaker18

When I'm selling stuff, I always try to list on a Sunday evening so that the auction itself will end on Sunday evening. More people are at home on a Sunday evening relaxing than on weekdays and stuff I list tends to sell better/higher when it ends on a weekend night (Friday, Saturday and especially Sunday) versus a weekday.

As for not using PayPal, did eBay change their policy again? Last I remember, you were required to offer it as an option (except in the "adults only" category). I firmly believe not allowing PayPal will seriously reduce your chances of making a sale (and will reduce the number of bidders on valuable items). If you're concerned about PayPal fees, build them into your auction price and offer a discount to users who pay with money order/cheque (and be sure to state that discount in the auction's payment section).

Unless it's an OOP/rare title (or one that you almost never see discounted), I wouldn't bother. For really common stuff (i.e. things you'll see at the flea market/pawn shop for a buck or two) you'll probably be better off selling on Craigslist, an electronic bulletin board at work, a yard sale, etc. and probably in a "lot" or with a discount ($2.50 each or 5 for $10, etc).

There's just a huge glut of product in the marketplace to make marketing individual titles (other than valuable/OOP ones) a waste of time.

jjcool

Doesn't ebay charge you each time you relist an item? That was the reason that I listed a bunch of stuff on Amazon that I knew would take a while to sell.

mickey65

You get 50 free listings a month. If you go over that 50 when you do the re-list, then you get charged.

orangerunner

Even in the local craigslist market I don't find much demand for OOP DVDs. eBay attracts that very small group of buyers from around the country and they sell for a good price ... well... some sell for their MSRP, which is pretty good.

I find most people can't be bothered to spend the time and gas to drive across town for one or two titles.