Is Ebay the best way to sell my X-box and games?
 

It just isn't getting used by us and it seems like a waste to let it sit around. I sell DVDs when I feel some aren't getting watched much anymore totally using Ebay and never with Half.com or an ad in the paper.

But would Ebay be the best place for this or should I just watch the auction price at the end on a similar console and each game and add that up for a total and wait for someone to buy it from Half.com or an ad in the paper or do X-Box consoles and games in very good condition with the original box have good resale value on Ebay and is the risk of using an auction too high in your opinions?

Thanks.

I've just sold a Gamecube Console ($79) & about 20 game games. ($15-$35 EA) This week i sold most of my Xbox Games about ($13-$40 EA) I just didn't play them any more & money was a really big deal. I got my use out of them & they just sat on my counter so i let them go. I say agot about 50-65% of what the games were worth. Here's what i sold & what they went for:

http://cgi2.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAP...id=comeparkfly

You can definitley get more for them on Ebay than you would a trade in at a store like GameStop or EB. It might take a little longer though.

I always get the most on $$ ebay as well.
Sometimes I offer stuff up at trading forums like the Video Game Exchange forum here first, though. I always feel like I can trust forum members more than someone on ebay.

You can sell them rather than trade them in the exchange forum here as well.

Just make sure you name a price "best offer" type sales are against the forum's rules.

Well, he's selling, so it's not as much of a concern. He can require receipt of payment before shipping.

You can try half.com. You can set your sale price there.

Thanks for all the replies.

I have only about 9 games, but they're pretty good ones and they're in great condition. Should I try and bundle it all together, after getting an idea what the games are re-selling on average for and put in a reserve, or should I sell all 9 games separately for the X-Box?

Also, someone mentioned trying to sell it in the exchange forum, but do any of you think someone who's upgrading dvd players might trade a region free (a good one) player for an X-Box? Has anyone seen that tried before and is it allowed?

I know I've wanted one of those and it's something that we'd use from time to time and not feel bad like we do with the X-Box. It would just add to our entertainment center. The X-Box only sits out and we ended up just boxing it back up and putting it in the closet, which seems like a waste.

Thanks.

I sell all my games on Ebay. I have always gotten at least 50-75% of the original price which I paid. I have never gotten a bum sale or low price. I recommend using it.

I've also been playing around with eBay over the past few months, and I've noticed that 3-day auctions tend to sell for the same price as 7-day auctions. I think you get most of your bids in the last day or two anyway, so if time is a concern, you might want to consider a shorter auction.

I would put it up on ebay and sell the games seperate...i just sold my Xbox the other day, had it up less than one night and it sold for $120 + Ship....sell the games separately though.

This is true...I mean everyone I know who uses ebay waits till the final day or so to bid. Its psychological I think :)

But the way I view a 7 day over a 3 day auction is if you do 7 day then that is 4 more days that you have an item on there and open to the general public to see it. Advertise it even if you will. In other words if you put something on there for 7 days, more people are more likely to come across it and just be aware of it, even if they DO wait till the last minute to bid. I know myself and others copy the shortcuts to auctions to desktop to look at later.

That and not to drive the price up. If I bid on something with 6 days left it's bound to go higher. Sometimes I've managed to sneak one in at the finish line for the initial bid price.

Thoughts from an experienced eBay'er (2000+ transactions):

1. Do 7 day auctions closing around 9 PM East Coast time on Saturday or Sunday night. This gives lots of weekend exposure, the time when most people have the time to be on eBay. If you're on the west coast, don't have the auction close at 8 or 9 PM PST because then east coast people are likely not on the computer as it's too late.

2. Sell games individually, but package all hardware together with the Xbox (AV kits, controllers, DVD kits, special cables, etc...)

3. Start bidding at $0.99 on all items to prevent having large listing fees. Don't worry, they'll sell for a lot, and you can always camncel an auction 5 minutes before it closes if you aren't happy wiht where it is.

4. Be honest about shipping costs. Don't charge someone $15 to ship an Xbox game. This is perhaps the most annoying scam on eBay,a nd you really have to read everything carefully. I've bought weightless tings and tried to be charged $15 to ship it, and I can't stand that./ Insured Priority SHipping is around $5.50 for an Xbox game, and if you say that clearly in your ad, people will like the fact you're ont trying to rip them off.

I always do 3 day auctions and have never had a problem with final prices. I start games at $4.99 or $9.99 for the newer ones. For older games, I'll go 99 cents.

Overcharging for shipping was always my BIG beef. I once got a cheapo DVD movie for $5 buy it now...and the shipping was $4.00 for shipping so I am assuming priority mail, since its $3.95 for priority at that weight. I got it 2 weeks later and it turns out the shipping cost on the mailing label was like $1.50, media mail. The excuse by the buyer was "The movie was only $5 and was a good deal so I don't think you should complain" The movie sells for $5 already so it wasn't really a bargain to begin with. She claimed she had to "put it in a mailer and take it to the post office" which is something she does on HER time and therefore why the extra cost in shipping. I think the main beef I had was I waited 2 weeks for the damn disc and at that price to ship was totally uncalled for. I guess the moral of the story is, ask what method of shipment it is unless stated otherwise.

On a side note, when it says "Unclaimed" on your Paypal after sending money, what does that mean?

It means they haven't accepted it yet.

I acutally had an unclaimed paypal payment that I had sent to a seller and the seller never claimed the $! Got that DVD for free, since after the seller doesn't claim the $ paypal just gives it back to you. So the moral of the story is if your selling be sure to claim that money!

Yeah that's only if you accept credit card transactions via PayPal. I stopped doing that because of all the fees. Now I only accept personal check, MO or PayPal using bank account funds. When someone sends you bank account funds, the transaction is automatically completed.

And I agree with everything jabbas said. I don't like to end my auctions on the weekends, just from my own experience, because there's always something else going on and I end up missing an auction. But always take into consideration the different time zones. There's been too many times where an auction ends 1 AM EST because it's listed from the West Coast and they didn't factor in the time change. Ending the auction at a reasonable time across all time zones will increase your exposure.

Now eBay offers a shipping calculator, but I usually just approximate the shipping costs based on past experience. Sometimes I'm ahead 25 cents, sometimes I'm behind 25 cents, it just depends on the distance between shipping points. But I keep a general rule of $1.25 - $1.50 first class for DVDs and CDs, $2-$2.50 for books and PC games. Larger items, I just search past auctions and see what everyone else charged and I list mine around the same price.

Jeremy

The unclaimed was a $2 and change payment to a buyer I sent back due to overcharging him shipping. I try to be honest ;) So far its saying unclaimed though and its the first time I've ever seen that in my Paypal usage as a seller or buyer.

I followed your suggestion and receive the following email for ending an auction early:

"you know it is not right to end an auction right before its over just because you are not getting enough money for it. i have a way of dealing with people like you though.i have other ebay accounts just for this situation.all your items will be non paying bidder from now on."

Is this guy just blowing smoke? or is he serious? Should I report him for threatening me?

Here is my reply to this ebayer:

"I am sorry, I had to stop the auction early, but I did not stop it because of the price otherwise I would have put a reserve price on it. I had previously posted the game on a forum along with other games for trade and I physically looked for the game and could not find it. I keep a list of games I have and forget to take it off my list. I wanted to take advantage of ebay .10 insertion special so I put an item on auction that I did not physically have, but it was on my list.
I do not appreciate you threaten me. As you could see I am not a big ebay seller so I would understand if I did this often I would not mind your threat, but this is the first and last time I will end auction before it's over. Please accept my apologies and I do not want to start a war over a silly game.

BTW, if it was not okay to cancel an auction soon why would ebay allow it."

Contact eBay with this guy's account ID. They may be able to track down his other accounts and take action. Also, it is valuable to report it now because if you have any non-paying bidders in the future, they could investigate and take appropriate action.

My advice to avoid his threatening actions - put in the terms of every auction you start that you have a) the right to cancel any bids by bidders with zero or negative feedback; and b) the right to decline a winning bid by a bidder with zero or negative feedback. If this guy has all these accounts, they are most likely to have zero feedback or negative if he's done this before. By stating the above in your auction terms.

From the eBay User Agreement:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/user-agreement.html

6.2 Restricted Activities. Your Information (or any items listed) and your activities on the Site shall not: (a) be false, inaccurate or misleading; (b) be fraudulent or involve the sale of counterfeit or stolen items; (c) infringe any third party's copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret or other proprietary rights or rights of publicity or privacy; (d) violate any law, statute, ordinance or regulation (including, but not limited to, those governing export control, consumer protection, unfair competition, antidiscrimination or false advertising); (e) be defamatory, trade libelous, unlawfully threatening or unlawfully harassing; (f) be obscene or contain child pornography or, if otherwise adult in nature or harmful to minors, shall be posted only in the Mature Audiences section and shall be distributed only to people legally permitted to receive such content; (g) contain any viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancelbots, easter eggs or other computer programming routines that may damage, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system, data or personal information; (h) create liability for us or cause us to lose (in whole or in part) the services of our ISPs or other suppliers; and (i) link directly or indirectly to or include descriptions of goods or services that: (aa) are prohibited under this Agreement; (bb) are identical to other items you have up for auction but are priced lower than your item's reserve or minimum bid amount; (cc) are concurrently listed for sale on a web site other than eBay's (this does not prevent linking to or advertising an eBay item from another web site); or (dd) you do not have a right to link to or include. Furthermore, you may not list any item on the Site (or consummate any transaction that was initiated using our service) that, by paying to us the listing fee or the final value fee, could cause us to violate any applicable law, statute, ordinance or regulation, or that violates our current Prohibited, Questionable and Infringing Items.

Thanks for your help and suggestions!