Has anyone sold on Ebay?

[Daren]

Gosh rebocardo, thanks for the advice. Where to start? I don't care if I sell it on Ebay, I have a local buyer who has offered 2x opening bid. I don't even care if it sells for less that the local offer, I am just trying something new. You mentioned a knock down piece of furniture that a buyer has to assemble to save money on shipping, I for one don't like "some assemble required" and how can I guarantee they put it together right. I build stuff to last many years, assemble once. Everyones tastes are different as far as style, but the wood speaks for itself it does not need inlays and fancy carving. That is for plainer wood, in my opinion and I do inlay work and intricate turnings with lumber anyone can go buy. You would be suprised how many people are fasinated by the fact I start with a log laying in my yard and comes out of my garage as a finished piece. My customers don't like glossy pictures in a professional shop, it takes the "one of a kind" edge off. They think it was made by a guy punching a clock and going through the motions, not building something especially for them. I do agree my photograghy skill could use a little polishing. I know full well what the lumber would sell for, I sold as many 24" x 6' x 4/4 slabs as I wanted for $10 bft. Which I later found was cheap, because I had guitar builders offer 2x that. So I kept 500 bft for myself to "hack" on. Maybe Ebay is not for me, I obviously couldn't sell you that table. If it doesn't sell I am out $6.75 (a gallon of gas for the mill, cup of coffee and a donut) It will not hurt my business, and I would hate to rely on Ebay to make it. If I was going to do that I would import furniture made by some Chinese kid working for $.17 hour and resell it with fancy photos. Where did you say your bunk beds came from?

[Daren]

I reread my last post and it kinda sounded hatefull >:(, Thanks for the advice. Can I use the excuse was still 95 degrees in Illinois today Sept. 22? I think my brain is about to melt (it may have already, who can tell?)

[Jeff]

Daren, your furniture is great looking. Somethings are apparently just in the eyes of the beholder.  To square? Tell that to the thousands that love mission style.  I might have tried to give you some ideas on how to market something if I knew, but would never dream of tearing down what the individual created. Its wonderful stuff, and the way that it was created and what it was created from is priceless. Keep up the good work!

[Tom]

Wow!  What a desk and chair. 
That kind of stuff is hard to find. 

Marketing.  That's what I keep telling Fla._Deadheader.   I've said it to him so many times that it's gotten to be an inside joke and now he won't let me get it out of my mouth before he says it first. 

I don't know about EBAY because I've never used it.   I do know that you have to present your wares strongly with the idea you want to get across.  It also helps to have a  human being in the picture. (I learned that from my Newspaper days)

You should take the opportunity to talk up the figure in the wood.  Explain what it is, why it is rare, perhaps how you got it.  Ad history to the piece if you can.  This tree grew in the yard of St. Peter the Apostle and was planted by Jesus Christ himself.  I came upon it as it was being taken down, along with the temple,  to make way for a new shopping center.  The piece was designed by me and comes signed and accompanied with a certificate of authenticity.

Maybe it didn't come from St. Peter's front yard but it did come from a hill that was, perhaps, camped upon by Indians before the white man came here.  Old Farmer Jones owned the property and his family has been here since assigned it as a land grant.   It could be that his Great Grand pappy planted it.

That's what I'd do.    I wouldn't just say it was built to last, I'd say it was made with tight fitting mortise and tenon joinery and pegged and glued with the best horsehide glue money can buy.  It 's finished with lacquer made from nest of foreign birds and gathered by cliff climbers specifically for this desk set.

As a one of a kind, it is numbered as such, even though there may be others created similar later.  This is the first and the figure in the wood may be simulated, but, will never be copied. 

It is made from real wood, solid through and through.



Good looking stuff Daren.   Sell the heck out of it. 
Don't be afraid to be proud of it.  8)

[Part_Timer]

Daren

Go for it

I sell lumber on ebay.  I put in the add that is was salvaged form a fencerow that was being dozed and burnt.  I put pictures in with shots of the fencerow and dozer and backside of the garage doors logs being sawn etc..  The only thing I can say about an earlier post is that if you started with a low opening with a reserve then you would know what that market is and if it is worth your time to try again.  NOt that it matters to you.  You already know your market well.

Nice furniture.   Best of luck.  Not everyone get's it.    But we do ;D

Tom

[Daren]

I didn't want to start the bidding low, like I said this is my first time I don't know how Ebayers think, but if I started the bidding at $100 that says "cheap furniture" to me. I tossed around the reserve idea (that was another $10 I would be out if it was not met) and decided just put the minimum I was willing to mess with selling online and if it scared every one away so be it. I can say I tried that and it didn't work, then sell it to a local lady who will come to my place and pick it up (and most likely order more stuff while she is here).

I don't know about EBAY because I've never used it. I do know that you have to present your wares strongly with the idea you want to get across. It also helps to have a human being in the picture. (I learned that from my Newspaper days)

Not this human being, it would not sell for sure . I could have my wife (of 12 years yesterday) in the picture she is kinda hot (she has been called the prettiest girl in town by many, of course we do live in a SMALL town and I am not trying to be mean but there are alot of homely people here), but I am afraid they would not be looking at the wood. I tried that with a race car I was selling, I think guys came down just to see her. I was forever selling that thing.

[Jeff]

Daren, as a sevice to a Forestry Forum brother, go ahead and put her photo on here first so we can advise.  8)

[johncinquo]

to ship something like that try uniquedeliveries.com or acdelivers.com.  I think they both sprung out of the need to ship larger items sold on ebay.  They have a quoting service you can use to get a shipping cost estimation,  You wanna call to geta exact quote.  I just got ahold of a bunch of antique furniture that I am getting ready to list an dtheir all bigger pieces.  

I have sold old car parts (opel GT) to folks all over the world.  Only lost 1 bumper going to germany.   Had a few bad apples with paying.  I dont think its any worse than selling out of a store.

Now if I could just not BUY anything on there I'd be all set.

[Brian_Bailey]

Daren,  

A few months back I started selling basswood carving blocks on ebay.

I'd price the blocks for just what I wanted for em as if I was selling locally. Most of the items that I listed sold.

One block in particular sold for almost twice what I had it listed for. Two bidders got into a bidding war.  When I sent the block to the buyer, I included a check to reimburse him for the extra money he had spent bidding up the block to get it. After that incident, I start using the buy me now feature.

I know, I can hear some saying, "Whadda ya nuts!"

I don't do much on ebay right now because I got tired of making shipping boxes for small dollar items.

The point of my reply to you is, even though you might not sell your item on ebay, there are a whole lot of people looking at it. If someone likes your work they'll be in contact with you sooner or later.

I look at ebay as a pretty cheap advertising platform and who knows you might just sell something on there to  .

[Daren]

Jeff, I wondered who would be the first one with that comment :. The only picture I have of her at my desk is her with a fishing hat pulled down over her face and a large mouth bass so big she has to hold it up with two hands. That is when she is looking at her best to me, or when she has her "kid size" .410 stomping through the woods looking for squirrels. I think I will pass on the picture for now, it quit pouring rain and I have milling to do. Maybe later.

[Tom]

Daren,
Having a human being in the picture doesn't mean to  have model.  You can have someone mowing grass in the background or standing on the street.  If the picture isn't directly of that person, you don't have to have a release.   It's good for taking those vacation pictures as well as pictures of your wares.  If you take a picture of a rainbow, you don't have anything.  If you take a picture of a silhouette looking at a rainbow, you have a much more interesting picture.  If you can't find a person, find a dog.....or a cat..  or a kid. 
Kids playing leapfrog in the background helps a picture too.



Here is a picture of pecan
standing alone.

Here is the same picture with the
owner included

Don't you think that the addition
of a human helps the interest
of the picture?

[rebocardo]

Yea, you got offended, but, that is okay. I am not. I was just trying to help you be a better seller. If you took it any other way then I am sorry if I offended you.

Actually, you could probably sell it to me if it was made "locally",  if I could see and touch,  especially since it was made from solid wood and looked beautiful. Especially a solid slab table, to me that is highly desirable and worth far more then something made from tongue and groove. Because it will last a lifetime and 1/2. Selling it on E-bay is a whole different animal. Even with 10,000,000 plus shoppers available and billion$ of stuff being sold a year.

Personally, I do not buy furniture made from OSB, pressed and glued wood,  or plywood, no matter how "well made" it is, how nice it looks, or how cheap it is. If I want cheap, I buy plastic furniture, literally.

Jeff, it was not tearing someone's work down. It was meant only as helpful marketing advice.

I can make beautiful bunkbeds from wood I cut down, dried, and finished, it does not mean I can sell them on E-Bay for a profit and comply with all the federal regulations a bunkbed has to comply with to sell them in the USA. On the other hand I can buy nice solid wood bunkbeds with a finish by the trailer load,  for less then $8 per unit from South America and sell them all day long on E-Bay or locally for $45 each. The only reason I did not do it already is I could not afford the $40,000 price tag and storing that much furniture.

To successfully use E-Bay is sort of like the backyard walnut tree, you have to know your market.

Example,  I am currently selling used pilot helmets, that someone else considered totally worthless for $60+ each (I start them at $9.95 example: 6555635387 and 6555574800) and I got them for free and got paid to remove barrels of them.  8)   

I knew they would be totally worthless to sell locally, but, something that would do well on E-bay  ;)  Best yet, once one is sold on E-Bay it is not unheard of selling more to the same person entirely off E-Bay and PayPal  for even more money so they can "scoop" them and avoid the bidding process too. I only have six left now   I am sure my wife thought they were useless barrels and bags of trash too instead of green bags filled with stuff worth $600 each on E-bay. The couple of salt and pepper shaker collections on the other hand

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6203508169&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEUS%3AIT&rd=1  ... 

good thing I got them for free while being paid to remove them :D

[rebocardo]

In case it got lost in the all the posts, you are putting your stuff in the totally wrong category!

A person that values wood furniture is not going to be looking for it under "office". Try something under collectibles instead.

If something does not sell, I find that sometimes just moving the entire ad to another cat. works. Also, for what you are selling, you should consider a 10 day listing instead of the 7 day and start it on a Friday morning so it spans two weekends.

I wish you success 
 

[Tom]

Hey!  That's a good idea.

Why the 10 day instead of the 7 day?

[doublecut]

Will be gettin into the ebay sellin here shortly. Just cleaned out dads shed as was told to sell it all. 50 years of inventions and goodies in there. I will monitor the thread.
Nice work Darren!! Boy i wished we had  some of those hard woods up here. Just a whole lot of log pole pine, Doug fir , popular, spruce ,western red cedar, birch, and hemlock is about all we have in the interior.
Want me some of those hard woods
doublecut

[Daren]

I had no idea what catagory to list it in. When I am looking for something I type in specifically what it is and search. Like you said there are millions of things for sale, who could go through them all without knowing what they are looking for even by catagory. I know several people in just my small town alone that sell weird stuff on Ebay they find at estate sales, yard sales and even the garbage. I had a customer come this week to drop something off and he noticed the table and we got into the Ebay discussion. He had 2 metal signs he found in the dumpster when he was unloading his junk on a community "clean-up day" he said he got $250 for one and $325 for the other. My neighbor sold a coffee grinder he bought at auction (it was in a box lot for $5 for a bunch of other stuff, only one thing he wanted and it was worth the $5  to him) He sold the coffee grinder for $45 on Ebay. I am beginning to think Ebayers are alot different than the people I am used to dealing with. I will keep dealing with normal customers in a normal way, and dig through the trash for Ebay stuff. Or better yet stop trying to sell tables there and make toast with peoples faces on it, that seems to be a big seller. I may start out with a "DanG on toast", good for scooping up grits.

[SwampDonkey]

 :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Daren, that's a good one ... or two :D


I haven't been able to figure the mentality of alot of people on ebay. Must have too much money chaifing their pockets and making it itch. People are so idiotic that they'll pay twice as much for something they could get new from Walmart. :D

[Furby]

While I agree with you SD, ya also have to compare quality.
If it's the exact same item, made about the same time, that's one thing.
But a cheaper knock off compared to a better made product is something different. I see it at the auctions here ALL the time!

[SwampDonkey]

That's what I meant Furby, comparing apples with apples, not knock offs. I've seen used satellite receivers go for $500 USD , no warrantees, and you can get a brand new one for $350 plus your subscription from your provider. What's a receiver without a subscription? ;)

[Daren]

Well, I gave it shot. 0 bids :(. It's raining pretty good today, a perfect day to work on my face toast, I think I will enjoy that... I can eat my mistakes. I will call the local buyer in the morning. I had told her what I was trying, and she would probably end up with in in the long run. She is a nice lady, even wished me luck. She knew I would build her another if it sold.

[rebocardo]

> Why the 10 day instead of the 7 day?

Because it only costs $0.35 extra cents to span two weekends.
fri, sat, sun, mon, tues, wed, thu,fri,sat,sun

Auction ends Sunday, get payment by mon, ship tuesday, person has it by friday, leaves feedback, start another auction that friday.

If a collector (the people that pay mucho dinero) happens to miss one weekend, you still get him/her on the other. If you list a big ticket item, that cost $5+ to list, the extra three days (two weekends of listing) is a cheap investment for $0.35 extra. Especially important if it might not sell right away and is fairly rare. For things near commodity status that are selling because of low price used vs. new, it does not matter much. Say, for an aluminum intake manifold for an engine.

imo.

Some people might not sign in every 7 days, many people sign in at least every 10 days.

[Tom]

Oh! 

[johncinquo]

That's what I meant Furby, comparing apples with apples, not knock offs. I've seen used satellite receivers go for $500 USD , no warrantees, and you can get a brand new one for $350 plus your subscription from your provider. What's a receiver without a subscription? ;)

The older dishes have cards that can be reprogrammed, errr, tested, yeah thats the word used.  Then you can "test" the satelite signal.  Getting satelite for free would be illegal, just testing it out is not. . 
Some folks have been testing satelite signals for years!  I've sold several of these on there.  I dont care what you do with it after I sell it to you, thats your business. 
They sell these in the gray area for big bucks.

If you do a search for what your selling before you list it, then you know where to put your item.  Theres even a button thats says "list an item lke this" that cuts down on your time. 

[rebocardo]

> Theres even a button thats says "list an item lke this"

Yea, I love that. All I do is change the picture of the new item and I do not even have to do any typing, all clicking.

[SwampDonkey]

John, I've heard of people trying that 'test', and I've heard that they are quickly discovered and the provider sends a signal to take them out.  :D

I've heard that some of those receivers being sold have unpaid bills associated with the onboard subscriber ID, also the VC-2 or VC-Plus often times has a dead battery and once the batteries go the descrambler board is useless even if the batteries are replaced. If you replace them before they die there is a delicate procedure to do this or you could loose the use of your board. Why would anyone want to risk all this?? ;)