[thews]

Hey all,

Just wanted to drop some knowledge if any of you are interested. I’ve been on eBay since 2003 and sold a lot of stuff with a 100% positive rating. If you’re interested read on, if you’re not interested in ebay, nothing else to see here.

Selling:

I’m currently selling some extra parts I have. By “extra parts” it means stuff I’ve been hoarding since the 80’s. I recently sold a steering wheel to Germany to a guy who owns a 79 Formula. What a cool car to have in Germany. It was near perfect. I used to comb junkyards in the 80’s and 90’s and when I found cool stuff I’d buy it and sell by listing in the back of High Performance Pontiac magazine.

On one trip to the junkyard, I was there at “Pick-A-Part” on Wednesday in Riverside CA when they put a white 68 Lemans with a red interior out. It was a beautiful car and I love red interiors, so I took most of it. I still have it and it’s mint, but I don’t need it and I’ll probably never own a 68 GTO so I’m going to sell it. Here’s what I’ve learned about selling.

1) Get an eBay and Paypal account if you don’t have one.
2) Set up the ad.
3) Only accept Paypal.
4) List it as a 30 day “Buy-It-Now” auction. If you list it with a reserve, it costs a ton more.
5) For most parts, your “Buy-it-Now” price is $50 higher than your true bottom line.
6) If you get an offer, it will typically be $25 less than your BIN price if it’s priced right. If they balk, you can counter a low bid with your true bottom line.
7) Set up an account with both UPS and the Post office.
8) Measure and weigh the package and mark the dimension and weight on the bottom of the package. Box it up with some good shipping material. What I’ve found works the best is old carpet padding. When shipping heads or a transmission it’s perfect to ship. Have it in the box, but don’t tape it closed. You may need to take it out if someone asks for a picture or more detail. If it doesn't sell, you won't have to measure it and weigh it again in 6 months when you try and resell it.
9) When setting up the ad, define shipping as actual. How this works is someone buys your part and clicks on shipping. They punch in their zip code and it gives them shipping cost, which they pay for and often you pay less than they do and you pocket the different (about 10% shipping discount). You then get the e-mail that someone has bought your item and it’s been paid for, but ensure the shipping has already been paid for and how much it is. You then punch in the dimensions and weight and pick between the post office and UPS. The Post Office is often cheaper and it’s closer to me. Once you find the cheapest method, pay for the shipping and then print out the shipping label. Print it out and tape the item closed with the shipping label on top. The next day (you have to always be fast), just drop it off. Most small shipping outlets you can just drop the box off and leave… takes about 15 seconds.
10) If you sell it to someone outside the US, the label reflects that and the extra cost. Once you sell it, the printing of the label reflects the extra cost, but the buyer already paid for it. The steering wheel I shipping to Germany cost over $60. I don’t care, they paid for it, so I printed the label, but it in the box and it got there just fine.
11) Always start a 10 day auction on Thursday at about 9 AM. This will end on Sunday at about 9AM. Most people are home on Sunday at 9AM and it's had two full weekends to be viewed, so they’ll bid at the last second if they’re watching your item. For 30 day auctions it doesn’t really matter when you start it, but it should end no later than 7PM.

Tips

1) THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT…sorry, just adding drama with caps to emphasize. Always, and I mean always be as honest as possible. If you have a dash insert that has one tiny crack that you can’t even see, take a close-up of and point it out. You don’t want to flower up anything, just be very accurate in your description and always use all of your picture spaces (I think you can list 12 for free). You may want to invest in a cheap camera instead of your phone. Always pick the highest resolution, because it doesn't matter how big the file is. When they zoom in on the picture, the more resolution the better.

2) When eBay runs a sale on listing fees, accept the invite and put up all the stuff you have that didn’t sell before. It’s all in your history, so it’s for all intent and purposes free to run again, or at least at a minimal cost with little effort. It's fun to watch your stuff sell.

3) Don’t accept returns. I have some rare stuff, and there are people that want it to study it and send it back. If I sell something and they find a flaw I didn’t provide and should have, I will pay for return shipping. If it’s someone buying something in ok condition and pissed off it’s not NOS, I won’t, but truth be told, if they threaten to file a negative response, if you sell enough it may be worth sucking up the cost. I have not received a negative feedback, but I have given them. It’s only as a last resort after numerous attempts to return the item and just get my money back.

Good luck if you have stuff to sell. That red steering wheel found a really good home and I’m happy about that. It’s better than it gathering dust in my crawlspace until I kick it and my son chucks it in the trash.

BTW, buying is a whole different game and I typically place my last bid with 15 seconds left. It's my top price and if someone wants to counter, they probably won't have time, which is why so many bids come in during the last 15 seconds.

[muscle_collector]

I used to sell a lot of things on ebay. but got pissed about their rules and quit. was going to finally start again and then I hear that you have to take items back even if you specify no returns. I'm just not into that and have a couple of friends who have been parts swapped on the return and ebay doesn't care.

[thews]

Originally Posted by muscle_collector

I used to sell a lot of things on ebay. but got pissed about their rules and quit. was going to finally start again and then I hear that you have to take items back even if you specify no returns. I'm just not into that and have a couple of friends who have been parts swapped on the return and ebay doesn't care.

Not my experience. I have a lot of cool rare stuff and have never had a problem with a sale.

[blue71ta]

Originally Posted by muscle_collector

I used to sell a lot of things on ebay. but got pissed about their rules and quit. was going to finally start again and then I hear that you have to take items back even if you specify no returns. I'm just not into that and have a couple of friends who have been parts swapped on the return and ebay doesn't care.

Yep. Even if you list it as "for parts or not working" and specify "no returns", the buyer can still return it. PayPal will refund the money to the buyer without even contacting you first. The buyer can initiate a return without any contact to the seller.

Ebay does nothing to help good sellers and rewards bad buyers. A seller cannot leave negative feedback for a buyer anymore, so you can't warn others of the deadbeats. Not only that, PayPal just raised their fees again! Jacked it up another 0.5%.

Here is an example of a bad buyer. It's an extreme case, but unfortunately, this crap does happen:

http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/ubbt...beware-sellers

I have bought and sold on eBay since 1999. It used to be cheap to sell (around 2%) and you could get strong prices for parts. Now, it costs about 14% between eBay & PP fees and parts that were once hard to find are relatively common. It's probably still the quickest way to sell something, but comes at a cost.

Craigslist is hit or miss. Maybe 1 in 10 people will actually come to look at parts. Get a lot of requests for pics & information, then never hear from them again...

OK, end of rant

[unruhjonny]

I used to buy and sell on eBay;
Then they jacked all their fees - so now I only buy.

I list stuff in local classifieds, and have actually had good luck selling locally - it sure beats using mail!

[thews]

When you have absolutely no clue...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1969-Pontiac...dYwM5z&vxp=mtr

[unruhjonny]

What is going on with picture#4?
isthat a really poorly hung wrong quarter panel!?!?

[FirebirdHank]

Could that be a '67-'68 panel. It was close enough I guess. It draws attention away from the front fender!

Also it looks like there would be room on that hood for a shaker!

[necdb3]

Originally Posted by FirebirdHank

Could that be a '67-'68 panel. It was close enough I guess. It draws attention away from the front fender!

Also it looks like there would be room on that hood for a shaker!

Looks like a 70 up quarter panel to me. Look at the side marker

[thews]

69 Trans AM with AC... 1 of 9. Not sure how cool AC would be on a car like this, but one could argue nothing about it isn't cool. $85K seems reasonable for a full numbers matching drivetrain... I bet it sells.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1969-Pontiac...FYxumx&vxp=mtr

[FASTASSBIRD]

Yes and this car has made the rounds on eBay before and didn't sell. Seen it personally. Decent project car

[428RA4]

It would cost just as much if not more then the sticker price to restore this car properly.

[thews]

Since I missed April Fools, I thought I'd throw this 77 T/A. Running for a second time at $10K, this PVC backyard Ram Air that only needs "bodywork-paint-weatherstripping-headliner & a bit of tinkering." I look at Craigslist ads all the time and many first gens people think are worth 3X what they're really worth, but this one isn't worth half of the asking price IMO.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1977-Pontiac...FY08IG&vxp=mtr

[thews]

Here's an interesting one. In 1967 and 68 you couldn't get an AM/FM stereo with a stereo 8 track from the factory. The dealer could install it, but it required a switch to go from radio to tape. This is the switch on eBay currently sitting at $200. I bought one of these switches for $300 because I thought I needed it, but in 69 you didn't need it. I sold the switch on eBay for more than I paid for it, mainly because it goes to a Camaro and a lot of other GM cars. I'm guessing it sells for over $300.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/162461571998...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

[thews]

Here's a 69 400 that's a really nice car, but the price is high at $50K. What's interesting is that it was shipped in Feb of 1970. Also has the option "F/G Tire CR" for $26.33 which my book lists at "white tire (w/341)" which 341 is the standard 6... but $28.44 was for a whitewall tire? What was a "white" tire?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1969-Pontiac...hY6rGZ&vxp=mtr

[johnta1]

That is a credit, probably didn't want the upgraded fiberglass tires and got the cheapest tire.

The 'white' I would say is for a white line tire?
(thin white line around tire)

The white on a wide oval tire is for the letters, while red would be red letters.
Also on GTO's red line tires.

[unruhjonny]

shipped February 1970??

Umm, weren't "1970+" Firebirds being shipped starting in February?

I think most magazines debued the "70+" Firebirds in their February 1970 issue - which would have been available from somewhere around January 1970...

IIRC the pre-production ones were built somewhere around December 1969 - since the "70+" were built at the Norwood plant, does that mean there was a brief period where 1969 & 1970 cars were being built at the same time? - because that makes no sense - I would have expected that the late 1969 model year Firebirds would have been built no later than November or December 1969 - then the plant would have shut down for maintenance, and changeover...

*scratches head*

[thews]

Here's a cool one. 1969 Firebird convertible in Warwick blue with a blue top. Little old lady car bone stock with some minor rust issues. It's a no reserve listing.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1969-Pontiac...ZY-A0t&vxp=mtr

[north]

Nice color combo, as is normally the case the rust is probably more extensive than it may appear.

I've noticed that while Fbird 400's are worth less than equivalent GTO's the situation is reversed when comparing regular 350 firebirds to similar LeMans'.

[thews]

Another cool one... a 68 Firebird 350HO convert 4-speed car. Sitting at $26K with 7 hours left, this is fair market value, or may be a little low IMO.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/332184630998....N36.S1.R1.TR1