Hi Fredwina,

E-bay is going through some major shift in its business model and are actively discouraging small time sellers. Also if you are not a power seller, they WILL hold the payment for 21 days.

The fee they charge, the fee charged by paypal does add up so you portion is not what you expect. I suggest you try craigslist before opting for e-bay. The 30day listing doesn't generate any more interest than a quick 5 day listing. And the 99cent starting price only backfires. So you basically have to place a starting price which is minimum of what you want.

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My partner used to make enough off e-bay to make a living. Not anymore. There isn't much of bidding and many items go without even a bite. E-bay has set up all these crazy promos for the seller but when it comes down to it, they cost you money.

Meg Whitmann and her successor has said that they want e-bay to be the walmart of internet commerce. so the old style garage sale format is out. They want large volumes to move through. Retaillers who want to see if they can make a bit more by selling on e-bay. Things like Wii FIT, iPOD and things like that. To that end, they have cross agreement with places like buy.com. They (buy.com) is now placing over 20,000 listings per day. And the smart search or best match favors places like buy.com. If you want yours to pop up, you have to offer things like 10% discount, free shipping...

Another thing, if you get scammed, you are out of luck. Common trick of late is that the buyer claim never received the item and instant refund. Oh you have proof of delivery by UPS. paypal and e-bay don't want to hear it. I've heard several people who have been scammed this way.

I had one buyer whose handle was "never satisfied". I sent his stuff next day air to get rid of him. He was scary trouble. for my trouble he didn't give me a feedback.

Try Craiglist first and do it on your own instead of LBS,

smilingcat