EBay Now Very Expensive For 1/32 Model Stuff?!

[ScottsGT]

eBay fee structures. Start low, get one or two bidders and not only did you sell it cheap, but now eBay takes a bigger cut, taxes come out on everything including shipping fees. I’ve heard some sellers say they zeroed out on small sales. 
How accurate is this?  No idea.  I gave up on selling on eBay due to “the buyer is always right…unless you had the listing notorized, printed in triplicate, carbon copies, SN registered and recorded, etc…

[Gazzas]

EBay Australia charges 15% per sold item.  Kinda sux.  I've only sold a few things there...   but I needed the money and the money came. 

 

But model kits have gone way up...  especially that hard to find Hasegawa FW-190A5 in 1/32 scale.

[Mark P]

25 minutes ago, ScottsGT said:

eBay fee structures. Start low, get one or two bidders and not only did you sell it cheap, but now eBay takes a bigger cut, taxes come out on everything including shipping fees. I’ve heard some sellers say they zeroed out on small sales. 
How accurate is this?  No idea.  I gave up on selling on eBay due to “the buyer is always right…unless you had the listing notorized, printed in triplicate, carbon copies, SN registered and recorded, etc…

I agree completely. I NEVER sell on eBay but have purchased plenty. As such, it is very easy to witness in the transactions I have made that eBay is buyer biased/oriented.

 

Mark Proulx

[DeanKB]

7 hours ago, Rick Griewski said:

So I buy a kit and send money to eBay and they chop off the money they want and give the rest to the seller?   For years I sent Money Orders to the seller, Huh

It all depends upon how much the item sells for. If you can get the same price - or within 87.2% - selling via forums, it makes sense to do so & save the 12.8% commission. 

 

But EBay's USP is the sheer number of buyers, which - in some instances - leads to a sale price much higher than you'd get via forums, more than enough to cover the extra charges. 

 

For instance, I sold my WNW Gotha on EBay a couple of years ago, started at 99p, sold for over £700. I would never have asked a fellow modeller for anywhere near that on a forum!

 

But EBay now seems full of stuff that's simply overpriced. In many instances, the starting prices are higher than you can buy retail.

 

[Rick Griewski]

Club swap your models meeting first Thursday coming up soon in April.  There are three members that go to auctions and will bring the booty from post funeral stash sales.  I will trade off my remaining 1/35 and 1/48.  One tank for a Pirates of the Caribbean skeleton character seems like a good deal.  

[LSP_K2]

3 hours ago, Rick Griewski said:

Club swap your models meeting first Thursday coming up soon in April.  There are three members that go to auctions and will bring the booty from post funeral stash sales.  I will trade off my remaining 1/35 and 1/48.  One tank for a Pirates of the Caribbean skeleton character seems like a good deal.  

 

Several years back I found these three (along with several other cool kits) "hiding" in the attic at my house, remnants from my own boyhood. I kept the truck, intending to finally build it (I still haven't done so), and traded off the others.

 

[Gazzas]

4 hours ago, LSP_K2 said:

 

Several years back I found these three (along with several other cool kits) "hiding" in the attic at my house, remnants from my own boyhood. I kept the truck, intending to finally build it (I still haven't done so), and traded off the others.

 

 

Wasn't there another skeleton kit where one skeleton chops the chains that bind another skeleton over a barrel?

[Rick Griewski]

Probably.  There have been a glorious number of kits. 
 

search for pirates of the caribbean models

Edited March 27, 2023 by Rick Griewski

[LSP_K2]

1 hour ago, Gazzas said:

 

Wasn't there another skeleton kit where one skeleton chops the chains that bind another skeleton over a barrel?

 

I don't specifically recall.

[coogrfan]

On 3/25/2023 at 5:55 PM, kalashnikov-47 said:

I never use "buy it now" on ebay.  Some of those prices are ridiculous. 

There's a guy who has been trying to get $750 for a WnW Fokker E.III kit.

I have watched that kit get re-listed for months and months and months. 

Shouldn't it occur to that guy at some point, "Maybe I'm asking too much?"

 "It only takes one". 

[gunpowder]

The way i see it is , The minute i walk out of a shop with a model i either build it or in most cases , like a new car , its now used so worth less. If i sell something now i usually start it at 99p and it sells for what it sells for. 8 out of 10 times im happy with the result.

Ebay UK certainly has become a silly price place though.

[dutik]

Different here in Germany. Till last year Ebay charged 11%, also from s&h, but had actions to lower the fee. So I had to pay only 8% fee over the last year. Don't know why. Below a number per year, or because I started to sell more ore something else, but Ebay never explained why (and i didn't ask...). There were weekends where sellers had to pay 30% less. Also you were granted to place a number of items for free if you were below a given number of items and sum earned per month.

 

This year Ebay dropped all charges for private sellers. No more fees.

 

But the reason for this generous gesture is a nasty one: The new law from the EU about the obligation to report income on online platforms. All of them - Ebay, Etsy, whatsoever have to report the income of the sellers to the tax offices if they sum up to 2.000 Euro or 30 (or more) items sold. And the tax office will send you a request to pay taxes for all the stuff you have sold at Ebay or elsewere. Nice. NOT.

 

That's where we are today here in Germany and the EU.

Regards

- dutik

[Zola25]

On 3/25/2023 at 10:48 PM, Dave Williams said:

My eBay buying has dropped off since they started collecting sales tax.  In some cases, it negates any advantage in item pricing.

Yeah - Its annoying when you are being forced to obey the law  (sarcasm may occur..)

 

It has actually had the opposite effect on my eBay-ing.

Since they have started to collect the sales tax on international items it has become a lot smoother (and cheaper) to import eBay items into my country. I also don´t have to pay the handling fee from our customs department for their "services" of $25 for each and every shipment. My shipments are also not being held in customs for 1-2 weeks for processing - I think its brilliant.

 

/Niels

[Citadelgrad]

On 3/25/2023 at 4:53 PM, RBrown said:

One big advantage EBay has is that it can connect sellers and buyers all over the world.

 

Incidentally, last Sunday I went to the Kit Collectors International event in Orange County, California.  Lots of old kits and very reasonable prices compared to Ebay, but it is a local event.   I spent 68 bucks on five kits plus $7 for admission...

 

 

 

Hmm.  I went to that maybe six months ago, there was a line of several hundred wrapped around the building to get in.  There was a great variety of kits, and the prices were pretty decent, but I didn't find anything that I had to have.  

[cbk57]

I still buy and sell on eBay, but eBay is very unkind to sellers.  Someone noted above, 12.8% of gross.  My calculation last I sold was they were taking commission on  gross including sales tax and shipping.  There are still deals to be found but they are harder to find.  I think more people are pulling back unless they sell on a regular basis.  If you don't know what you are doing and sell on eBay you are probably going to get hosed.  If you know what you are doing you are going to get hosed some of the time.  As such that makes it harder to buy as prices are higher.  It is all market behavior in the end.  I was at a hobby show in the fall and prices there if you hunted and were open minded were much better than ebay.  Anyway I have plenty of models so it does not bother me if I don't buy much on ebay.  Also the problem is sometimes people post on this board LSPs at great prices and no one buys.  I have seen lots of great deals sit on our own traders forum.  I have personally let great deals go.  A reputable member on here offered me an exceptional deal on an impossible to get kit and I turned it down.  I don't think it sold instantly when posted for everyone else but did not follow.  

 

If it won't sell on our traders forum you kind of have to go to ebay and mark it up as you are going to pay 13% just for selling.

Edited March 28, 2023 by cbk57