postcard.co.uk

No doubt this topic comes up lots (and searches on the forum suggest it does), but given that eBay have recently introduced yet more changes to their fee structure, I'm interested to know what people think about buying and selling on there now.

I feel the fees as a percentage of the overall auction value when selling, are high for lower value items, e.g. postcards. If you sell something for around £1, the fees could be up to 60% by the looks of it, if you receive payment by PayPal. In my mind that is a lot, but what do others on here think? I've created a poll, hopefully it will work.

Are there any alternatives to eBay that people are having success on? eBid seems to have a lot of interesting items on it at quite reasonable prices.

Nowadays I use eBay mainly as a buyer; sadly - as I've explained elsewhere in this forum - I find it more productive than going to fairs. But I've a feeling that more vendors are now stipulating starting prices that are what I would expect to pay at a fair, or even higher, and this may explain quite a lot of their offerings remaining unsold.

In the last few winters I've offered a few surplus postcards and middling items from my stamp collection on eBay, but don't know if I'll get around to it this year, especially with the Royal Mail situation. I'm not at all sure that it's worth the hassle to sell items under say £8, what with the time spent scanning, listing, and going to the post office for a certificate or to check the weight for airmail postage. Perhaps in later years it may be a way of passing the time, but I'm inclined to think about giving some of the stuff to charity instead.

(I do appreciate that dealers have to make a living!)

I find ebay a total rip off now, time you have paid your insertion fees then 10% final value fee, and then paypal fee the profit margin that is left does not warrant the time & effort involved.
I would use Delcampe everytime over ebay.

Ebay =

Delcampe

If you haven't tried Delcampe, try it today -> http://www.delcampe.co.uk/

davyj wrote:I find ebay a total rip off now, time you have paid your insertion fees then 10% final value fee, and then paypal fee the profit margin that is left does not warrant the time & effort involved.
I would use Delcampe everytime over ebay.

Ebay =

Delcampe

If you haven't tried Delcampe, try it today -> http://www.delcampe.co.uk/

Delcampe looks very interesting, and good rates. But what about payment. If you didn't want to be paid by cash, cheque, bank transfer what are the other options, aside from PayPal, all the online processing firms are quite expensive unless you have a massive monthly turnover. Does anyone know if other good payment processors, that charge low fees?

hmmm - delcampe has a lot to offer over ebay and I would recommend ebay sellers/buyers alike check it for themselves -

For me, as a buyer on ebay, I'm getting more than fed up viewing the same old/common/overpriced postcards - why don't people research before they sell?

I believe there are too many people trying to make a quick buck on ebay - which is good for ebay - but no good for collectors in my opinion -

delcampe offers a better deal for sellers - but still attracts the sellers who lack knowledge of the market - maybe we should all go to fairs instead .........

It would be interesting to hear some results from Delcampe sellers. As an ebay seller I find Delcampes own figures a bit worrying, i.e. only 2% of their auctions result in sales each month. Even with the rubbish people list on ebay, some 25% result in sales. Obviously the free listing on Delcampe is tempting but surely it is in danger of becoming a cyber rubbish dump with so much stuff that nobody wants. At least with ebay it gets cleared out on a regular basis. As for the fees on ebay, they mirror the costs of selling at fairs, but on a personal level I find I get on average 50% more for the cards I put on ebay than I would ask at a fair. The profit I make selling on ebay helps to subsidise the cards I sell at fairs but it is a delicate balancing act sometimes. As an example, I had duplicates of two LL cards recently, of Hastings seafront and a London station.
I priced the Hastings card to sell at a fair at £5 and the London card at £8. The duplicates I sold on ebay. They sold for £17 and £44 respectively.

I have tended to be a buyer on e-bay, although have sold the occasional item. I find the process of selling rather laborious, and since one knows the fees in advance, I have no sympathy for anyone who complains about them. If you don't like it, don't trade there.

I'm not championing e-bay though. I still prefer the good old postcard fairs. There's nothing like the personal contact, and the chance to see the product before you buy.

But I see your point Tony. Obviously you have a wider market on e-bay, and it's better for the seller.

Having been let down so many times by efee and paypal I now only use

http://www.my-little-auctions.com/

A small site but very good sales for the size. I already have 99 feedbacks on the site, all positive, and best of all the site is 100% FREE.

No listing fees, No final valuation fees, No extras, just 100% FREE.

Great site. Do not just pass it by. If you are a sller just give it a try as I did. List 10 or 20 items for 28 days and see if you get any sales. It will cost you nothing other than a little time

Hi Danyj,

davyj wrote:I find ebay a total rip off now, time you have paid your insertion fees then 10% final value fee, and then paypal fee the profit margin that is left does not warrant the time & effort involved.
I would use Delcampe everytime over ebay.
Ebay =
Delcampe
If you haven't tried Delcampe, try it today -> http://www.delcampe.co.uk/

Hmmm... just... Thank you

Seb Delcampe

Hi Antiquepostcards,

antiquepostcards wrote:Delcampe looks very interesting, and good rates. But what about payment. If you didn't want to be paid by cash, cheque, bank transfer what are the other options, aside from PayPal, all the online processing firms are quite expensive unless you have a massive monthly turnover. Does anyone know if other good payment processors, that charge low fees?

Aside from PayPal, we also work with Moneybookers.com, a less expensive British company. Look in My Delcampe > My Payments: http://postcards.delcampe.net/status.ph ... tusContent

Seb Delcampe

Hm. I entered my usual main eBay search term in Delcampe and got six very ordinary items, compared with 40 on eBay.My views are much the same as when I expressed them on October 31, 2009 (above). I went to only one large and one small fair last year, the former being less than four miles from my home, and didn't get very much from either. In contrast I spot half-a-dozen desirable items a month on eBay from all over the country. There's still a tendency for starting prices to be at, or even above, what a dealer charges at a fair, and some such items don't sell.

But I admit that when I look at my numerous albums I do wonder just how many more cards I need and there are some I've forgotten I've got. I reckon that fairs are still the places to go when one is building up a collection.

Since my October 2009 post I haven't offered anything on eBay until this week, when I've listed an old piece of electronic equipment that someone might like. It might fetch £12 and so is hardly worth the hassle of packing etc, but I don't like to throw something potentially useful away.

Departing even more from postcards, I'm finding eBay more and more useful for buying small items that would otherwise entail my trooping around shops and stores asking for them and getting blank looks.


Moonraker

........ the debate goes on - well, it is definitely losing favour with me - so much regurgitated stuff in the vain hope that someone will bid/buy - I say again to sellers - try researching what sells before you list -

but - worse still - eblay now put those annoying ads in the listings too - cheek! - that really puts me off .........

goodbye eb

Moonraker wrote:Hm. I entered my usual main eBay search term in Delcampe and got six very ordinary items, compared with 40 on eBay.My views are much the same as when I expressed them on October 31, 2009 (above). I went to only one large and one small fair last year, the former being less than four miles from my home, and didn't get very much from either. In contrast I spot half-a-dozen desirable items a month on eBay from all over the country. There's still a tendency for starting prices to be at, or even above, what a dealer charges at a fair, and some such items don't sell.

But I admit that when I look at my numerous albums I do wonder just how many more cards I need and there are some I've forgotten I've got. I reckon that fairs are still the places to go when one is building up a collection.

Since my October 2009 post I haven't offered anything on eBay until this week, when I've listed an old piece of electronic equipment that someone might like. It might fetch £12 and so is hardly worth the hassle of packing etc, but I don't like to throw something potentially useful away.

Departing even more from postcards, I'm finding eBay more and more useful for buying small items that would otherwise entail my trooping around shops and stores asking for them and getting blank looks.


Moonraker

I get rid of my unwanted household junk on freecycle sites - no visits to the dump anymore and environmentally friendly - check it out here: http://www.uk.freecycle.org/

hi i'm new to all this online selling stuff, I've used eBay because it was the only site in knew to sell things, but upon reading all your comments I'm going to look online for somewhere else to sell my collection. i have got 2,096 postcard i want to sell and i think it would be very time consuming put them all on eBay. if anyone knows of a good site or place i could sell them please let me know. i live in the UK in-case anyone wanted to now.

thanks any help will be much appreciated

Hello Wen,

http://www.delcampe.co.uk/