When I was shopping for a popular model of hybrid car last year, I was faced with the sticker price of the car and a dealer added sticker with a "market value adjustment" of an additional $2000....
I got my hands on THREE 16GB Wi-Fi Black iPad2's at Target two weeks ago and tried selling them on eBay. I ended up selling only one of them for $610+$20 shipping. By the time eBay, PayPal and shipping took all of their cuts, I made $5 over what I paid for one after factoring in the tax I paid at original purchase.
So I ended up taking the other two back to Target to at least get my money back.
Most of these models are going for $600-$630. That's a far cry from the $699 they are reporting.
Plus eBay would only let me list ONE iPad2 in a 7 day period.
eBay and PayPal are the ones making the money off of the limited supply of iPad2's in the wild... not consumers.
Are we supposed to feel bad that you couldn't scalp these for a profit?
Are we supposed to feel bad that you couldn't scalp these for a profit?
My original post was stating a fact that the article was inaccurate in regards to how much eBayers were actually making off of auctions of this product.
My second post was to enforce the fact that my intentions were not simply trying to make a profit but to try and be able to cover the cost of keeping one.
But I have this feeling that since you were quoting my first post you did not take the time to read through all of the posts.
And no... I don't expect nor do I want anyone, especially here on the internet, to feel "sorry" for me.
I used to do a lot of trading on eBay, particularly ancient HP RPN calculators. I'd buy one, refurb it, then offer it for sale at a higher price, factoring in all the selling costs. Over the past couple of years eBay has raised its percentage of the selling price by quite a bit, and the shipping costs have gone up. Buyers like to see items up for auction that include free shipping. In an effort to clean house last year I put up six or seven nice calculators (including a couple of 67s - real honeys) and I was astounded at the amount that eBay skimmed off the top.
I have seen the same thing happen at Amazon where I used to sell books that I'd read and hoped to recoup some of the cost of the books. Before postage rates went up four or so years ago, it was a fine way to earn some pocket money. Then I had to deal with higher postage and Amazon didn't raise their shipping subsidies to resellers. I had to list books at a penny apiece to get two cents profit. I could never understand the large outfits who sold cheap and were able to pay half as much in postage that I had to pay for the same weight going as "media mail." I guess the USPS has a special rate for them.
Now I live near a community library and get all my books there. I avoid eBay like the plague and will never sell anything there again.
Comments
Glad to hear that your scalping failed. I hope that this happened to most other people too.
+1 I feel sorry for him, yea right!
That is a blatant out and out lie.
I got my hands on THREE 16GB Wi-Fi Black iPad2's at Target two weeks ago and tried selling them on eBay. I ended up selling only one of them for $610+$20 shipping. By the time eBay, PayPal and shipping took all of their cuts, I made $5 over what I paid for one after factoring in the tax I paid at original purchase.
So I ended up taking the other two back to Target to at least get my money back.
Most of these models are going for $600-$630. That's a far cry from the $699 they are reporting.
Plus eBay would only let me list ONE iPad2 in a 7 day period.
eBay and PayPal are the ones making the money off of the limited supply of iPad2's in the wild... not consumers.
Are we supposed to feel bad that you couldn't scalp these for a profit?
Are we supposed to feel bad that you couldn't scalp these for a profit?
My original post was stating a fact that the article was inaccurate in regards to how much eBayers were actually making off of auctions of this product.
My second post was to enforce the fact that my intentions were not simply trying to make a profit but to try and be able to cover the cost of keeping one.
But I have this feeling that since you were quoting my first post you did not take the time to read through all of the posts.
And no... I don't expect nor do I want anyone, especially here on the internet, to feel "sorry" for me.
I have seen the same thing happen at Amazon where I used to sell books that I'd read and hoped to recoup some of the cost of the books. Before postage rates went up four or so years ago, it was a fine way to earn some pocket money. Then I had to deal with higher postage and Amazon didn't raise their shipping subsidies to resellers. I had to list books at a penny apiece to get two cents profit. I could never understand the large outfits who sold cheap and were able to pay half as much in postage that I had to pay for the same weight going as "media mail." I guess the USPS has a special rate for them.
Now I live near a community library and get all my books there. I avoid eBay like the plague and will never sell anything there again.
Does anyone have any sour grapes for me?
Does anyone have any sour grapes for me?
Yes! Off with your head! Um, make that scalp!