First ebay selling experience

Posted on May 8, 2007
Filed Under - projects |

Within a few hours of putting my first item (a DVD) on ebay I started to get offers to buy the thing right away. Initially I responded to these offers in good faith, telling Buyer A what Buyer B had offered and so on. But all the time I was wondering why they weren’t just bidding using the auction mechanism — which is what ebay is famous for, after all.

Eventually I got tired of this to-ing and fro-ing and decided I was being taken somewhat for a ride by people wanting to circumvent the bidding process. So now I’ve put my foot down, and told my buyers that I am not going to end the auction early and they will have to bid along with everyone else. I did have some tempting offers and it is possible that the auction will not reach those dizzy heights. On the other hand, the frenzy of competition might drive the price even higher. In any case, using the ebay auction mechanism is a lot less hassle for me and even if the winning bid wasn’t as much as I was initially offered, the time saved would more than compensate. My time is valuable!

I remember my father giving me advice along these lines when I was working freelance and deciding whether to hire an accountant. His view was that even though it might seem expensive in cash terms to hire a professional, you save a lot of your own time which can be utilised much more profitably than struggling with your own tax return.

Stumble it!

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