highdesertranger said:
well I guess you do have tools and good tools are always worth money. the reason I asked is I have seen way to many people pay a 100 bucks a month for years to keep 50 bucks worth of junk. highdesertranger
Nope. I had some serious and expensive stuff to sell. It was just that in the rush to move out of my house in time I didn't organize things very well. There are some tools I won't part with like my mechanics tools and hand tools. But everything specific to my now defunct career is going on eBay. And while I am at it trying to sell some furniture and yard equipment. That stuff will be given away if it comes down to it.
wypoon said:
I am contemplating Ebay, but have been scared off by the horror stories from honest sellers on YT ... and that onerous Ebay Seller's Agreement (saying that they can come after you for $2k under their 'Buyer Protection' scam). Basically, these days Ebay doesn't care about sellers anymore, and they let dishonest buyers take advantage of honest sellers. Have you any luck with selling to used test equipment dealers?
You are correct, eBay is there for the buyers and not the sellers. Four times in a row I had an auction specified as United States only. No international shipping. Each time some foreigner won the auction but didn't pay me because I wouldn't ship to their country. Shipping international is a hassle, expensive and you have to fill out customs paperwork. Not to mention that in some countries the government charges an import tax before the buyer can claim the merchandise. If this is too much for them they will often walk away and claim they never received their item.
When buyers do this you cannot leave negative feedback for them. In fact, according to eBay, negative feedback has been removed from their system. So now you can't tell when people are habitual scammers on their because they can only have POSITIVE ratings!
And I did have one auction where I tested the product with a companion product because, and a full time RVer I don't do returns. Too much hassle. So I test everything. This one buy took forever to file a claim on his item saying it was defective. I figured he didn't configure it properly so I sent directions on how to use it with his product. He replied that he wasn't an idiot and that the item was defective and to refund his money.
I contacted eBay who informed me that I MUST refund the money or they will step in on behalf of the buyer for their protection policy. They told me after I received the item I could file a claim if the item was damaged by the buyer. So when the item cam back it smelled like it had been in a tobacco factory for 20 years! It had this residue all over it. It was basically not able to be sold again. eBay says I can file an appeal, so I did. They denied me. According to them, the buyer is always assumed to be right. For the seller it is considered the cost of doing business. But as I tried to explain the the customer service person...I am NOT a business.
So yeah, there are some bad elements...but I also recently sold $10,000 worth of equipment in 60 days. So there are good times and there are bad time. I just put up two bench power supplies and an oscilloscope and the Agilent supply sold immediately using BuyItNow. The other BK Precision P/S has watchers and the Teledyne LeCroy scope has multiple watchers an a bid so far in just one day. So it will sell at this point. It is likely there will be a bidding frenzy toward the end of the auction.
Most of what I am putting up is in high demand so I am not too worried about that. When I am down to the stuff I have to relist I am just going to cut my losses and give it away so I can close down this storage unit.
