URGENT!!! ebay question about tickets from Heavens
 

Hi all. Thanks again for all of your help. Need help on this right now, for we are posting our tickets. The question is this: Do we print out the tickets and send? OR do we leave in our email and email to the buyer? Which is better for us, and/or the buyer? Also, if we ship, what is best way? Overnight, priority? What looks best to the buyer so that we look legit. We are not going to screw over anyone just want to get back money we put in. Thanks all. Please let me know which way to go...

After I sold the tickets, I emailed the buyer, asking which way he'd prefer. He asked me to email them, which I did, all very easy, so I charged no postage fee.
You'll want to include that these are ticketfast tix in your description, but that way delivery is free, and that ticketfast is entirely legitimate, and that the buyer will have these tickets immediately after payment. If the buyer would prefer you mail them then state that fee upfront.
It's really a good way to go, though it does make people nervous...
In the end you can do either. When I sold my tickets to a concert, I'd printed them out and then paniced, thinking I could not email them then, but you can. There is something on the ticket where the venue will only take the first tickets offered, so as to prevent fraud.

Just send them the email link and please do not charge for shipping! The ONE time I bought ticketfast tickets on Ebay, the bum charged me for shipping and didn't admit they were ticketfast tickets....

You guys are great! Thanks for the info. You are so helpful. If you were here in so cal, I would buy you a margarita, or a martini...or whatever you prefer...Really, thanks a bunch.

Heavens,

In case you're new to selling on e-bay please make sure you receive payment before sending those tickets on!

When selling an item there are several shipping options you can offer buyers--if email is not one of them include that information in your description of the item.

Good luck!

I entered it in the description of the shipping of the item. Is that OK? How do I know if the money has cleared? Does Paypal tell me.

Sorry if this thread is confusing. It is kind of the continuation of this thread:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...vens&fid=1

I have never sold on ebay. My son has and he is helping. He has had three good transactions but that is not enough to make him a big buyer. This is kind of scary.

Now that it is posted, how do I know if they are making a bid for it?

You'll be able to watch the bids in progress as well as be able to see how many(but not who)people are "watching" the item(possibly waitng until closer to end to start bidding)...on your "my Ebay" screen there is a section where you have things up for sale that you just click on to watch....

Don't make yourself crazy by watching it every 2 minutes though!!! ;)

Heavens, go to ebay and do a search for Wicked Tickets. Read through the ones offered there and make sure you've covered all your bases. I looked through the listings and think I may have seen yours--it was listed by someone who had three transactions. If that's your listing, you haven't mentioned how you'll get the tickets to them, so a prospective buyer may pass over your listing for one that includes an amount the buyer will be required to pay for postage.

I find the best way to know how to list is to read listings for the same item. I've had 78 ebay transactions, still a relative newbie. I learn something everytime I buy or sell.

Good luck

Oops, scratch that. The listing I'm referring to was for tickets in Chicago, not San Diego.

I know what you mean. I do kind of want to watch it every two minutes. This is quite a game, isn't it.

Now I am looking around the house for something else to sell. The lab? The cat? My Dumb and Dumber DVD?

What all have you all bought or sold on Ebay? I guess a lot of people buy airline tickets or miles?

It is addicting. I buy concert tickets, videos and even cosmetic items. My husband bought a set of skis!

Everything from Yankee jerseys to Jimmy Buffett tickets to Chuck E Cheese tokens and lots of movies for my daughter (eBay's half.com)lots of sneakers, cd's and books,...I started alot of Ebaying 2 yrs ago for the holidays- work schedule was frantic and I didn't have time to shop....I only shop new stuff, but my friend sells everything that's not nailed down...I never imagined people buying cases of fire starter logs from him, but he sold them! There is a market for everything!My old neighbor in Jersey bought a car in Florida off of Ebay and had it shipped.The few times I perused travel related stuff, I never found anything of interest...it can be addictive,especially when it rains for a month in a row and you have time to kill on the computer!

I bought tons of stuff for the mountain place when I first bought it. I bought vintage fabric that I thought would work for curtains and didn't - but years later they worked perfectly for the farmhouse. Ditto for vintage tablecloths. I've purchased too many "vintage" items. I've bought presents for hard-to-buy-for family members (1st edition books, hobby items). What REALLY got me addicted was a lunch box collection for the ledge in the great room. Who knew? Who knew that old lunch boxes were so collectible? Who knew that they were so expensive? Who knew that I would get so addicted?! I finally just placed really high bids to finish off the ones I wanted so I could stop the craziness.

PS - One of my favorite items was a Sears Wish Book from my childhood days. I just love looking at it again as an adult.

Betsy, that was my offer. I am selling in Chicago bc we accidentally bought in Chicago instead of San Diego. We live two hours from SD. So the Chicago tickets are pretty useless.

Please tell me if there is something else I should put in my offer. Thanks.

Just checked out your listing again. Here's a suggestion: If you can edit your title, you could add &quot;Face value&quot; and &quot;No Shipping Fees!&quot; (without the quotes) as an added selling point. You also might consider editing your listing to admit you bought the tickets for the wrong city in error. You've got lots of competition out there and IMHO you need to adopt more of a &quot;sell&quot; posture to draw people to <i>your</i> listing over others.

Thanks so much Betsy. Will work on that today. You've been a real big help. You are great.

Thanks for the kind words, Heavens. The learning curve for ebay is steep and long, so I try to help people who are on the journey.

Betsy and Kelly, I updated my listing here. Is this what you meant? Thanks again.

http://cgi.ebay.com/4-Wicked-Tickets...QQcmdZViewItem

And I lowered the price. Such a deal for anyone traveling to Chicago and wanting to take in a good show. Right?

Thanks again.

Good advice given about the description containing all the shipping options. It's always nice to give the bidders a choice if you can.

Having bought and sold some on eBay I am aware of what is a good auction description and which i would just pass on without hesitation.

One thing I have never bid on is a vacation package, cruise or air travel which i have seen on eBay. Anyone ever buy a vacation there and how did it go?

SamH

It wasn't me that bought a vacation, but a close friend bought a trip for two to Maui, and she was totally thrilled.

I tried selling travel (a week at a villa and cooking school in Tuscany) but had no bidders and a LOT of hassle.

Getting verified as a travel seller was quite difficult, so I guess Ebay might be a trustworthy place to buy travel. They really, really required a lot of information and verification. I had sold many other items on Ebay, even a car, and it was nothing at all like the extra hoops I had to jump through to sell travel.

I think I'll go look for something right now!

We sold the old ashtray from my husband's Miata on eBay for $21.50. And I just sold a bunch of my old Star Wars stuff.

Good luck on your auction.

Since this post is still going........I have a silly question. How does one go about finding out how much shipping will be on an item without taking it to the post office and weighing it? Does E-bay walk you through that when you put an item up for bidding?

INteresting that you can use Ebay for travel purchases. Definately worth a look.

I think that Ebay has a whole section on shipping and how to charge. Since my tickets are by email I will have no shipping fees, so I didn't really look into that feature.

Do you think it is better to sell something as a verified seller? Do you think that makes a seller more credible to buyers on Ebay? Might have to add that feature for the tickets.

Thanks all, you have been very helpful. Ebay really is an amazing service that I have never discovered, for travel related purchases or whatever one is looking for. I am rather glad to have the opportunity to learn about its many features.

Now, if I could just sell those darn Wicked little tickets, I could be one happy camper...

Regarding shipping costs. You can research on USPS website for various classes of mailing. A small kitchen scale can give you weight of a small item, bathroom scale estimate for larger item.

If you have to do something special for fragile items, make sure you take that into account. Also insurance if you wish to do that.

My brother, who has sold large fragile items on EBay has always just estimated high - he says that is often what is done - and no one has complained.

Heavens, you have five days to go. Many items are sold at the last minute by buyers who lurk until it's almost time for the listing to expire. If it does expire, relist it right away.

You might want to consider mentioning free shipping in your title. If you need more spaces you could take out the commas and the &quot;th.&quot;

Hi Betsy, I changed it. It now has free shipping in the title and I added ID veryify so I added a Buy it Now feature. I decided to do this bc I think it makes me a little more credible as a seller. At least that is how I see it. For $5 I hope I am right. Here is the link so you can see the changes...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...%3AIT&amp;rd=1

Do you think that I should be concerned that there are no bids?

Sorry, will have to repost the ebay post, didn't go through all of the way:

http://tickets.listings.ebay.com/_Ev...TPFQ3aSRCHQ3a1

Hope that one comes through...

Thanks again.

Your listing looks good! No, you don't have to be concerned about having no bids until the final bell. Then if there are no bids you can relist.

When you have a long URL, you can go to www.tinyurl.com which translates the long URL into a short one, so it doesn't get the Fodor page out of whack. Try it!

ok, will try it next time. But it is too late for that post, isn't it?

Thanks for the help on the no bid thing, bc I would be freaking about now due to lack of bids. I now have seven watchers so that is good. Thanks again, Betsy...and others.

Yep, seven watcher is great. That means seven people added your listing to their &quot;My eBay&quot; item watch list and are following the movement of the item, suggesting there's some interest in your tickets.

Fodor's may correct the formatting of the thread when everyone shows up to work at HQ today or tomorrow.

Betsy or Kelly, or anyone else who knows, I have a new question about ebay. My post is running out in less than 24 hours. Should I let it run out and then post again? Or repost it before it runs out? I have ten watchers and I hate to lose them. I read the relisting instructions but it doesn't really say if it should run out or relist BEFORE it runs out. Any help on this would be appreciated. Thanks. I think ten watchers is pretty good, don't you? I hope so. Thanks again.

I think you have to let your listing elapse before you relist. Don't worry, if any of your watchers are serious, they will find you as they've probably subscribed to eBay's feature whereby they get an email any time something they're interested in has been listed. For example, I'm interested in fill-in pieces for a china pattern, so on my Favorite Searches page, there is a &quot;sign up for emails&quot; feature that I've enabled.

By the way, I'm one of your watchers and will definitely not be in Chicago in July. Still, nine watchers is good!

Here's a suggestion: If you do relist, you may want to have your listing end on a Sunday night at about 10 pm on the East Coast (7 pm on the West Coast). That's when your customer is most likely to be home and searching for items on eBay.

Just had a thought, Heavens. If you tickets don't sell on eBay, you could post them on the Chicago section of Craig's List.

Hi Betsy, again. I have listed on craigslist in Chicago. Not much going on there. I am really concentrating my efforts on Ebay, just feels safer.

I figured that you might be one of my watchers. So, I'll just let it expire and then repost with a litte lower bid price. Ugh. Just want to get rid of the dang things. Sure you don't want to go to Chicago? What a great city.

Thanks again. I have to admit this has been kind of fun. But two computers have crashed in the process and that has been frustrating.

Betsy and all the rest of you Fodorites, have a good weekend.

Betsy, not sure if you are around, but thought I would try. Or anyone else who knows anything about ebay.

Here is my ?, I am not up to 11 watchers. three or four have added on in the last two days. I have four hours to go. Are they waiting for me to do something? Or are they waiting until the last minute to do something? Any thoughts on this? Are they waiting to see if I might relist and bring down the price do you think? And if I don't, maybe they will bid just as it closes?

I am going to let it expire just to see what happens. Just wondering what, if anyone might know, is going on...

I am really hoping to get a bid so that I can start posting on Fodors about more fun travel related topics.

Heavens, I never sold on ebay, but I've bought before.

Some people may bid before the auction ends. One reason not to bid now is to not run the price up before the end.

I would let it expire and try later.

Be careful - don't list on craigslist unless you know you'll still have the tix available to sell. Unless things have changed on ebay, you have to honor the bid unless you have set a reserve price that has not been met.

I think you will get a better price on the tix right before the show dates. People will be more willing to pay more then. That is just my opinion of course.

Good luck. ebay can be lots of fun. Too much fun for my pocketbook - I officially got addicted :-)

Well, it expired and not bids. So, will lower the price. Might let a week pass and then list it again so that it gets closer to the date of the show. UGH!

Thanks Starrs, good tips. And good advice about Craigslist. Think Ebay is a safer bet.