General Advice on Selling on the Arena Please?

[xTic_Tac_Toex]

Hey everyone!

I sell ponies a lot, but usually always on eBay. You may have bought from me or seen my listings before - I'm guitarhunter11

However eBay's policy has recently changed, meaning that free insertion fees have dropped from 100 a month to 20 a month, rather dramatically.

To me it isn't worth paying insertion fees, when you have to pay them 10% of your final profit on top of that, so I'm thinking of just selling directly through the Arena this time around.

I've never really done this before, and was wondering what the deal is regarding Paypal fee etiquette? How much do Paypal even charge you, and is it the seller or buyer who invoices? Who gets charged regarding this?

Also, do people generally find selling through the Arena a smooth and pleasant experience?

I have a good 100 ponies to sell on top of playsets and merchandise

Thanks in advance for any advice!

xTic_Tac_Toex

[Whippycorn]

Paypal charges the seller the fees (3.4% + 20p per transaction). Some sellers do ask buyers to cover fees, but personally I do not, and I'm a bit put off by sellers who ask me to pay their fees.

I don't know if it's just me, but I find sales to be a bit slower on the arena, which is fine most of the time.

Oh, I do usually ask overseas people to pay me in GBP, because Paypal will charge an additional fee for currency conversion.

[xTic_Tac_Toex]

Thank you, that's very helpful advice! Yeah, I must admit I do like the speed and certainty of eBay...I might wait around for another offer to come up. It's fair for the seller to pay fees, I agree. 3.4% isn't bad at all though

[CupidStrikes]

Thank you, that's very helpful advice! Yeah, I must admit I do like the speed and certainty of eBay...I might wait around for another offer to come up. It's fair for the seller to pay fees, I agree. 3.4% isn't bad at all though

It's actually against Paypal's TOS for the seller to explicitly demand the buyer pays the fees (so many people work it into the pricing of their items or their "shipping and handling" fee).

I've found that buying from people on the Arena much more pleasant than on Ebay, personally

ETA: Depending on what you have for sale, I might be interested!

[Alipes]

Selling on the Arena is usually pretty smooth, and people have been very helpful about Paypal stuff, so here's some other tips I've found from selling on the Arena that might be helpful:

* Offer helpful info about location, where you ship to, smoking / pets as an intro.

I notice you're located in the UK, and there are definitely some other folks located in the UK so being upfront about shipping location can help you get business.  As far as the rest, that's just kind of standard stuff you'd include on eBay anyway.

* Link to your eBay feedback.

Since you don't have very high positive feedback here on the Arena yet, that can prevent people from buying from you.  With Paypal, as long as they don't pay as a gift, they're covered anyway, but linking your extra eBay feedback can convince people that you're a good choice to purchase from.

* Don't be surprised if things sell slower.

The Arena is only a portion of the pony buying audience, so you're not reaching as many people.  Also, many people have money issues, so don't be surprised if you receive requests for holds or payment plans.  Both are completely up to you, but sellers have had issues with both. 

* Bump your thread as soon as it drops to page 2, or when you add new things.

You want to keep your thread as visible as possible.  The more often it stays updated and on the first page, the wider your audience.  Also, make sure to read the rules thread in the sales section before posting!

* Price things lower than you would on eBay.

Ponies, accessories, playsets, etc. won't sell for as much here as they would on eBay.  This makes a lot of sense when you think about it, because you're cutting out one of the middle men (Mr. E. Bay) and not letting him have a portion of your money.  But because people are aware of this, they expect you to reprice accordingly.  If you list prices based off of eBay, your items will move much slower, if at all.

* List prices, and look at the Price Check Archives section for help.

If you're trying to keep things moving, people are much more likely to contact you if you've gone to the trouble to price everything out.  If you're telling people to make you an offer on everything that you have for sale, there's a very good chance they're not going to bother, unless you have something rare (or if they think you don't know what it's worth, they might try to ask for a really low offer, which isn't good for you either!)  The Arena's got a really nice Price Check Archives, and it's pretty easy to search for a pony name and see what prices have been quoted for what conditions in the past.  And Google has a built-in currency converter, since most of the prices are quoted in dollars.  Just type in "X usd to gbp" and Google will spit out the correct answer.

Hope this helps!  Good luck with your sales!