gold sovereign ebay

[darrol]

why are prices always higher on ebay compared with shop prices ? I can understand you get to see the actually picture on the coin but still a lot are not clear pictures but still higher price ?

[richatthecroft]

EBay charges high fees.  Private sellers are charged 10% for the total sale, including charging fees on the postage costs plus 3% +20p to receive the cash via PayPal.  I think business sellers are charged slightly less and also, I guess frequent sellers add a little bit extra to cover items that go missing in the post and to cover the dishonesty of buyers saying 'I didn't get it mate'.  eBay heavily leans toward the buyer in any dispute or 'case' taken up by the buyer.  

A Sovereign realising say, £250 including postage charged, will only net the seller £216.30 (£25 eBay Fee; £8.70 PayPal fee) less Special Delivery cost of £6.45= only £209.85 net of fees and postage!  Not a good scenario.

At the time of writing, the same sovereign sold to Hatton Garden Metals would net you £220.66 less your choice of postage to send the coin to them.

Having said all of the above, eBay often have deals for sellers such as either a flat £3 or £1 to sell cost or I have seen a 1p to sell recently.  I guess most savvy sellers will wait around to take advantage of these dramatically reduced fees, particularly for high ticket items and list several/ many items at these times.  

 

Footnote:  

My local auction house, which is not very renown, publishes these fees for selling.  It makes eBay look very cheap to sell.   And a breeze to buy from eBay compared to the buyer being hammered as well as the seller.  Also, take a good look at the payment terms by this auction house, the seller has to wait up to 25 days for payment. What nonsense in 2018.  And the fees below don't take account of the extra 3%+ VAT Premium charged to buyers for the privilege of spending their cash on that new invention called the Internet!!! What a scam.   My experience these days is that a very high proportion of sales are knocked down to the internet. Thank the Lord they are now not allowed to charge another 2-3% for Credit Card payment.  

Don't think I've ever seen or will see, an auctioneer riding a bike!

Sellers

Monthly, Militaria & Sporting, Railway & Toy, Clock & Watch and Pop sale charges are 15%+VAT commission plus £3.50 + VAT lot fee, the Antique & Fine Arts Sale charges are 15+VAT commission plus £6+VAT lot fee.  All sales are subject to a 1%+VAT Loss/Damage fee.

Payment will be paid via BACS unless otherwise arranged, 18 days after the sale for General Sales and 25 days after for Specialist Sales.

Buyers

Buyers premium is applicable on all lots at the rate or 18%+VAT for General Sales and 18%+VAT for all Specialist Sales

[dutchman]

wow thanks for that info i have never sold on ebay and now never will

[Tpbullion]

@richatthecroft possibly one of the most informed answers to a question! Well played sir! You certainly seem to know your stuff. ?

[whitesands1]

6 hours ago, richatthecroft said:

Having said all of the above, eBay often have deals for sellers such as either a flat £3 or £1 to sell cost or I have seen a 1p to sell recently.  I guess most savvy sellers will wait around to take advantage of these dramatically reduced fees, particularly for high ticket items and list several/ many items at these times.  

What a great post! 

This particular Auction House, as you say, is not at the top of the scale.

From a vendor's point of view far too much of the value is lost in fees and commissions. For the buyer it makes it really hard to get a bargain; yet the sale rooms are packed both with goods and buyers.

I have to say I really enjoy selling odd things on ebay - you just have to be really careful and choose goods that are suited to the platform.  You need to be good with your marketing and above all you need to be honest and accurate.

I've been an ebay member since 2000 - believe it or not I once to sent items out and waited on the payments when I was busy with other commitments, I don't think you could do that now!

Still ebay is very good, provided you do your homework and make sure, as far as possible, that you deal with reputable buyers and sellers.

[richatthecroft]

4 hours ago, whitesands1 said:

What a great post! 

This particular Auction House, as you say, is not at the top of the scale.

From a vendor's point of view far too much of the value is lost in fees and commissions. For the buyer it makes it really hard to get a bargain; yet the sale rooms are packed both with goods and buyers.

I have to say I really enjoy selling odd things on ebay - you just have to be really careful and choose goods that are suited to the platform.  You need to be good with your marketing and above all you need to be honest and accurate.

I've been an ebay member since 2000 - believe it or not I once to sent items out and waited on the payments when I was busy with other commitments, I don't think you could do that now!

Still ebay is very good, provided you do your homework and make sure, as far as possible, that you deal with reputable buyers and sellers.

I would agree with all the above.  I have held an account for many years. Years ago I used to buy very low ticket items to resell on eBay making a £1 or £2 an item, and then fees were not applicable to postage, and if you were like me, and charged a proportionate amount for postage, it was a nice little earner.  

Unfortunately, some sellers started to use the old 1p 'Buy it now' + £4.50 postage chestnut,  or similar pricing structure to avoid fees and ruined the only fair bit of eBay's pricing structure for ever, but I guess rules are meant to be/can be exploited.  EBay did try and rectify this by imposing postage charge limits for postage, but that was unsuccessful as sellers still persisted in underhand tactics, this has evolved into the current fee structure.

Overall, I can only think of two instances of being completely ripped off on eBay as a buyer.  As a seller, maybe under 5 times I have suspected that the seller has taken the p*$$ and either said they didn't receive an item, or the chestnut of ''item not as described'.  I have bought hundreds of times and sold similarly. 

More recently, I have sold quite a few coins, chiefly due to my inexperience when setting out on stacking PM's and buying the 'wrong' things in the first place, make adjustments to my stack, duplicate collection items and odd coins I have intentionally flipped. I only do so when there is an offer, or it's not worth it 9 times out of 10. 

To be honest, I don't find the experience pleasant primarily, if one coin is sold for say £22 and you have made say £2 to £5 after fees then if the item either genuinely goes missing in the post or you have a dishonest person, then that's your profit blown on your next 5- 7 coins of similar profit margin.  No claim could be legitimately made to Royal Mail for Bullion, it's simply not covered and no one is going to pay £6.45 Special Delivery for an odd coin! I have taken  the risk as I wanted/needed to make up for my 'mistakes' and to reconfigure.

Will I regularly sell Bullion on eBay? Probably not, the risk not really worth it to me. I would enthusiastically sell however, higher value items, such as Gold coins, when I can take the stressout of the item being sent uninsured/ minimising risk by burying into the price, Special Delivery for peace of mind. 

Just my thoughts and experience, if your of a less nervous disposition in term of posting uninsured, and thrive on living on the edge, then flipping coins for a couple of quid profit could be lucrative, not worth the stress for me! Particularly given a bad experience a decade ago when I sent 8 items by post in one go to different destinations in the UK and only 5 got to the buyers. 

Also, buyers expectations of service and delivery have changed dramatically over the years, in the early days of eBay, it felt like a marvel buying online and actually receiving the item, all built upon trust. 

 

 

 

 

[richatthecroft]

7 hours ago, Tpbullion said:

@richatthecroft possibly one of the most informed answers to a question! Well played sir! You certainly seem to know your stuff. ?

Only know my stuff surrounding eBay and Auction Houses, I have lots to learn about PM's