Selling a Bike on E-Bay
This may be old hat to some of you but I have now sold a couple of high end bikes (Intense 5.5 evp and Santa Cruz Nomad frame) on e-Bay with great results. This article is a summary of my experience selling the Intense 5.5. (The photo's are of the Nomad).
1
Open an E-Bay Sellers account. My partner has bought things on E-Bay so we converted her account into both seller and buyer, a straightforward and painless exercise.
2
Decide the price. I considered: the rarity of the bikes and the retail cost, the up-charge cost of the custom finishes, the finishing kit on the bike and replacement costs at both retail and bargain shopping, the price that previous 5.5’s had gone for and finally how common they were on E-Bay. I could find only two previous 5.5 sales: one in the UK which had gone for £2800.00 but it had never been ridden and another in Canada with a dented frame. I decided on both a ‘Buy it Now’ with a bidding price £150.00 below. I put these figures close together as I assumed that bidding would soon bridge £150.00.
4
Decide on the method of delivery. A bike is a different proposition to anything I have previously sent through the post so I needed to check it out. The Royal Mail web-site was pretty useful and directed me to the Parcel Force web-site which was excellent. I followed the on-line guide and used the calculator to get an estimate price for the delivery and details of how it should be packed etc. Luckily I had the original box that the frame had arrived in.
5
Decide on payment terms. Pay-Pal the E-Bay ‘bank’ is straightforward to use; however as a seller it takes 3.5% of the selling price in commission. This doesn’t seem much but soon mounts up on an expensive item. In order to keep the price reasonable I opted to accept payment by personal cheque or bank draft only. This does limit the payment options for the buyer as they cannot use a credit card, this in turn is likely limit the number of people who will be in a position to bid or buy the item.
6
Placing the advert was a very simple process, I used a couple of photo’s of the clean bike and one of it in action on Holmbury Hill. I gave a brief description of the bike together with a summary of the kit, I listed major service dates and was specific in pointing out cosmetic flaws. I deliberately chose to be understated rather than talk up the components or frame. I thought if people know what it is they will read on, those who don’t know what it is will think it expensive for a bike and move on. I placed the advert to run for 7 days midweek to midweek therefore including a weekend.
7
I opted to ‘track’ the item which basically enabled me to see the number of bids, number of people watching it (not who they are) and how many questions I had received and answered. The first day nothing happened (was my scepticism justified?), the second day 4 people were watching this rose to 12 people on the 3rd day. Saturday brought a flood of questions covering everything possible on a bike from services to tyre choice(?). I answered as best and accurately as I could. I was pleased and relieved that people were interested. I went to the pub. The next day I was notified of a bid, it had been bought at the ‘Buy it Now’ price, a success.
8
Doing the deal. I received a personal cheque and used a priority clearing service at the bank to ensure it would not bounce. The bike was thoroughly wrapped in masses of bubble wrap and packed into the box. I rotated the handle bars 90 degrees, took the pedals off, wrapped them and taped them to the crossbar. I covered the box with sticky tape and took the bike-in-box to the main Post Office in Brighton and off it went. The new owner received it and let me know all was well. In fact we are still in touch, he loves the bike and 18 months later he has no intention of selling it.
All in all a painless exercise, in fact a very effective and efficient process. I doubt I will ever become an ‘E-Bay millionaire’ but it is an excellent way of moving things on that are still serviceable but no longer used.
1
Open an E-Bay Sellers account. My partner has bought things on E-Bay so we converted her account into both seller and buyer, a straightforward and painless exercise.
2
Decide the price. I considered: the rarity of the bikes and the retail cost, the up-charge cost of the custom finishes, the finishing kit on the bike and replacement costs at both retail and bargain shopping, the price that previous 5.5’s had gone for and finally how common they were on E-Bay. I could find only two previous 5.5 sales: one in the UK which had gone for £2800.00 but it had never been ridden and another in Canada with a dented frame. I decided on both a ‘Buy it Now’ with a bidding price £150.00 below. I put these figures close together as I assumed that bidding would soon bridge £150.00.
4
Decide on the method of delivery. A bike is a different proposition to anything I have previously sent through the post so I needed to check it out. The Royal Mail web-site was pretty useful and directed me to the Parcel Force web-site which was excellent. I followed the on-line guide and used the calculator to get an estimate price for the delivery and details of how it should be packed etc. Luckily I had the original box that the frame had arrived in.
5
Decide on payment terms. Pay-Pal the E-Bay ‘bank’ is straightforward to use; however as a seller it takes 3.5% of the selling price in commission. This doesn’t seem much but soon mounts up on an expensive item. In order to keep the price reasonable I opted to accept payment by personal cheque or bank draft only. This does limit the payment options for the buyer as they cannot use a credit card, this in turn is likely limit the number of people who will be in a position to bid or buy the item.
6
Placing the advert was a very simple process, I used a couple of photo’s of the clean bike and one of it in action on Holmbury Hill. I gave a brief description of the bike together with a summary of the kit, I listed major service dates and was specific in pointing out cosmetic flaws. I deliberately chose to be understated rather than talk up the components or frame. I thought if people know what it is they will read on, those who don’t know what it is will think it expensive for a bike and move on. I placed the advert to run for 7 days midweek to midweek therefore including a weekend.
7
I opted to ‘track’ the item which basically enabled me to see the number of bids, number of people watching it (not who they are) and how many questions I had received and answered. The first day nothing happened (was my scepticism justified?), the second day 4 people were watching this rose to 12 people on the 3rd day. Saturday brought a flood of questions covering everything possible on a bike from services to tyre choice(?). I answered as best and accurately as I could. I was pleased and relieved that people were interested. I went to the pub. The next day I was notified of a bid, it had been bought at the ‘Buy it Now’ price, a success.
8
Doing the deal. I received a personal cheque and used a priority clearing service at the bank to ensure it would not bounce. The bike was thoroughly wrapped in masses of bubble wrap and packed into the box. I rotated the handle bars 90 degrees, took the pedals off, wrapped them and taped them to the crossbar. I covered the box with sticky tape and took the bike-in-box to the main Post Office in Brighton and off it went. The new owner received it and let me know all was well. In fact we are still in touch, he loves the bike and 18 months later he has no intention of selling it.
All in all a painless exercise, in fact a very effective and efficient process. I doubt I will ever become an ‘E-Bay millionaire’ but it is an excellent way of moving things on that are still serviceable but no longer used.
1 comment:
People should read this.
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