Ebay guitar ‘traders’/flippers

downbytheriver

Fusionista said:

TheGuitarWeasel said:

p90fool said:

I pay 20p in VAT every time I spend a pound, and spend around half my income on fuel and wine, which is taxed at what, 60%?

How and where I earn my money is my affair quite frankly, the cunts still get their cut.

Agreed to the bloody hilt!

Wisdom awarded.  I could give you stats on how much the UK govt takes in tax, but apathy has 

Can I just say that awarding a wisdom for maths this poor is wrong! You pay 20p in tax when you spend £1.20....

Dave_Mc

kos5150 said:

Dave_Mc said:

The other thing I'd say (in addition to what I said above) is that if enough people do the "I'll take a punt on buying it to sell on because it's so cheap I'm bound to make some profit on the deal" it makes it very hard for anyone else to actually get a good deal. Ebay has been like that, at least to some extent, for a while now- if something is going for a song, someone normally bids it up towards the end. There seem to be fewer good deals than there used to be.

Again, I'm not saying I think it should be illegal or anything like that, but it's annoying. )

True that, it's like that strat in the original post. At £300 I (or somebody else) would've of got a ton of use out of that, but now it's just going to sit under some guy's bed until someone willing to shell out £480 comes along, which I'm going to take a punt and say is likely to be some time considering what else you can get for that sort of money.

The more I think about it the more it just seems like a daft exercise these days unless you're going high-end. Let's work this out: £480 - £67.20 (eBay/PayPal's 14%) then minus the £30 for postage, which works out at £382.80. Of course before all that he's got to go and pick the thing up, which let's be generous and say costs £2.80. So that then leaves a £80 profit. Then, he has the worry of whether or not it arrives in one piece, which - now that couriers usually won't allow them to be insured - is a bit of a gamble. Then you have to hope that the buyer agrees with the description given and is happy with the guitar, otherwise you're down even more postage.

Is it just me or does that sound like an awful lot of a headache for little pay off? I'm a bit groggy today but I think I've worked that out correctly.

I don't know about the exact figures, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's right (or at least not far off). Agreed, it just sounds like a massive faff.

Though we might be giving ebay buyers too much credit. The amount of (used) things I've seen bid up to more than you can get one new for (sometimes even on ebay under the exact same search terms) is staggering, frankly. Do a lot of people bid while they're having a drinking session or something? )

jpfamps said:

People trading on eBay add liquidity to the market.

This is good for sellers as without dealers buying on eBay seller would get lower prices for their goods.

Well sure, but I mean it's bad for the buyers ) And it's also not great for the original seller.

Skipped

A brand new Classic Vibe Telecaster is £250 + Vat. It comes with a warranty.
If you want to bid on ebay (against bidders who may have no intention of buying the guitar and may not even exist), and thus end up paying more than £250, to a private seller where there is no Vat payable and no warranty, I think it can be argued that is doesn't make any sense. 

Dave_Mc

Yeah )

And to clarify what I said above- I suppose it is good for the first seller if they get slightly more for their stuff. But it's annoying if it then immediately gets sold for more )

DeeTee

Could we keep the politics to the Off Topic bit please? 

Skipped

I am old enough to remember when a second hand guitar in Leeds would be sold to a bloke in Leeds who found it in a paper called Freeads or Yellow something. Same with a second hand Toaster.
In those days....If you told your friends that you had sold your Toaster to a man in St Ives, and that you had covered the Toaster in bubble wrap that cost £1.99, and that the Post Office are going to deliver the Toaster to the man in St Ives....They would usually have you Sectioned.