Topic: Get a load at this guy... Buys on Ebay, puts on Craigslist, $11,000 mark up

[Wild Bill]

I was searching ebay yesterday for some parts, came across a part and clicked to look, and the guy was selling it for like 15 dollars but the shipping was around 25. It was a small part that would have fit in the smallest USPS box for 5 bucks or so.... Then he said.... if you pay with paypal i add 3% to your total, sorry but paypal charges me to get money, if you want to pay any other way, email me first before bidding...

I was shocked, this guy put it right out there for everyone to see... he was making people pay HIS fees, and the outrageous shipping?? was to cover his ebay fees I'm sure...

He seriously had 42 listing on there, all over priced, with 3 to 4 times the amount for shipping, all with his 3% add for Paypal.

So I reported them all. For violating excessive shipping and violating the policy on making buyers pay his fees. All but 4 of his listing got taken down.

I was doing a little bit more searching, to see who else he bent over, and I come across that he recently bought a 79 TA for $3000, and the pics and it saying it was a true barn find had me remembering that I could have sworn I saw this on craigslist... I search alot of craiglists from all over, so I searched the couple I normally search and in chicago, there was this california car with the vintage blue plates still on it, for $14,000... and behold... his name was the very same, Bobby Knug....

So, he bought this car, as soon as he got it, he posted it on craigslist, for a 11 thousand dollar mark up, and no pics...

Here's the craigslist ad: http://chicago.craigslist.org/nwc/cto/1731597372.html
Here's the car he bought on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130384888445


People like this are the scum of the Earth... seriously

[Wild Bill]

No rust huh?



um, sorry but the bottom of that rear fender, on the right hand side of the pic, that is rust, i know it too well...

my first TA was an Ohio car, ALL rust, and my NY TA now has some rust from NY winters.... I know what rust is on fenders like that...

[Wild Bill]

http://s165.photobucket.com/albums/u41/motorsport5/1979 Pontiac Trans Am

the original guy who sold this on ebay for 3 grand, i found his photobucket account with all the pics from the TA

[kentuckyyeti]

Lots of ebayers add 3% if you use paypal, just like lots of gas stations add 3% if you use a credit card (or discount your purchase 3% if you pay with cash).  That is common in business everywhere.  That is why he said to email first, so he could tell you to use a money order, cashier check, etc...  Ebay now blocks you from posting that you will accept money orders, checks, etc...  Ebay owns Paypal, so they try to force you to use it so they get another 3% from your auction.   As for the high shipping- you see that a lot now because eBay can't charge the seller any fees on the shipping.  Some sellers used to advertise stuff with a Buy It Now of $1 and $20 shipping for a $15 part and $5 shipping just to avoid eBay fees.  Ebay will delete any ad that they find with this kind of marketing.  Not saying they are right or wrong- but it is done a lot on eBay.

[Wild Bill]

I have sold on eBay and I factor in fees and such in my price that they pay for
eBay is an auction, if I win an auction for 5 bucks, and some guy tacks on
3% on top of that, that's not what I won it for. Paying those fees are the cost
for doing business. That's not a way to run a business. You will not keep customers.
I have seen gas stations say I must make at least a 5 dollar purchase if I pay with
a card, or discount me on gas if I pay cash but I have never seen one
charge me 3% extra for using a card and if I did I would walk out and not purchase. 

There are always a cost for doing business, and it's his cost, not mine.

I didn't make anyone pitch in for the cost of my business license or insurance
to run it. I pay those "business fees" with profit earned which makes it not profit but
the cost to run a business.

[kentuckyyeti]

I have sold on eBay and I factor in fees and such in my price that they pay for

I know what you mean, but he put it out there as an option to not use paypal and save the fee.  In your first line, you admit to adding the auction/payment fees in your price, so that isn't the cost of doing business.  You are passing it on like him, and everyone else.  I have a small business too.  The cost of running it has to be passed on to buyers.  You can say it comes out of the profit, but the profit margin has to be enough to sustain the bills associated with the business.  I'm not arguing, but I don't see a problem with him being honest about a seller's fee.  At most land auctions now, they charge a 10% buyer's premium where the high bidder pays the auctioneer's fee, not the seller.  As for  convenience store credit card fees, I literally go all over the country and see that everywhere.  3% cash discount means they are adding 3% automatically for a credit card and giving the same option as the guy you are talking about here to waive the fee.  Just my opinion...

[v8nut72]

I hardly buy anything on eBay anymore because people jack the price of shipping so much that it's cheaper to buy the item from an online store or sometimes even, dare I say, in an actual store.

P***es me off that someone jacks the price just so they can sell something at no cost to them, but then I just don't buy there item. Sooner or later they'll go out of business.

[Wild Bill]

Let me rephrase what I said. When I said I add
the fees in the price what I mean is I know the
fees will come out of the price so when I sold
something for a hundred, I know it's really like
75. I don't sell it for a 100 profit and then add to that
the fees. It comes out of the price at which the
person wins the auction at.

[Wild Bill]

And the gas stations only give cash discounts
on purchase of fuel, not goods. And not every
gas station does that. And common sense tells me they
don't add the fees cause I grab a soda for 1.19 and gum
at 2.35 and they ring it up and it's 3.54 plus tax then I
hand them cash or my card, never has anyone
ever said when I paid with card, oh we gotta add 3% just like
no one has ever said when I pay with cash, oh we have to
give u a cash discount cause we thought u were gonna
pay by card and I have been to gas stations ALL around the states
too

[Wild Bill]

Nd no one has even commented on the whole reason of this post! Buys car on eBay for 3 grand and puts on cl for 14 grand, THAT was the point

[v8nut72]

Wild Bill - no offence meant to the small businessman, I was meaning the creeps that make quick profit by turning things round quick and doing a half a**'d job.

A bit like the guy whole sold me my car......and he was a dealer!

[Wild Bill]

v8nut, I wasn't directing that towards your comment, it was kentucky yeti

i know exactly what you mean, and dealers are the worse, people think because it's coming from a licensed dealer that it has to be a good price

i see on CL all the time firebirds and trans am up for sell with wild ads for thousands more then they are worth, recently I saw a 88 GTA i believe, red, paint job was horrible, headlights were stuck up and the guy was selling it for 13 grand and change....

he was using the selling point that since pontiac is done, this car is just gonna continue going up in value, which is true, in a sense, for SOME cars, but not the one he was selling,

[Wild Bill]

And another thing I have thought about with the whole debit/credit card usage....

Back in the day, when  you had a small business, you had to pay a merchants fee to have a card scanner in order to accept this form of payment. Alot of people would come in wanting to buy something and find out they can't pay with plastic so they don't buy. Business owners had to cough up the money IOT facilitate certain buyers, to gain that share of the market. That is a cost that the business owner has to bear in order to get that revenue, it's not something he "passes" on to the consumer by saying... Oh, I want your business, and I take your card but I have to charge you the mark up on that item if you pay with card, all the while the consumer could have went to another store that does it the proper way, and the consumer can purchase it with his card, the same price, and not get charged this miracle mark up.. to me, that's a selling point, and I'll go to the guy who doesn't charge me to pay his fees ON TOP of the merchandise. Just how some people who buy on ebay will only buy a product from someone who offers free shipping... both products from two different sellers, one offers free shipping, one doesn't.... who is he gonna buy from? unless the guy has a lower then average rating, he's gonna buy from the free shipping guy... it's that simple,

[HOMER]

i admit i charge high shipping on ebay also but not to intenley screw anyone, the price to ship items is so high now and i am on the east coast so if somthing gos to cali im screwed i have lost so much money on shipping latley some items i have acc lost more than i sold them for.... but yea 11,000 mark up is bad he is one of the people that know it takes one sucker..

[Wild Bill]

I know, that's why I always do that other on my shipping, try to put in the size of the box and then tell them I will give them the exact cost of shipping with their invoice, but they can enter their zip and see about how much it will be....

the last item i shipped, i estimated the size and thought I could do it with everything, delivery confirm and insurance for 50 dollars, ended up costing me 62 at the post office cause I had to use a bigger box and I sold the item for 350, plus the 50 for shipping, cost me 12 bucks for paypal, and 44 i think for ebay, and i was out the 12 for shipping, so out of the 350, i made like 290, and to top it off, i sent it to an apo to iraq, when i got shipments to me over there it was like 6 or 7 days to get it, going on 3 weeks with this guy and still hadn't gotten it so I still hadn't gotten paid