Selling Cues on Ebay

I have several hobbies and I have all but stopped even going to ebay . The reason is because either they are deslers trying to unload their problem stuff for top dollar .{Don't want to sell it to regular store customers for fear they won't come back}
Or they are some garage sale , flea market home seller that has no idea what the real price should be and asks crazy money for everything, hoping to get lucky.
There are still nice finds, but for example , on ebay , there is someone trying to sell a 1858 Manual of billiards for 1300.00 and 1500.00 {OBO}
They are dreaming.
Cut that in half and you still couldn't sell them.
 
book collector said:
I have several hobbies and I have all but stopped even going to ebay . The reason is because either they are deslers trying to unload their problem stuff for top dollar .{Don't want to sell it to regular store customers for fear they won't come back}
Or they are some garage sale , flea market home seller that has no idea what the real price should be and asks crazy money for everything, hoping to get lucky.
There are still nice finds, but for example , on ebay , there is someone trying to sell a 1858 Manual of billiards for 1300.00 and 1500.00 {OBO}
They are dreaming.
Cut that in half and you still couldn't sell them.
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Sure, but one runs into that all over the place. Not just Ebay.


A buddy of mine showed me his pool cue. It was a very nice older Lucasi.

I figured it was worth a couple hundred, maybe 250. It had a beautiful custom made case for it. Wood case. He had it made so he knew where it came from for sure. Top notch work. Probably worth 100-150.

He said he paid $1,000 for the cue (without a case) because it was "custom made". I was sorry to tell him otherwise and a quick search on my phone showed him that.

He really thought it was a custom. I felt bad for him. He really did pay $1000 for it used several years ago.

The same guy would have listed it, innocently, had he wanted to sell it, for $1000 and would have thought it reasonable. That same evening he gave it to a friend as a birthday present, along with the box case.

So when I went shooting last Sunday I had him along and let him use several of my cues. It was the first time he had ever hit an ivory ferrule. Totally blew him away. :)


Very often people are innocently misguided. And they need not be dipshits.

It happens.

I think maybe we see it more now on Ebay because the Ebay market has shrunk and left more naive people and/or dipshits, and/or people trying to unload crap.


People see Mizerak's Richard Black cue on Ebay for thousands (right now) and they look at their Chinese Mizerak and put 2 and 2 together and get a thousand (200 in the case of the one I linked to). LOL! They probably really have no idea what they are doing.


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Chopdoc said:
Sure, but one runs into that all over the place. Not just Ebay.


A buddy of mine showed me his pool cue. It was a very nice older Lucasi.

I figured it was worth a couple hundred, maybe 250. It had a beautiful custom made case for it. Wood case. He had it made so he knew where it came from for sure. Top notch work. Probably worth 100-150.

He said he paid $1,000 for the cue (without a case) because it was "custom made". I was sorry to tell him otherwise and a quick search on my phone showed him that.

He really thought it was a custom. I felt bad for him. He really did pay $1000 for it used several years ago.

The same guy would have listed it, innocently, had he wanted to sell it, for $1000 and would have thought it reasonable. That same evening he gave it to a friend as a birthday present, along with the box case.

So when I went shooting last Sunday I had him along and let him use several of my cues. It was the first time he had ever hit an ivory ferrule. Totally blew him away. :)


Very often people are innocently misguided. And they need not be dipshits.

It happens.

I think maybe we see it more now on Ebay because the Ebay market has shrunk and left more naive people and/or dipshits, and/or people trying to unload crap.


People see Mizerak's Richard Black cue on Ebay for thousands (right now) and they look at their Chinese Mizerak and put 2 and 2 together and get a thousand (200 in the case of the one I linked to). LOL! They probably really have no idea what they are doing.


.
Click to expand...

It's surely possible.
 
Chopdoc said:
Sure, but one runs into that all over the place. Not just Ebay.


A buddy of mine showed me his pool cue. It was a very nice older Lucasi.

I figured it was worth a couple hundred, maybe 250. It had a beautiful custom made case for it. Wood case. He had it made so he knew where it came from for sure. Top notch work. Probably worth 100-150.

He said he paid $1,000 for the cue (without a case) because it was "custom made". I was sorry to tell him otherwise and a quick search on my phone showed him that.

He really thought it was a custom. I felt bad for him. He really did pay $1000 for it used several years ago.

The same guy would have listed it, innocently, had he wanted to sell it, for $1000 and would have thought it reasonable. That same evening he gave it to a friend as a birthday present, along with the box case.

So when I went shooting last Sunday I had him along and let him use several of my cues. It was the first time he had ever hit an ivory ferrule. Totally blew him away. :)


Very often people are innocently misguided. And they need not be dipshits.

It happens.



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This is usually what happens. I know a guy who bought an elephant-carved Peter Vitalie, elephant balls, a Schon Unique, and an Instroke Cowboy.

He expects he will see the $15k he has into the package.

Not in 4 lifetimes, sadly.
 
Amazing find!! Only $4,000.00!!!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antigue-Bru...982969?hash=item3d13d8d6f9:g:MDIAAOSwZ8ZW3yri

Antigue Brunswick Billiards Pool Cue
Late 1800s or Early 1900s
Matching Shaft and Butt both have 751 etched on them
Opposite end of butt has 18 on it also
Beautiful colored points and butterflies
More than 24 points counted and a few butterflies in different colors
This is an antique thats been used and enjoyed so no returns or guarantees that theres no wobbles or knicks and scratches or such
Thank you and Happy Bidding
Click to expand...


Anybody want to tell him the truth? You think he knows?

I bet he researched it on the internet. :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:




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Yup, female name.

I like the "24 points counted" LOL! How about 2? I guess she is counting the veneers.



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TATE said:
Back when I first started collecting cues, ebay was a treasure chest for buying and selling cues. When I ran an auction, 500 to 1,000 page views were common.

Now I am selling a few cues (Palmer's) and the page views are more like 200. My guess is the novelty is over and the high fees caught up with ebay.

I still think it's a great way to find great stuff, but selling is definitely expensive and it's not the hot spot it once was. Bummer.
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This one blew my mind. I saw it right away. Clicked Buy It Now. I have a Paypal just for cues and could not remember the balance. Cancelled the BIN. Went to check balcance. Had more than enough. Went back to it, cue was SOLD!

I am such an idiot. Why did I bother to check the balance? Why didn't I just buy it? Because I am stupid. :frown:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Pal...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557



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ideologist said:
Also, the cue market is hurting. Expect to face a harsh reality if you list those cues with no reserve and low opening bid.
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Yeah, and I think that the cue market has been hurting for a very long time. Back in 2008, I won an auction for a very nice Scruggs for $1500. It was super nice (4 points with ivory diamond inlays in the points, and very large ivory block windows in the butt below the wrap). It had a rare cocobolo joint, and 2 shafts with ivory ferrules. Anyways, I eventually needed to sell it (maybe about 8 months later I am guessing), and started the auction at a penny, and it only sold for about a $1,000. Was told that the cue would have cost $2800 directly from Scruggs. Also had a very nice Durbin cue that was loaded with inlays in the forearm and butt (at least a $1,000 cue I am guessing, but I paid $600 for it, which I thought was a great deal), and it only sold for $350 (with a penny starting bid and no reserve) about 6 months later when I auctioned it off on ebay. So, yeah, it is very risky selling a cue with a very low starting bid and no reserve price.
 
Woof Biscuit said:
Interesting. They don't make you wait until the item gets to the buyer and they give you positive feedback? It may just be that I only have about 50 transactions. I can't withdraw or spend it until all of that clears.
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You will need to earn the trust of ebay before they will stop holding your money until the buyer leaved you a good feedback. I had to go through the same thing, but eventually (after a had a lot of good feedbacks from buyers), ebay stop putting a hold on the money sent through paypal. I think it might be 50 buyer feedbacks that you need, but not sure. I forget. Use paypal's online shipping service to print out the buyers shipping label, and then you will not have to wait nearly as long to receive your money. Shipping very fast (within 24 hours) also makes ebay trust you a lot quicker. You just need to earn their trust.
 
Chopdoc said:
I am sure there are limitations. I don't remember how they work. I have a commercial Paypal account now and have done around a million in transactions in the last four years. My fees are low and there are virtually no delays or anything. If there is a problem they call me usually before I even know there is a problem.

I remember when I started my personal Paypal account years ago there were all kinds of delays and limitations. After I moved to a commercial account and increased the volume of transactions that all changed.

I dig Paypal. They helped me build my business.


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Did you know that paypal and ebay and now 2 companies? Ebay no longer owns paypal. I do not know about paypal, but ebay offers an ebay store, and says that if you pay a monthly fee for an ebay store, then the ebay seller fees are lowered. I am just not sure how much they are lowered. They are 10% right now (not counting the paypal fee, which is 3.5% I think). I wonder what the % is if you have an ebay store.
 
ChicagoRJ said:
Yeah, that's weird. The only time I've seen that is when someone uses some weird "paypal" check that must clear first. But I won't send anything until it clears.

I do have over 400 transactions (well I'm sure I'm well over 1500 but not everyone leaves feedback)

Not sure how things worked when I didn't have as much ??
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It is a newer system that ebay created (within maybe the last 5 years?) to protect the buyers money, until the seller earns the trust of ebay. In order to earn ebays trust the quickest, you should use the ebay/paypal online shipping (to print out the buyers shipping labels), and always ship within 1 business day, including Saturdays if possible. You will then receive your money a lot faster. Older sellers have never heard of this new system, because they have been selling on ebay for longer then the system had been around. It is a good and fair system I think, because I got ripped off more times then I can count from new ebay sellers, and ebay was unable to get my money back from the buyer. With this new system, the seller needs to earn ebays trust before they can get their money instantly.
 
Chopdoc said:
Sure, but it won't have all the "magic" technology in the butt and a big flashy logo on it. :D

Marketing has created brand loyalty and is most effective in the younger crowd. In fact the marketing is targeted at them.




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That is so true. In recent years, when ever I would go to the student center bowling and billiards, all the college kids (pool players) would have what ever Predator or OB just came out with. This one kid purchased a new P3 (this was some years back when the P3 came out). Anyways, the kids want the new stuff, and they seem to love Predator and maybe others like OB. They probably never even heard of Palmer (just guessing).
 
Veteran68 said:
eBay has changed things quite a bit since I did a lot of selling. Years ago you got paid instantly unless you were paid by eCheck, which as noted took days to clear. But a few years back they changed a lot of policies to favor the buyer over the seller. Sellers couldn't even leave negative buyer feedback anymore until PayPal completed an investigation in favor of the seller, but buyers still could. I seem to recall one of the changes being around whether the payment was released immediately or not depended on the seller's reputation, so that's likely the issue.
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Ebay no longer allows sellers to leave a winning bidder a negative feedback (no matter what). It can't be done. All that can be done is to file a non paying bidder dispute after a certain amount of time, and then you can receive a refund on the fee that ebay charged you.
 
TATE said:
When I sell and it gets paid, it goes to my Paypal and I can withdraw it or use it. Withdrawals take a few days.

Yes, selling fees are a lot higher and listing fees are free or very low. Big ticket items are expensive to sell. Juding by page views, there are a lot fewer people using ebay since the heyday in my experience.
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Yeah, but ebay is still the biggest marketplace on the planet (by a long shot). If you want to sell a cue fast, ebay is your best bet. Just price it 10% higher then the lowest amount that you would be willing to take for it, and you should be fine, and get a very quick sale. There are still a lot of pool players out there that are looking to buy a cue. Many just do not know about AZB I assume. I know that I was not aware of AZB until 2010 (and I had been playing since the mid 90's).
 
justinb386 said:
Did you know that paypal and ebay and now 2 companies? Ebay no longer owns paypal. I do not know about paypal, but ebay offers an ebay store, and says that if you pay a monthly fee for an ebay store, then the ebay seller fees are lowered. I am just not sure how much they are lowered. They are 10% right now (not counting the paypal fee, which is 3.5% I think). I wonder what the % is if you have an ebay store.
Click to expand...


Yes. I am aware.

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Chopdoc said:
Yes. I am aware.

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Are you aware that they are making Twinkies again? :thumbup:
HT_Twinkie_Box_jef_130709_16x9_992.jpg
 
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