I've been wondering why the last two things I bought from ebay charged
postage at below cost. Now I know.
I went to advertise a decent external soundcard for a low start price
auction, weighed it and worked out the postage cost, got to the final
stage only to be told that for this item the maximum postage I could
charge was £0.00. As postage was going to be about £3.00, I naturally
went back and put the price up by a bit more than that.
That will work for the next few days while they have their bizarre no
listing fees offer, but after that it looks like the end of ebay for me
for small value items.
My son, who buys and sells better stuff than me, tells me that he is
almost always now losing money on p & p, and so adjusts the price
accordingly.

I appreciate that people 'made a bit' on the postage, but only the
terminally stupid would not add postage and auction price before
bidding, and this now seems to mark the end of "99p" starting price give
it a punt offers.

No doubt they have brought in a bunch of business graduates to advise on
their model.

What is the most likely to succeed ebay as the most viable on line
auction outfit? If I were younger, I'd be seriously thinking of starting
one up.
--
Bill

On 24 Aug, 07:04, Bill wrote:
I've been wondering why the last two things I bought from ebay charged
postage at below cost. Now I know.
I went to advertise a decent external soundcard for a low start price
auction, weighed it and worked out the postage cost, got to the final
stage only to be told that for this item the maximum postage I could
charge was £0.00. As postage was going to be about £3.00, I naturally
went back and put the price up by a bit more than that.
That will work for the next few days while they have their bizarre no
listing fees offer, but after that it looks like the end of ebay for me
for small value items.
My son, who buys and sells better stuff than me, tells me that he is
almost always now losing money on p & p, and so adjusts the price
accordingly.

I appreciate that people 'made a bit' on the postage, but only the
terminally stupid would not add postage and auction price before
bidding, and this now seems to mark the end of "99p" starting price give
it a punt offers.

No doubt they have brought in a bunch of business graduates to advise on
their model.

What is the most likely to succeed ebay as the most viable on line
auction outfit? If I were younger, I'd be seriously thinking of starting
one up.
--
Bill

I hear ebid is a growing one. Whether it will ever have the pulling
power of ebay remains to be seen. I'm much more comfortable using
Amazon & Playtrade but there is a limit to what you can sell on there.

In article ,
Bill wrote:
I've been wondering why the last two things I bought from ebay charged
postage at below cost. Now I know.
I went to advertise a decent external soundcard for a low start price
auction, weighed it and worked out the postage cost, got to the final
stage only to be told that for this item the maximum postage I could
charge was £0.00. As postage was going to be about £3.00, I naturally
went back and put the price up by a bit more than that.
That will work for the next few days while they have their bizarre no
listing fees offer, but after that it looks like the end of ebay for me
for small value items.
My son, who buys and sells better stuff than me, tells me that he is
almost always now losing money on p & p, and so adjusts the price
accordingly.

I appreciate that people 'made a bit' on the postage, but only the
terminally stupid would not add postage and auction price before
bidding, and this now seems to mark the end of "99p" starting price give
it a punt offers.

When did all this sort? Glancing through Ebay most p&p charges are the
same as they always were.

FWIW I stay clear of items with high charges on principle. But luckily
these days most know to take into account postal charges when bidding -
wasn't so in the early days.

--
*Virtual reality is its own reward *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

FWIW I stay clear of items with high charges on principle. But luckily
these days most know to take into account postal charges when bidding -
wasn't so in the early days.

It would be stupid not to take P&P into account, because it must always
be worth knowing what an item can be bought for locally. On the other
hand, the other day I bought a laptop case that had no bids, I'm sure
because of the high P&P charges, and ended up with a bargain. :-)

Andy C

In practice Ebay have a monopoly and they can ride roughshod over
everyone. You only have to look at their decision to change the user
interface last year without giving longtime users a classic vs modern
option The high fees are killing it off for the small time users and
in most cases its not worth selling. I suppose you can understand
their chance with P&P policy for fee avoidance when you see listings
from the far East for a £5 BIN with £30 P&P.

Its worth seeing if there is CheapCycle yahoo group in your area. Its
an variation to FreeCycle and you are allowed to sell items up to
£500. An item I was going to take the tip got £15 and a very pleased
punter. Carboot sales shouldn't be forgotton although they do have a
stigma for some people.

Dave

Andy Cap wrote:

It would be stupid not to take P&P into account, because it must always
be worth knowing what an item can be bought for locally. On the other
hand, the other day I bought a laptop case that had no bids, I'm sure
because of the high P&P charges, and ended up with a bargain.

I set P&P on items I sell at whatever the price is that P&P will cost.
This seems to work OK. Loading P&P onto the bid seems no different in
practice. I'm uncertain what the OP is on about the ebay postage
calculator is an option, not a mandatory feature. It's still possible to
type in the postage value as it ever was.

In article ,
Steve Firth wrote:
I set P&P on items I sell at whatever the price is that P&P will cost.
This seems to work OK. Loading P&P onto the bid seems no different in
practice. I'm uncertain what the OP is on about the ebay postage
calculator is an option, not a mandatory feature. It's still possible to
type in the postage value as it ever was.

That's what I thought - and the last thing I sold was quite recently.

One thing that does annoy is some only offering RM data post for quite low
value items. I can see it might avoid a 'non delivery' scam - but I've
sent lots of things by ordinary post without problem.

--
*Confession is good for the soul, but bad for your career.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Mon, 24 Aug 2009 09:55:49 +0100, Steve Firth wrote:

Andy Cap wrote:

[4 quoted lines suppressed]

I set P&P on items I sell at whatever the price is that P&P will cost.
This seems to work OK. Loading P&P onto the bid seems no different in
practice. I'm uncertain what the OP is on about the ebay postage
calculator is an option, not a mandatory feature. It's still possible to
type in the postage value as it ever was.

I assume its related to this :

"From 15th June sellers listing in selected categories in Video Games,
Mobile & Home Phones, Consumer Electronics, Computing, Photography, and
Clothes, Shoes & Accessories will be required to offer free P&P as their
first domestic postage option."

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/sell/april2009/pandp.html

Steve

In message , Steve
writes
I assume its related to this :

"From 15th June sellers listing in selected categories in Video Games,
Mobile & Home Phones, Consumer Electronics, Computing, Photography, and
Clothes, Shoes & Accessories will be required to offer free P&P as
their first domestic postage option."

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/sell/april2009/pandp.html

Yes, that must be it. I listed it as a laptop accessory - soundcard.

Silly me. I should have read the fine print and listed it as a desktop
soundcard. The categories always have seemed a bit arbitrary anyway, but
it looks as though I'll have to find a vague one that has no
restrictions in future.

I'll research cheapcycle locally. Freecycle has been good for getting
rid of stuff. Gave 2 big diesel engines away only last week.

Not sure about ebid after a quick look. Not a lot on there and very
vague categories, but maybe in future....

I really don't understand ebay's problem about postage costs. Like a
previous poster, all I've ever done is add the price and postage to
decide what to bid, and I've got bargains where the postage has been
high and there have been few bids.

I've bought lots of stuff from Hong Kong for between 01p and 99p plus a
moderate postage. For example my RJ45/usb cable tester has been worth
its weight in gold recently, and is the sort of thing that has made ebay
what it is. Why complicating things improves them, I don't know.
--
Bill

"Bill" wrote in message
...

What is the most likely to succeed ebay as the most viable on line auction
outfit? If I were younger, I'd be seriously thinking of starting one up.

Someone who posts on a web forum I use has set this up.
http://www.electronicenterprise.co.uk
It barely gets any use, obviously, but I thought i'd give it a plug since
you asked.

On Mon, 24 Aug 2009 01:30:33 -0700 (PDT), Dave Starling wrote:

In practice Ebay have a monopoly and they can ride roughshod over
everyone. You only have to look at their decision to change the user
interface last year without giving longtime users a classic vs modern
option The high fees are killing it off for the small time users and
in most cases its not worth selling. I suppose you can understand
their chance with P&P policy for fee avoidance when you see listings
from the far East for a £5 BIN with £30 P&P.

Its worth seeing if there is CheapCycle yahoo group in your area. Its
an variation to FreeCycle and you are allowed to sell items up to
£500. An item I was going to take the tip got £15 and a very pleased
punter. Carboot sales shouldn't be forgotton although they do have a
stigma for some people.

Dave

Thanks for the tip on Cheapcycle. Just looked at Northampton and there were
2 messages last November! Looks as if it's not going as well as Freecycle
is. I'll keep an eye on it, just in case.
--
Peter.
The head of a pin will hold more angels if
it's been flattened with an angel-grinder.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

It's just a harmless hobby.

I was going to pour scorn and say "daft way to throw money away" but
then I suppose the majority of hobbies cost more than is ever returned -
literally a way to "pass time".

Although with the hassle, abusive buyers, arcane rules and so on, it
doesn't sound terribly restful! :-)

--
Scott

Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket?

On Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:24:19 +0100, Bill wrote:


I really don't understand ebay's problem about postage costs.

They have convinced themselves that items with free postage are more
popular and attract higher bids. They imposed the free postage on DVDs
first and recently expanded it to other items. I suppose it's one way
of dealing with the people who sold things for 99p and charged £20
postage.

In article ,
Scott M wrote:
It's just a harmless hobby.

I was going to pour scorn and say "daft way to throw money away" but
then I suppose the majority of hobbies cost more than is ever returned -
literally a way to "pass time".

Indeed. One man's hobby is another's waste of money.

Although with the hassle, abusive buyers, arcane rules and so on, it
doesn't sound terribly restful! :-)

I've made somewhere over 500 sales and purchases on Ebay - mainly
purchases and had precisely 4 problems. All but one resolved - and the one
which wasn't was where I collected and paid cash.

--
*If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Mon, 24 Aug 2009 01:30:33 -0700, Dave Starling wrote:

In practice Ebay have a monopoly and they can ride roughshod over
everyone.

Indeed. Never bought anything on there, never want to. I sold about five
or six items, and it was a painful, time-consuming process to do so.

I've found it's *far* easier to buy/sell collect/give-away items via
Freecycle, local ads, local newsgroups etc. than it is to deal with EBay.
If they had more competition I suspect it'd be very different (but even
then I have issues with the way auctions tend to over-inflate the value
of things)

Its worth seeing if there is CheapCycle yahoo group in your area.

Heck, I'll t ake a look at that myself - sounds interesting. Our local
Freecycle list is a bit of a joke; folk demanding high-value items yet
offering things that are 'easy' to give away. It's a far cry from
the Cambridge one that I was used to...

Carboot sales shouldn't be forgotton although they do have a stigma for
some people.

I miss car boot sales over on this side of the Pond. Althought we do have
*lots* of yard/garage sales, which folk tend to treat almost as a
treasure-hunt kind of game (it's kind of fun rushing the the next site,
and bumping into folk you've seen at other sites) - but nothing beats a
good ol' car boot sale for convenience...

cheers

Jules

Dave Starling wrote:

Its worth seeing if there is CheapCycle yahoo group in your area. Its
an variation to FreeCycle and you are allowed to sell items up to
£500.

And there's CraigsList and Gumtree, both free to list.

Sold my car on Gumtree :-)

BTW eBay own Gumtree, and 25% of CraigsList.

--
Adrian C

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Although with the hassle, abusive buyers, arcane rules and so on, it
doesn't sound terribly restful! :-)

I've made somewhere over 500 sales and purchases on Ebay - mainly
purchases and had precisely 4 problems. All but one resolved - and the one
which wasn't was where I collected and paid cash.

As a buyer I quite like ebay[1], the only problems I've ever had consist
of not reading between the lines and asking questions about what's not
said, usually on items with poor descriptions. That's caveat emptor though.

OTOH 'er indoors has sold a lot of stuff but had a slightly higher hit
rate than yours of the "it never turned up, where's my money?" and "it's
not as described" variety. Neither is terribly convincing as she goes to
a lot of bother on both packaging and descriptions.

The latter is particlarly galling when something that's, say, slightly
dented/creased/trimmed is described as being slightly
dented/creased/trimmed and then the buyer the buyer starts kicking up a
fuss because the item received is slightly dented/creased/trimmed.


[1] Favourite recent purchase: A Bluetooth USB dongle. Cost 99p
including shipping from Hong Kong. Absolutely bonkers.

--
Scott

Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket?

"Peter Johnson" wrote in message
news
On Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:24:19 +0100, Bill wrote:


I really don't understand ebay's problem about postage costs.

They have convinced themselves that items with free postage are more
popular and attract higher bids. They imposed the free postage on DVDs
first and recently expanded it to other items. I suppose it's one way
of dealing with the people who sold things for 99p and charged £20
postage.

Sounds fair for DVDs which you can just stuff in a jiffy bag and post for
50p.

But imposing it on a camera which will need to be wrapped properly and will
cost 4-5 pounds to post doesn't seem on

tim

The Natural Philosopher wrote:


I won a scanner the other day. 99p. I sent the person a cheque for
£25, because 99p is simply ridiculous.

Just because no one else bid.

There are a lot of people on eBay who bid on many many things at their
starting bid or low price considering worth. If they win it dirt cheap, they
relist (usually with a better title/description) and get a load more for it.

Fairy nuff.

Davey wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:


I won a scanner the other day. 99p. I sent the person a cheque for
£25, because 99p is simply ridiculous.

Just because no one else bid.

There are a lot of people on eBay who bid on many many things at their
starting bid or low price considering worth. If they win it dirt cheap, they
relist (usually with a better title/description) and get a load more for it.

Fairy nuff.



I cannot be arsed frankly.

My wife buys stuff cheap off Toast, in end of year sales and the like,
and often sells it on ebay for a profit..

In article . com,
Jules wrote:
On Mon, 24 Aug 2009 01:30:33 -0700, Dave Starling wrote:

In practice Ebay have a monopoly and they can ride roughshod over
everyone.

Indeed. Never bought anything on there, never want to. I sold about five
or six items, and it was a painful, time-consuming process to do so.

You need to get organised to do it easily. Like with most computer progs.

I've found it's *far* easier to buy/sell collect/give-away items via
Freecycle, local ads, local newsgroups etc. than it is to deal with EBay.
If they had more competition I suspect it'd be very different (but even
then I have issues with the way auctions tend to over-inflate the value
of things)

Freecycle - in London at least - gave me lots of grief and for no return.
Not even one thank you email. Never again - I'd rather take stuff down the
tip.

Its worth seeing if there is CheapCycle yahoo group in your area.

Heck, I'll t ake a look at that myself - sounds interesting. Our local
Freecycle list is a bit of a joke; folk demanding high-value items yet
offering things that are 'easy' to give away. It's a far cry from
the Cambridge one that I was used to...

Carboot sales shouldn't be forgotton although they do have a stigma for
some people.

I miss car boot sales over on this side of the Pond. Althought we do have
*lots* of yard/garage sales, which folk tend to treat almost as a
treasure-hunt kind of game (it's kind of fun rushing the the next site,
and bumping into folk you've seen at other sites) - but nothing beats a
good ol' car boot sale for convenience...

My favourite is a good autojumble. Can spend hours there. They usually
have tools to bring it more back to DIY.

--
*Many hamsters only blink one eye at a time *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 24/08/2009 07:04 Bill wrote:

I went to advertise a decent external soundcard for a low start price
auction, weighed it and worked out the postage cost, got to the final
stage only to be told that for this item the maximum postage I could
charge was £0.00.

I came across this when listing an item the other day. Fixed it by
listing the item under a different (similar) category that did allow P&P
to be charged.

--
F

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

One of the problems I had was from selling a roughly 10 year old Acorn IDE
expansion card. The buyer found what he said was a crack on the board.
Rather unlikely given the PCB was fibreglass. And then claimed to see it
on the pic I posted in the Ebay ad. I only warranted it to be in good
working condition and told him so. If it didn't work I'd refund.

I sold a camera battery that was new, in the original packing and in
good working order. I very carefully pointed out in the advert that it
only worked with a list of about ten Samsung Video Cameras and did *not*
[in large red characters] work with the latest HD camcorders because it
lacks a vital chip inside the battery. Confusingly Samsung give all
their batteries the same part number even when they change the spec.

Someone bought it paying less than a third of the price I paid for it.
Then when they got it complained to me that it didn't work with their
camera. "Is your camera on the list that I posted in the advert?" "No."
"Then it's your fault not my fault. But since it's your fault send the
battery back at your expense and I'll refund your money. I won't refund
the postage."

Never heard from him again either.

It seems like som buyers of s/hand tat think that the seller should
behave like M&S and offer cash refunds even if the reason for returning
the goods is "Wore it once to a party now I'm bored with it" or whatever
the electronic version of that statement is.

On Mon, 24 Aug 2009 10:40:52 UTC, Steve
wrote:

On Mon, 24 Aug 2009 09:55:49 +0100, Steve Firth wrote:

Andy Cap wrote:

[4 quoted lines suppressed]

I set P&P on items I sell at whatever the price is that P&P will cost.
This seems to work OK. Loading P&P onto the bid seems no different in
practice. I'm uncertain what the OP is on about the ebay postage
calculator is an option, not a mandatory feature. It's still possible to
type in the postage value as it ever was.

I assume its related to this :

"From 15th June sellers listing in selected categories in Video Games,
Mobile & Home Phones, Consumer Electronics, Computing, Photography, and
Clothes, Shoes & Accessories will be required to offer free P&P as their
first domestic postage option."

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/sell/april2009/pandp.html

No doubt they say it's "to protect buyers". It wouldn't be a cynical
ploy to get the P&P included in the price and get higher final value
fees - would it?

--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
http://www.diybanter.com

On Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:17:12 +0100, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article . com,
Jules wrote:
On Mon, 24 Aug 2009 01:30:33 -0700, Dave Starling wrote:

In practice Ebay have a monopoly and they can ride roughshod over
everyone.

Indeed. Never bought anything on there, never want to. I sold about five
or six items, and it was a painful, time-consuming process to do so.

You need to get organised to do it easily. Like with most computer progs.

I've found it's *far* easier to buy/sell collect/give-away items via
Freecycle, local ads, local newsgroups etc. than it is to deal with EBay.
If they had more competition I suspect it'd be very different (but even
then I have issues with the way auctions tend to over-inflate the value
of things)

Freecycle - in London at least - gave me lots of grief and for no return.
Not even one thank you email. Never again - I'd rather take stuff down the
tip.

I can't comment on the London situation, but where I am is on the edge of
3 freecycle areas. Since I keep all the emails they send me (as I do with
*all* non-spam email) I have noticed that the number of WANT requests has
pretty much doubled in the last year. I can't say if that's because of the
recession, or just people getting greedy, or freecycle becoming better
known (tho' then I would expect the number of OFFERs to go up proportionately
- they haven't)

However I've stopped responding to WANTs as almost none of the people I have
emailed in reply to things they're asking for have ever even bothered to reply
to me. Not even a "thanks, but I've got it now".



Its worth seeing if there is CheapCycle yahoo group in your area.

Heck, I'll t ake a look at that myself - sounds interesting. Our local
Freecycle list is a bit of a joke; folk demanding high-value items yet
offering things that are 'easy' to give away. It's a far cry from
the Cambridge one that I was used to...

Huh. Around here, they seem to have abandonded any pretence to follow the
netiquette or to regualte it. Recently there have been animals up for grabs,
a lot of "professional" WANT-ers who never offer anything in return and people
from *way* outside the area sticking ads up.


Carboot sales shouldn't be forgotton although they do have a stigma for
some people.

I miss car boot sales over on this side of the Pond. Althought we do have
*lots* of yard/garage sales, which folk tend to treat almost as a
treasure-hunt kind of game (it's kind of fun rushing the the next site,
and bumping into folk you've seen at other sites) - but nothing beats a
good ol' car boot sale for convenience...

My favourite is a good autojumble. Can spend hours there. They usually
have tools to bring it more back to DIY.

On Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:17:12 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article . com,
Jules wrote:
On Mon, 24 Aug 2009 01:30:33 -0700, Dave Starling wrote:

In practice Ebay have a monopoly and they can ride roughshod over
everyone.

Indeed. Never bought anything on there, never want to. I sold about five
or six items, and it was a painful, time-consuming process to do so.

You need to get organised to do it easily. Like with most computer progs.

There's quite a few things I've sold via ebay that I couldn't sell any
other way.

I've found it's *far* easier to buy/sell collect/give-away items via
Freecycle, local ads, local newsgroups etc. than it is to deal with EBay.
If they had more competition I suspect it'd be very different (but even
then I have issues with the way auctions tend to over-inflate the value
of things)

Freecycle - in London at least - gave me lots of grief and for no return.
Not even one thank you email. Never again - I'd rather take stuff down the
tip.

I'm getting more dissattisfied with freecycle. People don't turn up
when promised to collect. People offer stuff and it turns out to be
broken. I try to collect and they have given it to someone else,
People offerring non-existent items...

Its worth seeing if there is CheapCycle yahoo group in your area.

Heck, I'll t ake a look at that myself - sounds interesting. Our local
Freecycle list is a bit of a joke; folk demanding high-value items yet
offering things that are 'easy' to give away. It's a far cry from
the Cambridge one that I was used to...
--
(\__/) M.
(='.'=) Due to the amount of spam posted via googlegroups and
(")_(") their inaction to the problem. I am blocking most articles
posted from there. If you wish your postings to be seen by
everyone you will need use a different method of posting.
[Reply-to address valid until it is spammed.]

On Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:02:56 +0100, Scott M
wrote:

[1] Favourite recent purchase: A Bluetooth USB dongle. Cost 99p
including shipping from Hong Kong. Absolutely bonkers.

BT 2700HGV router @ 99p was my best purchase. However I had to sell
some rather nice speaker stands at the starting price a few years ago.

--
(\__/) M.
(='.'=) Due to the amount of spam posted via googlegroups and
(")_(") their inaction to the problem. I am blocking most articles
posted from there. If you wish your postings to be seen by
everyone you will need use a different method of posting.
[Reply-to address valid until it is spammed.]

In article ,
Mark wrote:
Freecycle - in London at least - gave me lots of grief and for no
return. Not even one thank you email. Never again - I'd rather take
stuff down the tip.

I'm getting more dissattisfied with freecycle. People don't turn up
when promised to collect. People offer stuff and it turns out to be
broken. I try to collect and they have given it to someone else,
People offerring non-existent items...

I was only offering stuff. A virtually complete kitchen's worth of
appliances. All good clean and working - not new but not ancient either.
Lots of contact desperate for the items - then don't turn up for the
appointment *they've* made. One who did - and wanted the built in double
oven unit arrived on foot. And expected me to deliver it.

Perhaps that's the way things are done these days. If so it's not for me.
At least with Ebay there are easily followed rules.

--
*When I'm not in my right mind, my left mind gets pretty crowded *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
Mark wrote:
BT 2700HGV router @ 99p was my best purchase. However I had to sell
some rather nice speaker stands at the starting price a few years ago.

Same here - had a virtually new hover mower which only made 99p. And was
collected too. ;-)

--
*Generally speaking, you aren't learning much if your lips are moving.*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:17:12 +0100 Dave Plowman (News) wrote :
Freecycle - in London at least - gave me lots of grief and for no
return. Not even one thank you email. Never again - I'd rather
take stuff down the tip.

When I was preparing to emigrate I got rid of loads of stuff via
Freecycle - the best was the guy who came round for a set of plug
cutters and left with five cartons of DIY related stuff: he sent me
a really nice note saying it was like having Christmas and his
birthday all at once. But Twickenham being a fairly well off area,
offers outnumbered wants by a significant factor and some stuff did
end up at the dump.

--
Tony Bryer, 'Software to build on' from Greentram
www.superbeam.co.uk www.superbeam.com www.greentram.com

In article ,
Tony Bryer wrote:
On Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:17:12 +0100 Dave Plowman (News) wrote :
Freecycle - in London at least - gave me lots of grief and for no
return. Not even one thank you email. Never again - I'd rather
take stuff down the tip.

When I was preparing to emigrate I got rid of loads of stuff via
Freecycle - the best was the guy who came round for a set of plug
cutters and left with five cartons of DIY related stuff: he sent me
a really nice note saying it was like having Christmas and his
birthday all at once. But Twickenham being a fairly well off area,
offers outnumbered wants by a significant factor and some stuff did
end up at the dump.

Balham is hardly deprived. Two doors up is under offer at 850k. ;-)
But I suppose it's more accessible being on the tube.

--
*I love cats...they taste just like chicken.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:08:39 +0100, Mike Barnes wrote:
I've used Freecycle for about 20 items. I get the impression that eBay
is much more likely to get the goods to where they'll really be
appreciated, especially as most of my stuff is fairly specialised
electronic equipment, often priced in the hundreds of pounds.

There is the issue that the person / organisation that most appreciates
them is not necessarily the one with the deepest pockets, though - which
is where ebay doesn't work so well, but Freecycle does (assuming you don't
default to giving the item to the first responder)

cheers

Jules

Jules wrote:
On Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:08:39 +0100, Mike Barnes wrote:
I've used Freecycle for about 20 items. I get the impression that eBay
is much more likely to get the goods to where they'll really be
appreciated, especially as most of my stuff is fairly specialised
electronic equipment, often priced in the hundreds of pounds.

There is the issue that the person / organisation that most appreciates
them is not necessarily the one with the deepest pockets, though - which
is where ebay doesn't work so well, but Freecycle does (assuming you don't
default to giving the item to the first responder)


But the problem then becomes one of deciding which of the half dozen or
so respondents is the most deserving. "My daughter has been looking for
one of these for ages, can I have it please" can just as easily mean "my
daughter has been looking for one of these to sell at the next car boot
sale".

I have taken to searching past posts to at least find people who have
offered items in the past in the hope of at least finding someone who
follows the spirit of Freecycle. The problem is that the Yahoo! search
facility seems to be flaky so I cannot be sure that I am getting a true
picture. Obviously I am not going to give a laptop to someone who as
posted three received notices for the same in the past three months.

Andrew

In article . com,
Jules wrote:
On Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:08:39 +0100, Mike Barnes wrote:
I've used Freecycle for about 20 items. I get the impression that eBay
is much more likely to get the goods to where they'll really be
appreciated, especially as most of my stuff is fairly specialised
electronic equipment, often priced in the hundreds of pounds.

There is the issue that the person / organisation that most appreciates
them is not necessarily the one with the deepest pockets, though - which
is where ebay doesn't work so well, but Freecycle does (assuming you
don't default to giving the item to the first responder)

Not sure how you tell a 'Freecycler' is a worthy recipient or just on the
make, though?

--
*Never miss a good chance to shut up.*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:46:31 +0100, Andrew May
wrote:

Jules wrote:
On Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:08:39 +0100, Mike Barnes wrote:
I've used Freecycle for about 20 items. I get the impression that eBay
is much more likely to get the goods to where they'll really be
appreciated, especially as most of my stuff is fairly specialised
electronic equipment, often priced in the hundreds of pounds.

There is the issue that the person / organisation that most appreciates
them is not necessarily the one with the deepest pockets, though - which
is where ebay doesn't work so well, but Freecycle does (assuming you don't
default to giving the item to the first responder)


I'm not sure what's wrong with giving to the first responder. At
least they're keen.

But the problem then becomes one of deciding which of the half dozen or
so respondents is the most deserving. "My daughter has been looking for
one of these for ages, can I have it please" can just as easily mean "my
daughter has been looking for one of these to sell at the next car boot
sale".

That reminds me of a car boot sale where a friend of mine was selling
a stair gate (for keeping toddlers downstairs) and an old lady came up
with a sob story about her granddaughter coming to stay and she needed
a stairgate and only had 50p. My friend sold it to her. Later on
they found the very same stairgate on sale. No sign of the little old
lady!

I have taken to searching past posts to at least find people who have
offered items in the past in the hope of at least finding someone who
follows the spirit of Freecycle. The problem is that the Yahoo! search
facility seems to be flaky so I cannot be sure that I am getting a true
picture. Obviously I am not going to give a laptop to someone who as
posted three received notices for the same in the past three months.

Too much hassle IMHO. If I use freecycle to get rid of stuff it's
(partly) because I can't be bothered to go to the tip.

--
(\__/) M.
(='.'=) Due to the amount of spam posted via googlegroups and
(")_(") their inaction to the problem. I am blocking most articles
posted from there. If you wish your postings to be seen by
everyone you will need use a different method of posting.
[Reply-to address valid until it is spammed.]

On 25 Aug, 17:45, "Dave Plowman (News)" wrote:
Not sure how you tell a 'Freecycler' is a worthy recipient or just on the
make, though?

Who cares? I just want to avoid dumping the stuff, partly because I
hate going to the dump and partly to avoid adding the the volume of
stuff dumped. If they then go and flog it on ebay, good luck to them.
If I was that bothered about it, I would've sold it myself.

Matt

In article
,
matthelliwell wrote:
On 25 Aug, 17:45, "Dave Plowman (News)" wrote:
Not sure how you tell a 'Freecycler' is a worthy recipient or just on
the make, though?

Who cares?

You snipped the bit I was replying to. And taken out of context it changes
the meaning of what I wrote.

I just want to avoid dumping the stuff, partly because I
hate going to the dump and partly to avoid adding the the volume of
stuff dumped.

I have a very convenient tip. Right beside a B&Q too - so can often
combine visits.

If they then go and flog it on ebay, good luck to them.
If I was that bothered about it, I would've sold it myself.

Fine. But I'd be happier if the recipient was honest about it then -
rather than the usual flannel. Because the whole idea of Freecycle was
mutual *free* help - not to feed a business.

Matt

--
*Why is the word abbreviation so long?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"matthelliwell" wrote in message
...
On 25 Aug, 17:45, "Dave Plowman (News)" wrote:
Not sure how you tell a 'Freecycler' is a worthy recipient or just on the
make, though?

Who cares? I just want to avoid dumping the stuff, partly because I
hate going to the dump and partly to avoid adding the the volume of
stuff dumped. If they then go and flog it on ebay, good luck to them.
If I was that bothered about it, I would've sold it myself.

It bothers me

I got around this by ignoring anybody who said "I'll take the lot" and
making sure that each person only gets one item (or set)

tim


Matt

tim..... wrote:

I got around this by ignoring anybody who said "I'll take the lot" and
making sure that each person only gets one item (or set)

tim

Matt



I've also had a couple of emails along the lines of "Regarding the item
you are giving away. I can collect it at the weekend." No mention of
what it was or why they wanted it. Even if it wasn't it looked very much
like a standard email sent to a load of advertisers. Needless to say the
item had already been taken.

Andrew

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Mark
saying something like:

That reminds me of a car boot sale where a friend of mine was selling
a stair gate (for keeping toddlers downstairs) and an old lady came up
with a sob story about her granddaughter coming to stay and she needed
a stairgate and only had 50p. My friend sold it to her. Later on
they found the very same stairgate on sale. No sign of the little old
lady!

That's a common tactic at bootsales, where the earliest buyers to appear
at the pitch of newbies are often other traders. Scummy behaviour, imo.