Power Sellers Unite

guitarhero728 · Joined: 30 Jan 2012 Posts: 2

Hey y'all! This looks like a pretty active forum so I hope you guys can give me some advice. btw this will be a long post so thanks in advance for reading it!
I've been selling on ebay for a few years now and have gotten more serious about it recently. My feedback score is a little over 200. I wanted to make some extra money so I posted an ad on craigslist that I would sell items on ebay for people since I am established with it and know what I'm doing. I got an email from a pawn shop here in town that wanted me to sell some items for them. I thought that sounded great and checked it out. I explained to the pawn shop owner that ebay charges me fees when I sell things so in order for it to be profitable for me I charge a flat 20% commission on everything I sell, if it doesn't sell then you just pay me what it cost me to list it. He agreed to this and we worked out a big list of stuff he wanted to sell, asking price and reserve price. So I start listing things and a couple of things sell pretty quickly for almost asking price and all is good and I get paid my commission and everyone's happy. Three days ago I worked out a deal with a buyer for a watch which was a little above his reserve price and he was the only person interested so I accepted his offer. I email the pawn shop and let them know it's been sold and for how much etc, 10 minutes later I get a call from him asking why I sold his $150 watch for $85. I explain to him his reserve price was $75 and he says he would never sell it for that much, etc.
Turns out he had had one of his lackeys make up the price list who didn't know that they were paying me commission. This is when it started to become clear to me that this man does not know much about the products he sells. This watch was probably $100 new, he thought it was real gold (said stainless steel on bracelet) and had real diamonds on it (actually pulled out a diamond tester to check, of course they were fake). The sheer amount of things he just didn't know about the things he wanted to sell blew my mind. This is his business, how could he not know what he's trying to sell? He also tried to sell a Seiko kinetic watch that doesn't keep time, turns out it needs some part replaced which would cost about what the watch is worth and he wants me to try and sell it anyway. He thinks everything he has for sale is the best of the best. A Seiko is not a Rolex. I've explained to him that what something is worth and what it will sell for on ebay are two different things. He said he wanted to negotiate a flat rate fee for big ticket items. I told him I don't negotiate the fee and he got upset with me. I'm thinking of just pulling the plug on this business venture and telling him he needs to sell his items himself but wanted to get some advice from some other ebayers first. I'm out of work so I need the money, but I don't like dealing with this guy and get the feeling he may try to screw me over in the future. What do you guys think? Again, thanks for reading my looong post!

mojavelyn · Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 1:18 am Post subject:

Pull the plug. for one if he doesn't know what he is selling, if its real or fake... then its YOUR reputation on the line, not his.

While it should be his business to know what he is buying and selling, not every pawn shop is a "Pawn Star".

gooddealsbooks · Joined: 08 Mar 2007 Posts: 1048

yes pull the plug. too many things can go wrong for you on this such as the new tax. Chargebacks, and this guy seems kinda dishonest

Find something else and thank him for his time

luckyalive · Joined: 27 Apr 2008 Posts: 590

I have always viewed pawn shops are rather shady place of business. What happens if one of the items turns out ot be stolen - then you'll have to deal with cops. Or what happens if an item is broken or accidentially sold by the pawn guy - your feedback will suffer. You are working way too cheap - you should have a minimum charge aside form the listings fees so you at least get paid for your time. At present you are only getting the listing fees if it doe snot sell - thats like being the guy's employee for free and the only getting paid if the store manages to make a sale. Then you have other issues like titles, or selling illegal owned items such as stole native american artifacts or ivory. The poop can hit the fan pretty fast when you do not have everything under your control.

things4u · Joined: 21 Jan 2007 Posts: 1332

bet he wouldn't man up and take any blame for any bad deal let alone if it is stolen you will be let out to dry.
my question is if he has a computer and e mails you why doesn't he just open an account and make all the money why does he need you my gut says he needs a fall guy, because he is either been band or a very shady operator he can't be that busy that he couldn't do a few listings a week for him self.
and your putting your self up for a snoot of trouble doing this guys dirty work

guitarhero728 · Joined: 30 Jan 2012 Posts: 2

Pulled the plug today. We sold a guy an Omega watch that he said only needed a battery. I asked him multiple times why he didn't just get a battery put in the watch since that costs, what, $5? He said he didn't want to mess with it and the watch worked fine otherwise. Well, sold it, he sent it off and a few days later I get an email from the buyer saying that the watch doesn't work and would cost about $200 to fix. I politely gave the customer the pawn shop's phone number. I told him he doesn't know enough about the stuff he buys and sells for me to confidently sell it and put my reputation on the line. He gave me a check for what I had sold and told me to get out. I say good riddance. Don't think I will ever do this again.

timjones · Joined: 27 Oct 2011 Posts: 15 Location: Virginia

Not every pawn shop sellers are honest. Most of them not all are very sneaky. They do whatever it takes to sell the products. So do your research before you buy or do business with them.