mattizzle

I was considering putting this in the for sale section, but seeing as I'm not yet selling it and am more looking for a valuation idea I thought this to be a better location for the thread

I'm considering putting my Sony VGN-FE31H on ebay, but don't really know what to set the starting price at. Firstly here's a link to the specs:

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/laptops/0,...9285823,00.htm

As for condition, it has the usual hand sweat mark by the touch pad, one small light (2cm) scratch on the casing, the battery is almost dead and only retains about 20mins worth of charge, but than that it is immaculate.

I still have the original box, instructions and sony memory stick, as well as official Sony recovery discs and official Vista upgrade discs that have never been used as I was quite happy with XP.

The laptop cost me £1100 in Jan 07.

Gareth

£299 seems like a fair price for that.

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PohTayToez

Judging from completed auctions, I'd say that sounds about right. You should expect anything from £280 to £350.

As for starting price, start it at £0.99. This may seem crazy and scary if you're new to eBay, but any experienced seller can tell you that starting lower just attracts more attention and usually results in a higher end price.

mattizzle

Thanks guys, now I have to see if I can get a new Sony significantly better for around the £800 mark - otherwise it's pointless selling this one as it's far from past it's sell by date........I'm just a sucker for new technology .

As for starting it at 0.99p, you must be crazy haha. I'm not new to ebay, but from my experience starting the listing at what you're willing to accept for the product is the best way. It's a shame I can't find any selling at the moment which are the same model.

bomberboysk

Actually, if you know much about ebay 0.99 is best to start, because people will bid it up, especially at the last few hours left. Can always set a reserve though...

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PohTayToez

Setting a reserve pretty much defeats the point of the .99p start.

Any popular item that you put up on eBay is pretty much guaranteed to end in a given range. Like I said, judging from similar auctions, the range for your laptop is £280 to £350. It doesn't matter what you start it at, it will finish somewhere in there. However, there are some things that you can do to help it end towards the higher end of the scale.

Starting it at .99p will give it a lot of attention. It will get more bids, which means that more people will have invested time into your auction. Where as if you start it around the price that you "want", you can only expect to get a couple of bids, no one will be paying any attention to it until right before it ends, and you're much less likely to get any sort of bidding war going on.

Don't take my advice if you don't want to, but I sell about a couple thousand dollars worth of stuff on eBay every month, so I have a little experience playing the game.

Euklid

Ebay takes a huuuge percentage of the sale - it adds up to like 12.5%. Can't you sell the
item locally? If your city has 1 mil population, you'll be able to move it fast enough,
without giving Ebay a cut. I recently sold my laptop through Craigslist.

If you go with Ebay, listen to PohTayToez. Start at 0.99 with no reserve.

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PohTayToez

^Yeah I would definitely recommend Craigslist over eBay if that's an option.

As for the fees, holy crap, I had no idea ebay.co.uk fees were that much more than eBay in the US. If you sold something for £300 in the US, eBay would take about 4.35% (6% of the first $50, 3.75% of the remainder). eBay.co.uk just takes a flat 10%... what a rip.

Euklid

I read that once you combine the paypal and ebay fees, then it comes out around
12.5%. Of course if you sell on craigslist, you get paid in cash - so no paypal fee
either.

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Buying a domain?
Dynadot.com; better value than GoDaddy.

Reliable hosting?
247-host.com; 24/7 support, GREAT prices.

PohTayToez

2.9% for PayPal, actually. A while ago eBay.com made it so you can't ask for money orders or checks for most items, but I believe you still can on eBay.co.uk, so that's a way to cut out a little of fees.