selling coins on Amazon

15% for the portion of the total sales price up to $250; and

• 10% for any portion of the total sales price greater than $250 up to $1,000; and

• 6% for any portion of the total sales price greater than $1,000

Above are the terms for their fees so it would be better to sell your coins exceeding $1,000 on amazon as opposed to eBay.

 

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Assuming there are no listing fees, you have your own merchant processor for credit card orders (or are willing to let Amazon process for you), I think you *might* be better off even at the 10% tier.

Now, if you have an eBay store, I'm pretty sure you're significantly better off selling on eBay than Amazon, since FVFs get as low as 3%, if I recall.

 

Another thing to consider too...at least in my experience people don't look to amazon to purchase collectibles, especially in the same volume as they do on eBay. So, you might get a better rate...but if it takes a lot longer to sell you are probably worse off.

 

That is true. But at the same time the coin category in amazon seems to be getting a decent following. A lot of the saddle ridge hoard coins were sold there.

 

Wouldn't life be grand were it only so cut, dry, and easy. Unfortunately, there are other factors that need to be taken into consideration that seem to escape you.

 

• There is a pre approval to be able to sell in the coin section.
• if you don't have a merchant account you pay .99 to list each item.
• There is not as many customers for coins on amazon as there is eBay.

 

I get a consultant's free monthly newsletter about selling on eBay and Amazon; as far as I can tell, Amazon has remarkably strict standards and protocols, and about a thousand ways to go wrong. That said, they are not as dimwitted and anti-seller as the beeeeeg auction company.

And, Amazon seems to be geared to new merchandise which can be dropshipped from the manufacturer and/or stored in Amazon's own warehouses, and sent directly to the buyer. I would have no desire to try Amazon, even if it's cheaper.

 

No, eBay does NOT require PayPal. They do require electronic payment so there is a record of payment. Checks and cash are out except when using local pickup.

Yes, a store is $15 per month to get a 6% seller's fee. Not only that, but if you are careful and qualify as a "top rated seller", you get a 20% discount. i.e. eBay is still cheaper.

 

Yeah, unfortunately eBay is still the way to go. eBay makes me nuts, but it's still your best option out there (for now).

 

Agreed. The KEY is the number of folks eyeballing your coins or whatever. No one anywhere else even comes close. Ebay knows they have a lock on the auction market, and they know they can afford to be, um, xxxxxxxxx.

The other key is that with specialists endlessly searching, every so often you get a phenomenal price for some oddball item, when two bidders simply gotta have it.

 

I don't think the savings justifies the decrease in exposure. Remember, the fees you are paying to these companies (eBay, Amazon, ect) is essentially advertising fees. For coins, nothing beats eBay for exposure...that's why it costs more.

 

The one problem I think eBay should address is all of these snipping programs. They should be outlawed so that bid wars can take place once again.

 

Sniping programs are available to everybody. The bidding wars can proceed, they're just over in 5 seconds.

 

Agreed. The programs are easy to use. You simply input your maximum bid and see if you win.

 

Years ago there was another auction site called "ubid" or something like that. If a bid came in with 5 minutes to go on the auction, the auction was automatically extended. That way if you want to bid higher it would keep the auction open (once the deadline had past) until no bidding activity had taken place for five minutes.

Technically, not a big deal to implement. I was never sure why eBay didn't adopt this model.

 

Because it's a LOUSY idea, that's why. Drags things out for an hour, means you can't move on to other items you want that expire in the next 5 or 10 minutes, reflects nothing but greed and intentional inconvenience on the part of the auction company.

Just bid your highest and move along to the next item, time is money.

 

The one I use is bidnapper which usually kicks in no later then 2 seconds.

Honestly sooner or later you will realize that changing any established system is a lot more complicated than you seem to think. And while you struggle on the ebay issue I'll be sniping away, to my hearts content.

 

I can remember back when eBay was an infant that for a bit there Yahoo had an auction site that was larger in volume. They nixed it in the late 1990s and only have it in Asia I believe.

 

This thread reminds me of this thread