Advice on selling expensive retro games online without getting ripped off please

I'm going to sell off a lot of my retro collection, with some games selling for over £200 on eBay at the moment, it seems like a good time to do it and potentially make a small fortune.

Also going to sell my modded gameboys, retro systems and so on.

Is eBay the way to go? How do I avoid people scamming me once receiving stuff and me losing the money (like a PayPal charge back)?

Any other places to sell from?

Cheers.

eBay and Paypal massively favour the buyer these days. If there is a dispute, they will favour the buyer until they are found to be in the wrong. That can leave you out of pocket for a good while, and with potentially damaged goods if the buyer wants their money back and they return it poorly packaged.

I assume Gumtree - or similar - and associated cash payment isn't an option? That way potential buyer can see the item working before leaving? You won't get the same amount of people interested, but I reckon you will likely get prices in the same ballpark when you consider the eBay listing price and seller's fees.

Or maybe the Trading Post on this very forum?

There aren't any guarantees that a buyer won't try something scummy, but you can help yourself by only selling to people with a proven track record of buying (lay your terms out in the item description and be willing to refund anyone who buys from you but doesn't meet the criteria), not completing the deal off-site, and dispatching via a fully insured tracked and signed service.

I've tried selling via Facebook but the first contact I got was clearly a scam, and others kept asking for things I said I wouldn't do even though I stated my terms in the description.

Pack the items RIDICULOUSLY well. I send everything in boxes. Even gooseberry fool that'd fit in a Jiffy bag and go through a mail slot I put in boxes and send as parcels just to ensure it gets there in one piece. (Obviously not super cheap gooseberry fool, but anything over £20 gets sent in a box.)

Anything I've ever sold here has been cleaner, easier, and more profitable than dealing with eBay :dread:

Have you tried the GR Trading Post?

If you do go the eBay route, I'd suggest you only post expensive stuff via recorded (signed for) delivery. If a buyer buys more than one expensive item from you, post each item individually (signed for) to minimise the risk of something going "missing".

Always use recorded delivery.
I always offer free postage but work this into the price.
You can limit eBay to certain groups I believe (IE not a new user)
Overpack your items, extra bubble wrap is worth it.
Take photos of item in box and once packed should you need to claim.
I always send bigger items through Hermes and despite there 'reputation' I have not had an issue yet.

If you do go with eBay - and it is an expensive and relatively fragile item that you are selling - I would also be inclined to record a time-stamped video which shows you playing the game (or console) and then packaging the item. It might not be the best quality footage, but at least you have something to show as evidence which proves to the best of your ability that it was working before you posted it. I'm not sure how effective it would be in a dispute, but it would be better than nothing. If it showed up broken, then at least you have evidence in an insurance dispute with the courier. Insured delivery is a given.

I would also package it as if you were expecting it to be dropped at some point. So a box within a padded box at least.

If it were me, I would stick to an in-person collection where they can see it working, and only accept cash. Or use the Trading Post and insured/recorded delivery.

poshrule_uk wrote:Always use recorded delivery.
I always offer free postage but work this into the price.
You can limit eBay to certain groups I believe (IE not a new user)
Overpack your items, extra bubble wrap is worth it.
Take photos of item in box and once packed should you need to claim.
I always send bigger items through Hermes and despite there 'reputation' I have not had an issue yet.

Ditto. However, the upper end of their insurance ain't all that much. (A few hundred I think.) So I usually ended up having to use Royal Mail Special Delivery, etc.

JT986M2 wrote:If you do go with eBay - and it is an expensive and relatively fragile item that you are selling - I would also be inclined to record a time-stamped video which shows you playing the game (or console) and then packaging the item. It might not be the best quality footage, but at least you have something to show as evidence which proves to the best of your ability that it was working before you posted it. I'm not sure how effective it would be in a dispute, but it would be better than nothing. If it showed up broken, then at least you have evidence in an insurance dispute with the courier. Insured delivery is a given.

I would also package it as if you were expecting it to be dropped at some point. So a box within a padded box at least.

If it were me, I would stick to an in-person collection where they can see it working, and only accept cash. Or use the Trading Post and insured/recorded delivery.

I always presume my package will be thrown about. Its not right of course but it's better to be slightly pessimistic

Victor Mildew wrote:I'm going to sell off a lot of my retro collection, with some games selling for over £200 on eBay at the moment, it seems like a good time to do it and potentially make a small fortune.

Also going to sell my modded gameboys, retro systems and so on.

Is eBay the way to go? How do I avoid people scamming me once receiving stuff and me losing the money (like a PayPal charge back)?

Any other places to sell from?

Cheers.

If it wasnt covid and you have a lot of stuff I would have said maybe consider attending a retro type event we had one in Nottingham just prior covid and there was stuff going at its going rate flying off of peoples stalls, it surprised me as I thought people would be more bargain hunters than high paying collectors.

All the games I've sold on Ebay were listed as 'Buy it Now' with free postage (factored in to price), haven't had much issue other than people trying to make stupidly low offers and such but no scammers yet (touch wood).

Been sending most stuff in jiffy bags via recorded delivery but more valuable stuff will go in boxes wrapped in bubblewrap.

Will be listing a boxed, barely used GBA Micro at some point in the next few weeks and have a naging feeling it'll end up going 'missing' in the post.

Thanks for the advice everyone. It's such a minefield. Seems like the best thing to do is take as much evidence as possible of the things working before sending.

I'd love to have a retro table at a fair or show, but covid and that. You could have consoles set up to demo the games there and then.

If you sell any consoles take pictures of the serial numbers - one scammer trick is to buy a working console, report it as broken, then return a different, broken console for a refund.

Never use auction on eBay, always select Buy It Now with immediate payment required, send it via Royal Mail Special Delivery if it’s very valuable, try and coincide it with a £1 listing fee promotion (eBay haven’t done this recently, but they used to do it at least once or twice a month), take loads of photos (or a video of you boxing and wrapping it up), including serial number. Another option would be to secretly sign it with a UV marker pen. You can also block people who haven’t paid previously or have bad feedback from purchasing your items.

Sometimes I think it’s better when an item is purchased internationally because you just ship it to eBay. If anything goes wrong it’s their problem.

Alternatively you could sell it to a retailer, such as maybe Console Passion.

All great advice, thanks people.

Probably best to start with some lower value items and get a feel for the way it works before putting my most expensive stuff on.

Buy it now, insured post only and video evidence of packing, serial numbers etc.

Take real care if selling to anyone in Europe, your likely to get ripped off. They will say there's a problem knowing full well you won't want to pay the stupidly high postage costs to return anything and they will get to keep it and get a partial refund/full refund.

Happened a good few times with my stepdaughter when she's sold MegaDrive/N64 games via eBay.

Dibs on anything good.

Advice on selling expensive retro games online without getting ripped off please

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