Elliott C. Back: Internet & Technology

I just sold three Apple iPhone 4s on Ebay and wanted to write some thoughts on my experience as a seller. I have a 100% positive feedback rating, so I’m a good seller. However, I haven’t sold very many items over the years, and am no way near a “power seller” or a paypal merchant. I’m just a regular guy with an ebay and paypal account, and some stuff to sell.

Here are my listings:

• Apple iPhone 4 Black (32GB) Factory Unlocked – Any SIM!, sold for $984.99
• Apple iPhone 4 Blk (32GB) Factory Unlocked: No Contract, sold for $919.99
• Apple iPhone 4 Black (32GB) Factory Unlocked – Any SIM!, sold for $969.99

So my total revenue from these sales was $2,791.17. Now comes time for the fees. According to eBay’s fee schedule, by selling in the auction format, and starting my listings at $.99, I pay a $.99 listing fee, and a $50 fee when the item sells. Paypal also took their cut, a total of $93.80 at a rate of 2.9% for two payments, and 3.9% for a guy from Sweden. Finally, priority shipping with maximum insurance cost $13.50 a package, for another $40.50. So, here’s how I made out in the end:

• Cost of iPhones: 3 * $812 = $-2,436
• Cost of Shipping: $-40.50
• Cost of Ebay Fees: $-153.00
• Cost of Paypal Fees: $-93.80
• Total Cost: $-2,723
• Total Revenue: $2,791.17
• Profit: $67.87 (2.7%)
• Profit without Ebay/Paypal Fees: $314.67 (12.9%)

Fortunately I also sold a fourth iPhone on Craigslist for $875, bringing in another $63 of profit. The bottom line here–and it’s a bit sad–is that I made more selling a single iPhone on Craigslist than I did selling three on eBay. My buyer paid significantly less; all parties came away satisfied. I also didn’t have to deal with shipping costs, as I met the guy in NYC. There were no Paypal fees to pay, because my buyer paid me in cash, which we sat in a sleek black car, and counted twice.

So my recommendations for those looking to sell high-value items for profit in the future are the following:

• Don’t use eBay. The suck out most of your profits. Instead, try listing on Craigslist or other community sites.
• Don’t use Amazon either, as their commission, while lower than eBay’s, is still quite high.
• If you have to list of eBay, try to charge more for shipping. At $15 I could cover my expenses (just barely). At $20 I would have made back a little more! Be aggressive on shipping, and look at similar auctions to determine what you should charge. I definitely under-offered here, leaving money on the table.

I received the following warning from Chase bank via email and a series of harried transactions. Apparently someone decided to try to use my Chase British Airways BA Visa card to signup for an e-dating site. The baddie was doing this from London, Ireland, and had tried four times today with different expiration dates and CSV confirmation codes:

URGENT: Confirmation of Recent Transaction
Your Account Ending in XXXX

Dear ELLIOTT:

As part of our ongoing effort to protect your account and our relationship, we monitor your account for possible fraudulent activity. We have recently attempted to contact you by phone and/or text message but we have been unsuccessful in reaching you. We need to confirm that you or someone authorized to use your account made the following transaction on your British Airways Visa account ending in XXXX:

Transaction for $54.94 at ZOOSK.COM was declined on or around 10/17/2010 in LONDON, Ireland.

Zoosk is some kind of scammy online dating site that I definitely did not sign up for. Currently, it looks like this:

Apparently a lot of people think Zoosk itself sucks. I wonder if it’s the company itself is behind this. I can’t really see people using stolen credit cards to sign up for a dating service. Maybe it’s just a test run? Or an accident?

I like the way Hertz car rentals sends you a “Hertz E-Mail Statement of Charges” with a nice PDF attachment of your bill to review after you drop off their car. I flew into Phoenix AZ for the weekend, rented a car, and dropped it off at 3AM before my 5AM flight. Final charges get tallied afterwards and charged to your card. Mine unfortunately were significantly higher than I expected, due a “FUEL & SERVICE” fee of $50 (after tax) on the bill. I rented a CAMRY for three days:

RENTAL DETAILS
Rate Plan: IN: VSTATE OUT: VSTATE
Rented On: 04/01/2010 22:53 LOC# 216011
PHOENIX, AZ
Returned On: 04/04/2010 05:00 LOC# 216011
PHOENIX, AZ
Car Description: CAMRY AKF0400
Veh. No.: 7763329
CAR CLASS Charged: F MILEAGE In: 1,873
Rented: F6 Out: 1,675
Reserved: F Driven: 198

Here’s what the charged me:

RENTAL CHARGES
DAYS 3 @ 41.99 125.97
SUBTOTAL 125.97
DISCOUNT 10.00% -12.60
SUBTOTAL 113.37
FUEL & SERVICE 41.62
CONCESSION FEE RECOVERY 17.87
FF SURCHARGE 2.25
O & M RECOVERY FEE 4.99
ENERGY SURCHARGE 1.03
AIRPORT FACILITIES FEE 18.00
MOTOR VEHICLE LEASE TAX 2.50
ROAD TAX 3.97
VOUCHER VALUE -113.37
TAX 15.30% 30.46

The interesting thing is that I filled up the tank completely before dropping off the vehicle. It’s only a few miles away to the airport; the car, when I had picked it up, did not by any means have a full tank of gas (more like 4/5). So, I suspect that Hertz simply sucks, and as a routine matter adds this extra fee to every rental, whether they come back with a full tank of gas or not! Of course, if you really do bring a car in noticeably dry, they will charge you a hefty fee + fill it for you at ~$10 a gallon.

I suspect this is standard practice from reading other accounts online:

I called to ask why, and she said “because you didn’t return the car with a full tank, we charged you an extra $77 in gas fees.” I asked her if she would like me to prove from my bank statement that I was at a gas station filling the car up at 11:20 PM and I dropped the car off at 11:30 PM with a completely full tank. Sarah said that wasn’t necessary, and she would take the extra gas charges off our bill. A few of my co-workers confirmed this morning that they too had the EXACT same gas experience with Hertz in the past.

I called Hertz as soon as I saw the bill and they said they were going to credit me the gas+tax. I see from Mint that the money has come back onto my card, a $49.33 credit from “HERTZ RENT-A-CAR.” Still, I think Hertz sucks big-time. If I can avoid them in the future, I definitely will.