Dear eBay Queen:

I’m a member of several Facebook Swap and Sell groups.  I buy about 20% of my inventory on 4-5 different groups.  Many times, people will say that they have free items. If I believe I can sell it, then I will offer to take it off their hands.  Most of the time, however, the things I sell are items that I pay for, and not items that I got for free.

A couple of weeks ago, a woman said that she was giving whatever was left over at her garage sale to whomever wanted it.  Now, I know this woman, and knew the stuff she was selling was good. As luck would have it, I was the first to come to clear it off her hands.  Saturday, another woman said that she had baby stuff that did not sell and she would put it out by her curb.  It was free to anyone that wanted it.  I got directly in my car and went to check the stuff out.  There was a stroller, pack n-play, some puff-a-lumps, a variety of stuffed animals, and some clothing – a few pieces were new!  I picked up everything I wanted.  This has caused something similar to a small war.

Another woman (that is no friend of mine) gave my eBay name to the group and posted photos of my eBay stuff, with the stuff that I got for free side by side. Now everyone on the list wants my head on a pike and wants me kicked off the groups.

What are your thoughts on this?  What can I do to not be kicked off the group and to get these people to lay off of me?

Freebies Finder

Dear Freebie:
I have never understood why people are upset when you pay the price, (or lack thereof,) that they offer and get upset when you sell it for more than you paid.  Have the administrators of the group offered any advice?  Have they contacted you?  If not, why not be more pro-active, and contact them.  I don’t think it would hurt to message the administrators, and see if there is a policy on buying something, cleaning it up and then reselling it.  If they say there is, then apologize and move on.  If they say there is nothing wrong with what you are doing, I would not post or purchase for a while on that site and look for other sites that are a couple of towns away from where you are.

The other options you have are to  quit purchasing on these groups, get a new eBay name that you only sell your Facebook finds on, create a new Facebook “buying” profile, or borrow a family member’s profile to purchase from.

I am a member of several Facebook groups like this, and have seen people argue over this so many times.  If this kind of issue bothers you, it might just be best to not purchase from these sites.

Dear eBay Queen:

I’ve been trying to source items for Amazon.  I cannot figure out how to determine what everyone else’s price is and what the seller fees are using the phone application I am using.  What mobile app do you use?

HPT

Dear HPT:

I use the Amazon Seller app for Android. This is free and can be found on Amazon or the Google Play store.  It is very simple to use: you can scan, speak or type in an item you want, and the app will find it and list all the things you have asked about, plus more.

Using this application you will see the Amazon ranking, low price, fees, gross proceeds, how many FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) offers and any offers from other sellers.   I really find this useful in my sourcing, and you can’t beat the price, Free.

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