Making a living on Ebay

[Campo Kenny]

Any of you ladies and gents use Ebay for a business over there?

If and when we do decide on a permanant move I'd like to carry on selling a few bits, but just for a hobby/bit of interest.

Problems I can see with it is that the post offices only seem to open for about 30 seconds a day, and if you are about to be served but the 30 seconds is up they throw you out

Also on another thread it said the cost of postage is Sky high, so do I take it Ebay is a non starter? Buying things must be a pig too. I've had a few car spares posted out in the past to save taking on the plane but the PO won't store them if too big

I always end up having to meet the carrier by the 6th fig tree on the left, next to the finca with the 2 satelite dishes I usually get the parcel on my 4th rendevous attempt

Kenny

Kenny

[BENIDORM]

Campo,
I did use ebay in Spain as part of my business,and it did work well. But now I ' ebay' just as a hobby for buying and selling, and furthering my collections.........I think it would now be difficult to make a living here as an ebayer, but could be a profitable hobby. Think small items to sell and you will have no problem with postage costs..ie any small collectable...postcards, stamps ,coins, records, books, ephemera etc... You can continue to sell in English on Uk ebay or on the Spanish ebay site.....Hope this helps..

[Pigeon Tim]

I sold a number of items on ebay last year and had a nightmare with the postage and couriers. I've been mentally scarred by it all and won't do it again.

My friend makes a living off ebay in the UK and when he came over for a visit he suggested I buy things for him and send them back but I told him not a chance in hell.

[Spingo]

I always end up having to meet the carrier by the 6th fig tree on the left, next to the finca with the 2 satelite dishes Crying or Very sad I usually get the parcel on my 4th rendevous attempt

It's odd that when I have stuff sent to Spain from Amazon or Ebayers the parcels arrive at the post office without fuss. But when I ordered similar items from a Spanish company I was called to say they could not deliver to the post office. I mean what's that all about? So I had to arrange with a local bar to take the package in for me. Others have experienced worse where things have been delivered to some random bar instead of the post office. Generally haven't had any problems sending things although I haven't compared postage prices with those of UK or sent anything very large.

[olive]

Don't know about making a living here via EBay, a lot easier in the UK. I agree with the issues with posting items here in Spain. They aren't as easy going or as helpful to EBayers as the good old Post Office in the UK on how items are wrapped e.g. re using UK Jiffy bags. Parcel Postage also is or seems more. Can't be truly objective on that since the UK size/weight rules came in after I left.

One thing on buying via Ebay here. If you have a UK Id and a Paypal account set up to a UK address you will find some Power sellers won't post to a Spanish address. The answer is of course to set up another ID and account to a Spanish address. I have found that euro zone items (none UK) are often cheaper (e.g. cameras) than the UK but there isn't necessarily the range.

olive

[Bongtrees]

Many sellers wont send to Spain because of the amount of pilferage.

We´ve basically given up buying on ebay because twice we had parcels go missing and both times insurance wouldnt pay because parcels were actually traced to main sorting office and were therefore not lost.

As for selling from Spain, the cost of postage is just too high plus if goods didnt arrive there is huge risk of negative feedback.

As with everything in Spain there are probably good and bad areas, ours is bad including courier delivery. DHL refused to come to my home insisting on a bar 15kms away!

I had to send documents to UK a couple of weeks ago. I had a 90kms round trip to a DHL depot as they refuse to collect from my house or my wifes office in town plus the cost was 145 euros for an A4 envelope!!!

It is a pity because I have friends in other countries who have established a regular income selling on ebay but sadly not in Spain.

[peteroldracer]

I reckon anything involving Correos (the postal service) here in Spain is a definite no-go. Two instances: I read somewhere of a guy posting 12 CD/DVD shaped packets to himself on the CDS - 2 arrived.......!
You may have read on another thread of a friend who died in Carlos Haya ten days ago - some family members sent a "With Sympathy" card from the UK, with a hurriedly-gathered 200 Euro in it. The card arrived. Only.

[fearfulfred]

Oh that is unlucky "Two instances: I read somewhere of a guy posting 12 CD/DVD shaped packets to himself on the CDS - 2 arrived.......! "
Over the last two years have posted DVDs to Spain from Canada ..they never took more than 10 days to arrive and all arrived . Maybe they opened them and saw they were only home movies and just let them go!!!

[Kamila]

We use a company called Offex for postage to and from Spain. They have a PO Box in Gatwick for incoming mail and they deliver it to their agents and you pick it up from them. The only problem with receiving mail this way is the charge. You have to pay for receiving it. But it is great for important documents. Have a look at their web site: www.offexspain.com Our daughter posted letters to us and it all arrived quickly and without any problems. I have sent all my Christmas cards with them and I didn't found it expensive. Providing that the card is not too large then it had cost only €1 per card to send.

[peteroldracer]

Quick postscript re Correos: I have just had an email from friends in the UK, which mentions that the Xmas card they sent us (address perfect) has just been returned to them!
Correos are as much use as a one-legged man at an a rse-kicking party!

[laclotte]

BENIDORM............... whilst I don't love you/don't know you (we have had various different ideas on certain subjects) I am truly happy that you are back in the flock (spelling??) ......thought you could have died on me ..... perish the thought! I felt that you took certain replys of mine (slightly) personally. That was not my intention - really!
I too am back.................!!!!!!!!!

[BENIDORM]

Hello Laclotte,
Thank you for that, and now you have made me feel quite humble............Anyway my Wife loves me, my dog loves me, and hopefully God loves me....... .......Nice to see that you are back also.... ..Take Care.....

[spanish_lad]

We use a company called Offex for postage to and from Spain. They have a PO Box in Gatwick for incoming mail and they deliver it to their agents and you pick it up from them. The only problem with receiving mail this way is the charge. You have to pay for receiving it. But it is great for important documents. Have a look at their web site: www.offexspain.com Our daughter posted letters to us and it all arrived quickly and without any problems. I have sent all my Christmas cards with them and I didn't found it expensive. Providing that the card is not too large then it had cost only €1 per card to send.

offex is €1 per 100g they bring - a pair of trainers off ebay cost me 12€ collection and 12 pounds to buy, would of been cheaper to buy them here

[redsoxbrit]

I personally have never had any problem buying from eBay and have had goods delivered from UK, USA and HongKong-in fact I did most of my Xmas shopping on eBay(UK)!
As for selling, well, that's a different matter. I feel that many UK residents are reluctant to buy from overseas because of the time it takes to receive goods, can it be traced if it goes missing? (nightmare) and also the postage costs are quite high. I did try and sell a few things when we first moved here but to be honest it just wasn't worth the hassle.
Now I just use it for retail therapy (in your dressing gown) but often wonder what the poor post lady thinks as she delivers yet another brown paper package.....

[spanish_lad]

when i sell on ebay i try and make it co-incide with a trip to the uk. i make sure everyone has paid me before i go, either by cheque or paypal, and wrap up everything before i go, stop at the postoffice where ever i am and post it all off the day i get there. try and make your auctions end at least a week before you are due to go, that way you can recieve all the payments.

[gretch]

I used to be a postie in Britain and I believe that a lot of items go missing in the UK. Postie sees a foreign address and thinks, “if this goes missing, it will be the foreign postal service that will get the blame”

I've heard comments like this from other posties, fortunately people like this are not the norm’

We always send important things ‘certificado’, it costs a bit more and there’s still no guarantee, but we’ve never had a problem.

gretch

[pigs-might-fly]

Yup - you just can't rely on the post in Spain!.
Still waiting for two small parcels from the UK, (one a replacement). #1 posted on Nov 16th last year and #2 posted 12th January this year!
Sanguinary rubbish is Correos!

[peteroldracer]

We always send important things ‘certificado’, it costs a bit more and there’s still no guarantee, but we’ve never had a problem.

I had a letter sent to me "certificado". Despite our post box being about fifteen feet from our house, my car obviously parked where the post lady could see it, rather than bring it to the house and get my signature, she put an "aviso" in our box, with nothing on it to say where it could be collected, opening hours etc. I went to Comares the next day (12km round trip), to find the office shut, went again the next, to then be told "our" mail office is El Borge, so had to drive 25km to this remote village to get the letter, then 25kn back home!
Correos?! Corcrapos!

[Malaga_blue]

I have to chip in here as well to say how useless the postal service is here. I still haven't recieved 4 seperate items from October and December of last year.

Twice I have recieved parcels which were wrapped perefectly only to have the contents ripped out.

I'd reccomend anybody wanting to make sure that they recieve anything from overseas they have it sent registered, sure you have to pay extra but unfortunatly you can't always trust Mr Spanish postman.

[Robbbo57]

Don't even bother.