The following is a translation of "Laptops verkaufen". It contains some information which is specific to Germany.
I repair ThinkPads from time to time and therefore buy and sell a lot on ebay and ebay-kleinanzeigen. I have collected my experiences here. They should serve as advice for all those who have little experience with buying / selling laptops.
If you are faced with the task of creating an ad for the first time, it is always a good idea to read through existing ads and ask yourself the question from a buyer's perspective: what is good and what is not.
Ebay always provides the seller with templates, i.e. data from an ad for a similar product. I can only advise against this, always choose the option "create new ad", because it happens all too often that the template contains details that your item does not have. Trouble with the buyer is then inevitable.
A picture is worth a thousand words. Not for nothing that ebay recommends to take as many pictures as possible. However, there are some things to consider.
A modern smartphone nowadays takes pictures of sufficient quality for such an ad. However, these images are compressed when they are transferred to ebay and no longer contain many details in the ad that are still clearly visible on the original. Therefore the tip to take close-up photos of details so that they are also visible in the ad.
Another problem is the illumination. While the human eye is able to adapt to surfaces of varying brightness in a flash, a camera does not. Here one has to make sure that the usually dark laptop appears sufficiently bright and doesn't drown in the dark. Avoid too high contrasts, e.g. a dark laptop on a white blanket or a dark laptop with a bright display.
Also pay attention to the cover picture: a laptop from the front without any context looks boring. The same shot from above and with a flower next to the laptop looks much more appealing.
Sometimes visual imperfections are difficult to photograph, e.g. the notorious keyprints on ThinkPads. Experiment a little with oblique incidence of light or also with backlight.
What interests the usually well-informed buyer is the details in which the individual laptops of a model differ. E.g. display (resolution, TN or IPS), how much RAM, what type of hard drive, etc. What annoys a buyer when they have to pick out these few details from an almost endless list of all technical data. Simply leave out everything that the laptops of a certain model have in common and at best provide a link where the reader can find a complete list.
For many professional branded laptops there is always an official "Platform Specifications". This document details what is optional and what is standard. The buyer assumes that everything that is standard is actually included, even if you don't explicitly specify it. E.g. the ThinkPad models T440s and T450s always have both batteries installed. If the internal one is missing, you should mention that. In cases where something is optional (e.g. the camera) you should mention it anyway, because it is only in a few exceptions not installed and the buyer expects the camera.
It is absolutely necessary to specify if it is a smoker's device. No matter how well you clean it, a non-smoker will always identify it as a device previously used by a smoker.
It is just as important to indicate if it comes from a household with animals. For a person suffering from allergies, this can be life-threatening in extreme cases.
Provide information about the visual condition. But stay objective. Terms like "super condition" or "TOP" are not really helpful because they have no meaning whatsoever. Try to describe visual defects and signs of usage as precisely as possible. For example, are corners and edges rubbed off? Are there any major scratches? Does the display have key prints or bright spots?
There are two types of buyers on ebay / ebay-kleinanzeigen: the average consumer who is simply looking for a working laptop, who is not interested in upgrading missing hard drives and who does not want to install Windows. Besides there are the hobbyists in different forms, starting with the buyer, who can certainly upgrade and retrofit, up to professionals who buy, cannibalize or repair defective devices and, if necessary, resell them. The average consumer accepts minor defects such as a crack in the palm rest, but they will most certainly not accept any major visual defects, such as a torn corner on the display lid. Depending on which group of buyers you want to address, you have to take certain details into account.
If you want to sell a device with major visual or even technical defects, you are well advised to include one of the words "defective", "partially defective" or "hobbyist" in the title. Since hobbyists always look for these keywords and can only search in the title, this ensures that the hobbyists can also find the ad. Conversely, the search is made easier for the average consumer, as they do not have to read the entire ad first to determine that this is a device with defects.
Many sellers find it difficult here. Again and again you will see ads where you wonder if the item is gold-plated. In general: real bargains of a common product are often sold after a few minutes. If the price is significantly above the current value, the items become slow-sellers and are sometimes offered for months. Depending on how long you want to wait for a buyer, you should set the price accordingly.
How do you find the current daily value? I always do this by searching for the item on ebay, setting the filter to Auctions and then selecting "Sold Items" at the bottom left. Of course you have to make sure that the optional features are as similar as possible, since the optional features often make up a large part of the price.
Whether one specifies a fixed price or a basis for negotiation, is left to the personal taste of the seller. With a fixed price, however, one should be very sure about the current daily value and this has nothing to do with the former new price. Even new items (sealed in their original packaging) sometimes change hands at 50% of the current new price. The current market value reflects only what the average buyer is willing to spend on the item today.
If you want to exclude shipping, then write this in the title, because for the vast majority of all interested parties this article is excluded. The calculation is quite simple: an average catchment area has a maximum of 4 million inhabitants, while the whole of Germany has 80 million inhabitants. So you limit the possible group of buyers to 5%.
When it comes to packaging I have seen things that cannot be described. Obviously there are sellers who don't care about the importance of good packaging. It is always best to have an original packaging that you put in another box. If no longer available, you can buy special laptop boxes. In these boxes the laptop is packed so that there is free space above the display so that no pressure can be exerted on the display. If all of this is too much work for you, then at least put a sheet of paper between the display and the keyboard and pad it with a lot of bubble wrap. A simple rule of thumb: if you shake the closed box, nothing should move inside. And put the power supply on one side of the laptop and not directly on the lid!
Many buyers have a completely wrong idea of who bears the transport risk. In the case of a purchase from a dealer, the dealer bears the entire responsibility. The dealer must ensure that the item arrives undamaged at the buyer. In the case of a private sale, however, it is exactly the opposite. In this case the legislator has determined that the buyer bears the entire responsibility, as the most beautiful legal terminology says: the buyer bears the risk of accidental deterioration or accidental loss. For this reason, the buyer should have a special interest in good packaging and should always insist on insured shipping.
The transport service provider has also a responsibility. If an insured package is damaged or lost during transport, the transport company is liable. However, the seller must always submit a corresponding request, as they are the contractual partner. Since the seller has no special interest in this case, you should be on good terms with him and not start arguing about it.
This is one of the questions that is always polarizing. Often the seller complains about a lack of seller protection as an argument for not accepting buyer protection. My personal opinion: I used to pay with PayPal for friends. Until I ran into fraudsters two times in quick succession who never let me hear from them again after payment. A criminal complaint remained ineffective because a public prosecutor has to do differently than to worry about such trivial matters. The fraudsters know this very well and take advantage of it. Since then, I've only been paying with buyer protection. That has saved me many times. E.g. with illustrated original power supplies and supplied third-party power supplies. Or with keyboards with stickers that were described as originals. Unfortunately, there is a fairly high number of such small cheats because they require only a small amount of criminal energy, and this is exactly what buyer protection protects you from.
Not only do I buy quite a lot on ebay-kleinanzeigen, but I also sell quite a lot. I myself have never been cheated and I don't know anybody who has been cheated. Sure you can construct cases where the buyer cheats and the seller gets the short straw against PayPal, but these are cases that require a high level of criminal energy on the part of the buyer and therefore fortunately are very rare. In any case, I have never felt the need for seller protection.
For all these reasons, I think the current system of PayPal is quite reasonable and fair. If a seller refuses buyer protection across the board, this always seems suspicious to me. I advise everyone, especially with computer goods, to pay only with buyer protection and with bargains, one should be very careful!
One more tip for the seller: if you accept PayPal with buyer protection, you should only offer insured shipping, because in case of an incident this is the only way to prove to PayPal that you have actually sent the item.
Guarantee is a voluntary service and in practice only occurs at companies. Warranty, on the other hand, is regulated by law and also applies to private sales. Personally, I find it unfair if you buy a used, but expensive item and the seller denies any responsibility. I myself always give the buyer a few weeks warranty, and I've always done well with it. It is understandable that as a private seller you don't want to be responsible for damages after a year, but as a seller you have a minimal responsibility, which you shouldn't avoid.
From a legal point of view, it looks like you can exclude the guarantee with a clause, however this must have the character of an individual case. If a judge finds out that the seller has already sold several items and has excluded the warranty each time with the same clause, he will cash in the clause and declare it invalid, as they will see this as an attempt to overturn the law.
Once you have created and published your ad, please review the ad. Are photos twisted? Is the brightness of the photos correct? Is the price correct? Have you considered all points 1. to 8.?
Particularly with high-priced items, you will receive a series of requests shortly after the ad is published on ebay-kleinanzeigen. The common factor is that the buyer's account is brand new and the buyer is trying to redirect you to Mail or WhatsApp. You should block them and report them to ebay.
Please note the basic rules that apply to any type of electronic communication: since certain barriers that are always present in direct communication are missing here, one is unconsciously tempted to use a much more direct form of expression. Please don't do that! Always remain polite, no matter how stupid an inquiry sounds.
Edmund Mergl
e.mergl@bawue.de
Creation: August 25, 2020
Last change: August 25, 2020