So, a small part of me feels a bit lighter now that I’ve finally sold an iPhone on eBay. It’s only the fifth time I’ve successfully sold this same iPhone. Hopefully this time the sale doesn’t go sour and sticks. It was definitely a bit nerve racking because I was hoping to show my friend how easy it was to sell his old iPhone on eBay. This iPhone has traveled across the country, been tried out, and then shipped back to me, forcing me to refund the purchase and lose out on the cost of shipping. The second time it was sold on eBay, the buyer never paid up, forcing to go thru the slow and painful process of figuring out the right way to complain to eBay and PayPal in the manner to get my fees refunded. Then the third time I sold the iPhone, the buyer was trying to convince me to ship to friend of his in Africa first and then he’d pay me extra, with eBay sending me a message the next day to avoid dealing with this buyer because of suspected fraud. Then a fourth time I sold the iPhone, the buyer paid immediately, but then eBay cancelled the buyers account because of reasons they were not permitted to mention. This is now the fifth time I’ve sold the same iPhone.
This time the buyer initially ignored all my requests for him to pay. I then started escalating my nagging to the buyer to respond, with a final warning that I’d report him as failing to pay. He responded and then finally paid.
Now according to FedEx, the phone was shipped and received. Now the final part of the sale is the waiting. The buyer has about a week or so to inspect the iPhone I shipped him and file any complaints to block the transfer of his payment in PayPal to me.
I’m just crossing my fingers I don’t hear anything so that I can mark this sale as done, final and complete, so that I can get the satisfaction of proving to my friend that used iPhones can fetch good money on eBay, even if they are broken iPhones. I was hoping to prove how easy it was. I’m not going to be able to prove selling on eBay is easy, but I’ve definitely become a bit of a veteran in how to sell an iPhone on eBay. I’ll have the satisfaction of seeing a bit of a smile on my friend’s face when I hand him a sizeable chunk of cash, but I can no longer tout how easy it is to sell on eBay.
I can say is that as far as all the types of things you can sell on eBay, the iPhone is probably the easiest thing to sell, is pretty much impossible to not be sold for a good amount regardless of condition, but that even for an iPhone things can go wrong. And when things go wrong you need plenty of patience to figure out how to work with eBay and PayPal.