Question: Should I sell for family and friends?
These days eBay is big enough that everyone knows of it, even if they don’t trade on it. In fact, if you’re the person if your family or circle of friends that regularly uses eBay, you’re likely to be asked sooner or later to sell something on eBay for someone else as an informal favor. Should you do it?
Answer: Though it can seem a simple enough decision to answer "yes," particularly if the person asking is close to you, there are a number of things to note and take into consideration before you agree to do so.
- It may change the relationship. Somehow people that would never dream of entering into a business transaction with you will ask for the "favor" of an eBay sale. For the reasons below, you should assume that selling on behalf of someone else is generally more than just a favor.
- The liability is yours. As the seller of record on eBay, it's you that will be responsible for the delivery and quality of the item once payment has been received. Any chargebacks affect your PayPal or bank account, and it's you that will face any liability that results from the sale(s).
- The fees are yours. Regardless of the fact that the item is being sold "for" someone else, it is of course your eBay account that will be expected to pay any insertion, final value, or other fees associated with the sale(s), including in circumstances in which no sale occurs but fees are still owed.
- Time to sale can vary. When you list an item, you're at the mercy of market forces on eBay. If your family member or friend have specified a fixed price, it may take much longer than they're imagining for an item to sell, particularly if their specified price is higher than most on eBay. In fact, the item may not sell at all.
- Sale amount can vary. If, on the other hand, you've been tasked with posting an auction listing, you don't have any control over the final amount of the sale, which may be much lower than what was expected.
- You own shipping snafus. On the odd chance that the sale in question becomes one of the difficult ones, with shipper trouble, requests for refunds or exchanges, technical support needs, or other types of extensive involvement, remember that you're on the hook for these.
- The feedback and labor are yours. You're putting your time, money, and eBay selling account on the line. You're taking the pictures, writing the listing, and shipping the item; that time comes from you. Furthermore, if the item or your ability to support it fails to satisfy, it's your feedback that will suffer.
What to Do Before You Agree
If you've more or less decided in principle that you'd like to agree to sell on behalf of someone else as a favor to them, there are a number of things you should consider doing before actually going ahead with the transaction. These things will help to protect both yourself and the person for whom you're selling.- Explain eBay pricing and timing. Explain to your family member or friend that the results of an eBay sale can be variable in price (for auction format listings) and in time (for fixed-price format listings) and that you ultimately have little control over these. Make sure that they understand that high-priced items might not sell, but that letting the bidders decide the item's final price might result in a very low value sale.
- Explain the fact that you fees will accrue. Make very clear that there will be fees involved, perhaps even if the item doesn't sell, and that they'll be a measurable percentage of the final value of the transaction. Explain that these fees will have to be deducted from the sale value because you'll owe them to eBay as the seller of record.
- Explain the selling process. Describe the process of listing, transacting, shipping and feedback from beginning to end as well as the fact that it can take days or even weeks for all of these things to play out.
- Note the level of your involvement. Describe the work you'll be doing-representing the item to others, accepting payment, performing shipping and after-sale support, and paying fees-so that they have a sense of your role in the process.
- Suggest a contractual arrangement. Suggest that the level and complexity of involvement, as well as the circulation of money (as fees and as payments) and goods warrants a contractual arrangement. If you're a regular eBay seller, you may simply wish to imply that this is required for proper record-keeping. If there is to be more than one sale or a regular set of sales, a contractual relationship is essential.
- Keep special records of such sales. This will be necessary for your own balance sheets and tax purposes, etc.
- Ask to see the goods before agreeing. If possible, it's certainly in your interest to be able to evaluate the goods yourself before you agree to put your time, money, selling account, or even relationship or friendship on the line in order to sell them.
It's tough to actively recommend selling on someone else's behalf because of the nature of the liabilities involved and because of the fact that the person in question isn't selling for themselves because they don't understand eBay well in the first place. This combination of liability and lack of understanding can complicate or even harm a relationship very quickly.
In the end, however, if you decide to help someone else out with your eBay selling account, keeping the points above in mind may save you a lot of headache later on.
