If you follow the rules to a T (ship only to confirmed U.S. addresses, ship with tracking, require a signature) you're covered in the eyes of PayPal.
I've probably sold 5 laptops and (easily) 10 phones for myself and friends on eBay.
Cover your bases, require PayPal and a confirmed address. Don't budge on these points and you'll be fine.
PROTIPS:
* Absolutely start with a $1 lowest bid, no reserve. The market will bring your laptop up to acceptable prices.
* Include as many words and pictures as you can in your description. I routinely just copy the specs from one of the tear-down sites for my exact model and paste them in. Buyers find comfort in knowing exactly what they're buying.
* Take as many hi-res pictures as you can. Don't worry about the scratch. Buyers find comfort in knowing exactly what they're buying.
* This is hugely overlooked: Make your auction end on a Friday or Saturday night around 11pm EST. This is when the nerds with money are sitting on their couch putzing around eBay looking for a new lappy.
Can you explain why you recommend passing on the reserve? Even if the product will sell for a price that the market considers acceptable 100% of the time, what is the harm in setting a reserve regardless?
A reserve means the seller can bail at any point up until that reserve is met.
Imagine that you're selling a laptop that's going for around $800 in other auctions. But you're not entirely sure you even want to sell your laptop. You put a $2,000 reserve on it just to leave the option to bail available at the end. An experienced buyer realizes this and will likely just pass on your item out of principle.
If it would make you feel better to place a reserve on your item, at least state right up front what your reserve price is and why you've placed it in the first place.
In my experience, however, I've never once been low-balled on an auction. There's a median price for your item in it's condition across the entire marketplace. If you're OK with that median price, don't post a reserve.
Spell your brand and product name correctly and you're virtually guaranteed to get close to that price in the end.
This shows that you're serious and has raised the price people are willing to go for to about 90% of what I originally paid, which is pretty impressive when you consider that it's used.
- Only buy good products, like the Air. If Apple releases a
lemon, it’s not going to hold its value well.
- Buy at the start of a release cycle. It’s unlikely Apple will
replace one of its own products within a year.