Selling Paintball Markers

Many people selling paintball gear fail to get the maximum value from
their auction, frustrating sellers with less money and making buyers
have a harder time buying. Here are some tips to make your auctions
more
profitable and get the best value out of your sales.

ALWAYS REMEMBER: It is the seller's
job to make a buyer want to buy, so make it as easy as possible for the
buyer to want to buy!

1. Know your market. If you are selling a marker, make this your focal
point. Buyers are going to be looking for the marker and incidentals
such as masks, jersy's and pods will have little overall effect on the
final value. Your pictures should be large and clear, gepletly showing
BOTH sides of the marker in detail. If it has milling or special anno, SHOW IT.
If potential buyers can't make out details, your value will suffer.
Don't show five pics of all the extra junk and one picture of the
marker, your buyers don't care and will value your auction less.

2. Include pictures, pictures are worth a thousand words or 90% of your
auction. Without a picture, most buyers will NEVER read your
description. Pictures need to be clear, of high resolution and show
both sides of a marker.

3. Accept paypal, Paypal is the leading methode of doing buisness
online, and a growing percentage of buyers are no longer willing to
send Money orders. Paypal gives buyers a sense of security and ease of
payment. If you don't have paypal, you are loosing bidders.
4. Don't lump. If you want to sell everything you own, thats fine.
But
split it up, you will make more in the end. Sell your most valuable
marker on its own, and put the extra's like masks and jersy's with the
beginers gear. The people looking at high end gear are not interested
in the extra gear and would prefer not to pay extra shipping (tanks,
barrels
and hoppers are excluded here). They will not add the value of this
stuff to thier bids, making it a nuisence to them and loosing you
money. Jerseys, masks, gloves, packs, pods etc
are more likely to be valued by a begining player. lumping two or more
markers means you are AT BEST only getting 1/2 to 1/3 the value at best
for the
secound one, it is well worth it to sell it as a seprate auction.
People will not pay for two angels, the final value is too high for most budgets; A
spyder and a timmy will only have people bidding on the timmy and
ignoring the spider.

5. Know your market, do some research. Chances are, if you have not
been activly buying or selling in a few months, you are out of date on
what your stuff is worth. Paintball gear is like cars, as soon as you
buy a new one, its value is halved. Autocockers especially have seen a
drop in value, if you played in the 90's your $1500 cocker is now
likely
worth $100- $250 on okay, depending on what it was. Check the market,
it is rapidly changing and old gear is not always collectors items (in
fact, it seldom is though there is a decent market for some older
pumps).

6. Be reasnable on shipping. If you are charging over $15 on domestic
shipping, be very clear why. People are very critical of shipping
costs, and an extra $5 shipping may cost you $20 worth of bids. If you
have to, eat some of the cost or don't list some of your extra gear,
you may very well make more in the end.

7. Treat potential buyers with respect, answer their questions and
help them want to buy your marker. Don't overhype it, but don't be
afraid to say if it works or if it has problems. Your feedback will
reflect your honesty. if you know any important details, say so.

8. BE ACCURATE in your listing, do a little research. The differnce
between advertsing an autococker and advertising a Bad Boys Toys
Westwood with Splash anno and matching barrel set may be several
hundred dollars.

Good luck!