Thread: Warning! Selling reels on ebay

I just want to caution any of you guys about selling your used reels on eBay. I needed to clear out some equipment to get some cash so I started putting up used reels and lures on eBay. First off, if you set a fixed shipping price, there is a big difference between shipping a reel to Kentucky and shipping one to Oregon. Cost me $12.90 to ship a $20 reel that only had a $6 shipping charge.

Secondly, the last two of the six sales I made got complaints. The first one said the bail on the spinning reel broke on the second cast. Now this was my main spinning reel for club bass tournaments and it was only two years old. It was only after I responded that I started thinking the guy was probably wrenching the handle to cause the bail to close instead of closing manually as I always do. Then tonight I get a complaint about a baitcaster being rough and the bearings being shot and then was thanked for the paperweight. Now the reel in question used some kind of polymer stainless hybrid bearings and it was never my smoothest reel but I had only used it about fifteen times and know it was in good condition. All of this really irked me because I know those reels worked before I sold them (in fact I have a couple of reels that I wouldn’t sell because they weren’t in great working order).

So just be warned. There is a section that will automatically adjust the shipping depending on the bidders location (assuming you know your package dimensions and weight), and be ready to receive complaints that are probably undeserved. If you have integrity, these gripes really dig at you...

Never use a flat shipping charge. I bought a shipping scale off e-bay and never lost money on shipping again. Any reels I sold, I always stated as is for parts only. But, I don't sell anymore, people are getting impossible to deal with anymore.

Most likely why I haven't went that route thinning the herd of unused reels,most likely at a local flea market or next fall trip to gulf shores....thinned a few this last spring trip