Looking for advice for selling a video card

1Wolf

1Wolf

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 10, 2007
Messages
433
Hello.

I've never bought or sold any computer parts (or really anything for that matter) to or from an individual online before. I really don't know that much about it. I've got a NIB video card I'd like to sell and with the prices of these things today I am a little nervous of getting scammed or someone else getting concerned that I might try and scam them. I'm just looking for advice on how to sell and make the transaction as smooth and worry free as possible.

I'm not looking to make a profit or scalp it or anything. I Originally I purchased two video cards and I am just selling the one that I decided not to keep. I never even opened the box. So I'm just looking to sell it for what I paid for it from Best Buy including Tax and to cover any shipping. I'm probably just going to post it FS here in the [H] forums. I just want it to be easy and stress free.

What is the best way to do this?
 
Make sure your buyer has a good amount of positive/current rep from somewhere like Heatware.com, deal with established community members not fly by night just hit 100 posts no rep buyers. If something feels fishy, decline the sale. Use a reliable payment system and ship to the address listed in said payment system.
 
Good advice all around. Also make sure you read up on the Rules for the Buy/Sell section. There are some nuances in there that will get you a message from a Moderator. The one that specifically got me was "You can now edit your own thread titles and close your own threads after your sale has ended. Do NOT post in your thread to note "Sold." Update the OP and close your thread."

I would also make sure that you make a post in the FS/FT forum and not use this one to sell your item. You can certainly honor those that are interested, I just would not use this as the source of the sale, Mods may not like it. If you do make a post and decide to honor the folks interested in this thread, add me to the list ;)

Good luck with your sale!!
 
Its a 3090 FE NIB purchased from Best Buy on January 10th. I had both an EVGA 3090 FTW3 and a 3090 FE. I hemmed and hawed between the two of them. I really liked the EVGA 3090 FTW3 but was worried about the tales of issues I'd read. Ultimately I decided to go with the FTW3. I thought about using the 3090 FE for my wife's computer but it would be a terrible waste as she'd never use that much video card and she already had a white Gigabyte 3080 that she really liked and matched her theme. So I decided to go ahead and sell it. The state of the market has made people crazy for these things though so I just didn't want to run into a bunch of issues.

I won't discuss that further here though as they probably want you to keep items-for-sale discussions in the proper forum and really I'm just looking for some help doing this smoothly. Ideally I'd like to sell it to an established poster from our forum so that the user can be grateful at getting a card at MSRP and it will go smooth instead of someone with a low post count trying something shady.

What form of payment do you guys recommend? Is Paypal friends & family safe? I've never used the other "choice" you have when you choose to send money in paypal but I guess there is some sort of fee and additional protection involved. Is it better to use that and then just tack the fee onto the final price?
 
The F&F doesn't protect the buyer much, so there may be some issues getting the buyer to go along with it if you're a new seller. If you post your purchase receipt, you can ask for the amount paid+tax, shipping, and the 3% to cover PayPal fee with no issue, it won't be scalping.
 
One thing I always look for is a person posts and how long they been member here to establish their reputation. I also use heatware.
 
I personally do not use PayPal F&F on purchases over $50 because of the lack of protection.

As Mad[H]atter stated you can post up all the expectations of the sale in your post and as long as the person is aware of it ahead of time it should be a non issue. If you want to tack the ~3% on there for the standard PP fees then you just need to disclose it.

Based on what you have and you selling it so you aren't out any money, it will go fast.
 
1Wolf said:
I won't discuss that further here though as they probably want you to keep items-for-sale discussions in the proper forum and really I'm just looking for some help doing this smoothly. Ideally I'd like to sell it to an established poster from our forum so that the user can be grateful at getting a card at MSRP and it will go smooth instead of someone with a low post count trying something shady.
Click to expand...

Ultimately it's up to you on who you sell it to. Doesn't have to be first one to post or PM. You're doing someone a favor here(with the state of the current GPU market) and you have every right to be as comfortable as the person sending you the money.
 
also, as you are already getting posts in the forum and PMs i am sure, typical protocol is to use the timestamps on the post and PM to determine the order of response.

but you have really been a member since 07 and NEVER bought or sold anything on a forum?
 
1Wolf said:
Its a 3090 FE NIB purchased from Best Buy on January 10th. I had both an EVGA 3090 FTW3 and a 3090 FE. I hemmed and hawed between the two of them. I really liked the EVGA 3090 FTW3 but was worried about the tales of issues I'd read. Ultimately I decided to go with the FTW3. I thought about using the 3090 FE for my wife's computer but it would be a terrible waste as she'd never use that much video card and she already had a white Gigabyte 3080 that she really liked and matched her theme. So I decided to go ahead and sell it. The state of the market has made people crazy for these things though so I just didn't want to run into a bunch of issues.

I won't discuss that further here though as they probably want you to keep items-for-sale discussions in the proper forum and really I'm just looking for some help doing this smoothly. Ideally I'd like to sell it to an established poster from our forum so that the user can be grateful at getting a card at MSRP and it will go smooth instead of someone with a low post count trying something shady.

What form of payment do you guys recommend? Is Paypal friends & family safe? I've never used the other "choice" you have when you choose to send money in paypal but I guess there is some sort of fee and additional protection involved. Is it better to use that and then just tack the fee onto the final price?
Click to expand...

That one is a bit out of my price range, good luck on the sale though.
 
Speaking from recent experience, I got a really really good offer for a 3080 on the bay but decided to take a couple of hundred less for a local cash deal. I'm sure the dude on the bay would have been fine but it wasn't an EVGA so technically if he mined ethereum on it for 5 months and the RAM blew he could still open a PP case (if the mfg didn't honor the warranty for him) and give me major headaches. It was a 3080 so suffice to say the local deal wasn't bad either...one more thing for local sales I ask a buyer to send a token $1 fee in advance via venmo or ppff, that gives you their name and some transaction history in many cases, just an added peace of mind. My $0.02, take it fwiw...
 
1. Find out the card's real worth.
2. Add at least two zeroes to the end before the decimal point.
3. Put on ebay.
4. Hope for gold!

Seriously, my problem with selling cards is the audience. ebay, for example is a very mixed audience and probably a bad place to sell anything mid-tier or better. I once sold a card on ebay, user sent the card back to me (now dead) and demanded a refund.
 
You have an old account but no trade history. Anyone sending you PayPal F&F is crazy. One option is to list the card for sale to those who are local to you. That way you can meet up (mask if needed) at a highly populated area (inside a bank) or local police station. Don't do ebay unless you want to refund a "defective" card in the next few months.
 
Thanks to everyone for your help, replies, and advice :)

I'll definitely put some pictures together and put the card up for sale. I've received PM's from several but I definitely want to keep a public record of interest in case of an issue and I don't want to piss off any moderators with doing things incorrectly so I'll definitely post the card for sale in the proper forum first and hope those that expressed interest via PM will post in the thread.

Mad[H]atter said:
The F&F doesn't protect the buyer much, so there may be some issues getting the buyer to go along with it if you're a new seller. If you post your purchase receipt, you can ask for the amount paid+tax, shipping, and the 3% to cover PayPal fee with no issue, it won't be scalping.
Click to expand...

Fritzz said:
I personally do not use PayPal F&F on purchases over $50 because of the lack of protection.

As Mad[H]atter stated you can post up all the expectations of the sale in your post and as long as the person is aware of it ahead of time it should be a non issue. If you want to tack the ~3% on there for the standard PP fees then you just need to disclose it.

Based on what you have and you selling it so you aren't out any money, it will go fast.
Click to expand...

That is definitely what I'll do. Thank you kindly for the advice. I'll just include the Paypal fee in the post so that its all upfront. It should be pretty simple for the buyer to know what I paid as I'll offer pics to the buyer of the original receipt and such.

Fritzz said:
Ultimately it's up to you on who you sell it to. Doesn't have to be first one to post or PM. You're doing someone a favor here(with the state of the current GPU market) and you have every right to be as comfortable as the person sending you the money.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Good advice and that is exactly part of the reason I was posting here for advice.

Zedicus said:
also, as you are already getting posts in the forum and PMs i am sure, typical protocol is to use the timestamps on the post and PM to determine the order of response.

but you have really been a member since 07 and NEVER bought or sold anything on a forum?
Click to expand...

I don't think the timestamp or order of the PM's are really pertinent as its possible that the first person to PM me would be someone with questionable intentions. Honestly though I've received alot of very helpful and kind PM's from folks that I genuinely believe wanted to help.

Nope....you're right. Been asking questions and reading stuff here for a long time and I've never bought or sold anything. Never really had a need to. In the past, most computer parts had been reasonable and I just never bought anything but brand new stuff. I've just never been into selling old computer stuff. If it was still operable I could always find a use for it and if I couldn't I'd always just donate stuff.

kyang357 said:
You have an old account but no trade history. Anyone sending you PayPal F&F is crazy. One option is to list the card for sale to those who are local to you. That way you can meet up (mask if needed) at a highly populated area (inside a bank) or local police station. Don't do ebay unless you want to refund a "defective" card in the next few months.
Click to expand...

Hey! Who you callin' old?!? haha. Seriously though. I get it. On the other hand, if someone is worried about that then no one is going to force them. I'm not going to mess around with driving all over locally and meeting at police stations. Starting to sound like I'm setting up a drug deal...haha. Thats exactly what I'm trying to avoid. The package is unopened and has a Best Buy curb pick up sticker on it with the order number and my real name. I've got a receipt with my real name on it and the prices and such. I can take photos of all of that and offer them to the potential buyer. That buyer can then also have my real name, contact information, home phone. They'll find listings for all of that. They can chat with me on the phone if they wish. If beyond all of that a person is still suspicious and its just not worth the gamble to them then I certainly understand completely.

My goal is just to sell this to someone who it will make happy who has had a hard time finding one of these stupid things, and sell it to them at what I paid (Which is what Best Buy charged plus tax and add in any paypal fees and shipping and such....but not any actual "profit"), and have everyone come away happy. I just don't want to end up like the guy in these forums who described selling an unopened video card to some guy that "claimed" that the seller removed the video card and replaced it with two hard drives. I just read that thread as I was researching doing this and that just freaked me out. What a mess!

Anyhow, I'll have those pictures taken and create a thread for it soon. Thanks again to everyone who pitched in for your help! Its greatly appreciated.
 
Awesome plan! Thanks for giving this community a great deal. Lastly, if not already mentioned, ship your item with signature required. GLWS! :)
 
Ebay and Paypal is setup to favor the buyer if anything ever goes wrong. So pray your item does not get the attention of a scammer. If your item is very expensive make sure you insure it via your shipping service and keep your BestBuy receipt handy to correlate with your insurance claim if it ever comes to that. Also report to the police if you get scammed. If you can sell it locally via craigslist or ebay then that's even better. If you sell locally via ebay make sure you tell the buyer to pay in person. Ebay will require you to accept an online payment in your listing. Cancel any prepaid order if it's a local meet up. You will not have any recourse if the ebay buyer pays online and then he meets up with you to pickup the item. He'll go home and then complain to ebay you never met with him and he'll get his refund. You on the other hand will have nothing. Toodles
 
I won't sell anything on ebay anymore. It's all rigged to favor the buyer. You sell a perfectly working item with pictures, then all of a sudden you're being blamed for the part not "as described" and you have to refund. You then get your item back all trashed/fried.

I can't tell you how many times I got screwed. I'd rather sell locally on CL where the buyer actually sees the item in full perfect operation or I'll sell here or on another site I belong to.

I was considering driving the several hours to Texas to meet the last buyer from ebay that scammed me and reward him with 2 taps behind his fucking ear, but then that's just me.
 
I'd love to buy your card. If you're still willing to sell. I've bought a lot here, I'm sure some people would vouch for me.
 
One thing I had to do as a new seller almost 15 years (Wow, has it really been that long?) ago was ship first if I had less heat than the person who is buying. Granted, I wasn't selling $1500 video cards, though.
 
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Very good advice up and down the comments. I have sold stuff through out the years from 2006 but it still scares the hell out of me..
 
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