How it works
If you are buying.
It's real simple. Just signup for an account, then respond to the verification email that is sent to you, and that's it, you're ready to purchase. All that's required is a PayPal account. If you want a safe, neutral place to pick up your item, you are welcome to meet at RCHQ. The address is 14910 Nacogdoches RD. #110, San Antonio, TX. 78247
Any shipping arrangements and cost are between you and the seller.
A little Buying Advice:
- Study the pictures, read the descriptions, know what you're buying. If not, ask the seller for clarification or more pictures. Don't just click and hope for the best.
- We do our best to vet each user and weed out the bad ones if they get by our initial signup. However, you are responsible, so use caution, check their seller rating, and do your due diligence before buying.
- Hobby Traders does not charge or collect any fees from the buyer.
If you are selling
Here's a Quick Video on How to List Your Item: How to list items on Hobbytraders
Selling Advice: Price it Right!
- If you want to sell it fast, generally speaking if your item is in good condition, it's worth about 1/2 of what you paid for it new. You can hold out for more, but once the item starts getting close to the price of a new one (or above) people will just buy something new instead. Of course hard to find or vintage items are an exception to this.
- You don't get much extra for hop-ups, add-ons, and spare parts. Just like trading in a car, the dealer isn't going to give you anything extra for aftermarket items. The best-bang-for-the-buck is to remove the items and sell the items separately. However, if you don't feel like messing with it, just accept that you'll get less and move on.
- Avoid shipping heavy and bulky items unless the buyer is willing to absorb some (or all) of the cost. The rates will kill you. Our best advice here is to stay with buyers in you area if at all possible.
Receiving Funds
Hobby Traders uses PayPal as its payment provider. A PayPal account is required in order to accept payments for your listings, and must be connected to Hobby Traders. You will also need to grant Hobby Traders permission to charge a transaction fee.
If you do not wish to accept online payments, you can skip this step and just list your items. Buyers can still contact from the site and you and arrange payment and pickup outside of hobby traders.com. We will not get paid a fee, but we love you anyhow and appreciate you joining our site.
Your PayPal account needs to be able to accept online payments. This might require a Business account, but numerous users are using just personal accounts. If you do see an error when trying to connect your account to Hobby Traders, log in and upgrade your PayPal account to a business account. It's free and very easy. If you're an individual, PayPal recommends using your name as the Business name.
This page will help you set it up: Payment Setup
Shipping:
Hobby Traders makes nothing on the Shipping. It's entirely up to you and the buyer to work out shipping cost. Here are a couple of links to some shipping calculators to help you figure out what it'll cost:
Fees:
5% and only once an item is sold. That's it. No listing fees, or timers, leave it up as long as you want, for free.
Taxes:
Sales tax is not collected on the sale of personal items. If you are setting up a commercial shop, then it's your responsibility to collect sales tax on in-state sales.
Disputes, Safety, Security, and Buyer Protection:
Disputes, chargebacks, and resolutions are handled by PayPal. They're pretty darn good at it. For more info on how you are protected see: https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/paypal-safety-and-security