The pains and joys of selling on MercadoLibre

We are in the process of buying and selling some electronics, and ML has been a pain. Some people just comments to make fun or jokes, or to chat. Some are trying to get impossible discounts (like half the price) hoping someone is hungry for money or in a desperate situation.

So far, we have sold one of the iPhones and ML's fee is 10%! A lot of people want to stay on ML for added protection on their purchase, which is understandable when spending a certain amount of money. Which amount? That's very subjective. I still laugh at clerks who check the authenticity of a 1000 pesos notes (which is less than 5 Euros, folks!), so anything above 3,000 ARS must be quite a purchase to some.

Prices are also all over the place. We started with our phones being priced at 115 and ended up closing at 80, minus 8 lucas in ML fee.

ML is becoming more and regulated, both internally and externally.

We found out that for items priced over 30,000 ARS there is no Collect option available, just shipping. Now, mailing something like an iPhone in Argentina (or anywhere but in the US or UK), is not something I would do lightheartedly. And as a buyer, I'd rather collect the item in person, so that I can try it and take it home with me safely.

We sold both iPhones for 80,000 ARS each. One was sold through ML and collected in person regardless, but since ML want it shipped, we agreed with the buyer that we would mail the box only. We went together at the shipping point so that it was clear to both what was being done. Still, I am not confident this will not leave us (seller) exposed.

What if the buyer claims the item was stolen? Are we covered? She didn't look like a scammer nor like someone ML savvy, so we are fairly at peace with the whole thing. However, the money will be credited on our MercadoPago in a week (!!!!) and until the buyer doesn't mark the item as Received the transaction won't be completed.

I understand the need to make new rules to protect buyers and sellers, but it has been hard keeping up with them. ML fee is currently 11% which is HEFTY.

We use hints to make us easy to find out of ML, but some buyers like the protection offered by ML (understandably), especially for larger amounts.

A few months ago I was looking into a used iMac 27". I had found a man selling it in Belgrano, he was a video editor so the iMac was a powerful machine with lots of RAM and storage. It was priced to sell, however, it was still a 1500 USD worth machine, and for us, exchanging that amount of USD into ARS is not an easy task.

First, you don't want to exchange a big amount with one broker as they will know you have that much money on you. Second, chances of finding many friends needing to exchange 1500 USD worth all of a sudden is slim. Also, on ML you can click on BUY but until the payment is registered, the ad keeps running and someone else could come and pay for it before you.

We tried to contact the seller out of ML and asked if he accepted USD (no), if he accepted payment abroad (no), if he was willing to at least put on hold the ad while we exchanged the money over the weekend (yes).

So we started exchanging like crazy, and we were able to exchange 500 USD worth over the weekend. On Monday we were ready to exchange the remaining 1000 USD at various cuevas. However, on Sunday night the seller backed off from the deal. He chickened out because I found him outside of ML -- his username on ML was his real name, and on ML there was his neighborhood listed, plus he has a professional website about his video editing services... I am no Sherlock but he was in his 50 and not very internet smart, apparently.... and got scared!

Which is why I ended up buying a Macbook Air M1 while abroad and needed a large monitor.