There are many misconceptions and rumors surrounding the Playstation 3 and it's sale on eBay.  I've complied this FAQ to try and cover as much of it as I can and hopefully answer any questions you may have.

(This guide was originally written and posted on the GameFaqs.com Playstation 3 forum, I am the original author.)

eBay Policies:

Minium Requirements for Selling Pre-Orders:

- You must have a Feedback of 50 or more.
- Your Feedback score must be 98% or above.
- PayPal is the only accepted payment option and must be included in the listing.
What this means: This means that only people with PayPal accounts can list Pre-Orders. No money orders, checks, or cash. But honestly, who the hell uses any of that stuff on eBay anymore anyways?
- The item must qualify for PayPal buyer protection.
What this means: The only difference between eBay's requirements and PayPal's, is that with PayPal, you must have either a Verified PayPal Premier or Business account.
- The seller must have a Verified PayPal account.
What this means: This means that not only must you have a PayPal account (and USE it), your PayPal account must be "verified". To become verified, you register your bank account with PayPal and they send you two small (less than a dollar) deposits. You tell PayPal what the two amounts were and if you are correct, then you are "verified." It's kind of like proof that you are using your own bank account and not someone else's credit card you found.
- Only one of each console can be listed per account (single quantity listings only).
- Proof of presale must be included in the auction (copies of actual receipt, etc).
What this means: This means you must scan a copy of your receipt. I can't think of any other way to provide "proof of presale".
- The seller must list in 3, 7, or 10 day auction format. Buy it Now and one day listings are not allowed during presale.

EMPHASIS: Once the Playstation 3 is released, the above rules no longer apply.

Minimum requirements for selling a Playstation 3 is in your possession:

- You must have the item in your possession at the time of listing.
- Your listing must include a photograph of the actual product in your possession. NO STOCK PHOTOGRAPHS
- Please have your UserID clearly displayed in the photograph.
- If you have multiple products in your possession, please include one photo containing all items.
- Your listing must include an image of the sales receipt(s) (or other proof of purchase) for the items. For your own protection, black out any sensitive personal information such as credit information.
- Violation of these guidelines may cause action to be taken, up to and including suspension of accounts.

Rumors:

- "ebay will block the sale of PS3's for 30/60/90 days to prevent price gouging"
What this means: People like increments of 30? Let's do some math here. Let's say that a tenth of people buying PS3's are planning to sell them on eBay. Of the 400,000 preorders out there, that's 40,000 that are being sold on eBay. Let's say, worst case senario, that each PS3 sells for EXACTLY the MSRP of $599. Using "http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html", we can see that each PS3 sold for $599, eBay will make $23.33 in listing/final value fees. Multiplied by 40,000, we get $933,200. Keep in mind, that's assuming the PS3s sell for $599. All 40,000 of them. More than likely that won't happen. So let's think about this. Why would eBay "block the sale" of PS3s? What do they have to gain? They've got at least just under a million dollars to lose, but nothing to gain. So what logical reason would they have to do it? None. Rumor: False.

- I heard that PayPal will freeze your account if you get over $XXXX.xx in one day.
Not freeze, but limit your access to the money if you're not "Verified". Active buyers/sellers are required to have a Premier or Business account. Once you've followed the directions they give you, you become Verified, and the withdraw limit is lifted. To verify my account, I had to verify my Social Security Number and Bank Account Number. Rumor: False. But if your account isn't verified it could be very annoying.

- All people who buy a PS3 with the intention to resell are bad/evil/mean/satan reincarnate.
Some people are just bitter that everything doesn't go their way. If you don't want to support "ebayers", then don't buy from them off ebay. Now they've got no reason to want to sell because no one's buying. Problem solved. Not really a rumor, just a misconception. For every person who is a scumbag, there's someone who honestly could really use the money.

Buyers:

What to look for:
- Pictures of a receipt w/ their ebay UserID in there somewhere.
- Read the description, the person should be knowledgeable of the item they are selling. Do not trust people who say "My grandson gave this to me, I don't know what it is but I'm selling it." (sounds stupid, but i've seen it before.)
- CHECK THE PICTURE. Make sure they are selling the correct item. If the picture shows a 20GB PS3 and you just paid $1500 for a 60GB, you got boned.
- People with lots of positive feedback. (There are two things there, "lots" and "positive". You want quality AND quantity.)

What to avoid:
- People who have no or negative feedback (low feedback can be ok, just use your better judgement). Chances are there is a reason people dislike doing business with them, move on to the next auction please.
- People who don't have a picture of their receipt/claim they don't have a picture of it yet. I'd call shenanigans on this. If you can afford a $600 video game system, you've most likely got a camera you can take a picture of it with. Or at least know someone that does.
- Overall "weirdness". If something just "doesn't seem right", maybe you should steer clear of that specific auction/seller. More often than not, your gut instinct is there for a reason. Your body/brain knows something is wrong even if you don't realize it consiously.
- Make sure you look for the shipping cost BEFORE you bid. Shipping on a PS3 even with all the insurance/tracking/delivery confirmation, should not cost over $100. Don't get screwed because you didn't read the whole auction.

Sellers:

What to do:
- Include a picture of your PS3 once you've got it. It's the best way to assure people that you've actually got one.
- Tell them what you've got. Make sure you include a description of the product in detail.
- Make the whole auction seem "welcoming". Write it up as if you actually knew the buyer personally, and were trying to convince him/her to buy your Playstation 3.
- Offer Overnight shipping. Some buyers will be happy to pay the extra cost.
- Make sure the buyer knows up front how much shipping will cost. Approximate the weight and give them your Zip Code. Then point them to USPS.com and have them use the "Shipping Calculator". It's the best way to approximate the shipping cost.
- Offer shipping insurance/tracking/delivery confirmation. Sure, it'll cost extra, but it will give your buyer that peace of mind they're looking for when spending $1000+. (also, include that extra cost into their shipping fee)

What not to do:
- Do NOT start the bidding at $2000. Not only will it deter potential bidders, it makes you look greedy.
- Please do NOT copy & paste the PS3's technical specs from the Playstation official website. It doesn't show that you know anything and it shows a bit of lazyiness on your part. It also takes away from the "humanity" of the seller, it makes the buyer feel uncomfortable.
- Avoid big ugly fonts/colors.
- Once you've got your actual system, get a picture of it on your auction and DO NOT include some GIS of a PS3 from PS3.com, again, it doesn't reassure the buyer that you're not some scammer.
- If you have low feedback, do NOT buy "lots of little $0.99 items just to get a higher feedback score. If someone sees that's what you've done to increase your Feedback, they will trust you LESS.

General "Not Getting Scammed" Tips for Buyers AND Sellers:

- The most useful piece of advice in this category is: "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."
- Never accept any form of payment over what the final value of the item plus shipping costs is. They'll buy your $100 item and send you $200, asking for the $100 back when you ship the item. Your recieved payment does not clear because it's fake or insufficient funds, and now you're out $200 and your item. (You're out $200 because of the $100 you didn't get plus the $100 you sent out)
- Always wait for the payment to clear before you send out the item. I can't stress this enough. If the payment hasn't cleared, you technically don't have payment yet. Also, make sure your buyer is aware that you will wait for the payment to clear before you send it out, that can eliminate some of the frustration.
- Be wary of people who have JUST created an eBay account/people with "PS3" in their UserID/People with lots of negative Feedback. Check on your highest bidder's Feedback score by clicking on the link that shows the number of bids in your auction. It will give you a list of the bids and who's made them. Check them out, if someone seems fishy, cancel their bid. Say in your auction that people with negative/no feedback need not bid. Be wary of someone named "PS3_4_U" that created their account on 11/16/06. Use your best judgement.
- Look at every potential buyer as someone who is trying to scam you. Sadly, this advice is actually quite useful. I wish it didn't come to this as a society where this statement would benifit you, but it does. If you are looking at every person who bids as someone who is trying to scam you, you are more likely to notice something "not right".

Other FAQs:

When is the best time to post the auction once I've got my Playstation 3?

"In my opinion, the best time to post the auction would be as soon as you get home from the store where you bought it and have taken the pictures.

For any other time of year, I would reccomend a 5-day auction, but this year is different. The Playstation 3 launch happens to be exactly a week away from "Black Friday", so a 7 or 10-day auction might have interesting effects.

ALSO, consider that people might want the PS3 as soon as possible. For that you could do a 1 or 3-day auction or include a "Buy-It-Now" price.

I can't see a logical reason to have a 5-day auction unless you've included a Buy it Now. You could probably get away with a 7 or 10 day w/out Buy it Now because of Black Friday, when people are going to go crazy trying to buy stuff."

What fees does eBay charge to sell a Playstation 3?

The same fees as every other item sold on eBay.

Insertion Fee (how much you start the item at)
$.01 to $.99, Fee = $0.20
$1.00 to $9.99, Fee = $0.35
$10.00 to $24.99, Fee = $0.60
$25.00 to $49.99, Fee = $1.20
$50.00 to $199.99, Fee = $2.40
$200.00 to $499.99, Fee = $3.60
$500.00 or more, Fee = $4.80

Final Value Fee (how much the item sold for)
Item Not Sold = No Fee
$0.01 - $25.00 = 5.25% of the closing value
$25.01 - $1,000.00 = 5.25% of the initial $25.00 ($1.31), plus 3.00% of the remaining closing value balance ($25.01 to $1,000.00)
Equal to or over $1,000.01 = 5.25% of the initial $25.00 ($1.31), plus 3.00% of the initial $25.01 - $1,000.00 ($29.25), plus 1.50% of the remaining closing value balance ($1,000.01 - closing value)

...What?

Let's say that you started your PS3 at $599.99 and it sold for $1,500. The Insertion Fee would be $4.80 and the Final Value Fee would be $38.06 ($1.31 + $29.25 + $7.50). You'd take 5.25% of the first $25 of the closing value. Then you'd take 3.00% of the rest of the value, up to $1000.00. 1000 minus 25.01 equals 974.99, then take 3.00% of that. You get 29.25. Now, add on 1.50% of the remaining value after $1000, in this case, 500. 1.50% of 500 is 7.50.

I hope this helped clear up and questions/misconceptions you may have had.  If so, please feel free to leave positive comments about my guide or email me at nigeldaniel at gmail dot com with questions or concerns or if you've noticed a mistake.

Thanks for reading this and I hope I helped!!