Sell Your Laser to the Highest Bidder, Not the First Dealer Who Calls Back

eBay takes 13.6% of the first $7,500 and 2.35% of everything above it before you see a dollar, and the fee is the cheap part.

Your buyer is anonymous. eBay's dispute process was built for phone cases, not a 180-pound Nd:YAG on a freight pallet crossing four states. If the buyer claims damage, files a chargeback, or changes their mind, you are arguing with a support ticket about a $25,000 machine that is no longer in your building. And the dealers you were trying to avoid check eBay every morning for exactly one thing: a practice that doesn't know what its unit is worth.

Each dealer you call gives you one number, and every one of them knows you have no other offer in hand.

That number is not their best number. It is their opening number, and you are negotiating against someone who prices used lasers every day. A few will offer cash. Most will steer you toward consignment, because consignment costs them nothing and costs you the next 90 days.

You sign a 60- or 90-day exclusive. The laser leaves your building. Then you wait.

No updates, no idea what it is listed for, what buyers said, or whether it is on a showroom floor or in a warehouse behind three other machines. When the term ends unsold you get it back with a storage bill, or you sign another 90 days because you are tired.

DOTmed, LaserTrader, the med spa groups.

You pay to list, you write the ad, you answer the same twelve questions from people who never send a deposit, and most of the "buyers" are dealers running the math from the paragraph above. Add the wire-fraud attempts and the overpayment-check scams and the closet starts to look reasonable.