posted on February 8, 2006 01:38:55 PMWhat other means can we employ to sell without paying eBay its pound of flesh?
Make sure your websites are search-engine friendly and that your products are listed on Froogle (it's free).
If you know how to tweak the content so you're on Yahoo's and Google's first page of search results, you'll get a lot more direct sales too.
Cost of hosting is cheap - if you look around you can get a decent host for less than $20 a year with all the ecommerce bells and whistles thrown in. Plus if eBay gets all huffy and NARUs or otherwise interferes in your business, you have another revenue stream to fall back on.
posted on February 8, 2006 01:52:23 PM
I think the best way to subvert eBay domanence would be to compile one's listing in .csv files, and bulk list their items at Yahoo auctions, ioffer, and google base/froogle, and any other free site that allows bulk listings.
posted on February 8, 2006 03:07:16 PM
Fluffy,
can you switch to sell something else,or do you have tons of jewelry you must get rid of??
An old classmate of mine lives in Alhambra,sorry about the spelling,she was a journalist and anchorwoman at one time,now she is a commercial real estate agent,oodles of money to be made in real estate,you know that.
/ lets all stop whining !! /
posted on February 8, 2006 04:38:10 PM
So far as i know you can put your email contact address in your about me page. and some links. if i remember correctly you can put a link to your web page so long as you link yout webpage to your ebay auctions. some of you guys will probably know better then me.
posted on February 9, 2006 06:14:27 AM
Here's what happened to me.
A customer filed a PayPal non-receipt claim. I was still searching for the shipping receipt when PP said "Time's up" and tried to give the customer her money back.
Except that due to an automatic debit on my PP account, there wasn't enough cash to refund her in full. The account was short $9.00.
Immediately my account was restricted, and my ability to accept funds removed. My buyers were told this, and a few reported they were told the eBay auction result was null and void.
I am unaware of any power that PP has to invalidate eBay auction results. Anyone?
Concurrently with the PP account restriction, I was no longer able to list new auctions or revise current auctions. I am not suspended, but I get a "We were unable to process your request" error whenever I try to list or revise.
Okay, so here's what's interesting to me and here's what I cannot get a straight answer out of eBay or PayPal about:
Where is it documented that a seller can no longer list if their PP account is restricted? I accept checks and money orders, too. I looked at my payment Preferences, and you might also find this interesting: Under PayPal, it now says NO.
Clearly there is linkage here between eBay and PayPal. What has me hopping mad is that both deny they're doing this in concert. I can't get a straight answer out of either; each refers me to the other.
As to resolving this, I initiated several funds transfers from different checking accounts the day it all started. PayPal yanked that money immediately; I checked. They *may* credit me with it tomorrow according to the "Expected Clearing Date".
I had five pending eChecks from a customer when my account was restricted. I was curious to see what would happen. I found out this morning. The status of all five reads Cancelled. By the customer or by PayPal?
posted on February 9, 2006 06:24:30 AM
Everyone is ranting about ebays cleanup by trigger happy *^!#&%@*&%$s. I had a $3k bid on something and the buyer from Germany is “no longer a registered user”
A guy I was talking to in NY paid an outstanding ebay bill, got his account going, bid on a computer and they pulled his account again. I seen on Fox News that ebay is getting sued by Tiffany. Ebay obviously has some forthcoming issues and they are cleaning up, although in the rush to clean they are tossing out honest people as well.
Ebay should be a secondary source of selling, not the first. Ebay can pull the plug at any second and it will take MONTHS to get it sorted out, if you can. I tell my ebay friends not to focus on ebay. Depending on what you sell, there are many other sources OFF ebay, and yes, OFF the internet.
I will share some of my internet tactics.
I have been harvesting my ebay customers for many years. I keep all email address and all shipping addresses. I send postcards once a year for after Christmas sales and email my customers once a month with specials or fine art facts. I also send (with shipment) every winner on ebay a full page letter of thanks, etc. This letter has a watermark of my website address across it and a tag at the bottom of the letter.
“You may also possibly be interested in visiting another website we have. We often list art on this site that will not be listed on eBay by us.
http://www.xxxxxxxxxx.com”
Shipping labels paid through paypal have a “Message” to give to the customer, again I put my website address in the message box.
I also have a special email address that is unmistakably a website for my business, when I answer a question, I SHOW my email address to the person asking the question.
For real cheap (online design) post cards go to http://www.overnightprints.com
1000 cards are $114, when you go to checkout, use the coupon code DEALER and get 2000 cards for $114 – I don’t know how long that code will be good for.
I would suggest getting an online store like (or website) Vendio and start directing your customers to that site.
I also have my web address on my vendio winning bidder notice, reminders, Payment Received, Shipment status sent to buyer, and Shipment Arrived notices.
Stores and websites are soo inexpensive now. You can setup a store (with and without Sales Fee) or site for less than $100 today, depending on the store or sites needs. Yahoo is a good one for a “website”. There are many TEMPLATE BASED WEBSITES too.
Also, check out http://www.propertyroom.com to sell, I think that site might work for you.
posted on February 9, 2006 06:29:38 AM
I know the problem Fluff - I know - I know! OK - I think I know. If the auctions you are trying to launch still have the old info that you accept PayPal and have your paypal payment address in them, ebay will kick them back out.
(Here's an interesting one - if you are using a listing service like Marketworks, they will kick out ones that qualify for relisting credit on a previous unsuccessful auction that had PayPal in them)
And PayPal canceled the echecks.
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
Never ask what sort if computer a guy drives. If he's a Mac user, he'll tell you. If he's not, why embarrass him? - Tom Clancy
[ edited by fenix03 on Feb 9, 2006 06:29 AM ]
posted on February 9, 2006 07:08:52 AM
I have no idea - I got the info from Marketorks. - luckily they send you an email when a listing is rejected and actually gives a reason.
Glad that helped. Good luck!
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
Never ask what sort if computer a guy drives. If he's a Mac user, he'll tell you. If he's not, why embarrass him? - Tom Clancy
posted on February 9, 2006 07:11:14 AM
Very unfair, Fluff. I don't spend the energy researching PayPal disputes because my sales are relatively small (not worth the time to dispute) and PayPal will deduct anyway. I feel like a whoos but refunding immediately when a complaint is filed does save me a headache later on.
posted on February 9, 2006 07:15:31 AM
fenix: So what you're saying is that eBay programmatically passes the relevant error data to your auction services provider but for auctions listed live I get a nonsensical error message screen?
posted on February 9, 2006 07:20:48 AM
LOL yep - that's what I am teeling you. Logic optional communication at its best.
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
Never ask what sort if computer a guy drives. If he's a Mac user, he'll tell you. If he's not, why embarrass him? - Tom Clancy
I have had success with my own ecommerce site. I operated on ebay and my own site for some time until paypal locked my account and it took 6 weeks to get it unlocked. During that time I really ramped up my own site and now sell more on it than on ebay.
You can set prices high list your phone number and use a merchant account to process credit cards that gets deposited into your bank account directly 2 days after the order and the fees are lower than paypal.
In the past I would email my customers automatically every 6 months with a $5 off coupon on my website. I also include a coupon that has an expiration date with every order I get. This worked great and I always get several orders.
Dont dump ebay immediately - use it to get some sales while growing your own website. You are allowed to put a link to your website in your about me section on ebay.
I will be more than happy to help you set up your own website and merchant account after the way Paypal treated me.
My websites:
http://gotflag.com
http://xboxinstock.com
posted on February 9, 2006 08:12:43 AM
Watch out fluffy, when I had my paypal account restricted, I emailed my customers how to pay using other methods and paypal sent out an email to all my customers that they should issue a chargeback against any credit card they used to pay me outside of paypal.
posted on February 9, 2006 06:11:38 PM
toben88 wrote: ...when I had my paypal account restricted, I emailed my customers how to pay using other methods and paypal sent out an email to all my customers that they should issue a chargeback against any credit card they used to pay me outside of paypal.
Ask your customers for copies of these "do a chargeback" emails (including full headers) PayPal sent to your customers, interfering in your lawful business. Retain as evidence. Forward copies to MasterCard and Visa as proof that PayPal is in violation of their merchant agreement, and CC to other interested parties. I know of several law firms that would be very interested...
posted on February 9, 2006 08:47:11 PM
I was thinking of relisting at yahoo. At one time it use to be pretty good auction site then they messed with the fees and lost a lot of sellers. Now that it is free again I am thinking of putting more things there. Who knows they might just sell.
posted on February 10, 2006 08:10:40 AMAs to resolving this, I initiated several funds transfers from different checking accounts the day it all started. PayPal yanked that money immediately; I checked. They *may* credit me with it tomorrow according to the "Expected Clearing Date".
Yep, I was credited with $100 of my own funds today. Told 'em to refund the remaining $9.00 balance to customer. Saga over, right?
Wrong. PayPal now says it will take another 7 business days to resolve the refund issue.
My regular customers (who understand what we have gone through previously) are staunchly standing by, but to a few paranoid morons OF COURSE if a seller runs afoul of PayPal IT MUST MEAN they are a scammer.
Regarding the error messages, I'm not surprised. I get mine back through Vendio, and have figured out that if you squint and delete every third word, it sort of makes sense.
I seem to always get caught up on the Worldwide shipping with no International calculator, or v.v., the calculator is there but I say US Only (the first I can somewhat understand, but what's the harm in including a superfluous calculator?). Seems to me that Vendio could easily have logic that warns you about this without waiting until it does the API call.
The problem, generally, is that developers don't have a service mentality, and no real sense of accountability. Their managers aren't evaluated on what happens after an error, only on making sure that the throughput is there and that bogus transactions don't take place. AFAIK, nobody actively tracks whether a flawed auction is subsequently fixed (in your case relatively easily), or whether it results in lost business.
From a very selfish standpoint, it sometimes works in my favor. I have had a number of clients who tried to list something for themselves, had difficulty figuring out their mistakes, and then came to me.
posted on February 10, 2006 10:03:40 AM
After having been on eBay for 10 years, I know that there will never be enough sellers come together to "strike" against eBay - it has been tried and tried, but with independent sellers, regardless of the logical reason for a strike, they will go ahead and list anyway….they fail to see the ultimate advantage of a strike.
I stopped listing auctions on eBay on December 11, 2006, but did leave my eBay Store open. We had some fairly decent sales via the store.
We are physically moving, and I am trying to close out product lines we do not want to have to move, and do not intend to carry any longer, otherwise I would close our eBay store now. As soon as the inventory on some of these items gets low enough I will close my eBay Store.
I see no advantage to a Yahoo Store, because one they are too costly, and with 4 web sites, all of which appear on the first page of Google, I see no advantage Yahoo's Stores could offer me. We get quite enough business via our web sites.
Too bad many of you do not remember the "good ole days," on eBay when you could almost sell a half eaten sandwich for $10.00!
However, for every experienced seller who leaves eBay, probably 2 newbies come along to take their place, so eBay does not care who strikes or who leaves.
~"It does not matter what I think, it does not matter what you think. The only thing which matters is: What is the TRUTH!"~
posted on February 10, 2006 02:52:56 PM
I note that jewelry seller rgelber, #158 on January's Nortica 500 list, does not accept PayPal. They have a merchant account through their website.
posted on February 10, 2006 04:42:56 PM
Hello Fluffy lady
You wrote "After all, I have over 8,000 unique customers from just the last three years. If I'm not selling on eBay any more, I certainly can drop them an email to tell them about our new auction site."
What I would do to ALL.
Dear past customer,
Not long ago you and I had a transaction on Ebay. You were pleased and I was happy to have you as a favorite customer.
I now have a web site with many nice items.
If you would be so kind as to look and buy an item. I will give you a one-time 20% discount. Just use code FXC (Fluffies eX Customer)
"And then that little jerk Ralphie convinced all the sheep-herders to build a roller-skating rink!"
Good luck! 