posted on August 3, 2012 07:46:57 AM new
Hi everyone! I have decided to resume selling on Ebay after taking a break for a few years and I am pleasantly surprised to see so many of you, who were very helpful to me in the past, still posting on Vendio. There are so many changes to selling on Ebay now!
My big question of the day is why on earth are sellers unable to leave non-paying bidders negative feedback? How do we warn other sellers of buyers that are flakes?
The feedback change is only one of many questionable changes (charging FVF on shipping is another) that I discovered after browsing Seller Central.
posted on August 3, 2012 07:59:44 AM new
Not sure where to start other than welcome back?!?
You are probably in for quite a surprise as a return seller.
What I have noticed over the last few years is that eBay is moving closer and closer to an Amazon model. Why? I have no earthly idea, but that is what is happening. Many changes mimic Amazon.
I would guess that eBay removed feedback for buyers because of two reasons. First and most important was that it was turning away buyers who received negative feedback for a transaction, whether legitimate or not. Ebay has moved toward protecting the buyer as much as possible, allowing the bad buyers to run amuck and take advantage of sellers. Second, is that a handful of sellers would retaliate on negative feedback left for them.
The FVF on shipping charges mimics Amazon's platform.
If you are doing it for business, I would suggest setting up your own website. Ebay has absolutely no interest in satisfying sellers and with every bi-annual update, they become more and more controlling.
I have found that selling on eBay is the equivalent of working in a huge corporate call center. There are absurd standards you must meet, you have absolutely no personality yourself, and you have no control over your own operation any longer. Basically, eBay has found a perfect business model. Control sellers while not providing any health insurance, vacation time, or a 401K.
posted on August 3, 2012 08:34:28 AM new
Thanks, Shagmidmod!
From what I have read regarding the rules of selling on Ebay now, I tend to agree with you that they are trying to protect the buyers as much as possible even though they repeat the phrase “our valued sellers” throughout the website.
I will not be doing this as a business. Over the last couple of years, I have accumulated many items that were my grandmother’s and my mother’s and hope to list what my children and grandchildren do not want. I have given the family until August 10th to claim what they want, whatever is left over, I am listing on Ebay.
I went back and forth with the idea of selling, donating, and then selling, etc. My granddaughter is starting college in a month so I decided that I might contribute to her tuition/book/dorm costs (she does not know this yet just in case Ebay has made it too hard to actually make a profit).
I did get a laugh out of one part of Ebay’s prohibited items list:
“The following items are also being added to the prohibited items list: advice; spells; curses; hexing; conjuring; magic; prayers; blessing services; magic potions; healing sessions…”
posted on August 3, 2012 10:04:34 AM new
Welcome Back!
Ebay charges FVF on shipping-
too many sellers are cheating Ebay out of item FVF by asking 99 cents for an item and charging 65 for shipping,so Ebay policy is now lower FVF on item and a FVF on shipping.
If you offer free shipping,your FVF will actually be lower !
No way to neg the bidder,thats more like the real world,do retailers say bad things about their customers? posting comments so everyone can see?
NO,so we sellers would just have to swallow hard and block these bidders!
As for Shag's suggestion of setting up your website,we would all have done so if it is a good idea,but one must ask why are we still selling on Ebay?
Because thats where the action is !
posted on August 4, 2012 02:45:07 AM new
Welcome back.
You should still be able to make a profit with the right items to sell.
There is one more thing - TRS. If you are not one, ebay can bury you so that no one will find your items. That really hard to deal with.
Lost - you've never walked into a business and seen a lot of NSF checks posted on the wall next to the check out? I have and lately I've seen sellers posting FB stating that the buyer didn't pay etc.
As to the FVF on shipping - that maybe true in some cases but overall ebay saw a great way to have a fee increase and not call it that.
posted on August 4, 2012 05:25:22 AM new
Eabe-I agree with you,FVF on shipping is like a fee increase,but I am seeing more sellers offering free shipping on high ticket items and not insuring the item or using signature confirmation,not a good idea !
Mini-
Take a look at ETSY,it is a lot cheaper to sell on ETSY.
Depends on what you have to sell and how much you are asking ,plenty of ebay resellers lurk there.
Besides Paypal,it will also let you accept cash,check,money order and credit cards.
posted on August 4, 2012 05:33:33 AM new
Welcome back. Along with a bunch of hoops to jump through just to get something listed my sell through rate wasn't so hot. Back in the day it was around 70-80% last fall last time I listed I was lucky to get 20%.
I figure if I can't make 10 bucks on an item it isn't worth listing. The day when you could list something low and attract bidders is about done. Set the starting bid at what you feel its worth.
Having said that I will more than likely run some more auctions in the fall and winter.
posted on August 7, 2012 01:19:13 PM new
I am no longer a TRS - I will not put a 1 day handling time in my listings. But, I'm not convinced that it has made much difference in my listings. I sell vintage and people still buy my items. I've even had a couple of small bidding wars recently. I imagine it would be a problem if you were trying to sell something more common.
Anyhow, Minnie that was my roundabout way of saying don't assume that your listings won't be found. Give it a try. Good luck.
posted on August 8, 2012 07:37:34 AM new
cherished - I sell mostly vintage too. When I lost my TRS for only selling 97 items in a year, it took me 3 months to get it back. That 3 months was the worse spring/summer months that I've ever had on ebay. Maybe that was just a coincidence but I'm not so sure.
I did a search on something I had - there were only 30 listed on ebay. Guess what number I was in the best match search. You got it - number 30. Here I was with all 4.9 and 5 DSRs - over 14 years with NO negatives - one charge back in all the years with paypal (from a liar) and I'm at the bottom of the barrel.
I was still doing OK on auctions but I don't think I got a Best Offer in the whole 3 months. Now that I have it back - offers are coming in again.
I don't want to scare you minnie but it can be tough in the ebay world these days. We all need good luck and a good business plan.
posted on August 8, 2012 05:11:47 PM new
Ebabes - I obviously don't know what the difference is - but I just did a search for something I have on eBay - there are over 1200 of them on ebay and mine came up on the first page. This is an auction item.
On the other hand, I did a rather generic search - say for example vintage bracelet (my item isn't a bracelet) for a fixed price item that was in my store and gave up looking for it - it was buried so deep. No one is going to find it if they are just browsing the more generic words, but once i added a more specific adjective - say for example Coro bracelet, then my item was about the 60th out of 159 - not great, but I think anyone looking for "coro bracelets' would see it.
posted on August 9, 2012 01:58:33 PM new
I think one thing that hurt me so much was that many of my items are furniture so not only did I not offer one day shipping most were 5, 10 or even 15 days.
Now that I've change everything to freight - everyone seems happy.
Even at the worst point - I had a 5 in DSR in shipping and handling time. Go figure.
[ edited by ebabestreasures on Aug 9, 2012 03:29 PM ]
