Ebay woes

[GibH]

Geez, I've been cruising along on ebay for years with only minor snags here and there. The last 2 years, no problems at all. These past two weeks I've had to file one non-paying bidder complaint to get paid, getting ready to file another, somebody sold me a detector they apparently had already sold, and an auction where I specified no international bidders ended with all international bidders. It also states I ship to United States.

What the heck is going on?

 

[Saturna]

For one thing, people don't read the ad completely. How many times have you seen a question asked that was already stated in the ad copy ?


If you are getting genuine response to your ads from outside the US, maybe you should re-consider your shipping policy. I've sent Ebay stuff to England, Germany, and Mexico so far.

I'm amazed at how many US sellers won't even mail something to Canada. I mean, sheesh, it's not like I'm wanting it mailed to Iran and I'll pay with a Nigerian check.

It's not that scary dealing with buyers outside the lower 48.

 

[GibH]

I have no problem shipping overseas. This auction it was set in the options to ship to U.S. only, and in the description it stated no international bidders. That doesn't mean every auction I put up is like that. It depends on the item. If I set a flat shipping fee, I'm obviously not going to ship internationally for the same flat rate.

If I'm selling a collectible lighter, buyers from Japan are always interested. They don't mind paying the extra shipping and they don't ask you to lie on customs forms. If I'm selling a detector, I ship to U.S. only. If someone from Canada wants to bid (and they sometimes do), they will ask me if it's ok. AS long as they are willing to pay extra shipping (if any) then no problem.

 

[Newt]

For one thing, people don't read the ad completely. How many times have you seen a question asked that was already stated in the ad copy ?


If you are getting genuine response to your ads from outside the US, maybe you should re-consider your shipping policy. I've sent Ebay stuff to England, Germany, and Mexico so far.

I'm amazed at how many US sellers won't even mail something to Canada. I mean, sheesh, it's not like I'm wanting it mailed to Iran and I'll pay with a Nigerian check.

It's not that scary dealing with buyers outside the lower 48.

Are US detectors sold abroad. I didn't think they were the same?
Newt

 

[Iron Patch]

Just be thankful you've had smooth sailing as long as you did, and what is going on now isn't a big deal. Losing money is the only thing you should be concerned about, and if you do a high enough volume you even get used that on a small level. Here's one for you.... I had someone who owed me about $1,600 for many items and I kid you not he was only a few weeks shy of taking a year to pay me in full! He had sent me enough money in the start that it was in his best interest to keep paying because I told him absolutely nothing was going to be sent until I was paid 100%. So month after month passed and finally I was ready to start selling again and wanted a fresh start, so I wrote and gave him the ultimatum of paying me the balance in the next couple of weeks or I'd be keeping his money and moving on. Needless to say he finally came through. I definitely wouldn't recommend being that easy going, but you just have to keep your cool and know all those little problems are just part of the system.

PS... Part of the reason for my extreme patience was I had dealt with this guy many times before, he was a good bidder and most of what he won was at the top price, and as time went on the market started to get weak and no way I would have got those prices again.

 

[bigscoop]

Keeping my fingers crossed, I have my own online shop and I only accept paypal, a couple of no-pays but no real problems yet. The nice thing about having your own shop is that you can prevent international buyers from putting anything into a shopping cart. I do allow them to contact me and I will sometimes sell international but not that often. Depends on where & who & the circumstances. I also entertain offers so in a sense, it allows a potential buyer a means of placing a bid on an item. Quite a bit of my sells have come this way. I just didn't care for the whole ebay thing anymore, too many fees, too many seller obligations, and not enough buyer requirements. I don't move as much product but at least I'm in 100% control of my online business. Even thinking about opening a second shop?

 

[Iron Patch]

Even thinking about opening a second shop?

Can't imagine why. More fees, more sorting through messages and emails, and dividing your traffic. Even to consider I would have to have to two mega good ideas that were so completley different that I wouldn't expect one buy to ever cross over. Even if that was the case, I still can't see anything positive about having two stores. You'd feel like you'd have more going on when in reality it's just more effort.

 

[GibH]

Just be thankful you've had smooth sailing as long as you did, and what is going on now isn't a big deal. Losing money is the only thing you should be concerned about, and if you do a high enough volume you even get used that on a small level.

It might not seem a big deal to some, but it puts a crimp in cash flow. That's all money I could be putting to use. It also puts perfect feedback at risk. One negative isn't a huge deal, but two or 3 back to back would about ruin my account as far as selling goes.

 

[Iron Patch]

Just be thankful you've had smooth sailing as long as you did, and what is going on now isn't a big deal. Losing money is the only thing you should be concerned about, and if you do a high enough volume you even get used that on a small level.

It might not seem a big deal to some, but it puts a crimp in cash flow. That's all money I could be putting to use. It also puts perfect feedback at risk. One negative isn't a huge deal, but two or 3 back to back would about ruin my account as far as selling goes.

If you don't sell much you are right on the feedback... and if you were blocked from selling for 30 days your cash flow problem got a whole lot bigger. That being said, in a way those two things seem to contradict one another because why would you need much cash flow if you're not listing much? (unless you tie a lot into store listings) Back when I had my store loaded, and lots of auctions per week, it was great because even if the well ran dry it wouldn't be long before something sold. Great waking up in the moring to see a big fat Paypal payment!

 

[greenmachine]

You do realize in preferences that you can block international bidders from bidding on U.S. items.

greenie

 

[Iron Patch]

You do realize in preferences that you can block international bidders from bidding on U.S. items.

greenie

Can you do it just for one item? Every seller I've encountered that had me blocked, had me blocked for all items. If you can choose is for a single auction it would be an answer.

 

[GibH]

You do realize in preferences that you can block international bidders from bidding on U.S. items.

greenie

Can you do it just for one item? Every seller I've encountered that had me blocked, had me blocked for all items. If you can choose is for a single auction it would be an answer.

Yes, you can create exclusions per listing. Just never been a problem until now. From now on I will do it.

I don't sell a lot, usually a few items a week. I'm not trying to get rich, just trying to make a few extra dollars.

 

[bigscoop]

Even thinking about opening a second shop?

Can't imagine why. More fees, more sorting through messages and emails, and dividing your traffic. Even to consider I would have to have to two mega good ideas that were so completley different that I wouldn't expect one buy to ever cross over. Even if that was the case, I still can't see anything positive about having two stores. You'd feel like you'd have more going on when in reality it's just more effort.

No additional fees. No extra cost for the added store. I can merge e-mails. And I want to divide my traffic, "specialty shops", if I don't it would be the same as trying to sell women's bras in the hardware & tool section. In this case, and with the new SEO standards, I'll actually pickup more traffic in the first store because of the second shop (around 15% - 20%, possibly more) because of the second shop and I'll achieve a higher external search ranking for both stores because of the extra external links. The stores cost me nothing and I pay just 20 cents per listing & 3.5% of sale, that's it! It's all quick clean and easy. Really isn't all that much extra effort. All I'm really waiting on right now is the cost of goods VS potential return figures, want to look into that a bit more.

 

[Iron Patch]

Even thinking about opening a second shop?

Can't imagine why. More fees, more sorting through messages and emails, and dividing your traffic. Even to consider I would have to have to two mega good ideas that were so completley different that I wouldn't expect one buy to ever cross over. Even if that was the case, I still can't see anything positive about having two stores. You'd feel like you'd have more going on when in reality it's just more effort.

No additional fees. No extra cost for the added store. I can merge e-mails. And I want to divide my traffic, "specialty shops", if I don't it would be the same as trying to sell women's bras in the hardware & tool section. In this case, and with the new SEO standards, I'll actually pickup more traffic in the first store because of the second shop (around 15% - 20%, possibly more) because of the second shop and I'll achieve a higher external search ranking for both stores because of the extra external links. The stores cost me nothing and I pay just 20 cents per listing & 3.5% of sale, that's it! It's all quick clean and easy. Really isn't all that much extra effort. All I'm really waiting on right now is the cost of goods VS potential return figures, want to look into that a bit more.

Why do the stores cost you nothing? I'm not aware of any changes in the last year, and assume my monthly fee has just come out of my PP account.... but now that I think about it, I don't recall an automatic payment for a small amount. If your items are that different, like I said above it's the one scenario I would use two stores. Most of what I've sold had a huge cross-over so one store was the best way to go.

 

[bigscoop]

Even thinking about opening a second shop?

Can't imagine why. More fees, more sorting through messages and emails, and dividing your traffic. Even to consider I would have to have to two mega good ideas that were so completley different that I wouldn't expect one buy to ever cross over. Even if that was the case, I still can't see anything positive about having two stores. You'd feel like you'd have more going on when in reality it's just more effort.

No additional fees. No extra cost for the added store. I can merge e-mails. And I want to divide my traffic, "specialty shops", if I don't it would be the same as trying to sell women's bras in the hardware & tool section. In this case, and with the new SEO standards, I'll actually pickup more traffic in the first store because of the second shop (around 15% - 20%, possibly more) because of the second shop and I'll achieve a higher external search ranking for both stores because of the extra external links. The stores cost me nothing and I pay just 20 cents per listing & 3.5% of sale, that's it! It's all quick clean and easy. Really isn't all that much extra effort. All I'm really waiting on right now is the cost of goods VS potential return figures, want to look into that a bit more.

Why do the stores cost you nothing? I'm not aware of any changes in the last year, and assume my monthly fee has just come out of my PP account.... but now that I think about it, I don't recall an automatic payment for a small amount. If your items are that different, like I said above it's the one scenario I would use two stores. Most of what I've sold had a huge cross-over so one store was the best way to go.

Let me clarify, I'm not using ebay at all anymore, for all the reason I mentioned earlier. My stores are far away from ebay, I opened mine through "Etsy.com".