My thoughts on selling on eBay

sandmanfromlv

Couple of things that irk me personally...

1) After someone has paid for your auction, send them an email letting them know when/how/(confirm# if applicable) the item shipped
2) After the buyer has paid, leave positive feedback....none of this, give me feedback once you've received the item and I will do the same crap...

#1 really irks me as I just had to send off several emails asking the seller, what is going on, I haven't heard a thing from you in 5 days about when my item will ship/has been shipped and no feedback from them

3) If you're going to be gone for a couple of days when your auction ends, try and put that in the auction that you won't be back until xx/xx. I just bought a high dollar card and the seller had stated that he wouldn't be available until a couple of days after the auction, as soon as he returned, he emailed me AND bumped my shipping for free from priority to overnight....

4) Stop trying to make mint off of shipping....I hate paying $5 for $0.67 worth of shipping and when you do ship it, protect the card!

Just my venting....

brianwintersfan

<< <i>#1 really irks me as I just had to send off several emails asking the seller, what is going on, I haven't heard a thing from you in 5 days about when my item will ship/has been shipped and no feedback from them >>



And believe it or not this really irks me from the sellers point of view. I've been on Ebay for 8 years and I enjoy doing it but I also tell people who pester me about where there stuff is that I have a life outside of Ebay. I have a real job and a family. I would rather get to work and get your item packaged and shipped instead of wasting time sending out 50 emails to give someone blow by blow details of the status of their cards.

nightcrawler

What erks me is the ebay features that are set up to help protect ebayers but only seem to serve the scammers.

1. private listing

2. user id kept private

3. private feedback

I watched a scammer who used these features selling .02 recipes, they would get a few dozen kind feedbacks then list a big ticket item for fraud. One negative per hundred is a small price to pay for these scumbags. And when their feedback is private, we can't tell how lowly they are and they still have 99% positive.

brianwintersfan

The private stuff should only be available to people who buy and sell adult type items. People may want their privacy when bidding on porno dvd's. But someone selling a baseball card should not be able to hid who the bidders are.
I agree 100%

sandmanfromlv

bw...


<< <i>I've been on Ebay for 8 years and I enjoy doing it but I also tell people who pester me about where there stuff is that I have a life outside of Ebay. I have a real job and a family. >>



That's pretty weak statement of a seller IMO...why not cut down on the "pestering" emails by being proactive by either:

1) Go ahead and leave feedback once paid and state that the item will ship in xx days
2) Send a quick generic email out (once a day...should take about 10 minutes for all auctions) basically saying something like:

Thanks for the payment, your item will ship in xx days and should arrive via USPS in 3-10 business days"

Simple copy/paste to your buyers...if you are selling tons of stuff, just get an automated program to do this for you...

Doesn't ebay state that buyer/seller must contact each other w/in 3 days after close?

Really, how hard is it to send a quick email to your buyers once you ship the item?

Your approach is like going out to dinner and the server coming to your table and saying, "What do you want?"..."Here's your food", "You can pay the guy up front"....w/o buyers there would be no sellers....

JMHO

gosteelers

After the buyer pays for the item I sell them, I include in the feedback to them when the item is shipping. I wish more people would do this...

brianwintersfan

Well that's your opinion sandmanfromlv and you are entitled to it. If my customers contact me directly and ask I will let them know but I don't go out of my way to do it.



<< <i>Doesn't ebay state that buyer/seller must contact each other w/in 3 days after close? >>



That has nothing to do with letting someone know about shipping but rather it's about exchanging any important info like where to send payment or shipping charges. Nowhere does it say I have to let someone know when I'm going to ship their item.



<< <i>Really, how hard is it to send a quick email to your buyers once you ship the item? >>



With 75-100 auctions closing at any one given time it is extra work that I don't think is all that important. One thing people have none of is patience. I mean we live in the "I want it yesterday" type world and I don't follow that way of thinking. I have over 2,500+ positive feedbacks from buyers, many of whom add that I ship fast. I don't see the need to waste my time by giving a blow by blow account of when their item shipped.

tennesseebanker

Since we are on the topic of E-bay irks, I just had seven auctions end, two buyers paid immediately through Pay-pal. One sent me an e-mail right after the auction stating he would be sending a check for the amount. I e mailed him back and let him know how much I appreciated him letting me know how and when he is paying. The other four buyers have been sent invoices and have not paid yet, thet have neither tried to contact me reguarding if they are sending payment or not. It really makes me mad when buyers win auctions and dont have the courtesy to communicate with you. I give them three days in which to pay or communicate, after that I send a very polite E-mail reguarding thier payment. I then wait until the seventh day, the e-mail gets a little stronger. Luckily this is as far as I have had to go. I leave feedback for my buyers as soon as they pay also. I get tired of waiting around for payment on the auctions never knowing if it is coming or not kinda leaves a seller in limbo, especially when you would like to ship all the packages at once from the post office.

sandmanfromlv

why not use something like this to help ease the pain?

brianwintersfan

<< <i>why not use something like this to help ease the pain? >>



Not sure why this is so important to you but I guess it's the battle you have chosen to take up. I guess if you sell on Ebay you can do things your way and I can do them mine. They have worked well for the past eight years so I don't really see a need to change things now. I guess the guy who won the $10.00 baseball card and can't sleep at night because I haven't emailed him will just have to get over it because I ain't doing anything different! If it ain't broke don't fix it is my motto!

sandmanfromlv

didn't mean to get into a battle over this BWfan...hey if it works...keep on keeping...just posting my frustrations as primarily a buyer and rare seller...thought it might shed a little light on some sellers to see how the other half feel....

all is good...

jskirwin

<< <i>.just posting my frustrations as primarily a buyer and rare seller.... >>



I'm a regular buyer and seller - doing it to build my sets (psst! Wanna sell some nice 72 BB highs? I'm on the market!)

That said I think your peeves are based on the above quote. You don't sell much.

Since I do both, I understand both sides pretty well and what I've learned is not to take stuff too seriously. Then recognize that most sellers are amateurs selling for pin money. Give them some slack. If you want to be treated professionally, then shop at bona fide store. You don't walk into Target and expect to be treated like you're in Saks, so chill out. When I buy I only start worrying after a week or ten days after the auction. Then I start emailing. As a seller I try to turn things around within 2 days from receipt of payment. I often end up with checks for $1.99 sitting around the house for a few weeks which no doubts peeves the buyers, but I don't have the time to deposit them immediately.

As for feedback, people go around and around on that. All I can say is:

Don't neutral or neg unless you really, really, really have to. Feedback is not a market survey. It is not a tip where you decide that the food was really good by the waiter was distracted most of the meal so you're not leaving him much of one.

In over 500+ transactions I have left 1 negative - to a woman who punished me with a neutral for her own negligence of sending payment and not allowing time for the USPS to work during the Holidays.

Again, don't expect great service. If you want such service you will have to pay for it buy shopping at an established store or etailer.

sandmanfromlv

I guess my irk's are really target on more higher end stuff, not grinder commons, I wouldn't bother a seller for a 2 dollar card, but I think the point is, I am not expecting Tiffany's service or the seller to hand deliver my item, but wouldn't it save the seller the time of having to answer unnecessary emails regarding shipment of card/s if they just sent a simple email or some form to let the buyer know that everything is ok with the auction?

When I go into a McDonald's I am not expecting top notch service, but SOME SERVICE (nothing pisses me off more than someone not even making any effort to even acknowledge my presence...I think most people feel that way too and wouldn't frequent that establishment much if managment let their employees treat customers so rudely...)...

Just my personal rant on how "I" feel as a buyer at times and it's frustrating on my part to not hear a word from the seller at all and having to send an email out a week after the auction only to find out they haven't even shipped it yet.

I guess I have been used to treating customers in a certain way in my line of business (pharmaceuticals) to keep them happy and for repeat business that I have carried over to how I feel that buyers should be treated on eBay....

Like I said, just my opinion...