Archive for February, 2011

Dear eBay Queen:

I had an eBayer buy 13 books from me with my combined shipping rates posted in my listings.  I shipped the items the next day.  After the buyer left me feedback, I received 13 1 star scores in my DSRs, thereby trashing my account for an entire year and preventing me from becoming a TOP SELLER according to eBay’s rules. After doing a little research, I found out the buyer is another book seller on eBay, A TOP RATED SELLER who DOES NOT POST HIS COMBINED SHIPPING RATES in his listing!!

I thought maybe the DSR scores he left were a mistake. I emailed him to ask if he was happy with the sale. He emailed me back, and said “everything was fine.”

I went above and beyond what I said I would offer in my listing.  I told him I would ship media mail, but I sent the books priority shipping with insurance and tracking.  I called eBay customer support because I read on the feedback information page that “We also have safeguards in place to protect sellers against unfair negative or neutral feedback.”

Could you help me figure out what I am suppose to learn from this? Do you think this seller/buyer did this to prevent me from being a Top Seller?  Why did they buy the items if they were only going to ding my stars?

Bookish

Dear Bookish:

I do understand your frustration, and if this had happened to me I would be livid! I wish I had some really good advice for you.  In a situation like this I would contact the Dean of eBay Education, Jim Griffith griff@eBay.com and let him know what happened.  He will look into it.  If he sees any improprieties he will take action.

This is a really tough situation. I know how important it is to be a Top Rated seller to many people who sell on eBay.  I’ve read lots of articles and believe that most buyers do not understand the Top Rated Seller Program.  eBay has done it’s marketing to the sellers on it’s importance, but not to it’s buyers.  Buyers want their items fast and at a good price, they are not looking for a Top Rated Seller badge.  I know this doesn’t help much.  I hope that Griff is able to help you and the ones will be removed from your Detailed Seller Ratings.

Dear eBay Queen:

I’ve been selling for a year or so. People tell me it is good for your business to sell worldwide. I’ve sold a few things without a problem to other countries, but I am wondering if I should continue to do so.  I was sitting at Starbucks the other day and overheard these 2 women talking about eBay.  They were discussing selling internationally and talked about all the risks.  I butted in on the conversation, and here’s some of the information I learned from them.

1.      Germany, France, Italy, and Israel are high risk and up to 50% of our packages have issues in these countries.

2.      Always ship with tracking

3.      Be prepared to eat 5% of your orders when the buyers file claims because the customs agent stole it.

What do you think of this advice? Is it more of a risk than its worth to sell internationally?? 

Sharon R.

Dear Sharon:

I am not a huge international seller.  I do sell a few things here and there, but most of my products are bulky and heavy, which makes them pretty expensive to ship over seas.

I have heard the same thing about shipping to Germany, France and Italy.  I don’t know what it is about shipping to those countries, but they do seem to have some issues with customs and delivery.  You can easily alleviate this problem by selecting to NOT ship to those countries.

Never ship any package without tracking.  When I ship overseas, I always include insurance.  I am unsure about statement #3.   I do know that if you add insurance to all of your overseas shipments, you will not be “eating” any of your orders.

There is a risk in selling anywhere, but if you have the goods that international buyers want, I say go for it!

Strange eBay item of the week: eBay item: 220730555241 (enter this number in the eBay search box in the top right corner of the home page): Do you like KFC? Watch American Pickers? Check out this Vintage Retirement KFC Pin seen on American Pickers SOLD $500.00 Check it out HERE  

Dear eBay Queen:

I have been selling on the internet for several years. I have been an eBay POWERSELLER with 100% feedback, following all of the rules and regulations to the letter.   When all the changes on eBay started, I tried to switch gears by selling items on Craigslist and other new auction sites.  I’ve taken this past year off of full time eBay selling, but kept selling on Craigslist, niche auction sites and other person to person online selling.

 I am ready to start back up and want to put together a business model for buying inventory online and selling online, if it can still be done on a small scale (under thousands of items at one time).  We want to start something up that can be a side job or something to fill in the hours in the evening/weekends, etc.   My background is in commercial photography, so I have a lot of studio equipment which, in the old days, made my auctions look like they came out of a catalog.  I also know that I could sell consignment items for a percentage.  I’ve noticed a lot of eBay stores that popped up in my area have gone out of business.  Why do you think that is? Do you think the consignment business is a loss?  I like the idea of having no inventory, selling others’ items, and taking a percentage of the sale when it is final.  I like the consignment part of the eBay business, that way the cash layout is $0 on our part and we make money when the person’s item sells. 

I previously used independent auction management software to manage all my online auctions.  I have figured out they are no longer in business.  Do you know of new software for me?  I would really like a software that would manage who is bidding, questions, payments, shipping details and tracking information. Doing all of this without software can become a full time job that sucks up your extra hours REAL fast! 

I like the idea of helping others sell their stuff the most. I would love to start a business kind of like an on-site auction company or liquidator in which myself and a team, come in a house and setup to sell everything for a percentage (typically 30-40%).  Of course, most of the time would be spent advertising for the event and getting a good following to attend these sales.  I am wondering what your thoughts are about this.  Do you have any suggestions for me that might get me back in the game of selling?   Sorry for such a long background story, it's nice to share with others ideas of selling, especially when we are NOT in competition of one another.

Tony

Dear Tony:

Welcome back to the world of selling.  Your observations are pretty much correct.  Consignments have never been my favorite.  Mostly because I love finding and selling my own stuff.  Finding the junk to sell makes all of the work of selling worth it for me.  The one draw back to consignments for me is, I feel bad when the item doesn’t sell or the consigner is unhappy because it isn’t worth what they think it is.  I believe there are lots of people who would like to hire someone to sell their items.  With some advertising and word of mouth, you could have a pretty good business selling things for others.  I probably would set up a place in my home to meet with people, instead of opening a store front at first.

When it comes to inventory/auction management there are quite a few options out there.  My favorite is Blackthorne Pro (owned by eBay).  There are others out there, this one is a good starter, and does consignment pay outs really well. 

I love your idea of starting an estate sale/liquidation company.  That would be my dream job, if I didn’t have a family with 6 children.  The thought of going through peoples stuff, pricing it, and meeting the public that buys it would be a blast to me.  I don’t have a lot of experience in this area, but I would think the worst part of this business would be getting rid of the stuff that DIDN’T sell.  Let me know what you decide to do.

Strange eBay item of the week: eBay item: 220730555241 (enter this number in the eBay search box in the top right corner of the home page): I’ve always wanted to learn to can.  I wonder if this jar would make it taste better? Scarce Half Pint Millville Fruit Jar SOLD $490.00 Check it out HERE  

Suzie Eads is a nationally known eBay marketer and eBay trained Education Specialist. She lives in Rantoul. Do you have a question for the eBay Queen? E-mail: questions@asktheebayqueen.com

Dear eBay Queen;

I have a couple of questions.  The first is about zero feedback buyers.  How do you handle them?  Do you let them buy from you?  Have you had any bad experiences?  I had a bad experience a couple of weeks ago.  This dude buys an item from me, pays for it right away, and then 10 minutes later I get this message:

“I’m sorry I bought the item by mistake.” The next morning I wake up to an eBay and PayPal claim for and item not received. I immediately refund him and even left good feedback in hope of getting the same in return.  This zero feedback buyer left me a negative. What did I do wrong?!

My second question involves flipping domain names.  I put up a listing for a cool domain that I own.  I listed it in the right category.  It’s been about 36 hours since I have listed, and I can’t find it anywhere!  I can see the auction via a direct link, but I can’t see it in the indexed line up on eBay.

Jerry; Kansas City, MO

Dear Jerry:

I have had a few problems here and there with zero feedback buyers.  My philosophy with first time buyers is, we’ve all been there. This bidder obviously didn’t know what they were doing, or they were just a jerk. You could try to educate them by letting them know there needs to be a legitimate reason for negative feedback. Let them know exactly what a negative means to an eBay seller. Try to get the feedback revised. If you don’t want to sell to first time buyers you can always block them.

When it comes to items showing up in search, I would do the following:

·         Clear all your cookies.

·         Write eBay and let them know your item is not showing up in search.

This probably has to do with eBay’s indexing and the rules they have for domain names.   They have a variety of rules when it comes to listing domains, designer clothing, etc. I have found this link regarding search indexing.  http://pages.ebay.com/help/search/questions/wheres-my-item.html  I hope eBay gets back to you quickly.

Dear eBay Queen:

I’m interested in selling on eBay, Amazon, and some other auction sites if I can.  I have issues going out and finding product, so I’ve been thinking about using a drop shipper.  I’ve been hesitant because I felt that I would lose control of the product, and I’ve always been concerned about the return policy. If you buy your products yourself, you can be flexible with a return policy.   If you are a drop shipper what kind of return policy can you have?

I was thinking about implementing a return policy that states: “Items must be returned 7-15 days after they were shipped.” Technically, I have 30 days to return the items to the drop shipper, but I think a 7-15 day allowance for my customers, should give me plenty of time to get it back to the shipper. Does this seem logical to you? What should I do if someone misses the deadline?

One other thing: I already have an idea of what I want to sell, but it still helps to know which items are in high demand. Is there any way a person can tell what is selling on eBay, perhaps a market research software or something?

Drop Ship It, Garnett, KS

Dear Drop:

I have not experienced the world of drop shipping.  Like you, I’ve been a little afraid of not having control of my product.  This being said, I think you might be over thinking your return policy.  A simple return policy would be:  “Returns must be made within 7 days of receiving item, less shipping, handling and insurance.  All returns must be insured.”  This way when you say within 7 days of receiving the item, your policy is based on when they receive it, not when it was shipped.  With delivery confirmations it will be easy to see when the item was delivered.

Here’s a link to eBay’s advice on return policies: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/return-policy.html

There is a service called Terapeak (http://www.terapeak.com). They have a free and a fee subscription service that will help pick out items that sell well on eBay.

I know it’s hard to find the right item to sell. Good luck on your search!

Strange eBay item of the week: eBay item: 390281292832 (enter this number in the eBay search box in the top right corner of the home page): Do you collect Valentines or old advertising? Check this out: Victorian Scrapbook 380 Pcs Valentines,Cig &Advtg Cards   Check it out HERE

Suzie Eads is a nationally known eBay marketer and eBay trained Education Specialist. She lives in Rantoul. Do you have a question for the eBay Queen? E-mail: questions@asktheebayqueen.com