Archive for the ‘Auction’ Category

Dear eBay Queen:

I have a couple of questions.  Well, I guess I have a comment and a question.  I was at an auction this last Saturday and was appalled at how rude the people were! I’ve been to plenty of auctions, but it seems lately people are just down right rude.  No one says “excuse me,” they just barge on through.  I was standing at a jewelry table in the rain, and instead of saying “could you hand me that box,” these people practically laid their body across me to get to a box of goods on the table, that I could have easily passed to them.  I had people shove their way between my friend and I while we were standing there bidding!  Recently, I was at another auction house that has “a seat for everyone”.  I was sitting in the third row, and there were people that were standing in front of the seats!  The auctioneer told them to sit down several times and they ignored him! What is wrong with people in 2011? 

I am trying to sell a vintage crystal aurora borealis pin/brooch. I can't figure out what the best title would be for my item.  I listed it on eBay, and when I run a search for the item, I can't find my own listing, by just browsing through crystal brooches, or aurora borealis brooches or Vintage aurora borealis pins! I can find it when I go to “My eBay”—but how can I expect to sell something if it can't be found by someone looking for it?  What suggestions do you have for choosing correct search terms to name one's product?

My title is:   Vintage Aurora Borealis Crystal pin

Here is my description: Vintage AB Crystal brooch from the 40s or 50s, given to me by my grandmother in law. In good condition, 2 of the smallest stones missing (I couldn't tell until I looked very, very closely, a little bit of the gold tone on the back of the brooch is rubbing off. The brooch comes with vintage gift box. It is in bright, sparkling pink tones.

***Vintage—sold as is*** No Returns. I only accept PayPal.

Thanks for your help!

Jewels, Ottawa, KS

Dear Jewels:

Maybe we were at the same auction!  I’ve experienced the same things you have.  I don’t know why auctions have become a place for people to show their true colors.  My only thought about this is maybe people are in such a frenzy to buy stuff that they have forgotten the manners they were taught as a child.  When someone leans across me, I usually say “Would you like for me to hand that to you?”   Sometimes a simple “excuse me,” or “ouch! You just elbowed me!” etc.. will maybe shock these people out of their auction stupor.

When I search for your title: Aurora Borealis Crystal Brooch Pin, I came up with 59 items with the same words in the title. I would suggest using better keywords in your title.  What color is your pin? Is it marked? What year was it made?  When writing a title, make sure you use words that will describe your item.  Buyers search for the stuff they want using keywords. eBay gives us 55 characters to use to describe our items.  Did you know you only used 21 characters? eBay has a title helper, that might assist you in writing better titles.  http://labs.ebay.com/erl/demoto/to A better title might be: Vintage Pink Circle Rhinestone Aurora Borealis Pin.  I would make the following changes to your description: Up for auction is a Vintage Aurora Borealis, Crystal brooch from the 1950s.  This was given to me by my husband’s grandmother

• Rhinestones are a beautiful shade of pink
  
• Gold tone metal
• Pin back is in good working order
  
• Pin is 2.5” across and is circular
  
• 2 of the smallest stones missing (I couldn't tell until I looked very, very closely)
• A bit of the gold tone on the back of the brooch is rubbing off.
  
•     The brooch comes with vintage hinged gift box.

Your description is pretty good.  Make sure you put the positive things about the item first, then anything that might be negative. It’s important to remember to include, size, shape, color, age, and any damage. I would also remove “Vintage Sold as is, No Returns” While your policy is you do not accept returns, if your buyer is unhappy and opens a claim, you will have no choice but to accept a return.

Strange eBay item of the week: eBay item: 320662470743 (enter this number in the eBay search box in the top right corner of the home page): All this talk about rhinestones, I thought I should see what was selling. Check out: Vintage Sherman Pin Brooch Taupe Rhinestone SOLD $411.00 http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-SHERMAN-PIN-BROOCH-Taupe-Rhinestone-Japanned-/200580605405  

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 had a buyer purchase some earrings on January 30.  She complained my shipping costs were too high.  In the name of customer service I decided to lower the charges by $1.00.  The buyer finally paid on February 6th. I shipped on February 7th and made a label through PayPal.

This week the buyer e-mails me and says "I never received the earrings! What the heck is going on?”  I looked at tracking and saw that it was delivered on Feb.11th. I emailed the buyer to let them know, and they emailed back with their address, and asking me to confirm the address I sent it too.  I realize after looking at the PayPal page, that I shipped to the WRONG address and to the WRONG STATE.

In my defense, it said confirmed address and verified buyer too. I tried to figure out what to do on PayPal, but it looks like now it is up to the buyer to file a claim. Please give me your advice what to do. I don't want to receive negative feedback, and I don’t really think I should refund her money. It is only $15, so I will if I have to, but I don’t want too!

Blue’s Gifts –n- More

Dear Blue:

The first thing I would do is go to the eBay item and check her address out there.  Does it match the one listed in PayPal?  If the PayPal address and the eBay address to do not match the address your buyer gave you, I would call the buyer and let them know.  If you do not feel comfortable calling them, you can email them, but it usually saves some time talking to them on the phone.

I’m guessing your buyer has moved, and did not update their contact information.  You are right that this is not your fault, but the buyer could still leave you negative feedback.  In this particular situation I would work with your buyer to get the item back.  I would call the post office in the town your item was delivered and speak to the carrier about the item.  I have had an item returned to the carrier and returned to me once by doing this.

If your buyer does file a claim, you can always point out that you sent the item to the confirmed address.  I don’t know if this will help you win the case, but it should.

If for some reason it ends up that this was not the buyers address and the mistake is yours you will need to refund the buyer.

Dear eBay Queen:

I had a brand new grandbaby born two weeks ago.  I went shopping on eBay for some cute clothes for her.  Anything that was in her size that I liked, and was listed at .99 I would bid $2.01. I bid $2.01 because I figured people would bid $1.99.  I won some and I lost some.

I did win the cutest handmade outfit.  I won the bid for .99 and $3.95 shipping.  I paid for the item via PayPal and waited for the item to get to me. A few hours later I received an email from the seller telling me I owed her another $2.50 and she even sent me an invoice for it on PayPal. She told me the fees and shipping was more than I paid.  She added a little blurb about how she was selling items to make a profit not a loss and she was not giving this away for free.  I wrote her back refusing to pay the extra I told her I
paid everything the listing told me too and if the shipping was more she should have figured that out before listing the item. I also suggested she should not list items for .99 if she is not willing to sell them for that price. I told her I was sorry and that I am also a seller so I feel her pain but I have taken a loss on items along the way too. She sent me the outfit and it is much nicer than I thought. Now I feel bad.

Should I send her the extra money?

Grandma Jenny

Dear Grandma:

Congratulations on your new granddaughter! You are right, it is the sellers responsibility to make sure the shipping is correct and to make sure their profit margin is what it is supposed to be. They also have to realize that if they list an item for 99 cents and it is not bid up at least a few dollars they are not going to make any profit.  On the same note: if they don't price the shipping correctly they could easily lose money. I would not feel bad about the purchase, you did everything a buyer is supposed to do (bid on the item, won and paid promptly).

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): Did you ever save any Matchbooks? Check out this 9500+ Rare Vintage Matchbook Collection SOLD $3560.00 Chek 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 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