Hurray! My ship has come in!! I got my “Ying-ling dba Alamo Auto Sports and Andy Scott V. eBay” class-action settlement check today……Guess how much it is? Wait for it…………45 cents!!!  I vaguely remember signing up for this class action lawsuit.  This was for people who sold on eBay in the Auto Parts & Accessories category between the years 2005 to 2009. Should I cash this check? I’ve been brainstorming what to do with it.

Maybe I’ll let my kids list the check and the letter it’s attached to as a collector’s item in 2032. eBay will be just a distant memory by then, and folks will be collecting eBayana. Surely by then people will be posting holographic images of the stuff in their homes, and shoppers will do a virtual walk through other people’s houses. They will just point at things they want to buy, and the sellers will get a message saying something has been claimed. Once the virtual payment is made, the item’s molecular structure will be disintegrated, encrypted, and uploaded to an orbiting satellite. Then the buyer will download it to their re-integration module in the garage. The whole transaction will take about 90 seconds.

Seriously, should I cash this check? Do you think it will be worth something later? Here’s one odd thing: the check is void after Dec. 22, 2011. I thought checks were supposed to be good for a year. I’m thinking I might keep it. Don’t you think it would be too embarrassing to cash it at the bank?

45Cent-aire

Dear 45 Cent:

It’s always good to have a sense of humor about this kind of thing.  I was not part of that class action suit, so I did not get one of these “high dollar checks.”  In this situation, I would probably hold on to the check.  It might be worth more later, and at the very least would be interesting conversation piece hanging in your office.

Dear eBay Queen:

I’ve been selling for a few years, and I have a couple of questions for you.

• Why do you suppose millions of people sell on eBay when they have to pay a seller fee if their item doesn’t sell, when anyone can sell their stuff on Amazon and will only pay a seller fee when their item does sell?
• Can you explain this promotion eBay has with 1 day shipping time and Free shipping?

Thanks!

Tony

Dear Tony:

Amazon and eBay are both great venues to list your items to sell through.  Some people might disagree, but I really feel they are best suited for different items.

• Amazon is best for: books, house wares, kitchen items, arts, crafts and sewing

You can sell almost anything on Amazon, but Amazon sometimes only uses approved sellers for Toys, Clothing and Electronics.  So if you aren’t one of their approved merchants, you won’t be able to sell those items there.  I purchased a large lot of medical scrubs, and tried to list them on Amazon.  I could not sell my scrubs there, because clothing is a category I must be approved for in order to list.

Amazon doesn’t have any fees to list.  Their fees are charged only when the item sells. The down side to this is sometimes items are listed for a penny because of the competition.

• eBay is known for their collectibles, but anything can be sold on eBay as long as it’s not a knock off or a live animal. (There are a few other things, but these are the main restrictions.)

eBay does have listing fees, but I have found it prevents many people from doing what some people do on Amazon by selling something for a penny.

Either venue can be a great outlet to sell. Try them both out, and see how you do.

eBay’s new promotion will save you 20% on your final values fees when you offer free expedited (not overnight) shipping and have one day handling time.  For more info go here: http://announcements.ebay.com/2011/11/starting-tomorrow-save-20-on-your-final-value-fees-for-free-expedited-shipping-with-1-day-handling/   The promotion runs from November 24^th through November 25^th.  If you are a Top Rated Seller, you will receive the 20% off for your selling status, along with the new promotion.  That’s 40% off your final value fees.

Strange eBay item of the week: eBay item: 250912558734 (enter this number in the eBay search box in the top right corner of the home page.   Have you ever looked at something and thought “what is that thing?”  I’m sure many people have looked at this and thought that.  EC&M SF 1870’s Central Pacific Railroad Telegraph Insulator SOLD $5,560.00 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? Email: questions@asktheebayqueen.com

While I was on Thanksgiving Break at my daughter’s house, I received a bizarre email from eBay.  The email is below, and it is telling me I have a Buyer Protection case from March of 2010! What the heck is going on?

Notice: Your buyer tried to open a case. Please contact the buyer.

Dear (removed),

A buyer tried to open an eBay Buyer Protection case because the item hasn’t arrived yet. It was too soon to open a case, so we asked the buyer to contact you. If you haven’t already heard from the buyer, we recommend you get in touch with the buyer. Most issues can be worked out through email or a simple phone call.

BUYER            ID ITEM #                  LISTING TITLE CASE            ATTEMPT DATE

(removed)       270510656244                         Loving Family Doll Set                            2010-03-03

By working directly with the buyer, you’ll be able to provide good customer service, and may be able to avoid a case being opened.
Here are some ways to help avoid a case for an item not received:

• Ship with tracking (and signature confirmation for items $250 and above) and upload the tracking information right away.
• Print your shipping label on eBay or PayPal. Tracking information is automatically uploaded for you and your buyer.
• Ship within your stated handling time.
• If there’s a shipping delay, let the buyer know.

You can view a list of best practices for successful selling.

Thanks,
eBay

Please don’t reply to this email. It was sent from a mailbox that doesn’t accept incoming messages. If you have questions, please contact us.

What does this mean?  At first I thought it was a phishing email, then I checked my archives, I really did have a Loving Family Doll Set with that eBay number.  It sold, and I received positive feedback for it.  What is going on?

Amy T; Wichita, KS

Dear Amy:

I did a little checking, and there seems to have been a technical issue with eBay Resolution emails between November 17^th and November 22^nd.  Based upon the eBay boards and mailing lists I am on, there are quite a few people that have received the same kind of emails.  To be on the safe side, I would go to the eBay Resolution center just to make sure that your case mentioned above falls into eBay latest technical issue they are having.  http://resolutioncenter.ebay.com/

Dear eBay Queen:

I buy a lot of things on eBay, mostly on Buy It Now with Best Offer.  Best Offer makes me feel like I’m getting a deal while I’m spending money.  Today I received this notification from eBay while I was placing an offer.

“This is your third and last chance to make a best offer for this item. Improve your chances by setting a fair price. You have placed the maximum amount of offers allowed for this listing and cannot make another at this time. You may still Buy It Now, or wait 30 days before making another offer.”

Seriously, eBay? This is how you increase sales? Buyers can only make 3 offers and then they are shut out for 30 days unless they pay full price?  These rules have got to be made by people who know nothing about retail or eBay!

I was just about to buy some movie tickets, as I did last year when they were offering double eBay bucks. The price was $127. I offered $90, then $100, then $110. I’m guessing the next one would have done the trick. Oh well, my seller loses, I lose and so does eBay. Brilliant people who went to college, but never worked in a store!

Paige Fry

Dear Paige:

Thanks for sharing that with me!  I would say 75% of my items on eBay are Buy it Now with Best Offers.  I’ve never knew that there a warning given to buyers like that.

I think the best thing to do would be to save that little blurb and email it to the seller on your last or third offer.  If the seller realized that this was the last time in 30 days they would receive an offer from you, they might take it.

 Strange eBay item of the week: eBay item: 190605941442 (enter this number in the eBay search box in the top right corner of the home page. Do you like Christmas? Do you like to decorate your torso in Christmas?  Check out this Christine Foley Size SM Christmas Sweater Ornament! SOLD $287.00 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? Email: questions@asktheebayqueen.com

I am frustrated with eBay today. I happened to check my dashboard and noticed that I received a 1 star rating for shipping charges from a US buyer. I don’t know how this happened, as I have free shipping on my entire eBay store. I called eBay and the representative tells me “it appears that the buyer chose to upgrade their shipping, so they were able to leave you a low rating.”  Since I offer the choice of upgrading to Priority (for $2.95 by the way) and the buyer opted to do so, they then had the opportunity to ding my stars. Nice… To top it all off, the order was shipped within 10 hours of purchase for $2.95 (and my cost was $4.95) and it arrived at their post office in less than 48 hours. I know exactly who it was because I had precisely 1 person upgrade their shipping during this time period. To top it off, I just lost my TRS (Top Rated Seller) over shipping.

I was encouraged to contact Jim Griffith who I have never had any dealing with, I did contact him and I received a “canned” email in response and then never heard another word. The truth of the matter is that the feedback DSR system is set up in a way that puts tremendous power in the hands of buyers, many of which have no knowledge of its importance and others who know too much and abuse it when they don’t get what they want. It is a system that looms over the heads of sellers and makes us jump through hoops when in the real world this would not be going on. I really love selling on eBay, but the DSR/feedback system is very anti-seller and a total moral killer that needs to be revised seriously.  Thanks for listening to me complain.

Jessica

Dear Jessica:

That really stinks! I wish I had a solution for you.  Unfortunately if you’ve already spoke an eBay customer service rep and emailed Griff, there isn’t much more for you to do, beside prevent it from happening in the future.  I would consider upping the price of all of your listing to reflect free shipping for priority, that way this situation will not repeat itself.

One other option is to call into eBay Radio and speak directly to Griff.  eBay has two radio shows a week. For more information http://groups.ebay.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1278

Dear eBay Queen:

I think I received a phishing email that I’ve heard about from so many people.  I recently received an email from PayPal requesting for my social security number.  Do you think this is a scam?  How would I know for sure?

I feel very uncomfortable typing my social security number into a box at a website, secure or not.  I think this request must be based on my sales of a few years ago, as it can’t possibly be based on recent activity (virtually nil).  Either that or they are sending the same request to everyone who’s ever received a payment.   I don’t qualify to get a taxpayers ID number, so it’s got to be my SS#.  Could you help me with this?

Just a Number

Dear Number:

Starting in 2011, PayPal will be required by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to report sales information to the IRS about sellers who receive payments for the sale of goods or services through PayPal.  The requirements are as follows:

•   Applies to sellers receiving over $20,000 in gross payment volume AND over 200 payments
•   Applies only for sales on or after January 1, 2011

I understand being a little leery of putting your Social Security Number online. I did a little research, and according to PayPal’s site:

“PayPal automatically encrypts your confidential information in transit from your computer to ours using the Secure Sockets Layer protocol (SSL) with an encryption key length of 128 bits (the highest level commercially available). Before you even register or log in to our site, our server checks that you’re using an approved browser – one that uses SSL 3.0 or higher.

Once your information reaches us, it resides on a server that is heavily guarded, both physically and electronically. Our servers sit behind an electronic firewall and are never directly connected to the Internet, so your private information stays private.”

If you still don’t feel secure about giving your personal information online, you could call PayPal at 1-888-221-1161 or check out the link here:  https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/marketingweb?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=marketing_us/IRS6050W

Strange eBay item of the week: eBay item: 130596417265 (enter this number in the eBay search box in the top right corner of the home page.)  Do you like old cars and pie?  Check out this 1904 Curved Dash Oldsmobile Pie Wagon. SOLD $51,350.00  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? Email: questions@asktheebayqueen.com