Dear eBay Queen:

I love eBay!  After reading your blog, I guess you do too, huh?  I’m having a hard time with Turbo-lister and the logistics of getting all my stuff organized, but I’m making lots of money and I get to shop without guilt, which is cool.  I’m really into vintage and unique stuff.  Could you give me a few tips to keep me on track and organized?

I’m thinking I want to do this full time.  It’s such a rush!  Last week, I sold a wicker doll carriage for $100.99 plus shipping that I bought at a garage sale for $5.00.  How cool is that?  A few months back, I sold a silver baby cup with someone’s name already engraved on it for $70.00!  I bought it for .50 cents.  I think I am the garage sale queen!  I also had great luck the one and only storage unit I bought for $140.00.  It wasn’t that great, honestly but it had 6 industrial European hinges that sold for more than I paid for the whole unit!  I’m still selling that stuff.

BTW, It also contained a 1947 WORKING Singer Sewing Machine that’s sitting in my garage.

Since I’m into the vintage stuff, research takes up a lot of time but I’m good at it.  Please give me a tip or two………

Marcella dreamrich on EBAY

Dear Marcella:

Congratulations! eBay is a great way to make extra money, or to earn full time money. Your sales have been phenomenal! You’ve got a great eye. My downfall to selling on eBay is the research. I enjoy researching things, but it takes up so much time for me to do it that I’m just researching and not writing stuff up.

Here are some tips to help you stay organized.

•  Use Turbo-Lister’s Item numbers as your inventory numbers.
• Have a separate place for wrapping packages and photographing your items.
• Have specific times you wrap packages, write up eBay items, research, etc.
• If you are going to do this full time, make sure you allocate the proper space and time for your eBay business.  Both of those things can get out of hand quickly.

Turbo-lister is a great program to keep you organized, plus it’s FREE.  The one drawback to Turbo-lister is that it doesn’t schedule listings for free.

Dear eBay Queen;

Someone who owns a donation thrift store wants me to sell items for them. They are in Colorado, and I am in Western Kansas. I was thinking of having them set up their own eBay ID, and I would use my listing program to list the items for them. They would send me pictures for the listing, I would list the items and then they would ship and take care of everything else. I feel uncomfortable selling out of state like this and with not being able to handle the items and take pictures like I normally do. That is why I think they should use their own eBay ID. I just wonder if you have done anything like this before.

If I decide to use my ID, should I specify in the listing that the item is coming from another state, or do I change the location box. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I don’t think the person selling the items has had any experience with eBay, so that is another concern. The store is about 100 miles away.

Lisa, KS

Dear Lisa:

This could be quite a tricky situation. You would be covering yourself by having the seller use their own eBay account, but they still could quite possibly not ship items out as fast as they should, and their photos could be a complete mess. Would there be any way for you to make a trip out there once or twice a month? That way you could have the stuff in hand, and make sure it was packaged correctly and shipped on time.

If this isn’t feasible, I would consider referring them to a Trading Assistant in their area.

Strange eBay item of the week: eBay item: 270838009628 (enter this number in the eBay search box in the top right corner of the home page.) What was your favorite Saturday Morning Cartoon?  Mine was Scooby Doo.  Check out The Mystery Machine, Scooby’s Van.  SOLD $9,900.00 http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/?cmd=ViewItem&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649&item=270838009628

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

Dear eBay Queen:

I am a seller but also a buyer.  I bought and paid for 4 different pairs of jeans from a seller and asked for combine shipping.  The seller gave me an invoice for all 4 pairs of jeans, but the invoice did not have a discounted shipping rate. I emailed the seller and asked once again for a combined invoice, and a discounted shipping rate.  She sent me an email back and told me that it is not stated in the listing that she gives a discount.  I wrote her an email back and explained to her that I hope these jeans are shipped individually since she would not give me a discount on the shipping.

The seller shipped the jeans out, and they were of course shipped together in a Tyvek type envelope. I looked the jeans over, and I noticed that one pair had a tiny hole in them. I went and checked out the listing and noticed that it did not say ANY WHERE in it there was a hole in the jeans.  I emailed her to let her know, and she emailed me back saying she did not take returns!

I do not think I should have to pay individually priced shipping rates when a seller ships the items all together.  The seller charged me 34.95 for shipping each of these jeans individually and really paid 14.50 to ship them all together!

This seller has 100% feedback rating, but if I have anything to say about it, she won’t for long.  Do you think I should leave negative feedback for this seller?

Rebecca; Dallas, Texas

Dear Rebecca:

From everything you’ve said, I would be pretty miffed at this seller as well! Negative feedback is probably warranted in this situation, but I believe in giving someone every chance to do the right thing.  Before leaving negative feedback on the jeans I would send her an email similar to this:

I purchased four pairs of jeans from you.  Three pair are as described, but one pair had a small hole in them.  I see from your listing that you do not accept returns, I am hoping in this case you will make an exception as I they were not as you had listed them.  I am also unhappy that you charged me for shipping each one individually, when in fact you shipped them all together.  I requested that you ship them individually to me since your shipping charges reflected that.  I am not as happy with this transaction as I should be, and hope that you will rectify this.  The other 3 pairs of jeans are perfect, and I really like those. 

I hope your seller will do the right thing.  If she does not, you can always open a “not as described case” though eBay.

Dear eBay Queen:

I’m pretty new to selling. My sales have been steady and consistent for the last couple of months, but here lately my sales are in a slump. What can I do about this? Wait it out? Revise my auctions? I know it’s been only a short time, I just need some reassurance, and to see if maybe you have experienced the same thing.

Currently I’m running just auctions.  I don’t have a store yet (sitting on the fence until I learn more).  I try to have at least 20 items listed at any given time.   I’m listing several times a week.  My current inventory is dolls, books, rubber stamps and scrapbooking supplies.  Recently, I added some Christmas ornaments.  I think my listings are pretty diverse, to say the least.  Do you have any advice for me?

Lilly; Ottawa, KS

Dear Lilly:

I’m impressed with your 20 listings each week!  Selling slumps happen no matter what you sell.  It maybe the wrong time of the year, the price may not be right, the photos may not show a good representation of the item, or there may be no discernable reason as to why it hasn’t sold.

An eBay Store is a great way to go if you have the product to put in there. To have a basic store, I would say you need at least 100 items. This is a nice amount of inventory, and will make for a more successful store.  Do you think you have that many items to list?  A basic store is 15.95 a month, plus the listing fee.

If you send me a link to one of your auctions, I would be happy to check out your listings to see if there is something you could do spruce them up.

Strange eBay item of the week: eBay item: 220870022893 (enter this number in the eBay search box in the top right corner of the home page.)  Do you have any Dinosaur fossil in your backyard?  Check out this Hell Creek Dinosaur Fossil Large Ugly Tyrannosaurus Rex Tooth SOLD $660.00

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HELL-CREEK-DINOSAUR-FOSSIL-LARGE-UGLY-TYRANNOSAURUS-T-REX-PREMAXILLARY-TOOTH-/220875219456  

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

Dear eBay Queen:

My wife and I are buyers (11 years), not sellers.  Recently, I tried to purchase some automotive parts thru eBay Motors, using “Buy it Now”.  I found 2 clear instances of “bait and switch” by 1 seller and another instance from a 2^nd seller.

They listed merchandise that I wanted to buy.  Each listing gave the number of available items for sale, and each listing had at least 2 more days to run.  When I sent an email, asking them to confirm the fitment, the listings were pulled early and these sellers told me that the merchandise was no longer available.  They most kindly offered me alternatives that were substantially more expensive.   All communications were via eBay’s email links.  The time span for each of these email sequences was 1 or 2 hours – not days.  I saved all my emails thinking that eBay’s customer support would be interested in these cases of possible seller misbehavior.  I had difficulty finding email links to report the incidents.  (I prefer email to the telephone because I am hard of hearing and sometimes telephone conversations are not satisfactory.)  I did find email links to eBay Motors and to eBay Customer Support, but these email  tools were forms, so all they requested were  listing numbers.  There was no way that I could tell them that they needed to review my email history for each listing.  It has been several weeks with no follow-up.   I assume that eBay and eBay Motors have no interest in pursuing buyer complaints against sellers.  I am concerned about how well eBay monitors its sellers and how well it looks after its buyers.

As a footnote, I did find a 4^th seller who had the merchandise that he listed and who performed his end of the bargain very promptly.  He was a true “5 star seller” in all respects.

Dave  Sutherland

Dear Dave:

I’m glad that you found a good seller whose merchandise was exactly what you needed and most importantly exactly as they described.  What you describe is odd. In this particular situation, the best thing to do would be call eBay.  I understand that you are uncomfortable doing that, but it would be your best option and get the quickest results.

Another option would be contact eBay through their messaging system (not email).  To do this, follow these instructions:

1. Go to: http://ocs.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ContactCS
2. Mouse over “Selling” then click on “Turbo Lister”
3. To the right you’ll see “Chat with us.”  This is an online chat form.

Once you “log on” with someone, let them know you are uncomfortable talking on the phone, and you know that you are not in the right area for your question, but you did not know what else to do.  They will get someone that will help you with your problem.  If that doesn’t work, I would email griff@eBay.com .

I’m sorry that two sellers were less than honest with you, but so happy you found the right one.

Dear eBay Queen:

I lost my Top Rated Seller status, and I have no idea why.  I figured out how to call eBay, and I talked to them about it.  The eBay representative told me to look at my “performance standards” to see when the Detailed Seller Ratings with 1’s or 2’s would fall off. I wrote it down, but I can’t figure out for the life of me how to do it.  Could you help me?

S.P.

Dear S.P.

I think it’s a little tricky to find the performance standards page myself!  Here’s how to do it:

1. http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?SellerDashboard
2. Under your DSR ratings, you’ll see “performance standards.” click on it.
3. Choose the tab labeled “daily performance”
4. Scroll down to the bottom and click on “view 12 month trending data”
5. A screen will pop up, and you can either choose “by percentage” or “by count”, this will make it easier to narrow down who, or when your low DSR’s have been left.

Strange eBay item of the week: eBay item: 220870022893 (enter this number in the eBay search box in the top right corner of the home page.  Have you ever wondered how much a President’s signature is worth? Check out this Bush Family Cookbook, Signed George & Barbara Bush SOLD $190.00 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