The Imperial Shipyards
Imperial Surplus Sales => Ebay Sales => Topic started by: Clonehead on March 26, 2009, 03:30:43 AM
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As some of you might know, I have had an Ebay store going for several years now. As I have had so much experience with the ins and outs of Ebay, It was thought best that I should create a little tutorial, here, that might help you yarders when it comes to buying and selling on Ebay.
Keep in mind that there are alot of bases to cover, here, and I will cover what I can, when I can. Rules and policies have a random habit of changing on ebay so some of my knowledge is not up to date or possibly will not be up to date in the near future.
I will be happy to answer any questions you might have about buying or selling, here. If I don't know the answer, I can find out.
First off, we should talk a little about buying.
Ebay is a great place to find what you are looking for. It is so vast, chances are, if you are looking for something that you can't find anywhere else, if it exists, it is for sale on Ebay.
Obviously, to get started buying on ebay, you must register with the site. To do so, you must provide a working e-mail address and provide some proof of your physical address either by giving them credit card info or info of a working bank account. They will use the email addy to send you a tag that you must send back to complete the registration process. And, of course, you need to make up a screen name and submit a password.
When you go to buy your first item, you can search for it using the search box twards the top of the page or you can surf through all of the provided categories from the home page.
When you type in what you are searching for in the search box, ebay will show items from the relevant category whose titles most closely match your search key words.
I will continue to pile info here, as time alots but now, I have to get ready to go to work.
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Also when you go to shop for an item, It is important to take a look at the seller's feedback. Feedback is a system that ebay uses for buyer's and seller's to rate each others performance throughout the course of a completed transaction.
If you click on a seller's feedback number, you can see a detailed list of the feedback that seller has gotten. If this seller has had some neutral or bad feedback, you can research what the buyer said about the seller and, based on this, you might want to reconsider a purchase from that person.
Feedback works both ways in that the seller also has the ability to leave feedback twards the buyer as far as how quickly you paid, what your communication was like ,and whatever else. The only difference is that Ebay no longer allows sellers to leave a buyer bad feedback. Only good or neutral feedback. The seller can, however file an unpaid item dispute if you win an item but do not pay. Generaly, a buyer should pay or mail payment within 3 days of winning an item.
That brings us to our next subject, how will you pay for your item.
When choosing an item to buy or bid on, in the auction, the seller will list what type of payment is accepted. As part of a new ebay policy, sellers are no longer allowed to post in their listings that they will accept checks or money orders. That is not to say that a seller wouldn't. You would have to ask the seller if they do by clicking the "ask seller a question" link.
More on paying for an item, later. It's dinner time.
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Generally, the most common accepted form of payment is Paypal, which is a safe method of online payment. When setting up a Paypal account, one has the option of using a credit card or a personal bank account or both to draw funds from. If you have it set up for both, you can choose which is your primary form of payment and which is backup. Keep in mind that using paypal for things other than on ebay, may cost you money. It just depends on what kind of paypal account you have. When you use it to buy an ebay auction, it is the seller who pays the paypal fees. Since I have a store, mine is a primer account and It doesn't cost me anything to use paypal for anything. They get their money from me from the percentage that they take from my sales. Although I'm not familiar with it, Tamer can tell you that it costs the average person to have a paypal account.
If your paypal is taking funds from your bank account to pay for an item, this is called an electronic funds transfer and will take 3-4 days to process from your bank to the sellers paypal account. If paypal is taking funds from your credit card, the transfer of funds is instant. That just means that you will get your item more quickly if you use the credit card side of paypal.
Naturally, if the seller takes it, you could pay with a check or money order and if you are going to the sellers house to pick up your item, you could take cash although I wouldn't suggest it. That's a good way to get mugged.
These are the basics about buying. There is alot more to tell but I can answer any questions about buying on ebay.
Next up, How to sell on Ebay.
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I can accpet 5 cash payments per year? I know one thing, international send moneys take a big hit. Except for a recent deal with James, that one didn't take out any fees. I bet it has something to do with transfers from bank accounts or taking a credit card payment as a regular paypal member.
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I can accpet 5 cash payments per year? I know one thing, international send moneys take a big hit. Except for a recent deal with James, that one didn't take out any fees. I bet it has something to do with transfers from bank accounts or taking a credit card payment as a regular paypal member.
What, only 5? That's kind of silly.That's one of the percs being a store owner, Shawn, no papal fees other than when an ebay buyer sends you money.. I will have to look up their fee structure, again and see what I would get charged for money received when it isnt an ebay transaction, or if I get charged.
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I found some info on the paypal fees.
for a personal account like Shawn's: opening an account is free, sending money is free,withdrawing funds is free,adding funds is free.
when someone pays you using paypal, using funds from their paypal balance, an e-check, or instant money transfer, it's free? When they use a credit card, however, you get charged 4.9% =$0.30 usd per transaction limited to 5 per year. If it's from another country, add another 2%
If there is a currency exchange during that transaction, add another 2.5%. They are racking it up, on those, arn't they?
For a primeir account like mine: opening an account is free, sending money is free,withdrawing funds is free,adding funds is free.
When I recieve money, i'm charged 1.9% to 2.9% + $0.30 for any and every transaction. Reguardless of source of paypal funds. No limit to the number of credit card paypal transactions.
If a currency exchange happens, I also get charged the 2.5% for that.
That's the difference in account fees, Shawn. Now do you still wonder why ebay had their sellers take checks and money orders accepted off of their auctions?
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thats a good bit of news. I always wondered about that.
One thing I was also wondering about is shipping prices. Do you have your own postal scale to wiegh your packages Clint? I have been thinking about purchasing one so I can get accurate shipping rates. You can pretty much do everything online if you have an accurate wieght with dimensions I think.
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I do have a postal scale but don't use it except when the PO changes their rates. After a while you get used to knowing what it costs to ship what where. I did just pick up an updated list of international rates that you can figure that way and yes, if you know weight and dimensions, you can calculate about any postage on usps. com.
Keep in mind that there are some restrictions on size as far as what you can ship, internationally.
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There's nothing like dealing with a dishonest or unintelligent buyer. I have got one who's parcel has been returned to me twice because she insists that her zip is right when in fact it is two digits off. I can't believe that I have to do the research to right her on this. I have another, with a feedback of 1, who is trying to pull a fast one on a used videogame deal. He claims that it locks up in a certain part of the game and wants to return it when it was a flawless copy that always worked for me. I suspect that he wants to pull a switcheroo with his scratched up and unplayable or even worse, bootleg copy. It's almost always the yanks in the states that pull stuff like this.
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that is the only thing that makes me a little leary of ebay. There are always bad folks galore there who try to pull fast ones by threatening bad feedback.
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And as I understand it, sellers can no longer leave negative feedback, lol.
So its really going in a different direction these days.
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And as I understand it, sellers can no longer leave negative feedback, lol.
So its really going in a different direction these days.
You are correct about that and I'm not sure if buyers can either. You can always leave a colorful comment on the old feedback though. I think that it was kind of silly to take that away as the buyers need to be kept in check as much as the sellers. I have had well over 1000 seller transactions and have seen my share of bad buyers.
My feedback number is 956 or something like that. Keep in mind that there are plenty of buyers who are too lazy to even leave feedback so by my estimation, my feedback number would be 200 or more higher, had those buyers actually left me one.
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Got this email from Ebay, last night about a new fee structure that those money grubbers are implementing this spring.
While they like to try to make it sound like the average seller is going to save money with these new fees, it isn't so.
The ones really getting hurt by this change are the Ebay store owners like me. I have been paying a basic store subscription fee of $10 a month and can list fixed price items in my store for 3cents per auction per month. With their new structure, they will want $15 a month for the store subscription and 20cents per fixed price auction per month. They claim that the store auctions will get greater exposure than they used to get but is it 17 cents worth. What all this means to me is either I will have to gut and restructure my store to keep those jonesers from getting any more money out of me or I will have to drop my store subscription all together. It sure tees me off, though. Why can't people just leave stuff alone?
Here is the email with the announcment.
http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/news/FeeUpdate2010.html (http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/news/FeeUpdate2010.html)
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Hmmm...guess I won't be setting up a store. I got an email stating that if you list an auction and start the price off at 99 cents it will let you list em, whatever the number, for free. Like they weren't getting enough money out of us already.
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That's one reason I gave up on Ebay alltogether, they are pricks and add the fact they own paypal, they basically screw you twice on many types of transactions.
Maybe a ISY storefront is in order
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Dudes, the more I read into this, the more it upsets me. I have enjoyed operating that little ebay store for years and have used it to supplement my income during the slow times, like this one. I still haven't decided what I am going to do, at this point but it is obvious that buying and selling on ebay is going to become worse for all involved. With higher fees and rates, sellers are going to be forced to push the price onto the buyers and the prices will rise. I guess that ebay no longer cares for the common small everyday seller which is who the site was created to serve, in the first place.
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Is it possible to sell here on the shipyards? Why not set up auctions on here, and for a while, pay for the ad on ebay, and reference this website,. State that many popular customizers will soon be selling here. All of us who are still trying to somehow make it thru the gauntlet of ebay fees would be happy to do the same. I would be glad to sell only on here, and kick somebody something for the ad space. just my thoughts . . . . .
sean aka customsd
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I think that idea sounds pretty cool.
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Well, we do sell here, on the Shipyards. I have sold resin parts here for over a year now and several of our members sell figures and vehicles here.
As far as sending shoppers here from ebay, It's a good plan, although I don't know what it would cost to advertise about the shipyards on ebay. I do have links to the shipyards in my ebay listings and some of my ebay customers have bought stuff from me, here, but I don't mention in my ebay listings that I sell stuff here. I don't think it matters much as I believe that the official rule is that our ebay listings are supposed to be at least two clicks away from anything for sale on any other site. I have even invited many of our members here from ebay"your self included". The vast amount of traffic is the only thing that makes it enticing to sell on evil bay as the more traffic you get, the more sales that you get.
In your case, Ric-Saie, they are raising your final value fees for all of your auctions as well as the insertion fees for your fixed price auctions. I believe that the open auction listing fees will be the same although that hasn't been mentioned much, yet. This will work good for your custom figure auctions as I believe that you start them under $1, right?
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Yes true, due to be able to count on a good sale these days, I can start them low and not have to worry about them making it up to what i would like to get to at least break even.
And you're right CH, the reason I found the yards before and after you talked to me was your ads. I followed the link a couple times.
I too will start mentioning the yards in my ads. And will look into how its set up to sell here. I knew I had seen that but hadn't looked into it.
I am definitely not loyal to a site that is going to continue to find reasons to increase prices, even tho the cyber world is only getting less expensive to operate in!
ps I also have a facebook account where I can mention this - however unless someone is a member, isn't access fairly limited?
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Sean,
I put all of my parts for sale here, in the parts bin (http://www.imperialshipyards.net/SMF/index.php?board=36.0) thread which would be a good place to put custom figures for sale, also. Also, there is the Star Wars for sale thread. And, yes, we also have a feedback board. I report feedback there when members complete a transaction with me here, or even on ebay.
True that until you are a member here, all you can do is look and read but not post.
I have started preparing for the big ebay change and have started shrinking the store and currently only have 63 items for sale, there, down from 90 or so. By the time the change occurs, I plan to have my listings shrank down to about 50. I have also killed my picture manager which gave me more space to store pics and allowed me to post more pics per listing without an added cost per picture, past the one free one. I figured out how to post hosted pics in my auctions for free using html and can now use that method to put more than one pic in each listing. None of that will matter after the change as then, a store owner will be able to have ebay host up to 12 per listing without the extra fees so you see, the picture manager wasnt going to be needed anyway. That will save me $10 a month and with that savings and cutting myself down to 50 auctions in the store, my cost will be about the same that it has been. The real question is, after the change, with all fixed price listings getting full exposure and the flood of all of the 99cent listings that will be out there, will anyone see my listings any more than if they were just sitting in my store getting limited esposure like they do now.
I do know one thing, I have been getting more sales, this week. either it is because alot of sellers have been dropping out as they are angry about the change, or since i shrank the store, my auctions are easier to navigate within the store. It could be both. I will have to check my traffic coming from youtube and here, Perhaps they are all coming from Jay's channel. Whatever the case, it is helping me to kock down some of the extra inventory.
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That's one reason I gave up on Ebay alltogether, they are pricks and add the fact they own paypal, they basically screw you twice on many types of transactions.
Maybe a ISY storefront is in order
that is an excellent idea !
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Hmmm....I have a few wheels turning here. We have our regular For Sale thread where you can list anything you would like and we have it broken down into Star Wars and Non-Star Wars. Would any of you be interested in a dedicated web page(s) off our main page where I would list your items you have for sale and set it up kinda like a regular auction? Perhaps I could also offer front page exposure to your listing? Now, that would entail a decent amount of web work so perhaps a small fee would be involved per listing, but nothing like ebay fees and there would be nothing you would get hit for after the sale. You would just email or pm your pics and your text you wanted included for your auction and I would get it listed. Don't mean to jack your thread here Clint, but besides our free for sale threads perhaps this is a service Shipyarders would like? Wouldn't it be great to become the dedicated Star Wars For Sale Site? Like I said, just thinking out loud. Let me know if that is something you might like.
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You sure you are not biting off more than you can chew here, buddy? Sounds like a great idea and one that our members would enjoy from both ends. It sure could mean more members and more traffic for the site.
Would one have to be a shipyards member to purchase from this page? I would think so.
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I agree with Clint on being a member to buy stuff.Another idea, If they are a member who has made the FP at least once, they should get a discount, in my opinion.
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I don't know if I would be biting off too much Clint, like I said, I might have to charge a small fee (perhaps a dollar or two per listing (just thinking out loud) and if you wanted more exposure (front page more than once, bigger pictures, more than one picture, clickable picture to a bigger one, longer listing time, etc.) perhaps another dollar or two, but I wouldn't want to charge our members much and I would have to get with Wayne and Pat to flesh this out a bit more as I am just thinking out loud now folks, but I have thought about this a small bit before mentioning it as I do think we can help our members here with thier auctions and sell thier stuff.
As for discounts, I do agree that our members here should recieve discounts, more so than the general public who just wants to sell thier stuff here. I think we could actually allow non members to sale too, but would have to decide how selling folks would want contacted, either via pm or email, or the whole thing to go through me period and I send out the messages, etc. It still needs fleshed out a bit. Still, if members would like something like this, be willing to pay a small fee, I think I can speak for Wayne and Pat when I say we could probably get this set up through our Site. You guys wouldn't believe the page views we get a day so I feel pretty good now that we could through the use of the main page, peripherals, and forums that we could help you guys get your items sold and keep more money in your pocket than ebay will let you. If I see more interest posted here, I will start a poll where we can see if members would want this and if so I will look into setting up a Shipyards Storefront as Wayne has suggested.
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I have an idea on how thi smay work for all parties,
Shawn, Pat lets discuss offline and give it a trial
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Here is two more cents from a new member : If ebay is going to continue this trend, I for one have nothing to lose by trying to sell a couple customs here. I have no idea how much exactly sells here, but it seems as though people offer things up for sale regularly, so there must be some movement.
I guess my point is that I agree wholeheartedly with the idea of moving the custom ebay business, here!
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I do not like EBay, as they shrink, they are attempting to get more and more from fewer and fewer, I closed my store up years ag0, :(
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just found this topic, looked over it and learned alot about this figure and customs sales and the market. For I am not an official licenced star wars artist its not possible to sell or trade my artworks (in public), anyway it was very interesting to read about all your thoughts and opinions regarding ebay, costs and sales page - expaning my horizion :)
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Ebay is really knocking it to the sellers, but if you are a buyer you can really get some good SW deals there. I think the biggest thing with feebay, and one of my biggest issues, is that you have to have patience if you want to get a good price. Then, be prepared to loose some of your loot with ebay and paypal fees.
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They are all about their fees, that's for sure. I can't imagine a new seller being able to keep up with it all. It's only because I have messed with it for so long that helps me to kind of wade through it. I still dont know what to think about the big promotion towards buyer protection that all but ignores the protection of the sellers. There are scammers on both sides out there.
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if I had ever thought about being a ebay seller I now would think about it twice :(
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i find some fairly cheep gunships on there but they almost never ship to canada >:(
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I sold an iPod that worked except the back light, I was completely honest in the description, got a buyer, sent it to him and the next thing I know he files a fraud claim against me with ebay. After a week of going back and fourth with ebay and this asshat, ebay pays him back and takes the money from me.....Ebay even said they didnt find any fraud in the listing but they still gave it back to him, I was ticked. So I listed it again and emphasized the back light did not work, sold it a second time and the buyer leaves me a neutral feedback saying the sale was perfect but he should have looked into the back light issue more....I couldnt even dispute the neutral feedback from him or the negative feedback the other guy gave me.....Thats what I hate about selling on ebay.
Up until that point I had 100% positive feedback, I also have 100% positive feedback on RS......those two guys screwed my feedback up
not to mention you get slammed by ebay with fees then PayPal slams you with more fees and they are both owned by ebay!
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That is another horror story of being a seller. I love how ebay can just take money out of your account whenever they feel like it. I had trouble with one foreign ebay auction where the seller recieved on of my boxes and not the other. He asked me when I sent it so I sent him the tracking number which said it was in the Ukraine. I told the buyer (Singapore) that I would contact the post office and figure out where it was and get it to him. The next day I wake up to see a dispute had been filed by the buyer. Ofcourse I responded that I did indeed send it and I can't help the post office sent one box to the wrong country even though both had the same address. Later that day he removed the dispute saying he got the item, but he never did apologize or leave any good feedback when he was the one who cried foul. I would have probably gotten the bad end of the stick if it went to ebay resolving it, but it didn't get that far. Still it would have been my word against his and when it gets there we all know who they are going to side with. I know one thing, when I am done selling off my extra part of my collection I am done with em. It isn't worth the hassle to me. Then, you always have the folks who win an auction and then can't pay. I have had to deal with a ton of those to the point I had to file a dispute. Ebay even sent me a message asking me if I was sure the buyer didn't pay before they would allow me (seller) to file the dispute. As you can see, it has definitely left me with a bad taste in my mouth for my fellow human beings. There is definitely some trash you will run into if you deal there for some time.
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One kind of dispute I havent tried is reporting buyer protection policy abuse where you can claim that a buyer is abusing the policy by claiming not to have gotten an item in an attempt to get a full refund for the item and shipping after receiving the item.
I got a bad feedback the other day from a buyer who didn't like that their item smelled like cigarette smoke. No personal message complaining or requesting partial refund or anything. Just a bad feedback. so much for my 100% rating. Another thing I don't like is now, a seller cannot leave bad or even neutral feedback for a buyer, no matter how crappy they made the transaction.
It's bullocks, I say.
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ya i agree.
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Wow, I didn't know that Clint. So bascially you are saying that a seller doesn't leave feedback for the buyer anymore? What the heck is gonna keep any buyer honest now?
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Oh a seller can leave feedback for a buyer..............as long as it's positive. the only thing close a seller can do to leaving negative feedback is leaving colorful comments on a buyer's positive feedback.
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Well that bites. I don't think feedback is even worth the number they list anymore.
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as a buyer I get ticked off when the seller wont give me feedback until I leave them some....I won the auction, I paid right away, I should get positive feedback right away, but no, they wait until I leave them feedback first, or they just forget to all together.
As a seller, I will give feedback right away when a buyer pays me, but usually have to bug them to get feedback back.....
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as a buyer I get ticked off when the seller wont give me feedback until I leave them some....I won the auction, I paid right away, I should get positive feedback right away, but no, they wait until I leave them feedback first, or they just forget to all together.
As a seller, I will give feedback right away when a seller pays me, but usually have to bug them to get feedback back.....
I don't normally give feedback as a seller until the buyer gives it. That way, I know they got their item without having to track it and I feel it inspires some to actually leave me some. That way, I don't have to bug them.
On the other hand, as a buyer, I always leave feedback when I receive the item.
Being a seller for like 6+ years now, there are probably 300 items that I have sold that I never got feedback for. Heck, I'll bet it's more than that.
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I haven't been selling for even that long and think the folks who haven't given me feedback is probably over a hundred.
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Hey Shawn, Have you ever seen an auction like this one with multiple item choices?
http://cgi.ebay.com/STAR-WARS-ITEM-FX-Lightsaber-Y-Wing-Bomber-Figure-More-/300522228278?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item8bb36cf05d (http://cgi.ebay.com/STAR-WARS-ITEM-FX-Lightsaber-Y-Wing-Bomber-Figure-More-/300522228278?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item8bb36cf05d)
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Daggone, this one is either a really good deal or a hand wringer. How can anyone ship for free worldwide and airmail at that?
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Daggone, this one is either a really good deal or a hand wringer. How can anyone ship for free worldwide and airmail at that?
And no, I have never seen one auction that will list multiple formats like that. I guess the only way you could do that is if the shipping was the same though.
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Daggone, this one is either a really good deal or a hand wringer. How can anyone ship for free worldwide and airmail at that?
I have never seen anything like that. Do they all come up one dollar and seventy cents?
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No, you click on the selection bar, make your choice, and the price changes with the item. Weird, huh?
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Very wierd. I just hope ebay doesn't end up getting any wierder than it already is.
Speaking of ebay, I will relate a story I had when some auctions were going off this past weekend. I had one buyer who sent me a message asking me to remove buyer requirements. Not really knowing what the heck that was I looked at the auction listing as I usually use the defaults and saw that even though this guy had 100 percent feedback he had two ebay didn't pay strikes and 4 other violations in 6 months. He admitted to me he had some issues, but wanted to bid on my auctions. He sent me over 14 messages on ebay before I told him if I got one more message I was reporting him. Talk about a nut, but the point is even if a buyer does have a 100% feedback score it doesn't really mean anything. Shouldn't things like that show up in their feedback score or at the very least there be a note left there. I think the whole ebay feedback thing is a joke.
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I assume since a buyer can't be left a bad feedback that all of them will have 100%
It would be nice if the unpaid item strikes were displayed next to their name though.
I wonder if you block a buyer will it block their messages as well?
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Thats a good point, I need to go back and block that dude.
Clint do you change the buyer requirements from the standard defualt when you create your auctions?
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Thats a good point, I need to go back and block that dude.
Clint do you change the buyer requirements from the standard defualt when you create your auctions?
Yep, you can modify those parameters using the seller preferences page.
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I know you can, but do you?
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I know you can, but do you?
I don't change them for every auction but have a seller preference set as far as the parameters that a buyer must meet.
Stuff like, must have paypal, can't have had two unpaid it strikes in the last month, I think that you can set a minimum amount of feedback points that a buyer must have to bid on your auction.
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Ok, gotta vent again before I type something stupid to a buyer.
I had an auction go for ninety nine cents. I have sent two message and an invoice and still no payment. I send another message today that I am gonna let ebay figure this all out and he sends a message back that he won't have the money until Monday to pay for a .99 center. He wanted me to lower the price. On a ninety nine cent auction for two figures brand new in mint packaging!
I just sent a note back stating that if I did that I would be paying him to take the figures and that I actually try to sell on ebay to try and make my cost of what I paid for back on the figures. I just couldn't believe it. I think ebay is going south real quick and the morality of the world along with it.
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The only way to cancel that auction is to click on that option and hope that the buyer clicks onto the email that he gets on his end. If you were to do that, you should send him a separate email to explain what you are doing.
Heck, if he agrees to cancel, I'll buy em from you.
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Ok, gotta vent again before I type something stupid to a buyer.
I had an auction go for ninety nine cents. I have sent two message and an invoice and still no payment. I send another message today that I am gonna let ebay figure this all out and he sends a message back that he won't have the money until Monday to pay for a .99 center. He wanted me to lower the price. On a ninety nine cent auction for two figures brand new in mint packaging!
I just sent a note back stating that if I did that I would be paying him to take the figures and that I actually try to sell on ebay to try and make my cost of what I paid for back on the figures. I just couldn't believe it. I think ebay is going south real quick and the morality of the world along with it.
just curious, what figures were they?
I always start my auctions with the least amount I'm willing to accept and then let it bid up from there...
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They were tac obi-wan kenobis.
Heck, I ain't worried about getting rich and giving people deals is fine with me and I know some figures are more popular than others. I just couldn't believe this tool wanted me to offer a further discount on an already out of this world steal. He says he is gonna pay by Monday. If not, I am doing just what you talked about Clint.
I have a new set of auctions up and now wonder what junk I will have to deal with this time. I guess it is a good thing I am not in any retail business. I would get fired for yelling at the buyers and showcasing their bright intelligences.
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Well, maybe you won't have to worry about that on a couple of the current listings!! (seeing as I'm the bidder...)
Ask Ack/Must. Sentry
Cat Miin/Passel Argente
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I have a buyer who apparently moved but forgot to change their registered paypal addy. Their tracked package was forwarded but not listed as delivered. Will they admit having a different addy and if not, would ebay honor my tracked parcel since i don't believe that there is any way to prove that I wrote the addy correctly?
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Well Clint, I haven't had that one yet, but the week is young. Geesh, did you put tracking on the package? For me, I just won't ship anymore unless I put delivery confirmation on it unless I specifically know the buyer.
Thanks by the way Doc, I noticed that this morning.
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Well Clint, I haven't had that one yet, but the week is young. Geesh, did you put tracking on the package? For me, I just won't ship anymore unless I put delivery confirmation on it unless I specifically know the buyer.
Thanks by the way Doc, I noticed that this morning.
well naturally, I put tracking on it but it states undeliverable to adderessed location and forwarded. It did not say delivered though. How would that protect me in a buyer protection case?
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If it has a number on it, it should still be tracked then I would think.
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got a spring seller update email from ebay the other day lining us out on yet another fee change.
First off, Shawn, this would work for you. For sellers without a store, starting in april, up to 50 auction style listings can be created for free with free buy it now as long as the starting and buy it now price is $50 or less. Big surprise, these are still not free for store owners and the listing fees are the same for them although the final value fees are a bit less for store owners.
And then in July, and this one is the capper, final value fees will be dropped slightly for everyone but now, they will charge the final value fee from the total amount that the buyer pays, including shipping. I suppose that this change is made to actually counter people who charge less for an item but more for the shipping to make up the difference and save on the fees. Ebay says that the change is to try to drive the sellers shipping rates down but in actuality it's designed to get just a little bit more money from the sellers. poor ebay must be just destitute, what with the double dipping and all.
Oh, and get this, as a top rated seller, I get a 20% discount on my final value fees. After the change in July, that discount will only count towards the final value fee of the sale price but not the shipping price, unlike there new final value fee that takes a percentage of the sale and shipping price.
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Well that doesn't sound too bad to me as after my last rounds it will be here and there for me selling wise.
I would like to know what you have to do to get a top rated seller badge as I have had a ton of transactions, all good, with no negatives, but still can't seem to get that badge. I am about ready to call them and see whats up.
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Thanks for the info.
I don't sell on ebay. The only time selling was a bad exsperience.
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I thought you lmight find this interesting, Shawn.
Here is a discussion forum thread where ebay sellers are giving ebay hell about the new fee change.
http://forums.ebay.com/db1/topic/2011-Spring-Seller/Fee-Update-Questions/510316234&start=0 (http://forums.ebay.com/db1/topic/2011-Spring-Seller/Fee-Update-Questions/510316234&start=0)
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I will give that a look when I am not on dial up speed. I might have to add my two cents to said messages too. Like the cut they are already taking isnt high enough. I am glad I am just about done there. I don't look for em to last too much longer the way they are going.
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I think people will piss and moan about eBay's fees then suck it up and pay it, I dont think too many people will bail on ebay....they should, but they wont, there just isnt a better game in town yet.....
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I figure I'll advertise where I *know* it will reach my target audience - right here on the custom-boards who are okay with members advertising.
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i think it would be better just to buy/ sell on here with each other than go thru ebay at least here there are no fees
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Spooky daggone good points.
I am glad I am just about done though.
I will do all the rest of my selling on here.
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They just took away my top rated seller status because I missed my sales quota to US buyers only for the last year by $12.
There goes my 20% final value fee discount.
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Here is a no-fee auction site that I read about in the ebay hate forum
wensy.com
you can even create a store there
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It seems like there is - or was - an auction site dedicated to action figures. Seems like I saw it advertised on ... Echo Base forums? Dunno if the auction-site is still around, tho. If anyone knows of the site I'm vaguely recalling, please chime in with the details.
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It is all about the traffic. That is how ebay gets us. What do you do when you want to find how much something costs? First I google it and then I hit ebay. I think Spooky is right, its kind of like walmart doing their revamping. First they sucked us in and got us used to using them, now we are kind of prisoners there because we don't know of anything else.
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And - just like WalMart - their abuses of their customers are leading us to investigate alternatives...
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well, like I said, right now there just isnt anything better then Ebay right now, there are other auction sites (I use one or two of them) but they just dont have the traffic and "clout" that ebay has....and until there is another power player in the online auction game, we'll be using ebay........for someone with a little "walking around money", they could take this opportunity to become the new "ebay"....
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So I didn’t find this out till recently but as a public service announcement, I wanted to warn the resellers out there who don’t claim their online sales profits on their taxes.
New tax laws as of Jan 2022 drop the threshold of online sales income from $20,000 to only $600 annually before the payment service has to issue a 1099. The old threshold had become if you exceeded $20k in income and 200 transactions you would get a 1099 back in the Obama administration as a secret piece of legislation that was buried in the Obamacare plan, around 10 years ago.
Once again, this is a warning to resellers, claim your sales or more than likely for those who are scared of dealing with the IRS, “one way or another”, quit selling altogether online.
This ploy is geared to push everyone to sell legitimately online, of course.
What this will spell for our collecting obsession is, less sellers and higher prices, on either end.
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Thanks for letting us know, Clint! I left ebay already because the fees became too crazy. TungHori did the same, but I only sold about 20 items on ebay since 2013.
One has to be careful. Our governments have record expenses due to the Pandemic. And the German government gets creative, too. Every time I receive items from China, the German customs take $7 just for handling it - even if the import fee is $1 or so. I already told the lady at the post office "Well, somebody gotta pay for all the COVID-debt, right?" And she said you're exactly right.
Crazy times these days and China remains silent. Thanks, Wuhan!
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Its a buyers world. I am planning to go to a few local cons and clear out some of my warehouse. I just don't trust selling online through platforms anymore.
I may just make a website to sell some stuff from time to time just like Tunghori.
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It's very strict here in Germany, too: One is allowed to sell 2 items per MONTH! The value doesn't even matter. If one sells more than that, it's already a business which has to be claimed for 50€ each year. And a lot of paperwork with price paid and profit made. Then the government claims 19% sales tax for items you already paid 19% tax on.
If one doesn't claim a business, the financial agency charges 5.000€ for not claiming it. They sure know how to screw people and piss off everyone. People leave Germany while others come to change Europe...at the end Germany keeps screwing itself. Happy weekend everyone!
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similar fees and penalties in the US as well. it would end up at least 22% all double taxed and feed up. Big changes coming soon, either way.
I hear rumor of a possible regime and financial system change across the board that would throw a different sort of monkey wrench into the mix. How about germany Darth More? any mention of Gesara "global economic security and reformation act" in your neck of the woods? Any large banking system changes or anything like that? They are shutting your nuke plants down. That would be a part of its agenda.
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I just purchased a Hasbro Star Wars The Clone Wars Octuptarra Tri-Droid for $38.36 to include shipping and tax.
The only thing missing were the red missiles, which I don't care about anyway. This thing is a well sculpted MASSIVE giant of a war machine.
It normally runs around $80-174 in this level of completion. This was a fantastic grab!
(https://i.imgur.com/zJg6vbh.jpeg)
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What a score, RC! Look what I found by coincidence today. Your evaluation is right. The value for this big one has risen significantly over the years...
Big congrats on your amazing score, man!
(https://i.imgur.com/QFa2xG7.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/DKqCnR7.jpg)
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Nice to see people getting some deals. I so need to get back to looking and maybe selling a bit of my collection off.
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Just a quick update on the lot I found years ago (http://www.imperialshipyards.net/SMF/index.php?topic=3744.msg225561#msg225561). I couldn't find the previous owner of those 80 figures. I got them from a man who clears houses and storage units when their owners give up on them or pass away. I paid 200€ for all of them and sold 9 so far for 250€. Don't judge me please, the prices for Clone Troopers on the secondary market are beyond crazy and I do hope that Hasbro repaints the heck out of their latest Clone Trooper mold to milk that money machine once more! So now I got the money I paid back including the gas I paid to pick them up.
(https://i.imgur.com/NdLtjhB.jpg)
140€
(https://i.imgur.com/tORXE8n.jpg)
110€