Buying and Selling on eBay: Tips, Tricks, Problems & Questions

[TheNeedMachine]

I thought I would share a (thus far) successful story of diffusing an upset client post sale :
Item - $575+ handbag.
...
I sent her a very long and detailed email on the best way to maximize her listing - so, lets see, but I thought the exchange was worth a share here.

Good save - hopefully you get positive feedback in the end. Returns are pretty touchy - I take the stand of The customer is always right except when they're wrong which is most of the time.

 

[HansderHund]



I thought I would share a (thus far) successful story of diffusing an upset client post sale :
Item - $575+ handbag.

I sent her a very long and detailed email on the best way to maximize her listing - so, lets see, but I thought the exchange was worth a share here.

Thanks for that. I'm impressed that you stuck to your guns, I'm not sure I would have been able to do that. Clearly she was wrong and she actually admitted it. Out of curiosity, are you at all worried about getting hit with negative feedback or do you think people put too much stock in that? I don't mind buying from a seller that has one or two negatives because I know how people can be when they buy stuff, but I don't know how the casual eBay user feels about it.

 

[Steve Smith]



A note to sellers: if you are going to ship internationally (and I wish more did) - can you please describe the item accurately on the shipping label?

1. If you are shipping used items, please write 'Used / Second-hand X' not just 'X', because customs officers are much less likely to slap large amounts of tax on used items.

Great thread.

I have one little detail to add concerning "used clothing". Some countries do not allow importation of them. A few weeks ago a customer had asked me to describe his new clothing purchase as "used". I took a look at the Country Conditions for Mailing (USPS, under Individual Country Listings), and found "used consumer goods" in the list of prohibited items. This could have been a significant waste of money if I have shipped that large heavy package only to have it returned by Brazilian customs.

 

[FlyingMonkey]

Great thread.
I have one little detail to add concerning "used clothing". Some countries do not allow importation of them. A few weeks ago a customer had asked me to describe his new clothing purchase as "used". I took a look at the Country Conditions for Mailing (USPS, under Individual Country Listings), and found "used consumer goods" in the list of prohibited items. This could have been a significant waste of money if I have shipped that large heavy package only to have it returned by Brazilian customs.

Good point. It's fine to Canada, though. We're used to getting everything second-hand from the USA...

 

[Jpmorris]

That's where all my ex gfs went! Now it's so clear.

 

[Hampton]

Question:

Many sellers put their e-mail addresses in the information. Since I don't have an ebay account could I make the deal ''outside'' ebay's term? And maybe pay him via paypal and not via ebay's website or could I get scamed that way (even if the seller has many stars?)

 

[TheNeedMachine]

Question:

Many sellers put their e-mail addresses in the information. Since I don't have an ebay account could I make the deal ''outside'' ebay's term? And maybe pay him via paypal and not via ebay's website or could I get scamed that way (even if the seller has many stars?)

As a seller, I have made a number of sales outside eBay (after an item goes unsold, for example), and I am happy to do so as long as the buyer knows it's frowned upon by eBay, and you can't leave negative feedback in the event something is never received or significantly not as described and the seller won't resolve the issue.

A seller will only have one star - it's the number of feedbacks and positive percentage you'll want to look at, as well as read the most recent feedback given by buyers.

In the end, it's your decision - go with your instincts, make sure you have a way to dispute the charges just in case, and pay a bit extra on shipping to have them ship it with delivery confirmation.

On the other hand, you could just sign up for an eBay account if you're really worried about it.

 

[mjt73106]

We have a 20% VAT on incoming things. However, things things that have been sent via USPS to me have never gotten flagged. I don't know if it's Austria or my luck, but I even sent a new Kitchen-Aid here that weighed 35kg and didn't have to pay. ANYTHING sent via UPS, FedEx or DHL from outside the EU always incurs costs. They collect VAT on everything (listed price + shipping) and turn it in to the Austrian government.
I ordered 3 t-shirts from the US with a total cost of about $30 from a company. They charged about $35 to ship them, not a huge deal. However, they first went to AUSTRALIA and then to Austria over the course of about 6 weeks. When they arrived to my door, I had to pay around €20 cash to the guy to get them.
I don't know why a seller would agree to that. I wouldn't deviate from any policies that I have for myself. I receive questions every time from Germans that complain about shipping prices from Austria. Yesterday, I received 2 questions about items that Germans won and asked if I'd send them uninsured, presumably to save the money. I always point out that I make nothing from shipping and send insured via Austrian Post. I give them the exact weight and the link to the calculator. I also let them know that insurance is about 50 cents and that I won't ship without it. What they usually don't know is that if they outright refuse to pay the insurance, I'll pay it myself.
I lost one package (possibly mis-delivered, it was never returned) on a great looking Brioni shirt that was just a bit too big for me. I sent it within Austria and the guy claimed it never arrived. I didn't argue, just apologized and refunded his money. I also learned that everything needs to be insured.
Does anyone allow/offer free pick up? I had one guy in my city ask if he could meet me to pick up a shirt. It wasn't terribly inconvenient for me, so I agreed and it was actually pretty simple. He met me at the right place and time and by the time I walked home (10 minutes) he had already left positive feedback. Curious if anyone else is willing to do that?

No pick ups for me. Tried it once. Buyer was an asshole and wanted to renegotiate the deal. Took up too much time to only save the buyer money. That is the bad thing with Craig's List.

I thought I would share a (thus far) successful story of diffusing an upset client post sale :
Item - $575+ handbag.
HER:
ME:
HER:
ME:
HER:
I sent her a very long and detailed email on the best way to maximize her listing - so, lets see, but I thought the exchange was worth a share here.

Thanks for the dialog. A turn around well done! I thought that you were very firm about the non-return but were not aggressive to the point of pissing the buyer off. nice.

Heads up - added two new deadbeats to the blacklist. 23 days since the auctions closed, 2 invoices sent to each, 1 unpaid case opened on both with no response at all. Closed the cases and got my fees back - you might wanna check the blacklist and update your own - they are both still active users on eBay...now with 1 unpaid strike each (but i can't leave negative feedback for them since they never paid to begin with).

Thanks, I wish that we utilized the list more.

 

[Paulson01]

Quote:
Well, the problem with that is ebay now charges a fee on the shipping as well. So, a seller could actually lose money by sending overseas. Supposed to be to prevent shipping charge gouging that some sellers use to skirt some of the fees, but seems they could have come up with a better way to prevent that, instead of screwing everybody.


Anyway, a couple ideas to save some $ when buying:

I'm sure checking out the feedback of the seller before buying has already been mentioned in this thread, also, read the item description VERY carefully along with the return policy (I always have a no return policy myself). When in doubt, ask. Also, even if you don't have a question about an item, maybe send the seller a question to test their responsiveness.

If you have a legitimate question about an item, go to another of the seller's listings and ask the question from there. This will add a bit of work for the seller, if they want to add your question and their answer to the item description page. Maybe other interested buyers will not bother to ask a question, instead just continuing to look for a similar item that already has the question answered in the item description.

If you see an item that you want listed in auction format, send the seller a message asking if they will accept $x to end the auction early and sell the item to you. If that doesn’t work, use a sniping service such as Bidball.com to bid for you. It’ll bid in the last few seconds, helping to save $ and avoid shill bidding.

If there is a particular item that you want that is relatively rare on eBay or goes fast when one is listed, use a site like ebuyersedge.com to set up a saved eBay search for it. You’d get an e-mail whenever a match is listed. You can use the price, category, exclude word, etc. filters to narrow down the results that you get in the e-mails. Excellent for “Buy It Now”s priced right.

A bit of a longshot, but if the item that you’re looking for is difficult to spell, try a misspelling search site like Typojoe.com to find some deals on stuff that have main keywords misspelled in the title. Other potential buyers may never see them.

 

[Jackie Treehorn]

^^

Are no-return policies even practically enforceable these days? Seems like the buyer can just open up a dispute and stand a 95% chance of prevailing.

 

[gyasih]

There is almost zero chance of no-return working. I had the size listed, showed measurement with tape and showed pants tag. The buyer still won SNAD, based on his sizing error.

 

[Steve Smith]



^^
Are no-return policies even practically enforceable these days? Seems like the buyer can just open up a dispute and stand a 95% chance of prevailing.

No, they are not enforceable, but by not allowing returns you will prevent returns from honorable buyers, which are still the vast majority.

 

[Jackie Treehorn]

No, they are not enforceable, but by not allowing returns you will prevent returns from honorable buyers, which are still the vast majority.

I don't know if the majority is as vast as it once was. Granted, this is anecdotal, but I've run across more bad apples in the last 2 years than I did, combined, in my ~8 years prior. Buy side and sell side. The majority of my transactions are smooth, but I run into problems (or downright dishonesty) a lot more often than I should.

 

[thonez]



As a seller, I have made a number of sales outside eBay (after an item goes unsold, for example), and I am happy to do so as long as the buyer knows it's frowned upon by eBay, and you can't leave negative feedback in the event something is never received or significantly not as described and the seller won't resolve the issue.

A seller will only have one star - it's the number of feedbacks and positive percentage you'll want to look at, as well as read the most recent feedback given by buyers.

In the end, it's your decision - go with your instincts, make sure you have a way to dispute the charges just in case, and pay a bit extra on shipping to have them ship it with delivery confirmation.

On the other hand, you could just sign up for an eBay account if you're really worried about it.

Same as this. You can also usually haggle the price down a few dollars, since the seller is saving the 10% final value fee.

 

[mjt73106]

I don't know if the majority is as vast as it once was. Granted, this is anecdotal, but I've run across more bad apples in the last 2 years than I did, combined, in my ~8 years prior. Buy side and sell side. The majority of my transactions are smooth, but I run into problems (or downright dishonesty) a lot more often than I should.

I agree, there seems to be far more issues in the past few years, may be due to the economy. In the past people seemed to have more reasonable expectations and there seemed to be far less scammers. Also as eBay eliminated the ability for sellers to add feed back there is really no constraint on what buyers can now do, in effect a buyer will always have 100% positive feedback. The buyers certainly have become more aggressive in trying to renegotiate deals with feedback extortion. Since Zappo's now pays postage to and from and allows returns for any reasons, consumers now feel entitled.