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

[capnwes]

Update (and maybe you all knew this)

When i accepted an offer in the past, it would mark the item as sold, then the buyer would pay and we'd be on our way.

I contacted ebay - apparently this is an update that if you accept an offer, it doesn't end the listing until the buyer has paid. This means that somebody else could also come in with an offer, or even BIN to supersede the original offer.

The buyer is responsible to go into their "my ebay" and check out. In my case, the buyer was waiting for the alert that he won the item before he paid.

Correct, this is the culmination of about a decade long effort to rearrange the site to require payment and minimize unpaid items. It finally went into effect in the past few months.

 

[capnwes]

Here is a live one...

Buyer opened return for "doesn't fit", but then returned NWT shirt with the tags removed and not included.

Spoiler: Here's how the partial refund breaks down

Ebay suggests a 15-30% deduction.


Here is how a full refund breaks down. $120 to buyer, $102.82 out of my pocket, the rest is the final value fee refunded by ebay.



Here is what a 15% deduction looks like. $18 deducted, so buyer gets $102. $102 out of my pocket. A savings of $0.82 to make up for the loss? $17.18 final value fee is kept by ebay.



I ended up basically forced into opting for 30%. $36 withheld from buyer, leaving a refund of $84, and $18.82 for me for the loss which was mostly eaten up by the postage and $17.18 final value fee kept by ebay as payment for negative feedback protection.

Here are ebay's details about the "no fee credit" policy.



Following the "eligible sellers" link brings you here.....

 

[txwoodworker]

It sucks all around, not taking into account the value lost going from NWT to NWOT.
As someone who does free returns, what is your return rate? Do you feel that free returns allows for a higher sell through rate at a higher price to make up for it? I've considered taking free returns on shoes, I can't move them for sh!t, and I have to assume because shoes are a crap shoot with sizing and people would like the option to try them on. Shipping would be a killer on those though. You have to offer FREE returns, not just returns to get the protection?

Mine is 1.62% as a low volume seller, about 1300 transactions in a 1yr period.

 

[capnwes]

It sucks all around, not taking into account the value lost going from NWT to NWOT.
As someone who does free returns, what is your return rate? Do you feel that free returns allows for a higher sell through rate at a higher price to make up for it? I've considered taking free returns on shoes, I can't move them for sh!t, and I have to assume because shoes are a crap shoot with sizing and people would like the option to try them on. Shipping would be a killer on those though. You have to offer FREE returns, not just returns to get the protection?

Mine is 1.62% as a low volume seller, about 1300 transactions in a 1yr period.

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[Fueco]

My first bike wheel shipment in quite some time is going out today. Box is a cut down bike box.