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



Brianpore said:

Never every had a Tyvek fail me

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+1 If you're worried, you can double bag.

grendel said:

How much does it cost to ship a 2-3 lb package with a suit? I pay $6-7 with a regular priority box. Don't think they'd fit in a small flat rate or regional A, and medium flat rate or regional B cost more ($10+)

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Sure they do. Suit will be cleaned and pressed by buyer. Folded right, no worries.

Brianpore said:

hmmm, not sure how you are shipping it that cheap cross country as priority mail is based on weight and distance.

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Priority yes. Priority regional rate, I don't think so -- at least under a certain weight threshold that I have yet to exceed. Try selecting regional rate a and varying the weight. No change in price. Regional rate is based on distance.

VLSI said:

If you're paying an average of $8 to ship a shirt, you're losing money this way. It costs me roughly $3 per shirt, give or take a little depending on the final weight. Even if 1 in 100 shirts were to arrive damaged (which hasn't been the case) and you had to refund, you still come out ahead. From a customer service perspective, you may still prefer your method, but from a purely financial perspective, envelopes are the way to go. If you're really worried about the bag getting torn, use a tyvek bag instead of the cheap poly ones. Tyvek is pretty tough to rip and still far less than a box.

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I hope you are not charging your buyers more than the $3.00 to ship a shirt.

5. I will not be lowering it.



Manofstyle85 said:

I hope you are not charging your buyers more than the $3.00 to ship a shirt.

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Honestly, I don't understand this mentality anymore. Shipping charges are subject to Ebay fees (as absurd as that is), so it's not as if I'm earning fee-free profit via excessive shipping charges. And there can be absolutely no doubt that "free shipping" is just baked into the price of the item. Nor am I hiding the shipping charge -- it's right there. If you think it's excessive, don't buy. Personally, my shipping charges include actual shipping costs plus materials, plus cover some of my ridonkulous fees -- esp the fees ebay charges on my shipping. I see absolutely nothing inappropriate with that.

The obsession with meticulously charging "actual" shipping just seems misplaced, imho. Moreover, if I ship Regional Rate A -- as I often do -- my "actual shipping" will vary by buyer location, which of course I don't know when I create the listing.



GMMcL said:

+1 If you're worried, you can double bag.

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Good advice for outside eBay as well.



SpooPoker said:

Good advice for outside eBay as well.

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(Edit: I'd originally had "If you're worried about your package getting damaged, you can always double bag it." But I figured that'd get picked up by the mods. Or at least made it too easy. Huh. Easy. Package. Bag.)

Wow, lotta action on the packing & shipping topic - good info all around. I definitely don't sell / ship enough to differentiate between regional and regular first class - I'm not getting out my slide rule to figure out how to save 30 cents or whatnot. Trying to make things easier on myself, not more difficult. I think a scale, some Tyvek envelopes and bulk purchases are in order.

Someone mentioned packing nicely: Yes, I wrap everything in white tissue paper, corners folded sharply...and I put little smiley face stickers on the wrapped item. Don't ask why - was just something I started doing when I saw a package of 1000 for sale at Target for $1.
I print a packing slip and hand write a short note & sign it. Again - I don't ship a lot so I can take an extra 30 seconds, though the mention of printer ink earlier makes me think twice about that.

I got a package from eBay a couple weeks ago and the seller included a mini-pack of Smarties candy, and a "spot the differences" game with their business info / eBay URL etc printed on the back. Fun extras that probably cost them a total of 5 cents and I remember it 2 weeks later.

I charge $5.50 to ship a shirt, in a bubble mailer I paid approx. $1.25 for, and paid for delivery confirmation on top of 1st class shipping. So with eBay's cut I am losing $, but will remedy that will a scale and buying postage online, and may lower my shipping charges in turn. I almost always eat part of the shipping charges except the rare occasion when a shirt is very lightweight and going a short distance. It's all a shell game anyway - charge for shipping or tack it onto the minimum bid and offer free shipping.

Finally starting listing unsold eBay items on Bonanza. All free shipping, priced a bit more than the min bid was on eBay, with shipping discounts, and 10% off if they buy $100 or more...which at this point would be almost impossible as I only have a dozen things listed. Will see how it goes. I like that it's free to list and there's no expiration date on the listings. Just list it and forget it. Also signed up for Google Wallet payment acceptance, which some folks prefer to use for payment.

What's the difference between top rated seller and power seller? I thought I was going to finally become top rated seller this month, but now I have the power seller icon next to my username instead.

VLSI said:

What's the difference between top rated seller and power seller? I thought I was going to finally become top rated seller this month, but now I have the power seller icon next to my username instead.

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Did you enroll in the top rated seller program? If not, I think it just takes a click of a mouse. Otherwise, if you go to your seller dashboard, you should be able to see all the criteria and which areas you need to work on.

Hmm I'm not seeing TRS in my seller dashboard anymore. It used to be there, but now it just says I'm a bronze level power seller.

VLSI said:

Hmm I'm not seeing TRS in my seller dashboard anymore. It used to be there, but now it just says I'm a bronze level power seller.

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It may have been bumped down to Standard or Above Standard based on the criteria.

Not sure if this link will take you to your page or if it will attempt to take you to mine. You should just have to go to the "performance" link.
http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?SellerDashboard

Ah, thanks! Looks like I'm due for TRS tomorrow when they do a new evaluation. The power seller icon just took me by surprise, and I thought I somehow had missed TRS this month.

VLSI said:

Ah, thanks! Looks like I'm due for TRS tomorrow when they do a new evaluation. The power seller icon just took me by surprise, and I thought I somehow had missed TRS this month.

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Yeah, I think the evaluation is usually on or around the 18th-20th each month, but the numbers sometimes take a few days to update. You may even see some crazy numbers in there from time to time, but they will adjust themselves in a day or two. Last month mine said my 12 month sales were $42 with 800+ transactions. Talk about a low profit margin.

Ditto that - today somehow I achieved "Power Seller" status though I have no idea what I did to achieve such a dubious honor. I had been a Power Seller in the past; got a message about "if you don't start selling some more **** we're gonna take away your little badge", and they did. A big wank in my opinion.

ATLnoob said:

Ditto that - today somehow I achieved "Power Seller" status though I have no idea what I did to achieve such a dubious honor. I had been a Power Seller in the past; got a message about "if you don't start selling some more **** we're gonna take away your little badge", and they did. A big wank in my opinion.

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Same. I was sorta stoked about it though haha. Does it confer any benefit?