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

ATLnoob said:

I did use stock photos, but from the Barneys New York site, not Barbour's site...and I am 99.9% sure that Barneys takes all of their own photos - I have seen items on Barneys then gone to the manufacturer website and they have always had entirely different photos. Just talked to an eBay rep and he said Barbour didn't leave any notes/comments other than trademark infringement. The eBay rep did bring that up - the stock photos - but agreed with me that if anyone would complain it would be Barneys (who doesn't even carry them any longer)...but again that was he and I assuming Barneys has their own photos. Also wrote to Barbour - will see if I get a reply - if not, the eBay rep told me to email [email protected] in a week and they would prompt Barbour to explain. Thank you for the reply - that was the only thing that came to mind for me as well when talking to the eBay rep.
EDIT: I'm going to stop using stock photos entirely (which I only do for new items anyway) - I don't think buyers like them...

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capnwes said:

I usually avoid buying from listings with stock photos. It makes me feel like they are hiding something.

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capnwes said:

I usually avoid buying from listings with stock photos. It makes me feel like they are hiding something.

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ATLnoob said:

Quote: I tend to use a stock photo on some stuff - but I look for a photo that is not already used on ebay by other. THEN I add a quick self shot in the listing to show the actual product they will receive.

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ATLnoob said:

Forgot to quote:
<< What is a good source for odd sized boxes? I need to ship something 36"x6"x6", but only once. >>

Stuff like that I usually bring to UPS who will build a box around it if they don't have a box near that size in stock.
You could try UHaul, buy on of their lamp boxes. Bit bigger but sounds like it would work.

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capnwes said:

+1.....me too. Very easy camera to use. Also very lightweight as far as DSLRs go. Not exactly a point and shoot, but if you use the same setup all the time, you shouldn't need to adjust the camera much at all. You will get compliments on your photos.

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Aidan K said:

Thanks, that looks like it will do the trick, and Uhaul is down by the post office too.

Another noobish question: how long do you usually wait to open a buyer did not pay case? Does it change if you have another person willing to buy the item? What about if the non-payer has a "good" feedback for did not pay (out of 49 opportunities)?

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capnwes said:

Why would you think you don't have to use them for taxes? What do you have for means of record if you were to get audited?

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jebarne said:

Since your photos are some of the clearest on ebay, you must have a very nice 3 point lighting system to complement the camera.

What's your lighting set up?

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Hey Thanks!

This is my "thrifted" light booth. It's a CVS (color viewing station) used by a graphics company to check test plots and photos. It uses a special 2x4 troffer fixture with six 5000K "Daylight fluorescent lamps. The 2x4 troffer fixture costs about $1000 and the lamps are roughly $60 a piece. I have no idea what the stand would cost. The desk surface is large enough for a 36"x 48" print with room around the edges.

My buddy worked for the company who owned this and they were giving it away for FREE. Score!! I love it, although, at 4'x5' and 8' tall it does take up a considerable amount of space in my office.

For those of you looking for lighting solutions, try out the 5000K compact flourescent bulbs. They will likely give you a better result than the standard CFL.

ATLnoob said:

I have eBay automatically open a non-paid case after 4 days...after which the buyer has another 4 days to pony up. Sellers cannot leave negative feedback for non-paying, because payment was not received which for some reason eBay does not think merits being able to leave negative feedback for a buyer. All that happens is the buyer gets a negative strike that is not visible to sellers, hence the creation of the StyleForum eBay black-list.
If you don't already have eBay opening non-paying cases for you, and you didn't state in your listing that you require payment in x number of days (which you should), then I would send a 2nd invoice 4 or 5 days after the 1st...then wait a few more days before opening the non-payment case.
In the future, state in your listings when you expect payment, and also set up the automatic eBay unpaid item assistant:
My Ebay -> Account -> Site Preferences -> Selling Preferences -> Unpaid Item Assistant

You can offer the item to a non-winning bidder as a 2nd chance, if you close it out with the first bidder either by going the non-paid route, or canceling the sale before it gets that far. You can cancel the sale before it goes into non-paid item status, but the original bidder has to agree to it or not respond at all in which case eBay will close it automatically after 4 days (I think).
Click on "Customer Support" at the top of the screen, in the search box enter "cancel sale" and choose "I'm a seller and want to cancel a sale."

You may want to also set your selling preferences, to block people who have x unpaid strikes against them, negative feedback etc, but eBay is very lax here and you really can't block much that way...but it's still something.

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Aidan K said:

Awesome, thanks so much for that detailed and useful reply. I guess I need to make up some terms and conditions text to paste into all of my listings. Rereading this thread front to back is also on the list of things to do, maybe if work is slow tomorrow...

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capnwes said:

Hey Thanks!

This is my "thrifted" light booth. It's a CVS (color viewing station) used by a graphics company to check test plots and photos. It uses a special 2x4 troffer fixture with six 5000K "Daylight fluorescent lamps. The 2x4 troffer fixture costs about $1000 and the lamps are roughly $60 a piece. I have no idea what the stand would cost. The desk surface is large enough for a 36"x 48" print with room around the edges.

My buddy worked for the company who owned this and they were giving it away for FREE. Score!! I love it, although, at 4'x5' and 8' tall it does take up a considerable amount of space in my office.

For those of you looking for lighting solutions, try out the 5000K compact flourescent bulbs. They will likely give you a better result than the standard CFL.





I'm surprised by this. I didn't expect it to be a self contained system with the number of jackets that you shoot on mannequins. But it seems to work extremely well. I enjoy building stuff so I'm going to look into this as a project.

I am not an active seller and therefore won't need a set up like yours, so I bought 3 metal large clip on lights from home depot, added 65 watt replacement LED spot lights and got a decent result with my wife's canon t2i.

Speaking of Cameras, the Yashika you have is nice. When I was in college I used a large format mamiya owned by architecture professor. He didn't loan his hasselblad.

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capnwes said:

You are more than welcome to "steal" and modify mine if you like. Just follow the terms and conditions link in any of my listings.

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