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

[goatamous II]

@Steve Smith I've never sold on TRR, but heard horror stories
I'm a small time seller across the board and never really had issues with grailed.
Your statement isn't far off: i haven't had any major complaints with ebay.

regardless of the platform, i think the window for refund has long passed, so i'll take the above advice and just ignore.

 

[florent]

While we're on the subject of consignors, I tried Marrkt and about everything they could have done wrong, they did wrong. Stay away from them

 

[Steve Smith]

regardless of the platform, i think the window for refund has long passed, so i'll take the above advice and just ignore.

I agree. A 30 day window is more than long enough.

 

[Henry S]

While we're on the subject of consignors, I tried Marrkt and about everything they could have done wrong, they did wrong. Stay away from them

I would be interested to know more about your experience here or in a private chat.

As a buyer, it has been slightly frustrating recently. I have had three orders canceled due to stock or pricing errors.
Personally, I believe that if the price discrepancy is only 15%, it would be more reasonable to deduct it from their profit instead of canceling the order. However, if the difference in price is significant, canceling the order would be fair. If we go by the book where I live, it's unquestionable, and they should honor the listed price.

 

[florent]

I would be interested to know more about your experience here or in a private chat.

As a buyer, it has been slightly frustrating recently. I have had three orders canceled due to stock or pricing errors.
Personally, I believe that if the price discrepancy is only 15%, it would be more reasonable to deduct it from their profit instead of canceling the order. However, if the difference in price is significant, canceling the order would be fair. If we go by the book where I live, it's unquestionable, and they should honor the listed price.

Sure...

• I sent them a dozen items and there was errors in the description for 9-10 of them, ranging from wrong color, wrong reference model, wrong composition, wrong technical details (pair of shoes described as Goodyear welted when it was obviously Blake), wrong size and undisclosed issues. For this reason alone I would never buy from them.
• They didn't respect their own payment deadline and I had to remind them to send me my money
• They increased their fees without letting me know beforehand
• They "forgot" they sold some of my items and I had to ask them why they weren't online anymore for several months but I didn't get payment
• They got a return for one of my item and forgot to put back online until I ask them why it wasn't online anymore for several months but I didn't get payment. Otherwise I guess it could have stayed in their warehouse forever
• When I shipped my consignement they assured me any discount would be discussed with me beforehand and I discovered when they sold that they made huge prices drops (like -70%) of some of my items without prior notice. When I raised the issue they replied the person who initially told me the discounts would be discussed wasn't working for them anymore so they weren't tied by what he said (wtf??) and it was my job to monitor the prices of my stuff and complain if didn't agree (wtf???)
• Cherry on the cake: after the previous exchange I asked them to send me back the remaining unsold items, they made me pay for the shipping and didn't declare the shipment as a return so I had to pay customs fees on top of it

 

[Steve Smith]

matbra-1896

Here is one for you. (UK buyer, if it was US I would just eat the expense and block.) Bought the same shirt (neck, color, fit) with two different sleeve lengths (32 and 35). Opened a not as described return for the 15.5-32 claiming that the chest measurement is 20 inches, not the 22 listed in the description. Here is the good part: He included two pictures of the shirt with a tape measure on it. The shirt measures 20.25 AND he clearly doesn't have it flat.

Ebay CS rep advised me to accept the return and give him my address to ship it back at his expense, in spite of the fact that under the Accept Return option it states that I am responsible for shipping expenses. So we will see how this works out.

 

[Steve Smith]

For you who want to consign things for sale, it seems from the responses here that the ones that I haven't tried are just as bad as the ones I have tried (The Real Real and Grailed).

There are at least two reputable consignors who frequent this thread. I have used one with good results, and never heard anything but positives about the other.

 

[Tweets]

TRR has its place but its gotta be on super high end stuff, theyve sold stuff for me that I got over a $1000 more even after fees than I was trying to sell for on ebay. They will kill you on anything under $200, their fees are outrageous and yes they do seem to like to price things just under the percentage break. BUT I have had them recently list some stuff $10 over the cutoff too.

 

[eddyroxx]

Does anyone know how long an item has to sit for on TRR before its eligible for discounts?

 

[Tweets]

A

Does anyone know how long an item has to sit for on TRR before its eligible for discounts?

About 5 minutes, some higher end items they make ineligible for discounts though (somewhere like $1500+)

 

[Sartoriamo]

Different subject: as technology continues to advance, I am wondering how those of you who care to share are now setting up your photography area, particularly with respect to lighting. I see some of you posting on thrift thread with stunning clarity of images, and I am wondering how you are achieving those. I'm 25 years into eBay at this point, back from the days when I took pictures on a film camera and took them to Costco to have them digitized.

Back then, I used pro-grade Arri lighting, but it was too damn hot, so I switched to daylight fluorescents for a decade and a half, and most recently have been using four Harbor Freight LED strips, two vertical, in front of either side of the mannequin, one horizontal above the mannequin, and another horizontal above the flatlay table. I use a Canon S120 point-n-shoot, and set the exposure manually based on the automatic readings obtained with an 18% gray card. Minor exposure adjustments are done using the thumb ring wheel on the S120. I never use the viewfinder, preferring to use the LCD screen for composition. That's partly a function of age, as pretzeling to a viewfinder is not as much fun as it used to be. I know some of you use DSLRs, but you'd have a hard time convincing me to switch to something heavy, slow and clunky from something light, quick and easy.

Also, I don't have any scrims or reflectors, but maybe I should.

Don't get me wrong: this is all working quite well, but I am also conscious of the fact that new stuff is coming on the market all the time, and it's all about constantly improving. Hence my question to y'all. What's giving you GREAT image results?

 

[gimpwiz]

I don't sell on ebay but I do enjoy photography.

If I was to give a plain formula, it would be this. White backdrop. Mannequin. One decent continuous light with a white color that works well. Two or three flashes on stands, each with a softbox if pointed at the clothes / one pointed up to bounce, slaved to the master. Dslr/mirrorless camera - interchangeable lens camera, to be clear - that can do TTL flash metering. Remote release. Given that you don't need to worry about wide angle distortion of faces, I'd be happy with a 40mm or 50mm or even 35mm lens (135 formal equivalent, in terms of field of view). A kit lens or nifty fifty is fine, don't need anything crazy here. You might want to connect it to a computer to do photo + import + profiles applied automatically rather than remote release + manual import later.

You could always build up to it. I'd probably start with one speedlight set to bounce flash on a tripod, and a white backdrop. Then add the other elements as needed until you reach good enough. You don't need a full portraiture studio setup, since you're not taking photos of people, but how close you get is up to you.

A dslr or mirrorless ILC is only slow and clunky if you don't know how to use one. No offense. But they offer solid features. What I would highly avoid is direct, straight flash at the clothes. Bounce and softbox, no direct flash.

 

[Fueco]

I’ll suggest that you don’t need flashes. LED lights with diffusers can work just as well for our purposes. I use three (two aiming at the front of the mannequin at about 45 degrees off direct, and one illuminating the white backdrop from above.

The most important thing is to get the color as close to accurate as possible. Get full spectrum lights and use the K setting on your camera to dial in the color temperature.

I use a Canon EOS 90d with an EFS 35mm macro lens. This gives me close to 50mm lens coverage accounting for the crop factor, and the ability to show the texture of fabrics.

Dial in your settings, and you won’t need to do post processing. Save that for shooting portraits. I used mine to do my family’s passport photos.

 

[txwoodworker]

Vero Strike
"G. & G. S.r.l. is the title holder of the HARRINGTON products.We may be contacted at [email protected]
Truthfully,Corsearch Brand Protection on behalf of WP Lavori in Corso"

That's some random BS right there. I assume it's because Lavori owns the Barracuta brand. There's thousands upon thousands of harrington jackets on the bay.

 

[MJMcRibb]

Vero Strike
"G. & G. S.r.l. is the title holder of the HARRINGTON products.We may be contacted at [email protected]
Truthfully,Corsearch Brand Protection on behalf of WP Lavori in Corso"

That's some random BS right there. I assume it's because Lavori owns the Barracuta brand. There's thousands upon thousands of harrington jackets on the bay.

They must have started cracking down on this in the last 6 months or so. I got an APC jacket taken down a while back for calling it a harrington jacket.