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

[TheNeedMachine]

That's a dirtbag move on that guy's part not to give you back the 200. Ouch.

My stupid-ass mistake [long story short: I had to refund a guy, email address was JohnSomething@whatever, amount $224.xx...by sheer coincidence I had another buyer with a JohnSomething@whatever email address for $224.zz on the same day...refunded the wrong John].
I asked the dude to send it back, fully expecting he would not, and was not disappointed in the end.

That does suck! I've never refunded the wrong person, but I have refunded the entire amount when I meant to only do a partial since PayPal automatically puts the full amount in the refund box by default, and I ended up putting the intended refund amount in the "Invoice Number" box.

I've caught that one too - refunding unintentional shipping overcharges for a few bucks, and almost refunded the whole amount. Now I'm super-careful, but don't get many returns since I don't sell a lot.

 

[TheNeedMachine]

Done that several times. Always when trying to do the refund on my phone. Fortunately the buyers all sent the money back. Pretty amazed by that actually.

...and...:

Kind of reminds me: I was buying some vinyl off of a message board I belonged to a long time ago (viva la vinyl) and accidentally sent the guy $1600 rather than $16.00. Luckily, he immediately refunded me and we had a laugh about it.

Wow, good karma all around for those guys. I've lived long enough to sort of believe in that - screw someone over and you eventually get screwed over in return. Easier to just do the right thing.

 

[TheNeedMachine]

OK triple post, scuze me...looking for a source for some shoe trees with the little brass (?) knob thing on top of the back/heel part. Strictly for taking eBay pics, so, cheap is good.

 

[joshmick]

Agreed, the whole golden rule thing is pretty wonderful...

Also, let us know his username so we can all block him.

 

[SpooPoker]



The first one is very Classic and Trad, the contrasting colors photograph very attractively too, the other three just don't have the same eye appeal.

This. It just has to look nice.

OK triple post, scuze me...looking for a source for some shoe trees with the little brass (?) knob thing on top of the back/heel part.  Strictly for taking eBay pics, so, cheap is good.  

PM'd you

 

[Fueco]



My stupid-ass mistake [long story short: I had to refund a guy, email address was JohnSomething@whatever, amount $224.xx...by sheer coincidence I had another buyer with a JohnSomething@whatever email address for $224.zz on the same day...refunded the wrong John].  
I asked the dude to send it back, fully expecting he would not, and was not disappointed in the end.


I've caught that one too - refunding unintentional shipping overcharges for a few bucks, and almost refunded the whole amount.  Now I'm super-careful, but don't get many returns since I don't sell a lot.

I meant to refund a buyer $5 once and sent her $105 (entire purchase price). She never replied to my request for the money or even said thank you for the free down jacket. Some people are just plain evil...

 

[stevent]

Tax related question - are you supposed to include shipping costs in your cost of goods sold? Or is it a business expense?

From what I remember in accounting classes shipping should be an expense, though it seems people are reporting both ways? I have how much each item sold for, shipping charged (or free shipping), etc, just not sure how I'm supposed to report it.

 

[ChetB]



I meant to refund a buyer $5 once and sent her $105 (entire purchase price). She never replied to my request for the money or even said thank you for the free down jacket. Some people are just plain evil...

I would feel terrible doing that to somebody. Geez.

 

[TheNeedMachine]



Agreed, the whole golden rule thing is pretty wonderful...

Also, let us know his username so we can all block him.

This was a year or so ago - doubt I can dig up the info...

 

[cdgreg]

Thanks spoo and wes. One of the biggest lessons here is in general buy the patterns that the largest audience wants, not what I like. It's a common sense thing, but sometimes common sense is not common enough!

 

[TJhambone09]



Tax related question - are you supposed to include shipping costs in your cost of goods sold? Or is it a business expense?

From what I remember in accounting classes shipping should be an expense, though it seems people are reporting both ways? I have how much each item sold for, shipping charged (or free shipping), etc, just not sure how I'm supposed to report it.

Good job remembering the rule. COGS only includes procurement expenses, not selling expenses. So, any shipping you pay to buy an item (like if you e-thrift something to flip) can go into COGS. But, any shipping you pay to get a sold item to a buyer goes in expenses (our lingo is SGnA - selling, general, and administrative). On a tax return, I usually put it in "other" then break it out on the back of Schedule C unless a client is adamant they want it somewhere else.

 

[ridethecliche]

I did that to @Fueco once. I sent him a ton of money by mistake and freaked out because I was new here. He just refunded it to me and we had a laugh at my expense. Well, I got my money back so I guess the laugh was free?

 

[Snoogz]

but the heart attack wasn't.

 

[Snoogz]

I came across an app called Scrobbld tonight as I was browsing around.

I have never used it nor did I spend much time vetting the quality.

But, wanted to know if anyone here has had any experience with it in the past, if so, any benefits?

 

[Shoeluv]

Looking for some feedback from the more experienced sellers, if you are willing to share. When considering a TIE in the same brand, model, and material, what exactly is it that can cause one tie to have a ton of hits, a number of watchers, and a quick sale when a similar brand/model/material gets no love? For example:

BB Makers Maroon with gold diagonal stripe (with wrinkles), 70+ hits, 5 watchers, and sold within 2 days:


Some "similar" ties (all BB makers, similar title and description HTML) that are getting NO LOVE






Is a diagonal stripe much preferred to horizontal? Is maroon a preferred color over navy? Or maybe another way to ask is what really helps a tie sell, and what are deterants? I remember reading Spoo's post last week where he mentioned Long or Short suits tend to drop the average sale price 25% (I think it was in this range). Are there little factors that have a major impact like this on ties?

Thanks again for those willing to share some of their expertise.

Those horizontal striped ties don't sell very well, it took me a few months to unload a few I had for very little profit. I avoid the horizontal stripes now (unless of course I find a Kiton or Isaia). The red tie looks like electrified sperm.