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

[TheNeedMachine]

Better for the blacklist thread, but yes I add all non-paying bidders. 97% of transactions go without a problem so if someone is in the 3% that does not pay or wants to return something b/c they are an idiot then they deserve to go on the blacklist. Why would anyone here want to have to deal with the small percentage who ruin it for everyone else.

Ditto - I add all non-paying bidders as well as anyone who returns something without a real reason (my returns are only for "not as described" - if they can't tell me how the item was not as described, it's a BS return). I add them to the SF blacklist as well as my own eBay blocked bidder list, and also add other SF member contributions from the SF blacklist to my eBay block list. I'm not sure if doing all this has actually saved me any grief in the end, but it's better than doing nothing I suppose, and only takes a couple of minutes.

 

[capnwes]

Cross posting from the thrift thread, since I thought it might be more useful here. I picked up a NIB Conair Steamer today if anyone is interested in picking it up relatively cheap. If not I suppose I could just upgrade.

 

[TheNeedMachine]

Finally broke down and got some decent mannequin forms on stands - jersey covered - not pinnable - but a huge step up from my dinky crappy hollow-back hanging male form. Grabbed a male & female, since I do have some chick stuff that looks terrible on a male form. Got them from Stamps in ATL - competitive prices and if you're in the area and don't want to make the drive, their shipping was totally reasonable ($18 to ship both via UPS, vs. me taking 3+ hours off on a weekday to go there & back).

Aside to Wes: got two hundos for those Ben Silver's I PM'd you about - nice!

 

[TheNeedMachine]

Cross posting from the thrift thread, since I thought it might be more useful here. I picked up a NIB Conair Steamer today if anyone is interested in picking it up relatively cheap. If not I suppose I could just upgrade.

That's the brand I have and can say it works very well - heats up quickly, and the telescoping pole serves dual purpose as a place to hang a mannequin form if you're doing things on the cheap. Compact & lightweight; takes up less floor space than a standard upright vacuum cleaner. Someone should snag this.

 

[capnwes]

Finally broke down and got some decent mannequin forms on stands - jersey covered - not pinnable - but a huge step up from my dinky crappy hollow-back hanging male form. Grabbed a male & female, since I do have some chick stuff that looks terrible on a male form. Got them from Stamps in ATL - competitive prices and if you're in the area and don't want to make the drive, their shipping was totally reasonable ($18 to ship both via UPS, vs. me taking 3+ hours off on a weekday to go there & back).

Aside to Wes: got two hundos for those Ben Silver's I PM'd you about - nice!

Nice!

 

[VLSI]

Can I select regional rate when printing a shipping label through a paypal transaction? Don't see it as an option.

 

[capnwes]

Can I select regional rate when printing a shipping label through a paypal transaction? Don't see it as an option.

No....and that is dumb.

I typically go to an ebay transaction from the same day, that I have already shipped and print another label, editing the address to match the one on the paypal shipping page.

 

[VLSI]



No....and that is dumb.

I typically go to an ebay transaction from the same day, that I have already shipped and print another label, editing the address to match the one on the paypal shipping page.

That sends a new notice to the buyer though right? I haven't sold anything in a few months and don't want to mess up my dad.

 

[capnwes]

That sends a new notice to the buyer though right? I haven't sold anything in a few months and don't want to mess up my dad.

Yeah, it will only really work if you just shipped something the same day. Otherwise it can mess with your top seller ratings and discount (learned that the hard way). I usually send the original ebay buyer a note telling them that they may have received a couple notices of shipment and that the first one was theirs.

 

[GMMcL]



That sends a new notice to the buyer though right? I haven't sold anything in a few months and don't want to mess up my dad.

Yeah, it will only really work if you just shipped something the same day. Otherwise it can mess with your top seller ratings and discount (learned that the hard way). I usually send the original ebay buyer a note telling them that they may have received a couple notices of shipment and that the first one was theirs.

I 100% agree it's annoying as hell that you can't send regional rate directly from PayPal. I use USPS.com. Why does it mess up your seller rating -- because Ebay thinks you're sending late? BTW, if you just have someone you trust send you, like, a penny for a goods transaction, you can then use that payment to send essentially infinite first class packages just by going back into the transaction details and clicking "ship another" then changing the address manually. Most convenient for SF sales.

 

[capnwes]

I 100% agree it's annoying as hell that you can't send regional rate directly from PayPal. I use USPS.com. Why does it mess up your seller rating -- because Ebay thinks you're sending late? BTW, if you just have someone you trust send you, like, a penny for a goods transaction, you can then use that payment to send essentially infinite first class packages just by going back into the transaction details and clicking "ship another" then changing the address manually. Most convenient for SF sales.

Yeah, If you ship a package a couple days later on an old transaction, the shipped date updates to the newest shipment. In my case, I was shipping packages to everyone on the thrift thread, as usual. I was just picking the 90 day old sales to ship from so it wouldn't screw with a buyer who was still waiting for a package. Lo and behold, the calculation was screwed up and I lost my 20% discount, plus my discounted shipping rate for a whole month. The customer service even said they could see that the packages were shipped in time, but there was no way to over ride the calculation until the next account evaluation. Cost me like $100 that month.

First class is nice, but I prefer to ship priority when possible. With the discounted shipping it is cheaper than standard post 99% of the time and the regional flat rate A box is generally the cheapest priority option. Erry Dolla Counts

 

[TheNeedMachine]

My sacrificial eBay listing with video - obviously in the future I will hide the cord and have the turntable re-covered in something other than dirty green felt...and get a better angle so they don't look like prosthetic shoes, And it's such an incredible pain that I'd never make a video for anything I don't hope to make a fat profit on.

 

[VLSI]

Simple looped gif would have been better in my opinion. Easy to do in photoshop.

 

[TheNeedMachine]

Simple looped gif would have been better in my opinion. Easy to do in photoshop.

Hence the "sacrificial" listing - I'll see what happens. But a looped gif, no matter how hi-res, seems sort of cheesy and would not display across all browsers and platforms, whereas if anyone is making a browser or device that doesn't support embedded YouTube videos, I'd be surprised.

 

[VLSI]



Hence the "sacrificial" listing - I'll see what happens.  But a looped gif, no matter how hi-res, seems sort of cheesy and would not display across all browsers and platforms, whereas if anyone is making a browser or device that doesn't support embedded YouTube videos, I'd be surprised.

Umm what? What browser can't display a gif? Youtube requires flash. Browsers don't just come with flash. You're also relying on the person to actually click the video, rather than just having it play for them as they scroll by. The other advantage is if you got your background right, you could blend it into the listing seamlessly.