eBay Mandatory Return Requirements 4 Sellers

[Santo10Fan]

From the site:
"30-day free returns is a retail returns standard and a buyer expectation. Starting June 1, 2018, Top Rated Sellers will be required to offer 30-day free returns to be eligible to receive Top Rated Plus benefits. eBay Top Rated Sellers earn those benefits by offering an elevated experience to their buyers. When you offer 30-day free returns, you’re offering a superior retail returns experience."

This one crept up on me, but it doesn't surprise me at all. Amazon (and Zappos) are big competitors to eBay and have liberal return policies. 30 days is quite a long time to keep funding handy, waiting to see if a buyer changes its mind on day 29. I'm fine with 14-day on any and all cards I sell, but I am not ok with any returns for the sealed hobby boxes I sell. There's too much potential for shenanigans. This seems a little blackamailish to me-it could really cost box/case sellers

[savedfrommyspokes]

From the site:
"30-day free returns is a retail returns standard and a buyer expectation. Starting June 1, 2018, Top Rated Sellers will be required to offer 30-day free returns to be eligible to receive Top Rated Plus benefits. eBay Top Rated Sellers earn those benefits by offering an elevated experience to their buyers. When you offer 30-day free returns, you’re offering a superior retail returns experience."

This one crept up on me, but it doesn't surprise me at all. Amazon (and Zappos) are big competitors to eBay and have liberal return policies. 30 days is quite a long time to keep funding handy, waiting to see if a buyer changes its mind on day 29. I'm fine with 14-day on any and all cards I sell, but I am not ok with any returns for the sealed hobby boxes I sell. There's too much potential for shenanigans. This seems a little blackamailish to me-it could really cost box/case sellers

You can remain a TRS and NOT offer "free" returns. However, you will lose your TRS discount (10% off of your FVF or 1 cent/dollar sold) on any items which do not include the 30 day free returns offer. Also, any items which do not have the 30 day free return offer, the "top rated plus" logo which appears next to the item in searches will no longer appear next to the listing.

So in your case, you can pick and choose which items you offer the free returns on....on the items you do have this offer, you will qualify for the 10% back on FVF and receive the "top rated plus" logo.

It will be interesting to see come June 1st how many card sellers on ebay will begin to offer the 30 day free returns on their listings. A handful of card sellers have, but the vast majority have not.

Personally, I the 30 day free returns offer does not entice me in any way to either buy or not buy from a seller. However, the offer to accept returns is something I look for when buying a higher dollar raw single, a set or larger lot of raw cards....I know if the item is not as described, there will not be a hassle (or cost) to return.

Interestingly, news reports have some amazon customers complaining about having their accounts closed due to excessive returns.

[aloondilana]

Total BS.
I will gladly give up my top rated seller designation over this.
So someone could buy a Tom Brady card in early January, then Pats don't win SB
and buyer gets to return the card?!??
Screw that!
eBay again screws it's sellers

[glchen]

I know the 30 day return policy sounds bad, but in 8 years selling on ebay with around 4000 items sold, I've have had around 4 returns. Basically, one every 2 years or one thousand items sold. Saying that I usually only sell graded cards and very few raw, so that probably makes a difference.

[jfkheat]

What difference does it make what a seller has as a return policy? If a buyer files a claim within 45 days the seller will have to issue a refund 99.44% of the time. I have never understood why eBay allows sellers to have a no return policy.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

I stopped worrying about top seller status wen they cut the discount in half

[Exhibitman]

eBay can take their 1% and shove it. The 30 days doesn't bother me; the "free" bothers me immensely, esp. since the shipping will be at eBay rates with the label they will take the cost of from my account. The buyer has to have some skin in the game. If I have to refund the outgoing shipping and eat the return shipping I am potentially eating $5.32 per single graded card. I can't sell the cheaper stuff that way.

I also don't think the powers that be understand eBay. As a buyer, i don't go to eBay expecting a retail sale experience for collectibles. No one should. eBay had (has) a great niche as the world's garage sale. All of these changes that punish P/T sellers, though, it is just going to drive us off. And they wonder why they don't get the growth they fantasize about in the eBay C-suite each time they institute one of these asinine policies.

eBay, pulling defeat from the jaws of victory every time.

[ibuysportsephemera]

I have been a Top Rated Seller for as long as I can remember. I will be giving up my 10% discount as of June 1. I will never offer free returns on anything unless I made a mistake on the description. IMO, when a buyer is offered free returns, they have no skin in the game at all. As least if they have to come out of pocket to return something, they might think about it a little bit.



Jeff

[jfkheat]

I have been a Top Rated Seller for as long as I can remember. I will be giving up my 10% discount as of June 1. I will never offer free returns on anything unless I made a mistake on the description. IMO, when a buyer is offered free returns, they have no skin in the game at all. As least if they have to come out of pocket to return something, they might think about it a little bit.



Jeff

If they file an eBay claim and win the seller pays for return shipping. It doesn't cost the buyer anything

[ibuysportsephemera]

If they file an eBay claim and win the seller pays for return shipping. It doesn't cost the buyer anything

I have been on eBay since 1997 and never had a claim filed against me. I offer refunds if an item is not as described or if I have made a mistake. I take extra time and give detailed descriptions with multiple photos, thus I avoid conflict with my buyers.

Free returns are totally different...a buyer can now decide that they have changed their mind and initiate a refund for no reason. To make matters worse, I now have to pay for the postage...NOT HAPPENING if I can avoid it.

Jeff

[BeanTown]

Hopefully eBay will take a page out of Amazon's book and ban serial returners. I'm pretty sure that 5 percent of the buyers make up 70 percent of their problems.

[Republicaninmass]

I've added a 20% restocking fee on graded cards

[ricktmd]

I suppose if you buy a card and find a better deal elsewhere or bid in an auction and win a card for below what you paid in your ebay purchase you can return the card to the ebay seller. Not very good for the seller.
As a buyer of clothes on line I return items to Amazon or Macy's based on style or fit. One of the reasons you can check for return is better price elsewhere which is not the case on my returns. This seems somewhat reasonable on buy it now items as those are typically (not always) selling for elevated prices and sitting in an ebay store/museum where they will go back to. It seems highly unfair for an auctioned item which benefits from the competition that your bids helped create. If you return the item and it goes back to auction it will likely end up with a lower realized price. Another mistake by ebay making them less attractive to the vintage sports card market.

[cardsnstuff]

I sell a decent amount and eBay just doesn't get it; Free returns. No Thank you; speculators can buy, try to resell/flip/review, what ever they do, and than say oh well and return. Lose my .01/$100 sales, ok no big deal & good because than I don't have to drop what I am doing to get card to post office. They are losing buyers & sellers by the droves. Someone said about a restocking fee; well that stops June 1st too. I will still offer top rated service. But when items have 6 views over 90 days, I guess does it really matter. Actually, ebay is doing me a favor, because I will open my own web store and spend the money I am paying them to promote it instead in both print and online. Sports cards and collectables are a very niche marketplace and with the proper advertising I think I can do just as well with out ebay. I'll continue to sell there but just not as much.

In a few years, ebay will be sold to another company for pennies on the $; who will make it great again. Ebay had a monopoly with their auctions, but once they start losing sellers they will see.

Ask your self this question, if you had an extra phone to sell, would you sell it on ebay where potentially a scammer gets his money and your phone, and you cover shipping both ways. Fool me once shame on you; Fool me twice shame on me.

[gregr2]

I also read that restocking fees goes away on 1 June. Much like others, I will not set my listings to allow free return shipping. With eBay margins as tight as they are, offering free return shipping makes no sense.


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[aloondilana]

Maybe on some items a liberal return policy may be in order.
But for heavens sake.....graded cards from SGC or PSA are what they are and the buyer knows fully well what he is getting.
I'll stand my ground, no returns on graded cards.

[PowderedH2O]

So a buyer can purchase your card, and list it for sale. If it doesn't sell within 25 days or so, they can return it to you at your expense. Good business plan!

[slidekellyslide]

I’ve been offering 30 day free returns for at least a couple of years now without too much hassle. But I also don’t sell cards or other speculative items. There is only one time I can remember where a guy wanted to return an item because he found it cheaper elsewhere. He had no problem telling me that too. Most returns are for items that the post office destroyed or something I overlooked. I would think if eBay were smart they would exclude certain items from this policy.

[gregr2]

I’ve been offering 30 day free returns for at least a couple of years now without too much hassle. But I also don’t sell cards or other speculative items. There is only one time I can remember where a guy wanted to return an item because he found it cheaper elsewhere. He had no problem telling me that too. Most returns are for items that the post office destroyed or something I overlooked. I would think if eBay were smart they would exclude certain items from this policy.

I offer 30 day returns as well, however the buyer has to pay return shipping. I plan on keeping my listings just like this.

[Exhibitman]

We have to endure these spasms of stupidity from eBay because management at eBay has an ongoing problem with strategic thinking: they want to be Amazon but there already is a company like Amazon: it is called "Amazon." Instead of trying to be an imitation Amazon, they ought to try to be eBay. There is a huge and at this point underserved population of casual sellers who would use eBay if the rules for using eBay weren't so one-sided and oppressive.


How is this going to affect all of the eBay consignment sellers? Are we going to see COMC, PWCC and Probstein move to a much later payout because of the potential for charge-backs? Who is going to 'eat' the free shipping when waves of auction-fever-related cards come flooding back 2-4 weeks after the close of an auction from bidders with buyers' remorse?

[D. Bergin]

It's another irritation from Ebay to be sure. I don't really get returns, but that doesn't exactly make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Once you start telling people they can do something and get away with it, they will likely start doing it, even if they hadn't thought of ever doing it before.

If it starts happening to me, I will learn to just start blocking those people from bidding and move on.

Some of us mentioned that Ebay should consider making Collectibles an exception to this policy, but from what I am seeing on the Ebay boards, this is actually a much more destructive policy to many of the retail sellers then to us.

People renting clothes and bulky technology like printers and scanners. A $100 toaster oven that costs $35 bucks to ship. Some dude can buy it, use it for a dinner party, ship it back 29 days later, and the seller is on the hook for $100 for the toaster oven + $70 bucks worth of shipping costs (35 bucks each way).

Ebay is even going to let people return new and damaged items out of the original packaging by claiming they will back the seller up for as much as 50% of the original cost of the item.

So Joey from Minnesota buys an IPhone and smashes it on week 3. Requests a return with free shipping and Ebay grants it. Item shows up out of the original packaging and smashed................but hold on sellers Ebay says they have your back, and will only allow Joey to collect 50% of the sales price of the original item, while seller gets a smashed IPhone they can easily resell to recoup the 50% cost + shipping that Ebay just took from them.

I really don't know WTF Ebay is thinking sometimes, other then making everything under the sun, not their problem.

[ibuysportsephemera]

2 more points:


1) I think eBay is trying every way possible to get rid of the 10% discount for TRS and that is what is really behind this change.


2) I wish eBay would recognize how disruptive their 2x a year seller updates are. Typically, I have to go back and edit all of my listings. Even though most of the time you can do this in bulk, it is still a royal pain in the A%%.


Jeff

[swarmee]

Everyone should set their restocking fee to 20 percent in protest. Wait? Aren't they doing away with that as well? Ugh...

[bounce]

I offer 30 day returns as well, however the buyer has to pay return shipping. I plan on keeping my listings just like this.

But what are you selling?

You're cool with selling say a PSA 7 or PSA 8 Hank Aaron rookie, and if prices drop you'll take it back in no problem?

This policy doesn't make any sense for collectibles and similar items.

Could I buy a gold coin, and then send it back a month later? Or maybe that's outside of this policy.

I haven't looked in detail, so I honestly don't know.

[cardsnstuff]

With this new ebay policy; it's doesn't matter what you sell, it's a bad deal for sellers.

Imagine going to Macy's buying a shirt, wearing it, and wanting to return it with a stain. Think they'll take it back, no way. or try to return an open video game to game stop, again no way, or a broken phone you broke to apple. Where I think this stupid policy hurts our industry, is buying a graded or raw card for that matter, ask for a minimum grade, review, whatever, and when you don't get it, you return it. Or buying a hot rookie card, when the prices drop {they usually do} and than return it. If the buyer has no skin the game as mentioned before, they have nothing to lose. Will ebay stop excessive returns, maybe, but I see new accounts every day. Ebay is trying to reinvent the wheel, why? Ebay is hurting themselves, when the sellers leave, and when they get charge backs, they will.

Imagine telling PWCC, I paid 25k for your card but I found a cheaper/nicer one in Heritage last week so I am returning it. It will be interesting to see if the big boys have to follow the same rules. PWCC clearly states no returns unless description/image are wrong.

[gregr2]

But what are you selling?



You're cool with selling say a PSA 7 or PSA 8 Hank Aaron rookie, and if prices drop you'll take it back in no problem?



This policy doesn't make any sense for collectibles and similar items.



Could I buy a gold coin, and then send it back a month later? Or maybe that's outside of this policy.



I haven't looked in detail, so I honestly don't know.



LOL I play in a different sandbox. I don’t sell nor can I afford a Hank Aaron RC. I’m a low dollar seller but have been selling for a couple of years and I think I’ve had one return and it wasn’t even a card. I’ve always had a 30 day return policy but like I stated the buyer has to pay for the return. As has been previously stated, the buyer has to have some skin in the game.


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[bobbyw8469]

I’ve always had a 30 day return policy but like I stated the buyer has to pay for the return. As has been previously stated, the buyer has to have some skin in the game.


Not anymore...I just had a buyer want to return a pair of jeans and Ebay wants me to pay for the return.

[gregr2]

Not anymore...I just had a buyer want to return a pair of jeans and Ebay wants me to pay for the return.



That really sucks. They are making it virtually impossible for us to make a profit.


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[bounce]

I offer 30 day returns as well, however the buyer has to pay return shipping. I plan on keeping my listings just like this.

LOL I play in a different sandbox. I don’t sell nor can I afford a Hank Aaron RC. I’m a low dollar seller but have been selling for a couple of years and I think I’ve had one return and it wasn’t even a card. I’ve always had a 30 day return policy but like I stated the buyer has to pay for the return. As has been previously stated, the buyer has to have some skin in the game.

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That's the point. Is it that big of a deal to have to risk a return on a smaller dollar item? Not really, it's just a hassle.

But for higher priced items that can fluctuate greatly in price...say Ohtani blew out his arm pitching next week, can people who paid in the thousands for his various refractor autos just send them back because it's "not as described"? We all know in reality that if they paid for a 10 and got a 10, they got exactly what they thought they were getting.

But the "risk of future depreciation" may not go with it now if there's a 30 day window on return. Again, it just doesn't make sense for certain items, most collectibles/art/etc. should be exempt from this sort of requirement.

However, if the downside is just having the super seller logo not appear in your listings, sounds like a small price to pay.

[Rhotchkiss]

I haven’t sold anything on eBay in over 18 years, and as a buyer I am finding eBay to be an ever-fleeting source of viable acquisitions- so I have no horse in this race. Rather, it seems to me that these negative policies and this user discord could present an opportunity for auction houses who may want an ebay-style venue for everyday stuff or for some computer-savvy, entrepreneurial net54 member who may be able to create a more friendly proxy for collectibles. Just saying- when a door shuts, often a window opens. Just an idea