ebay sellers: answering questions = increased profit

[Runscott]

I sent a seller a couple of questions 9 hours before his auctions ended tonight, and never got a response. If the answers had been what I think they would have, he would definitely have made more money tonight.

Sellers - if you have a big night of auctions ending, for heaven's sake - answer bidder questions. If you don't have time to answer questions, then end your auctions on a night when you DO have time.

This seller generally sells on consignment. Knowing now that he doesn't respond to questions, I would never consider consigning through him, and if anyone asked me about consignments, that's what I would tell them.

I really, really wanted to bid on these items, but I did not. If I had bid 'blindly' and won, then waited to hear back from him before paying, I could have ended up in a position of having to ask that the transaction be cancelled.

This sucked

[hangman62]

Yea,but Run... what about the other side of the coin... you could have asked the question a few days earlier ??

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by hangman62

Yea,but Run... what about the other side of the coin... you could have asked the question a few days earlier ??

That's not the other side of a coin. That's saying that if someone finds your auction on the last day, and asks a question 9 hours before it ends, you can blow them off. At what point to you give them the right to quit answering questions? The day before? 2 days before? an hour after listing?

[Jlighter]

The onus is on the seller to answer questions. The seller is in the game to sell a card and, possibly, make a profit. The buyer has no obligation to buy/bid on any item. The buyer, Mr. Forest, gave an appropriate amount of time in order for the seller to answer his questions.

[I Only Smoke 4 the Cards]

Sounds like you are upset that you misses out on a deal. It happens. Keep your head up.

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by I Only Smoke 4 the Cards

Sounds like you are upset that you misses out on a deal. It happens. Keep your head up.

I'm upset because my decision on whether or not to bid hinged on the answer to the question I asked and I fully expected to have that answer within nine hours - it sucked watching the auctions end, and not having the necessary information to make an informed decision.

The items in question were quite rare and come along once in a blue moon, so this was more frustrating than usual.

Yes, I should have asked the question earlier, but I had made an assumption, and then realized this morning that my assumption was really quite naive.

[beachhead2]

Originally Posted by Runscott

Knowing now that he doesn't respond to questions, I would never consider consigning through him, and if anyone asked me about consignments, that's what I would tell them.

Good point and your only recourse. I've been in the same position many times and I agree with you.

[hangman62]

Yea Run, keep a stiff upper lip....sometimes its just a matter of time and patience and the cards come around again

[jcmtiger]

Originally Posted by hangman62

Yea,but Run... what about the other side of the coin... you could have asked the question a few days earlier ??

Yes, I like the questions earlier too. But 9 hours seems reasonable, it's the questions in the last hour or minutes that doesn't work for me.

Joe

[deebro041]

I would agree with Scott that as a seller they should be responsible to make a potential buyer happy.
If he is a consignor and has to check with his client for the answer, then at least have the decency to reply and explain the situation.

[quinnsryche]

I sell on ebay quite a bit. Work, family, emergencies and other committments that arise do not always allow me to be available to a computer at every auction's end. 9 hours may seem enough time to one person but may not be to another. Ebay is not a phycial storefront with set hours, for most it is a supplimental way to make a few bucks here and there. I really get tired of every other post bashing and bitching about ebay yet it is the #1 way the majority of regular collectors can add a little something to their collection every now and then. It's not life, it's just a hobby! People need to deal with what it is and move on if you don't like it. It's not perfect, never was, never will be.
Just my opinion, take it or leave it, it's cool either way.

[hangman62]

I agree 100% about ebay being #1....where else can a guy log on early or late...and find a dozen 33 Goudey Ruths all there and avail

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by hangman62

Yea Run, keep a stiff upper lip....sometimes its just a matter of time and patience and the cards come around again

It wasn't cards.

Oh well. At some point the seller will contact me and probably apologize. He was probably very busy, missed the message, or something very reasonable. I was just frustrated and needed to blow off steam

[Ronnie73]

Scott, I feel your pain. Before I had a Paypal account, I would ask if it was ok to send a postal money order. A seller had six Sovereign 460's graded SGC 50. It was right before the Sovereign 460's jumped in price in the mid/high grades. He had Buy It Nows and Best Offers on all of them. All were listed at $60 each. I stated that I was interested in all of them at the $60 price. He finally got back to me and said ok thats fine. A couple minues after that I went to buy each one and he accepted best offers at $50 each for all of them. I was so confused that I emailed him again and asked if somehow he ended them for me but he said no, he accepted another offer. Not too long after that, I opened a Paypal account.

When I was an Ebay seller, I followed all my auctions and responded to all questions as quickly as I could because it usually meant possibly more money for me.

[freakhappy]

I feel your pain, Scott and I agree with you on this. However, eBay does state that the seller usually will respond within 24-48 hours after the question is submitted. Another red flag is that this is a consigner. In my experience, and I may be wrong here, but it seems like they have several auctions going on at once and aren't always available to answer questions quickly. I guess it would have been ok to vent about your feelings, but to state that they should've gotten back to you within nine hours is just a coin toss at best. We have no idea what people are doing and I'm sure a decent amount of them aren't waiting by their computers for their auctions to end. I do believe the decriptions could be better so the customers are better informed...sure would have helped you out here

Me on the other hand, would probably answer your question within 30 minutes because I'm always checking my email, but I think since I'm a small fry, I'm in the minority here.

[Runscott]

Obviously no one violated any rules. Quite honestly, I have no business buying what I was prepared to buy , but you know that how goes.

Tony - Yes, I'm aware that stuff comes up and sellers can't respond. However, if you are consigning items, you owe it to your consignors to be prepared to respond to customer questions, (even on the last day of the auction) and if you can't, having someone else available to at least say "I can't respond at the moment, but will get back with you....". I think ebay even has an automated feature that will handle that for you. If you can't do these things, then you aren't giving your consignors the best bang for their buck.

And if it is planned, shutting things down 9+ hours prior to auction end is not a good thing for your consignors. I hope you are not telling us that you do that.

[Craig M]

Frustrating!

I ask at least a dozen questions per day to eBay sellers and may get one or two responses so this gives you an idea of guys responding to questions.

My question is always a simple one.

Do you have a pic or scan of the reverse?

Why in the heck would you go through the effort in selling a card on eBay and have just one pic and it is that of the front of the card?

Would a person not get more interest in their card if a possible buyer saw a pic or scan of the reverse to see what brand it is, what series it is, what factory number, any missing paper, etc?

Yet the seller will list a ten page description on how cards are graded.

Frustrating to say the least.

Craig

[smotan_02]

Another perspective is that sometimes sellers can not access eBay from their workplace. They may receive an email notification about your question, but will be unable to answer until they are home. I cant access eBay from work, so when these conversation pop up with just a link to eBay, I pretty much have to just skip over the thread.

[I Only Smoke 4 the Cards]

Originally Posted by smotan_02

Another perspective is that sometimes sellers can not access eBay from their workplace. They may receive an email notification about your question, but will be unable to answer until they are home. I cant access eBay from work, so when these conversation pop up with just a link to eBay, I pretty much have to just skip over the thread.

+1 eBay is one of the few blocked sites at my office

[rainier2004]

Originally Posted by Runscott

This seller generally sells on consignment. Knowing now that he doesn't respond to questions, I would never consider consigning through him, and if anyone asked me about consignments, that's what I would tell them.

Scott you and I dont always see eye to eye but I am 1000% with you IF the cards were consigned. These are 2 different scenarios that are being debated. If its just someone selling items, even if they have 10k items up f/s, its a hobby, extra income, whatever...hard to expect quick answers. But if this item was consigned, it is now this guys business to sell for his client...its his resposnibitlity to get the best dollar and that means being available at auction end and to answer questions posted with 9 hours before the end...I bet Scott checked his email 100 times in those 9 hours...I would have. I can see less time being rough, but 9 hours should be adequate as its his freakin job. I would never consign any cards to them, those last second bidders can make you a lot of money. I guess Im a prick about stuff like this, but it seems like 2 different scenarios to me.

[quinnsryche]

Originally Posted by Runscott

Obviously no one violated any rules. Quite honestly, I have no business buying what I was prepared to buy , but you know that how goes.

Tony - Yes, I'm aware that stuff comes up and sellers can't respond. However, if you are consigning items, you owe it to your consignors to be prepared to respond to customer questions, (even on the last day of the auction) and if you can't, having someone else available to at least say "I can't respond at the moment, but will get back with you....". I think ebay even has an automated feature that will handle that for you. If you can't do these things, then you aren't giving your consignors the best bang for their buck.

And if it is planned, shutting things down 9+ hours prior to auction end is not a good thing for your consignors. I hope you are not telling us that you do that.

Scott, absolutely not. I did not realize he was one who takes in consignments. Knowing this now, I would say he needs to be available for his consigners' sake.
With this info I would tend to lean your way now. I was taking it as he was just another guy selling his stuff.

[jhs5120]

9 hours isn't enough time to assume a response.

If this seller was a consignor and he is known for his consigning, I am assuming he had quite a bit of items for sale. Yes, the consignee owes certain things to the consignor (ie. properly listing the item, quality photos, effective titles, etc.) but answering questions within 9 hour might be a stretch. I would certainly expect them to answer questions in a timely manner, but sometimes it's hard to keep up with questions and running a business. The most I've ever done on eBay in terms of quantity was around 300 items in a week. It was impossible to keep up with shipping, listing, questions and my day job (forget personal life). I normally give sellers a day or two to get back to me and after that, I normally will send them a reminder. Whenever the listing is about to end and I have a question, I will ask, but normally I will not expect a response.

On a side note, was it Probstein? Not to fire up this debate again, but I had 50 items end last night on consignment and I would find it ironic. Overall, I was happy with the prices.

[Runscott]

Jason - yes, sometimes it is tough to answer questions. It's that way with any business. You either do it, or you get into another line of work.

I've been there, as have many others on this board. Good customer service is not something that every business owner excels at.

As a side note - the ebay messages were going to his spam folder. He had others besides mine.

[thehoodedcoder]

Life is not cut and dry. People have kids and wives and stuff goes wrong all day..every day.

I'm in the iT field. I get up every day to a never ending army of people whose sole purpose In life is to steal from me and ruin my day by hacking my computers to never ending line of people that need me to explain stuff to them at random middle of the night hours.

In fact when was the last time you had something go 100 percent your way on eve a semi frequent basis.

If it's not work it's the car or the lawn or the pets.

I never expect some else's life to be in better shape or better managed then my own.

[Eric72]

Originally Posted by Runscott

As a side note - the ebay messages were going to his spam folder. He had others besides mine.

Scott,

Wait...maybe I am reading this incorrectly.

Someone who makes or supplements an income through eBay has messages from eBay landing in his spam folder.

Unless I am mistaken, that is one extremely sloppy seller right there...provided that they are being truthful about the spam folder bit.

I agree with you being a bit frustrated here, and with those who think 9 hours is a reasonable time frame for asking questions. Any time I have auctioned something on eBay, I made it a point to check into the listing frequently on the day that it ends...not to mention the emails that go to my phone, email account, and messages folder on eBay.

Additionally...I schedule auctions to end when I am confident I will be able to actively manage them.

I have never consigned, so I really can't speak for those who do; however, hope that a person consigning my item would approach the auction with an eye towards maximizing the hammer price. In my opinion, this would include sending an answer to someone asking questions 9 hours before the close of auction.

Just my two cents.

Best Regards,

Eric