OT: eBay's Top Rated Seller Qualifications Suck

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by Luke

Question for you guys:

Is there a way to see if you are getting discounts?

I decided not to offer 30-day returns and I thought that made me ineligible for discounts, but since I wasn't sure, I have been using a 1-Day shipping window just in case I still qualify for something.

If I'm not getting any discounts, I'd prefer to dial back the shipping window a bit.

Why would you decide not to offer 30 day returns? You have no choice if they pay by paypal.

[jhs5120]

Originally Posted by slidekellyslide

Why would you decide not to offer 30 day returns? You have no choice if they pay by paypal.

I don't offer returns either. When a customer goes to return something on eBay to me eBay will tell them that I don't accept returns except for certain reasons. I have no idea how many customers decided it wasn't worth the effort.

[Luke]

Originally Posted by slidekellyslide

Why would you decide not to offer 30 day returns? You have no choice if they pay by paypal.

I just think it's a terrible policy for the things I sell. A buyer can freeroll a seller by buying something, trying to sell it for more somewhere else, and then returning it if they can't sell it for a profit. It's unlikely someone would do this (especially on a BIN - which is how I sell on ebay), but the possibility is enough to make me not want to offer returns.

I'm open to reconsidering. The discount on fees would be nice of course. I just think ebay shouldn't expect antique dealer or baseball card sellers to accept 30 day returns.

[SMPEP]

The part that sucks for me is ... when I lost top rated status ... I lost all the free listing promos I used to get.

I don't have enough stuff to sell to justify a store ... but enough to say that I would have 200-300 items listed at any given time if they let me.

With the free promos, once a month (or once every other month at worst) I could get 500 listing and keep my stuff listed.

When they made the changed, I'm limited to 50 per month ... and since you can only store past listings for 2 months ... that's 50-150 listings I've created that just got deleted.

Thanks Ebay! Not like that took me any work to create those listings.

[megalimey]

Originally Posted by Luke

I just think it's a terrible policy for the things I sell. A buyer can freeroll a seller by buying something, trying to sell it for more somewhere else, and then returning it if they can't sell it for a profit. It's unlikely someone would do this (especially on a BIN - which is how I sell on ebay), but the possibility is enough to make me not want to offer returns.

I'm open to reconsidering. The discount on fees would be nice of course. I just think ebay shouldn't expect antique dealer or baseball card sellers to accept 30 day returns.

I have been a Top Rated seller now for 6 years unbroken, when they changed their return policy to 30 days I did the bean count. i have had 7650 transactions with only 12 returns , so I can live with with the rare return , offering no returns will cost you more in the long run , and lets face it buyers have a huge advantage if they want to nit pick an item as not as described ebay will back them 99% of the time, with or with out a return policy
if there was a better option to cost effectively sell online we would all take it in a heart beat , but ebay knows there is not , so they keep doing what their doing slowing getting their pound of flesh , squeezing you for every cent they can till you burst.

[Exhibitman]

Scott, in terms of a store, I thought long and hard about it then decided to do it. I opted for the basic at $19.95/mo for a year. The results after about two months have been better than I'd hoped. eBay really has its s**t together as far as what it offers sellers who opt for the store; the value is there, believe it or not.

The seller analytic tools on eBay are really quite advanced and useful, so much so that there is really no excuse for a seller not understanding their margins (except, of course, stupidity). I was able to confirm my gut read that the all-in cost of eBay retailing is within a few points of the commission for most AHs. The big variance has been rate of return on the sales. My inventory, like my collection, tends to be large amounts of modestly priced items. When I consigned these sorts of things it drove me absolutely nuts to see these items lumped into massive lots and sold to dealers at a pittance who'd break them up and retail them. What I'd make on sales of graded higher end cards would be chewed up in losses on the large lots that were being blown out. Basically, I've turned what were losing consignments into profitable retail sales.

The other issue is time management for non-pro sellers. This is a part time business for me, a downtime supplement to practicing law, ideally profitably. Without the store I found it to be a real time suck to do more than a handful of listings each week. The listing and fulfillment tools offered to stores are such a vast improvement over the freebies that I have been able to generate a work flow of 5-10 listings per work day with about the same time and effort. Re-listings go very fast with the listing utilities that allow mass edits. I can drop as many re-lists as I want virtually instantly. There are also sales functions that allow discounting of items with great flexibility.

Shipping was another PITA that is greatly improved with the store. The ability to fulfill multiple orders with a few clicks is there with a postage utility. It cuts my fulfillment time down to virtually nothing. Another perk of the store is a quarterly coupon for $25 in free packing materials from eBay. That allows me to purchase 100 padded mailers and have them delivered for free, each quarter. Really simplifies the packing process because I am working with uniform, self-sealing materials instead of scrounging packaging. It goes much quicker than it used to. I do the actual work of packing the orders as a break from lawyering; moving around and doing something physical rather than intellectual is a nice afternoon break each day, so the time spent on the project has been pleasant.

There is always the question of returns--we all face jackhole customers. My view has been that I will take a return for as long as eBay says I have to but I won't offer free shipping returns. If you are selling modestly priced items, very few people will opt to return them. I've had one disgruntled customer so far and he opted not to return the card--I think he was just trying to get a discount.

[D. Bergin]

Yup, store is a must if you are doing any amount of listings on a regular basis. For 20 bucks a month it easily pays for itself, if you are attempting to list without the store benefits.

[Exhibitman]

So irony of ironies a few hours ago I get an email from eBay congratulating me on top seller status.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

So irony of ironies a few hours ago I get an email from eBay congratulating me on top seller status.

Congratulations! I hope you got all your shipments out the day before today.