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I was trying to get rid of some unwanted inventory by auctioning it off cheap. A lady bid $3.85 for a NWT sweater and I listed Padded Flat Rate Envelope ($8) as the shipping method. She claims the Global Shipping Program didn’t tell her before she bid that they would charge her $30 for shipping. She’s saying, “I got scammed,” (even though she hasn’t paid yet!). Does anyone know if this could be true, that she wasn’t shown the GSP costs before bidding?
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She was shown her shipping costs. If she’s unhappy, she can cancel. I doubt she’ll be paying anyway.
We’ve tried selling items off cheap before, but then you attract the “nickel and dimers” who fight you on every little thing. Honestly, it’s not worth it. If you’re willing to sell for $3, yu might as well just donate.
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I agree with Jay, the cost was there. However, she probably didn’t look closely. People don’t really read through the descriptions much.
I also do what you are doing. I take inventory I’ve had for a long time with little interest and put it on perpetual 7-day auctions until a date I set for giving it away (currently April 2020). Yes, I sell at pretty low prices, even $3 in a few cases, but I’ve already taken the photos and I make at least the purchase price back, usually more. I also save the (very small, I know) expense of listing them each month. I make sure that I chose categories (such as collectable) so that I don’t get charged for the auctions.
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Nothing wrong with clearing out items. I just find that the bottom of the barrel bargain hunters are the most difficult buyers. If they buy something for $3, they dont want to pay $10 to ship. But maybe its just the rare grumpy buyer.
Do you have any issues with buyers at that price?
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Actually, no. I have had buyers complain about shipping, but not on these auctions. Maybe just a coincidence.
I actually don’t sell the majority of these items. I started with over 40, and I’m down to 38. Come April, I might still be over 30.
Since I have over 1500 items in a 1000 item store, then I’m paying over $50 to list those extra things. The 40 or so I no longer have as fixed priced is $4 I’m not paying per month. That can add up. Win win, I think.
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Jumping in: Most items we sell are breakables, over 2 lbs usually and larger than a show box, so no way am i going to spend any time 6 layer wrapping, boxing and shipping something for $3.00 even if it was free. I have a value I place on my time also that I can be selling to other companies that I do a little work for at $25 per hour.
I opted a plan many years ago when Jay, others and I were talking about lowering our purchase price while at the same time trying to increase the selling prices of items.
So for years we have slowly worked on this. But we try not to buy anything at any price unless free that sells for under $19.95 without shipping. We still have cheaper items left over from our antique mall booths but slowly going away.
Out of 1,200 listings only 14 are now under $10 and 338 are over $40 and 77 are over $75 dollars. Still leaves the in between bread and butter stuff between $20 to $40 at about 596
It took us about 3 years to weed out most of the under $10 items left over from those 6 booths of left over stuff. We took hundreds of items to one of our favorite big auction houses locally and auction about 200 items off that were too large for our Ebay ventures.
Back to WBird question and we would suggest rather than spending time on any dealings with moving out $1-$3 items, we would donate them and take a bigger price on them than that. If you don’t need the tax deductions yourself, then donate them to a place that resells the items and the money they will get will go to there cause.
We have a newer thrift store just about 2 miles up the road and we have started just dropping off items left over from 4-7 years old that are in the lower price range. After all costs involved we are only making such a small amount it is just not worth it to us. Our local favorite thirft shop is a ministry and helps younger children in poor families.
It will do your soul good to help others, help yourself to de-clutter, get more space in your inventory, and not burn up your very valuable time. 20 items at $2 each [even $10 each] is just not worth it to us in our opinion. That as you all know along with $1.00 will get you half a cup of coffee around here.
Mike at MDC Galleries and fine Art in Atlanta
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For several years I worked on increasing my average selling price, but it didn’t seem to increase my net income. Now, instead, I am sourcing some lower-priced multi-quantity items that are easy and inexpensive to ship, looking to have 50% of my inventory fall into that $10-20 type of product. Typically I can ship 20 orders an hour, by myself, due to easy packaging and an efficient process I have been tweaking for years.
It works for me, but my items are different than most here, multi-quantity new old stock auto parts primarily. Still, I think for everyone the time required and cost of shipping need to play into the average selling cost target.
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No offense intended, but have you considered what you will be paying in eBay and PayPal fees for International orders on that type of low priced item? You might be better off not offering International on these super low priced clearance items.
As far as this specific situation, probably the more you interact with her the more she is going to whine. I would tell her something like, “I’m sorry, there is nothing I can do but you can easily request a cancellation of the order”.
My 2¢
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