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Can you throw up a screen shot. For the life of me I can find it.
My mail box is about 100 feet from my front door. Leaving my packages by the mailbox for pick up would result in theft. But the solution has been so easy, I just request a pick up from the post office and I leave the packages by my front door. There is a request link on Pirate Ship (pick ups are free). I believe Jay posted the free direct like somewhere else on this forum.
Remember just because a stressed out postal clerks tells you something, doesn’t mean it’s true. But why go to the post office if you don’t have to?
Just want to point out (not that anyone said anything). I haven’t changed my prices on soap since this all began. I bought it because it had funky packaging and I could get a bunch for cheap. Why does September-2019 feel like 30 years ago?
I have definitely had an uptick this week but nothing like a $700.00 day! Wow what you selling?
My sales are down over 50% from last year at this time, but I am grateful for the sales I have.
Here are the 14 items I sold this week:
Date – NET PROFIT –
3/22 – $11.56 – Hotels Statler Note pads
3/22 – $17.39 – Book: Quantum Mechanics by Leonard I. Schiff
3/22 – $13.38 – Book: Inside the Danger Zone: U. S. Military in the Persian Gulf
3/23 – $32.39 – DVD: Time Walker Blu-ray 2016 Scream Factory
3/23 – $13.99 – MUG: Gilley’s – Pasadena Texas Urban Cowboy
3/24 – $06.60 – DVD: South Pacific
3/24 – $12.76 – MUG: Jagermeister Metal Mule Green w/ Frosted Shot Glass
3/25 – $09.99 – Sunlight Pure Mild Soap – South African Leaver Brothers Product
3/25 – $17.64 – BOOK: Arnold-N 1977/78 Model Train Magazine
3/26 – $25.88 – MUG: Face Creamer Signed Hass Studio Art Pottery – Hass / dd 1977
3/27 – $11.01 – DVD: Billy Budd (DVD, 2007)
3/27 – $36.70 – Classroom Calculator Set TI-108 Solar 10 Pack Yellow Carrying Case Caddy
3/27 – $13.28 – Sunlight Pure Mild Soap – South African Leaver Brothers Product
3/27 – $10.05 – USB Drive Red Bull RecordDefinitely a weird assortment. But the big sellers appear to be Entertainment, Educations and household staples.
How would have thought the case of South African branded Pure Sunlite soap I grabbed at an estate sale last September would end up being such a hot item during a Pandemic. Are stores running out of soap?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/163864240569?ViewItem=&item=163864240569
Isn’t part of the issue with the high cost of Canadian Post that you have to pay import fees? Is it legal to bring goods across the boarder to sell? I would worry for you that boarder crossings are going to be more stringently monitored.
I am by no means an expert (or even remotely knowledgeable) just want everyone to stay safe. Comments from Canadians?
If you find yourself in this situation again – tell them you are a wardrobe buyer for a movie. Wardrobe buyers’ purchasing habits are very similar to those of resellers.
If you don’t live in an area where movies are filmed, mention that you will ship the purchases to your boss in a film production city (i.e. Atlanta, New Orleans, or Albuquerque– Don’t say Hollywood; there is no need to send clothing there).
The only time retailers get pissy with movie folk is when they fear there will be a ton of returns. So if they are concerned about returns, tell them that whatever isn’t selected for the cast will be held for background stock (aka clothing for extras).
If they ask why you need so many of the same thing, tell them you need multiples for a stunt sequence.
Finally, if they ask too many questions about the specifics of the film, “It’s for one of the major studios, I think (insert actor here) is the star, but my Non-disclosure agreement forbids me from saying too much. Besides, they never tell me anything – I am just the shopper.”
Enjoy the grift!
I just got off the phone with my second call to Ebay customer support and they confirmed what Zach said. I needed to send the buyer a Feedback revision form. This is very annoying because the last time I called Ebay, no one clarified that.
I have had this caustic all caps feedback at the top of my feedback feed for 2 days.
The Customer rep at Ebay told me that if I send a Feedback revision form to the buyer my negative could be changed into a positive. As far as I am concerned, I just want the negative dropped as soon as possible. I don’t want to wait for the nutty customer, to get around to changing their feedback rating. Sales are not going to go up if my Feedback increases from 2001 to 2002, but a negative feedback can impact sales immediately (IMHO).
I explained this to the Ebay customer service rep and they FINALLY agreed to remove. It’s gone. Life can continue….
MDC, I am sticking firm to my “customer be cray-cray” position.
How do I “know” the items where authentic? I sold a Cabbage Patch Kid birth certificate, not a copy of the Mona Lisa. I found a bunch of these in a box with cabbage patch kid clothing and dolls. The documents looked old. Is it possible the previous owner created the certificates with a dot matrix printer in 2007? Sure, but the amount of work it would take to falsify this item would not be worth its $14.99 selling price.
My complaint about this customer is not that they were concerned about authenticity and wanted to make a return. My complaint is about the incoherent email she sent when she thought she got substandard goods.
Here is the correspondence as it was sent – I redacted personal addresses and vendor names.
HI, I don’t understand how I ordered 4 copies of the Cabbage Patch Kids Birth certificates with the owners name of Paula L. Osborne. AND, ALSO 2 MORE BURTH CERTIFICATES BORN ON SEPTEMBER 1ST!!!!: THE NAMES ARE RAMSEY MARSH. THE OTHER IS NAMED MEL FREDERICK. ALSO —-OWNED BY PAULA L. O—–. IT IS VERY DISAPPOINTING TO REALIZE that they are from different addresses. I’m sure You already know that 1 is [My name an address appeared here]. ANOTHER 1 FROM [name and address of another vendor appeared here] . AND ON ANOTHER ENVELOPE IT READS: [personal details removed].. THIS IS PIRATED FAL8 INFORMATION!!! I’M WAITING FOR MY REFUND IMMEDIATELY!!! OTHERWISE I HAVE TO REPORT A FRAUDULENT CHARGE . THIS IS MY BUSINESS AND I’M CONTACTING THE B.B.B. (R S.V.P.)
Rather than fight over a $14.99 item, I sent her this email:
“I don’t understand your concern. But if an error was made, you may return for a full refund. Just open a return case and I’ll accept.
Within moments, She left the following feedback:
I DON’T DEAL WITH , OR ACCEPT PIRATED MERCHANDISE. I WANT MY MONEY RETURNED !
And then she opened up an INAD complaint.
So now I have this glaring negative at the top of my feed accusing me of Fraud.
So here is what I finally figured out happened.
For the past year, I have been selling off this massive lot of cabbage patch kids stuff. The birth certificates have a space on the back for the doll’s “parent” to fill in their name. Back in the 1980’s the girl who owned the lot was named Paula. Paula wrote her name on the back of the birth certificates. [quick aside Paula must have come from money because she had a ton of CPK dolls and acceories]
Earlier in the year, I sold several birth certificates to ANOTHER reseller. That reseller then sold the certificates to the angry customer. The customer received items from the same lot from 2 different vendors at the same time. Both had the name “Paula” written on the back.
Amazing coincidence.
And again, here is where we fall into the crazy. Rather than send me an email asking, “Hey, what’s up with this?” (because admittedly if I were the buyer, I would have found it weird too). She decides that I am perpetrating some interstate fraud scheme and goes into a full nuclear assault.
I wrote to the customer and politely informed her what I thought had happened.
Her was her response-.
HI, Good Morning!! I really appreciate your time to explain our situation. I will keep these 2 items. And, I will cancel the negative comments when I figure out how to do It. Please accept my Sincere Apology!! I just thought it was a scam because I received 6 documents with the same owner on the same day. Thank-You So Very Much!!!
The buyer left her negative feedback on Saturday night. I called Ebay Sunday night to see when it was going to come down. It’s still there Monday morning,
Nothing to be done. I am just venting. I am sure the negative feedback will eventually be dropped, and I avoid an INDAD on my seller record.
I sell used consumer VHS and Beta tapes all the time. I call them blanks to avoid setting off VERO sensors, but honestly, I don’t think studios care that much if you are selling copies of stuff taped off ABC in the ’80s. Having said that, I would never put in the title “Disney’s Lion King and Disney Channel recordings 1990’s” or “6 hours of Full House”.
People love to scour old tapes for the stuff that isn’t common. They like looking for commercials, local news broadcasts, and morning shows. It’s a treasure hunt. If you have a group of tapes, take photos that include the writing on the spine (and don’t transcribe in the description). The video scavengers will look at the detail in the pictures. I would put in the title description where the tapes came from as some people are very interested in specific local stations (i.e. “Lot of VHS tapes record in ’80s from the Chicago area).
Selling as “blanks” protects you from claiming you know what is on the tapes. I have never had anyone complain. Most buyers understand the randomness, and they are purchasing for the thrill of the hunt.
I always send the tapes media mail. I have never had a problem. If the post office opens to inspect – they will find a pile of prerecorded media and send on it back on its way.
The genericness of the claim really makes it sound like a fishing scam. Ignore ignore ignore.
I have started to experiment with free shipping. As much as I hate it, the reality is, there are two types of buyers.
1. People who like making “best offers” and getting a deal.
2. People who like round numbers(of course, there is a third category of people who like to be upset that everything isn’t free- but they can jump in a lake. I don’t want to sell to them.).
The round-number people would rather pay $29.99 for a coffee mug than 19.99 plus 7.55 shipping. It’s insane and irrational – but we are not rational creatures. Sales tax proves this theory: I have higher sales in places like Florida, where there isn’t any sales tax added to the final price.
I have switched all of my listings that are under $30.00 (and under 1 lb) to free economy shipping. When I do this, I turn off free returns, and I turn off make best offer.
My working theory is that this encourages impulse buys. The buyer’s lizard brain understanding reasons “For $29.99 I get the thing that will make me happy”. There is no math involved, no negotiations, just an instant dopamine reward.
Of course, this will alienate the people who want to make an offer and get a deal. I may alternate the policies every few months or so, which can easily be managed through business policies.
I don’t have hard numbers to share, but I have noticed an uptick of items that have been sitting in my inventory for 1 year plus.
01/22/2020 at 6:15 pm in reply to: How to list an item when you can’t find any info about it’s very existence? #73183If I find something unique, I price crazy high for a week and see what happens. You may have something someone has been looking for or years. That one buyer in a million might have been desperately waiting for you to post an egg timer they saw at 3am on USA up all Night in 1994.
You can always lower the price.
It’s almost like a comedy sketch. Are employees told to put the price tags in the most destructive and useless place on the item? At my local goodwill they alway put the price tags over identifying marks on ceramics. It drives me nuts – I have to stand there and gingerly peel off a label that identifies the product.
I understand that have to use multiple stickers to avoid bad players switching price tags. But does a coffee mug really need 4 price tags?
I love this forum with all my heart – thats for the too much information. So great!
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