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thanks.. appreciate you nailing it down dead nuts on… but am I reading this correct ?? You DO accept the first 5 and DON’T the last 6?? Do you have that reversed. I think you meant you DONT on the first group and DO on the last Group? I think so.
Appreciate you breaking it out into “exact” details, so I will proceed to make the changes. I apologize if I took up any of your time. I know it is precious to you guys. Really appreciate everything I have taken away from you guys through the years.
mike in atl.Been a subscriber for many years. It is my first choice for pricing and also for getting a description and keywords even if the pricing is not used. On real old items who cares if the prices are 24 or 36 months old. If none have sold anywhere within a year and you find 6 that sold for $95 dollars 3 years ago, I think that is great information. I bump it up for 10% per year since last one sold and go with that.
I identify unknown things almost every day that otherwise I wouldn’t know what it was.
Just yesterday I was listing a small vase with a hand painted scene of a boy walking, done in a white enamel type paint. We bought for a few bucks at a thrift and was going to list at about $12.50. But thought I would look it up on Worthpoint real quick and viola’ turns out it is a Mary Gregory hand painted vase. Who would have known without looking it up and saw 4 that were the exact same thing and had sold within the last year or two around $50 each. I immediately changed our price and refreshed the listing up to $49.99. Now multiply that times many items.
we find many old things that we can only find on Worthpoint and also on Kovels. On our antiques that we sold in our 6 antique booths, Kovels was a life saver. Many people on Ebay don’t know what they have or what many things are or where they came from. On Kovel’s you can find all that out and get a current antique dealers selling cost on it. But yes we do also cross reference Ebay solds also but that is just the start of it.
Had my meeting with my CPA yesterday and he said, Holy Cow you have some serious profit margins. On $2,100 of items we bought last year we produced $24,000 in Sales and I attribute that to slowing down, doing longer and deeper research using multiple sources for research then pricing way above the highest price sold.
But speed does have it advantages, that equates to more items listed, leading to more sales. But yes we find it worth it. But if you only buy what you know then you don’t need anything. We have a Premium Store [$75 per month] with 770 items listed and still hundreds of items from our old booths to go.
Just an opinion for what it’s worth.
mike at MDC Galleries in AtlantaYep understand.. but Hassle Free program gives us those 11 choices to click on. I had them all selected. So which ones out of those 11 do you have selected-clicked on? I would like to “un-click” some of those and are you saying to do so, I need to guess which of these 11 I would think the buyer would think was a seller error?
So I guess my error and I would accept full responsibility & allow Ebay to Auto accept and furnish buyer a return label would be:
* Doesn’t work or defective ..??
* Wrong item sent .. ??
* Missing parts or pieces .. ??
* Arrived Damaged .. ??Then I don’t click the following which would mean I will have to engage the buyer, have a dialogue, ask for photos, then decide if I will or will not accept their request for a return [which will probably end in an argument for sure]
* Doesn’t fit, Changed my mind, Found better price, Just didn’t like it, ordered by mistakeIf I don’t check these then I will get an email from the buyer, they explain there situation and then I make the judgement call.
So guess the question is which of these do you have selected? It is found in your Return Preferences.
To stay out of any Hassle at all I would accept all of the 11. If only those of my fault I would only select the 4 choices as above. Ever since we opted into the program I guess all 11 have been selected to authorize an auto return. mike in atl.Hey J&R and any other members .. Would like to take a Poll!!
I am rethinking my Hassle Free selections. I had all of them checked to allow Ebay to Automatically issue a return label. Then I had the choice if I would refund the whole thing, or not the return shipping or the 20% restocking fee. But all of these would allow Ebay to auto approve and issue them the email to print a return label and send back.
Out of the list below that Ebay furnishes which ones have you guys selected for Automatic Approval for Ebay to issue a return label without having you, the seller to approve before furnishing the return label to the buyer?
Doesn’t fit
Changed my mind
Found a better price
Just didn’t like it
Ordered by mistake
Doesn’t work or defective
Doesn’t match description or photos
Wrong item sent
Missing parts or pieces
Arrived damaged
Doesn’t seem authenticA friend of mine said to select them all and let the customer return for any reason, then I just choose to apply the restock fee or return shipping or not. My wife says to only allow the obvious ones and the others have to come to us for approval. But that will mean contact the buyer and going through some communication as to why, and asking for photos, etc., etc.
So interested in what all of the members here have selected.
thanks MDC Galleries in Atlanta
Yep.. We lived in Canton, CT for 22 years. Hitchcock chair was just few miles up the road in New Hartford, Ct I think. Toured the factory once. Out in the boondocks by a river. Saw dust and wood chips everywhere. Been making chairs way back in 19th century. Google Hitchcock chair and see Wikipedia. If originals and not repros a pair should bring $1,000. Also check out Worthpoint and especially Kovels because if they are real and antique, ka-ching.
mdc galleries in AtlantaTry searching on Shogun, Shogi and Kabuki face chess pieces. The faces seem to have that type of character to them. The tree with the eyes and nose features looks more like something out of the Hobbit but is probably not if it is part of the Asian themed other pieces. You could try varioes keywords like “Tree of Life”, “Tree of Knowledge” or something like that.
mike at MDC Galleries in AtlantaHello again… Maybe Ebay has stopped showing HFR tag line copy. I noticed there are not any showing on my listings either. So is the program even still active with Ebay? If so I thought the Hassle Free was suppose to be a come on for the Buyers?
I would love to go back to approving all of the returns to us [even though we have only had a few]. But in the case of this guy with placing a hot iron on a plastic storage stand, I would love to tell him where he can “place that hot iron” and “no, I am not taking a return”. 🙂 LMAO.. but wouldn’t do that, not professional.. but would surely love to.
mike in atl.J&R.. Just caught something you said during this podcast and now remember you saying something in another one. You have said several times that you are opted in to the “Hassel Free Returns” program and so are we. Yet you said in this podcast that you ask for a photograph and then decide to issue a return authorization – permission to return. Is that not in accordance with HFR? We got a request yesterday for a return and the HFR program automatically accepted the return and told the buyer he had 5 days to print out his label, which HFR furnishes them and return. THEN when we receive the item, we will inspect and decide on the retun amount, be that as a full round trip shipping and the item, or depending on what their claims were, we subtract our 20% restocking fee and return shipping or just skip the re-stock fee. Those we make the choice on. So HFR is exactly that, for any rhyme or reason, no questions asked, they can ask to return it for any reason [hassel free for them] and we don’t refund until we get it back and we decide how much to refund. Hassle free for us.
If you have the option turned on in the HFR area that you must approve the return first [like giving a RMA number] and you don’t want to agree and so no, isn’t that then NOT HFR for the Buyer? We used to have the ask us first option clicked on but we then did not get the Hassle Free Returns tag line copy showing in our listings.
So, I just cross checked 4 or 5 items in both of your stores and you are “NOT” sporting the “Hassle Free Program” anylonger, just a 30 day return policy. So is this a recent change and also a change of heart on the HFR program?
Just wondering. The item I am getting back is an iron and the buyer said it melted the plastic storage stand he sat it down on. Well it is a “storage stand” DDUUH! not a hot iron stand. It is supposed to cool down before you store it away. A Double DDUUHHH!!!, but the HFR program kicked in, we got a notice of the incoming return, buyer got a label and we will be waiting the 5 days to see if he ships it. The HFR program is suppose to take the whole back and forth out from buyer to seller other than his written explanation of why they are returning which is included in the Ebay memo.
So what do you recommend now? You can’t have it both ways I don’t think. In this case I would not have taken the item back due to “stupidity on how to use a hot iron”. He even said he thought the iron was dangerous. So have you decided to drop the HFR program and go back to first asking for photos. Then pointing them to the Resolution Center to open up a return claim, then you making a go – no go decision as to what amount or even if you are going to do a partial or full refund? I am sort of confused on your stance after hearing your new statement. Just curious.
BTW.. on a secondary note.. Almost all big box stores will take a return for any reason but none that I know of will give you your money back PLUS extra for the wear and tear on your car and the gas you use to bring the item back. Personally I think a return for any reason, even if a sellers fault, should be born by the buyer. But just my opinion.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta.Jay is correct on those app sites. But there is a bonus feature we use. Forget if all 3 have this feature or 1, 2 or… But you can put in key words and if any of those key words pop up within the sales listed with them they will send you an email. You can select to have daily or weekly updates sent to you every morning.
Something to note, if your keywords are broad, like furniture you will get everything, sort of like Jay’s “firehose”. But if you input mid-century, retro, stained glass lights, and things like that your email will be more focused. These sites save those key words until you change them. Also I think one of them allows up to one hundred key words. Then on a few you can select a mileage radius that you are interested in. Since you are very remote, and you have the time and are willing, you might use 50 or 100 mile radius, then select which sales you would want to attend. Also there are lots of photos to help you decide if you want to travel that far.
Here in Atlanta we keep it to about 10 to 20 or 25 miles. Just so much stuff here that finding inventory is not the problem, it is self restraint from buying too much at a time.
Just a few details to help you use those sites Jay suggested.
mike at mdc galleries in atlantaThe ones we sold went for $69.95, paid $10.75 a consignment shop, I think. Never heard of or seen any barbells or weights made out of wood? Didn’t know there was such a thing. Live and learn.
Will be doing some experiments with photog tomorrow. Will see how it goes. Hoping to get in a position whereby as we create Ebay listings, then cross over to the second monitor and cut and paste and attach photos as we go. That way we will be doing the Ebay and Etsy at the same time. I stress the word “Hopefully” Thanks for your input Sue … 🙂 mike in atl.Yep, that is exactly what I am talking about. We turned the camera vertically on that tall item. So we will just have to shoot everything holding the camera horizontally and backing up. Since we are just starting off, we will only start listing items that we did not turn vertically. But on the vertical ones we will have to re-shoot the first photos over in horz. format.
P.S. we had a pair of juggling table items just like yours sell about a month or so ago on Ebay. Ours were black, one taller and both had a parallel grove around them carved into the wood and filled in with gold paint.
mikeHey Omfug: That first test photo was with the camera turned vertically. We shoot in a rectangle format even for Ebay, not a sqaure. 1600 l/r x 1200 u/d. And all turn out ok. When we turn the camera vertical for real tall items they still turn out ok. But that Etsy item was tall and Etsy chopped it off some top and bottom. Would we then be better off to always shoot items with our camera held horizontally, shooting in the 1200 x 1600 size for all shots in the future? That would mean on tall items we would have to back up somewhat and that will result in a smaller image, but maybe Etsy will auto crop and it will be larger. Unsure.
mikeNancy: Just ran into this with our first test item on the new Etsy store. Starting with just one listing to use as a test and work out the bugs.
All photos are on our rig and when we did the drag and drop it was from our photo directory. Yep, the first gallery photo was cropped harshly at the top and bottom. We use a 35mm digital camera, shooting at 1600×1200. rectangle format. We sometimes turn the camera side ways for tall vertical pieces. All of the Ebay photos turn out fine.
So, what is the preffered [we assume also the easiest and quickest way] to get that #1 Gallery photo sized correctly for using the drag and drop to Etsy?
We have approx. 750 items in our Ebay store x 12 or more photos each = approx. 9,000 photos +/-. Do we have to go back and re-size one photo of each item to be suitable for Etsy?
The Ebay photos as they come from the camera are already rectangles and you mention Ebay coverts it to a square, but we see that nothing is cropped out of the thumbnail that Ebay uses. So that means that the Ebay Gallery photos still come out fine just as we shoot them from the camera.Hope we don’t have to go back through 750 listings and do a resize on one photo.
Thanks for any input from all the Etsy sellers…. mc in atl.Hey J&R: Question about your “Return Policy SOP” [standard operating procedure]. Where do you see your 20% Restocking fee play into the picture? I have had people email me asking for a return then later get a “never mind” note from them saying they were not going to pay that high of a re-stocking fee. In those cases it acts as a deterant to them making a return. Also with having it, we have applied it a few times to returns during the refund process.
So what are your opinions on having it, using it, when to apply it, and how do you use it to leverage your position on a return and your thoughts on it even being seen on your sites?
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
Yes, but you re-gain it back pretty quickly. And it also depends on when your Ebay invoice date is. If they do your monthly billing and / or your TRS review on the 20th of the month and you go on vacation and get back before that date, you loose it for the period on vacation [since you are on the extended ship times], but if you get back before your next review date, change everything back to your 1 & 2 day handling time then when they review you on the next go around you will meet all the TRS requirements and they will reinstate your TRS status.
I believe that is how it works. Now when J&R go on their month long trips I think they have to wait until the second review cycle, but a week or two in between reviews gets re-established quickly.
If I am wrong someone will probably get it straight.
mike at mdc galleries in atlanta
