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Who knows…I persisted and got the following reply:
“Thank you for reaching out to us about the error message you’re receiving when attempting to Opt into Business Policies, I’m sorry to see this happening and would love to see what I an do to help.
After looking into this, I was able to reach out to some internal specialists that I have submitted a request to manually opt you into Business Policies. They’ll be working towards completing that for you, which is great news! I estimate that they’ll need about a week, so I’ll check back up on this for you as well.”
I’m not going to sweat it. If they fix it, fine. If not, I’ll check back every once in a while to see if the bugs have been worked out.
I followed up on this again with eBay, and Anchor Support’s emailed reply was that Business Policies is a pilot program that is not rolled out for all users yet. Huh? Looking at my account page, the link to business policies seems to have disappeared.
Unless you are super into old hats, make sure that you work some other neat finds into the mix so you don’t experience old-hat burnout. I once bought a collection of (an estimate, nobody bothered to count) 10,000 old advertising pencils from the 1930’s-1960’s at an auction for $30. I was pretty stoked, I sold one with an old New York Yankees schedule on it for over $100. I went all in listing pencils. At one point I probably had 400-500 listings for pencil lots and individual pencils. But the bin I was picking from was not getting any emptier. Like the sorcerer from Fantasia had cursed me somehow and they were multiplying. I had old-pencil burnout. Luckily, some lady started buying everything I had posted for sale in a short period of time. I contacted her through PayPal and told her that I had about 8,500 pencils left. We negotiated a fair price that was far less than the dream that I had of making $25K on old pencils, but still a heck of a profit on my original investment. Would I do it again? Yes!
Did you get any resolution on this? I just received a return request for a vintage necktie because I did not disclose snags on the REAR of the tie in the neck area. Leaning toward a full refund to earn some karma…
Good point, I shouldn’t ignore. Regarding eBay’s response, there is no way that I am going to convince this buyer that they are wrong, their previous correspondence has indicated as much. I accepted the return, and since it was a foreign sale, I don’t have the capacity to offer a return label. It is now up to the buyer to return on their dime and compel me to reimburse them. If I was a conspiracy theorist, the language used by the Anchor Rep in the message above would lead me believe that they are looking to nudge sellers to choose free returns.
I actually have selected free returns on most of my new listings (lightweight low shipping cost items) since the Spring Seller Update. So hypothetically, had this item in question been sold domestically, a return would have been automatic and I wouldn’t have cared less. But man, when you sell a man an orange, and they tell you that you sold them an apple and there is no convincing them otherwise…such is scavenging, and such is life.
What am I missing? It looks like ebay is telling me that if I accept the return, I am responsible for the shipping costs. This is what I see when I click on “accept the return”
“Provide a return shipping label or postage to the buyer via email. You are responsible for the shipping cost. Wait to get the item back before you refund the buyer.”
Wow, what a find. Looking through some of your sold hats, you have made some nice sales. I think that you could have made a LOT more on the CAT denim hat though, especially in an auction (or way BIN w/ Best Offer). If you find any old John Deere hats, definitely consider an auction and make sure that you are set up to ship internationally, especially to Asia. Some of these old farmer hats go for $400-$800. I once sold a beat up Deere hat with absolutely disintegrated foam for $400. I don’t know, maybe there are old hat re-foamers out there.
So I did not accept the return by the deadline, expecting the case to be escalated and hopefully found in my favor. I did message the buyer pointing out that their reason for return was incorrect, and they disputed that, saying that they expected what was originally inside of the box. As I expected…
I received the following response from Anchor Support, which seems to indicate some type of policy change, and not really helpful. I guess that at this point I’ll employ the ignore and stall technique, and if eBay eventually rules against me I’ll appeal.
“Hello Matt,
I hope you’re having a wonderful day. My name is Kristen and I am reaching out to you in regards to the return (*********) opened by the buyer ****** for the item ****************************** (item number : ******************). We know how frustrating it can be when a buyer opens a return, so I’m more than happy to look into this for you.
As the buyer is claiming the item is not as described, we need to see that you are working with them to have the item sent back to you. The buyer is claiming that they thought there was to be something included in the box.
In the past if we saw any sort of remorse in the member-to-member messages, we had to capability of forcing the return and making the buyer pay for return shipping. We no longer have the capability to do so, and so there are some new steps to take going forward. If a buyer opens a return and chooses a not as described reason, but then claims buyers remorse in their description of the return, it is now the seller’s responsibility to work with the buyer and help them understand why they have to pay for return shipping. We believe that having the seller and buyer work together is a better overall experience, because it triggers communication between the two parties. In the past, eBay stepped in and forcing the returns provided a really negative experience for the buyers. We are trying to change this going forward, and so we are asking for our sellers help. Please follow the above steps in order to continue with this transaction.
I know this may not have been the answer you were looking for today, but I hope that I have explained everything thoroughly. If you have further questions; let us know. I appreciate all the hard work you have put in over the years to grow your business and provide great buying experiences.
Thanks,
Kristen M.
eBay Merchant Support”
This X 1,000,000
I was almost there nearly two years ago when my numbers starting trending in the wrong direction. Coming to terms with the realization that what I thought was a sinking ship was actually a combination of reaching the end of my then-current model and forces out of my control (algorithms) is what has kept me going. Thanks for the motivation.
The empty box was cleanly titled BOX ONLY. In the brief details field just below the price it read EMPTY BOX ONLY. The photo showed an empty box. The description also was clear. The price point also should have been an indicator. Today is the day that it is scheduled to escalate. I’m not going to accept the return. In the chance that Ebay rules against me I’ll fight it further. Seems like a waste of time. Thanks for providing the forum to vent.
My tip for the bins is to show up when the doors open. I head straight for the first bin in each aisle and make hay on the previous afternoon/night’s “throwbacks”. Some days my best picks are the ones that I found in the first 20 minutes. It’s almost “passive picking”. I see so many people really just grabbing whatever they can get their hands on, when it comes time to weigh in they have to unload some weight. Recently found someone’s 1980’s Madonna t-shirt/sweatshirt collection tossed back into a book bin when I arrived at 9:00am. Someone the night before had a good eye but just didn’t realize what they really had. And get out before the crowds show up just before lunchtime!
My favorite baseball player as a little kid was Pete Rose, AKA “Charlie Hustle”. Finding out what an absolute horrible person he is as I grew older has permanently soured me on the use of that word.
Very soft week this past week, and very strange patterns. A ton of low dollar sales. Last Monday I had a great day, selling almost $1,200 with 60 sales. By Friday? I had under $100 in sales that day.
March 18 – March 24, 2018
Total Items in main Store: 9,526
Items Sold: 169
Cost of Items Sold: $150
Total Sales: $2339
Highest Price Sold: $100 (southwestern Terra Cotta pottery)
Average Price Sold: $13.84
Returns:1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $80
Number of items listed this week: 260
Total hours logged: 4213 hours last week. Some weeks I can spend well over 20 hours posting and only get the same amount done. I do it all myself. Combination of posting from phone while I’m waiting for kids at their after school activities and nights spent sitting in front of laptop using auctiva. I can usually find the same or similar items in my active listings or history to make minor alterations to and change the photo (advantages of having a huge inventory). I photograph similar/like items in batches so when I’m cruising it takes less than a minute to list. What ends up taking time is finding a new item and having to research it.
Feb 25 – March 3, 2018
Total Items in main Store: 9,517
Items Sold: 197
Cost of Items Sold: $325
Total Sales: $3097
Highest Price Sold: $399 (vintage Burberry jacket)
Average Price Sold: $19.11
Returns:3
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $130
Number of items listed this week: 256
Total hours logged: 56Two comments about this week’s show.
First, Offerup and Letitgo is a GREAT place to sell, quite literally, garbage. I have no hesitation about picking up a lawnmower or piece of furniture curbside and taking it home. Throw it up on one of those two sites or FB Marketplace with a reasonable price and there is always somebody willing to come and buy it, even if it doesn’t work. I don’t even bother testing mechanical items that I find in the trash (unless it it appears to be high end and worth selling on ebay). My effort is limited to putting it in the vehicle and posting it for sale. I sometimes move the item further down the curb, away from the real garbage, photograph it, and post it immediately. When I get home, it sits in the driveway, and if it doesn’t sell in a week or two, it simply gets pushed to my curb. I answer silly questions with one word answers because some of those sites measure response time and rate. I work from home, so I just tell people to text me when they are here to pick up. A lot of no-shows, but at least I’m not waiting around for them either. Some of the older guys that like to fix things can get a little chatty, but that can be entertaining sometimes. That said, I don’t go out looking for trash, but if it presents itself to me, well then. Currently my driveway has no trash sitting in it. I find it a good way to make a near effort-free $1500 + each year. And I’m recycling.Second, I second the caller today that offered you encouragement to sell internationally outside of the GSP. I sell a lot of smaller lightweight items that fit into bubble mailers or poly bags, so international shipping via First Class is between $10-23 depending on the country. The last time I studied the numbers, I sold about 13% overall internationally, and my “gone missing” rate was about 3%. So yeah, things do disappear. Take into account what you are selling when you list it. Real valuable things should never ship without the protection of GSP. Gewgaws? Bring it on. This weekend, I sold a camera FLASH manual, not even vintage, for $14.99. It was one of those things that I have had forever, and when I pulled it to ship, questioned myself why it was in my possession in the first place. But somebody in Korea, that one person, had to have it. If it disappears, I’m out $13 in shipping. There is only a 3% chance of that happening though. I’ll take the 97% odds and $14.99 that it will be safely delivered.
