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I’ll buy off these local marketplaces, but actually selling stuff on them is a huge waste of time. It’s like a neverending series of people being interested, scheduling a pickup, then no-showing. The last guy I sold to wouldn’t talk to me when he showed up, opened the side door on his van, then motioned for me to put the item in. I also had to remind him to pay me. Hours later he messaged me and said I forced him to buy the item because I forcibly put the item in his vehicle.
This event + one other probably sucked up around 6-8 hours of my time. That’s two items and maybe $80. I think I’ll stick to paying eBay fees.
If he wants to go the CS route, I highly recommend getting him into a weekend “code camp” or some other kind of training program to measure his interest prior to committing to a 4 year degree. I worked at one of these places and met a lot of high school students who started off very interested in CS, but then realized it wasn’t for them after a few days.
Also, I 100% believe a 3 – 6 month “coding crash course” is more effective than 4 years of CS, which is mostly theory and math. A good handle on programming + a decent portfolio of personal projects would be really attractive to companies looking to hire younger talent.
I’m assuming it’s this page? https://sellerstandards.ebay.com/dashboard?region=US
I remember them being real-time, but I don’t check them enough to notice tbh. I had some shipping problems a few months ago and I remember them updating after the issue was resolved by USPS.
I do a lot of free first class shipping w/ free returns and haven’t had a problem, but I sell exclusively in consumer electronics where returns are rarely opened for subjective reasons like “don’t like” or “changed mind” – if something is getting returned, it’s because it’s defective. I’m assuming this is different for whatever category you’re in.
There’s not much stopping you from turning on free shipping/returns for a few weeks and seeing if it helps business. I’ve personally started listing most of my items with free shipping (regardless of size) just because it helps in search ranking.
The laws on automatic knives are probably too complicated for eBay to bother fussing with. There’s also the Federal Switchblade Act, but I believe that only applies to manufacturers. IMO, whenever an item of mine gets taken down I just back out of selling it entirely.
Sounds like a decent local flip, though.
I wouldn’t let a neighborly dispute get in the way of making some $$$. If you think he’ll jack up the prices because he doesn’t like you, pay someone/find a friend willing to buy the stuff for you.
Thanks for the hint! I just sent a bunch of offers and something some immediately.
I’ve had this on android for a while, but it only ever shows me 5 items under $20 with like 2 watchers when I have much more expensive items with dozens of watchers I’d love to send offers to.
I’ve had customers messaging me asking why their items haven’t been delivered yet thanks to these terrible and wildly inaccurate estimates. I’m also not in the guaranteed delivery program, so I’m unsure why buyers are being told this in the first place.
Sellers: We hate the returns system.
eBay: We hear you. Now there’s a button that allows you easily relist an item after the return closes.
Sellers: That’s not wha-
eBay: We raised FVFs.
Everything else just feels like a repeat of info we already had: PayPal coming to MP, volume discounts, forced GTC, etc. The “enhanced seller protections” also seems like a rundown of the existing rules with some easier access to buyer reporting. The only interesting bit is a reference to a future update that would help you fight bad feedback based on your track record.
Overall just a whole lot of nothing IMO.
I bet a lot of this update (the “multi-part plan”) will be focused on Managed Payments.
My dream change would be removing return reasons under free returns and/or revising service metrics to include an intermediary step between the 3 and 12 month tier.
Mostly “big box” electronics where the average size is probably 18x16x5. I could be more aggressive stacking them, but I only like going 4 or 5 high depending on weight (less on the higher shelves.)
I usually move these larger units in 1-3 months, but I’m starting to consider auctioning off stuff that has been around longer to free up space.
I’m taking over the lease of a 2 bedroom apartment in a few months once the prior lease rolls off. Original plans were to downgrade to a 1 bedroom and rent storage elsewhere, but after I did the math I arrived at a higher cost/month than renting the 2 bedroom.
I moved most of the inventory into the spare bedroom last weekend, and in the process I realized just how much space my 250 item store takes up. I’m just glad very little of it is long-tail inventory and that turnover is generally decent/good.
I must say it’s really refreshing to be able to close a door and not have to look at my eBay inventory all day, but I do wonder how long this will last me. I struggle to keep 250 items in my store at the moment, but if I ever decide to switch to more long-tail inventory I think some small warehouse space is the next step.
I use GoDaddy Bookkeeping, so everything is done semi-automatically. I have it set up to watch PayPal, as anything coming in/out of it is a business expense of some kind 99% of the time. Depositing straight into a personal account would just add time to bookkeeping days (sorting out personal from business.)
Not that big of a deal, TBH. It’s probably better to have big money in a “real” bank account than PayPal anyway.
