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@workhorse – did you report it to eBay? What did they say. Even though I called three different times they were oblivious that this was a wider problem.
Regarding the actual sold price, PicClick also used to supply this but it quit working some time ago, even though they still showed sold items the best offer price wasn’t correct. Within the last two weeks they removed sold lookup altogether. I emailed them to see what was up and they explained that eBay took issue with it and they aren’t allowed to show solds any longer. Kinda sucks as their interface is so much easier that eBays normal search or the Terapeak lookup.
Also, note that Worthpoint doesn’t show actual sold price on offers either. Really brings its value into question if you can’t trust the prices. I know I really bid up a painting I bought a few years ago based on its sold price there. I subsequently sold the painting on eBay for best offer but the buyer never paid. Now, that painting shows on Worthpoint as a sale at that price.
Really wish eBay would step up their game with Terapeak. They purchased the company then gutted the product and only provide a fraction of the earlier functionality. I’d be happy to pony up a premium to get accurate prices, a good and helpful search interface, and 3 – 5 years of history.
@Jay – I have to think that it is as someone mentioned in the other post, that eBay has messed up their tables for shipping. For each item the free shipping was limited to a region and not universal. One free item shipped to South Africa, one to Canada and the last to Alaska. After the sale I went to the listing and checked different locations and when I selected a different location the shipping went back to normal.
It does seem to be more complicated, though, as the first two were only free with eBay Int’l shipping. This last one was only free via Fedex and then only to Alaska (though I didn’t check Hawaii).
You may be able to find the buyers email address in Paypal via the phone app. It is usually hidden now and they direct you to eBay, but I was able to find it on a refund record just this weekend.
I just made a similar post on this same issue. Glad to see it isn’t just me.
Thanks for the show.
Had a mostly quiet week last week right up till the moment the election winner was announced. Once that happened the rest of the afternoon was flurry of orders. Must have been a bunch of people who were sitting in front of their TVs or stuck on Facebook waiting for some resolution.
Accidentally refunded a buyer their whole purchase price when I’d intended to just return partial shipping. I hate that you have to go into Paypal to make a partial refund. They always prefill the amount with the total. I had already shipped the item so had little recourse. Called eBay and they pointed me back to Paypal, then Paypal said there was no recourse except to ask the buyer to pay again. I sent them an invoice via Paypal along with an explanation and fortunately they paid right away. I assume the process will be different once I’m on Managed Payments. It was a $100 sale, so happy there wasn’t a problem. I’ve always been worried that I’d do that one day.
Week Ending 11/7/20
Total Items in Store: 1247
Items Sold: 17
Gross Sales: $885.98
Net Sales (after fees, shipping, etc.) $647.90
Cost of Items Sold: $49.71
COGS Percent 7.67%
Highest Price Sold: $100.00 Pre-Columbian Vase
Average Price Sold: $38.11
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00
Sold via promoted listings: 15
Promoted Percentage: 88.24%
Average Days Listed: 322
Longest Listed: 1598
New items listed: 22It seems that eBay has some change or glitch that isn’t being applied across board.
@mycoyote – I follow J&R’s lead and rarely modify a listing once posted, unless I find new information. Exception being at 16 months when I occasionally reprice or modify the title.
On thing I did change was my shipping policies, and those I changed across the board. Made that change around the time that I stopped seeing the notice. I wonder if that could be the cause. Hmmm…
Star Trek, definitely.
Had a great sale on a rare for us piece of furniture, which really bumped our sales. Largely thanks to you guys, who gave us the insight on selling furniture with local pickup. It was a large MCM credenza that we purchased for $500 and sold for $1200. Took about 8 month to sell and the buyer is sending a shipping company to pick it up. I had asked for cash only, but accepted Paypal since the buyer had over 1700 positive feedback on eBay. Supposed to pick up on Saturday, so keeping fingers crossed.
Had my first lost international shipping item of the pandemic. A $15 puzzle shipped to France that disappeared off the tracking radar in September and never made it to the buyer. Total refund $38 which hurts for an item I probably only made $12 on to begin with. Shipped direct instead of using GSP. Didn’t insure since it was so low value. This may be the first lost item I’ve every had. Don’t recall another anyway. Probably will show up sooner or later.
Week Ending 10/31/20
Total Items in Store: 1242
Items Sold: 23
Gross Sales: $2,160.92
Net Sales (after fees, shipping, etc.) $1,526.97
Cost of Items Sold: $578.99
COGS Percent 37.92%
Highest Price Sold: $1,199.99 MCM Credenza
Average Price Sold: $66.39
Returns: 1 (Lost item)
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00
Sold via promoted listings: 15
Promoted Percentage: 65.22%
Average Days Listed: 289
Longest Listed: 1327
New items listed: 5Regarding higher returns since going on Managed Payments – I wonder if it could be MP is opening us up to a larger audience since they aren’t as restricted on payment methods. Sort of the same rational as the new buyers due to the pandemic argument, just more people who aren’t used to the eBay way of doing things. Personally, still waiting to get on MP. I originally thought they were holding me back because we had old currency for sale, but that has all been sold off for at least two months.
An average week this week for sales. Big sale was a vintage Rolleicord twin lens reflex camera from the 1950’s. I actually bought this two years ago and never posted it because I thought the shutter was malfunctioning. Finally pulled it out again two weeks ago and read the manual only to realize I needed to change a setting to release the shutter. (face palm). One of the hazards of buying old stuff – they did things differently back then.
Posted a fair amount of vintage Christmas last week and already sold three of the items. Definitely seeing the beginning of the surge for xmas related items.
Week Ending 10/24/20
Total Items in Store: 1262
Items Sold: 20
Gross Sales: $1,007.28
Net Sales (after fees, shipping, etc.) $761.57
Cost of Items Sold: $75.35
COGS Percent 9.89%
Highest Price Sold: $350.00 Rollei Camera
Average Price Sold: $38.08
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00
Sold via promoted listings: 12
Promoted Percentage: 60.00%
Average Days Listed: 251
Longest Listed: 1122
New items listed: 39Ryanne and Jay, Good show. Thoughtful as always.
Investment accounts are tough to rationalize when the amount is small and it is difficult to focus on the long time horizon when so many bills and wants are right in front of you. When I was around 30 I cashed out my 401 K to pay off bills and it took a long time to get back in the habit and longer still to see the benefits. Most people don’t see the options you guys do for alternative investments. I came across the FIRE movement about 8 years ago and it was helpful for me to reframe my way of thinking so that I could see a path to getting out of a work situation I wasn’t happy with. Without those investment accounts, I wouldn’t be where I am now. 4 years into this journey and I couldn’t be happier.
eBay continues to be a fickle mistress with weeks up and down. Last week was a good week, but one expensive item damaged in shipping turned it upside down. My largest sale was a vintage Casablanca fan never used and still in box. We picked it up at an auction for $6 and sold it for $249.95. I packed the box in another box with padding, and it still arrived damaged. Fedex must have dropped it really hard as it crushed the styrofoam in the original box and bent the housing on the fan so that I had to refund. Normally I insure items like this but it slipped my mind so I only have the $100 Fedex and have a claim filed. Still not an awful week and not my worst. The $863 is after the refund.Week Ending 10/17/20
Total Items in Store: 1242
Items Sold: 20
Gross Sales: $868.03
Net Sales (after fees, shipping, etc.) $610.97
Cost of Items Sold: $70.15
COGS Percent 11.48%
Highest Price Sold: $249.95 Casablanca Fan
Average Price Sold: $30.55
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00
Sold via promoted listings: 16
Promoted Percentage: 80.00%
Average Days Listed: 345.05
Longest Listed: 1576
New items listed: 20@oldnorth – When i buy lots I assign COGS depending on the lot content. If I buy a lot that has many items of value that I considered in my bid, I split the cost among them based on relative value (when I’m not being lazy), and sometimes just divide it by number of items in lot that are saleable. When I purchase a lot based on the value of a single item I really wanted, I assign the COGS to the item and list the others as $0. So, basically the same as you it sounds.
MIke
Very interesting podcast this week. Lots of topics I could relate to. You were discussing blocking buyers to keep them from bothering you. I recently tried to do this to an annoying buyer who kept giving me low-ball offers for an item after me explaining I wasn’t interested. After the 5th time I added him to blocked. To my surprise he contacted me about a week later to ask me why I had blocked him??? I always assumed it blocked communication as well, but not in this case. Is there somewhere secret that you block communication as well?
I keep having that random shipping option change as well. With the new shipping interface there were giving me shipping priority options that I hadn’t offered and not even showing the option the buyer chose, adding a few clicks for me to verify. I’ve switched over to using the bulk shipping option which doesn’t seem to do that.
This week I posted several items I’ve had on my shelf for a few years. One of those lots I just couldn’t bring myself to let go of. It was a lot of pre-Columbian pottery I got at an auction. It was worth way less than I’d hoped as they didn’t come with provenance and I had trouble accepting the actuals that similar items were selling for. These vases and cups are most likely over 1000 years old. Hard to believe they sell for so little comparatively. But, I finally bit the bullet and posted them for between $150 and $250 with best offer. We’ll see.
Had my first unclaimed item come back to me this week on a shipment to the Netherlands. The buyer claimed they didn’t get the notice from the post office that it was waiting for pick up. Fortunately it wasn’t anything fragile, as the box came back very abused from the trans-Atlantic crossing. Now have to figure out something with the buyer and eBay.
Had a great week last week. My second highest sales to date. During what has been traditionally a slow time this was a welcome slew of sales. Big item was a Chinese wood carving of Buddha’s disciples. Very intricate and large carving that I’ve had for sale for over two years. I was originally asking $2000 but it finally sold this week for ~$1000.
Week Ending 10/10/20
Total Items in Store: 1244
Items Sold: 28
Gross Sales: $2,459.10
Net Sales (after fees, shipping, etc.) $1,717.28
Cost of Items Sold: $234.47
COGS Percent 13.65%
Highest Price Sold: $995.95 Buddha Statue
Average Price Sold: $61.33
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $625.00
Sold via promoted listings: 17
Promoted Percentage: 60.71%
Average Days Listed: 330
Longest Listed: 1568
New items listed: 36Good luck and congratulations! There are few better feelings than having the security to walk away.
Had a great example of an $27.00 international sale to Australia this morning for shipping via Pirate Ship:
2 pound package, 12x10x8.
USPS 1st Class International = $25.05
eBay International Standard Delivery = $22.00
Pirate Ship (USPS 1st Class Int’l) = $17.95
I insured via Shipsaver for sale price + shipping for $1.00.
@Jay – I’ve changed all of my listing that qualify to international first class recently and have noticed a significant boost especially to Canada. I hedge the risk by adding cheap insurance via Shipsaver. For items under a pound I pass along the Pirate ship discount to the buyer, so international first class below 8 ounces is only $8.95 to Canada. I usually only insure items that are over $50. So far no issues.
I have been giving buyers the option of eBay Ship but after hearing your experience I think I may pull that option.
