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Ok, I will just hang tight! I don’t have any reason to think there’s funny business on my account, but it’s scary to think that if I get crossways with eBay of Adyen that a huge portion of my personal income would just disappear.
I was coming here to ask the same question. For many things, a search turns up zero (or very few) results. But then below that it’ll say, “Results matching fewer words” and those words will be an exact match for what I just search. I’m finding it impossible to search just about anything for researching solds. Also thinking it might be why so many of my items for the last few days have 0 or 1 views.
Inglewood, did they try out a new battery for free before you bought it to see if that helped? Or did you have to buy the battery first? My biggest current issue is the GPS feature quit working. Also, the phone is just unbearably slow at this point. Like when I use the eBay app, it takes a good 2-3 seconds for my touch screen motions to even register.
Definitely a glitch. If you lose TRS, so will everyone else, so we’ll all be in the same boat. Definitely another eBay hiccup. Guess they plan on keeping us entertained.
Same glitch for me. I feel like I’m pretty level-headed with a wait-and-see approach to eBay issues, but this is getting ridiculous. After losing 35 photo listings last week, I’m feeling very vulnerable right now with eBay. What else are they going to erase or lose that will undercut all the work I’ve done in my store? I don’t know who heads up the division of eBay that’s responsible for all these hiccups, but they need to be replaced.
I shipped a framed paint by number from Dallas to Austin this week. The buyer chose Smart Post, and the shipping costs finally did match up. (First time in a long time. I was one of those sellers who had massive discrepancies in what the buyer paid and what eBay was charging me). The cost seemed reasonable, but it’s hard to tell if it’s “fixed” since it was only shipping within the same state. I’m still also skittish about the fact that even with exact weight and dimensions, I sometimes still get charged more by Fedex (after the fact) than what it actually shows when I purchase original shipping. Anyhow, since it was in-state, I decided to upgrade to Priority just to be safe, and with my seller discount, that ended up saving me money anyhow. Plus I didn’t have to make the drive to drop it off at Fedex. The jury’s still out.
Yes, MyCottage, agreed. What I read is that 30 day free returns is for Top Rated PLUS, not for TRS. And I was wondering if individual listings would have the opt-out feature. I *might* be able to handle free returns on clothing and shoes, but not on larger items where the shipping is an arm and a leg. Hard to predict whether the benefit to search ranking will be enough to justify eating the cost of the occasional return shipping. It probably depends how many people participate in the free 30 day returns. If, like guaranteed 3-day shipping, hardly anyone qualifies or participates, seems like it won’t hurt anything to not offer free returns. Honestly, when I purchase, I only look at feedback percentage, not at TRS or TRS Plus. My current return rate for clothing and shoes is about 4%. Not horrible, not great. Not sure yet what I’ll do.
Mike!!! This is exactly what I was looking for! I had watched it several months ago, but wanted to watch it again and couldn’t find it anywhere. Thank you so much!
Thanks guys! Buyer sent photo of packaging, and it definitely was different than what I sent. Called eBay and they closed the case by refunding the buyer, and said it won’t affect my account in any way.
One of my new favorite tools in called the “Snag Nab It” I’ve used it for countless snags, pulls, and loose threads to pull them through to the underside of the fabric and make them invisible. I use it several times a week. I used it on a Coogi Sweater back in January. Coogi is notorious for loose and pulled threads because of how easily the 3D designs get caught on things. I made it look like brand new, and it sold for $225.
For leather shoes, I love Dr. Marten’s Wonder Balsam. Makes my Dr. Marten’s shoes (and any other leather shoe) look like new. Also, I’ve discovered black “edge dressing” for shoes and use it all the time. Finally, a small suede brush comes in handy for so many things. I use it not only on suede shoes, but also on any item with a directional nap, like shearling clothing, to smooth out the shearling and make it not look quite so separated.
Oooh…one more. My new favorite stain removers are Grandma’s Secret Spot Remover and Tech Stain Remover. I ordered both from Amazon, and they are amazing. I just used the Tech Stain remover on a vintage Jams World shirt with a stubborn collar stain, and the stain came out completely.Jay, do you guys do a 20% restocking fee on all items? Or just new items?
March 19-25
Total Items in Store: 517
Items Sold: 40
Cost of Items Sold: $85
Total Sales: $1307.36
Highest Price Sold: $133.20 (Susan Lucci Skin care set, paid $5 at yard sale)
Average Price Sold: $32.68
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $100 give or take
Number of items listed this week: 30I opted in to hassle free returns for a while. Then I got a couple of INAD returns, one in particular where the customer admitted in the details that it was buyer’s remorse. I called eBay and they said it’s set for automatic approval and they can’t retroactively change it. So I changed my settings to only allow for returns due to fit, changed mind, just didn’t like it, etc…
I thought that would be foolproof, but I was wrong.
I sold a set of Bose earbuds, new in package. In my return details, I have a general disclaimer that says, “All items must be returned in identical condition as received. If new, with all packaging and tags still in tact.” So the buyer opens them, uses them while jogging, and decides the cord makes too much noise while running. So he opens a return, and is totally willing to pay return shipping. It was automatically approved through hassle free returns. I called eBay and asked what to do, because he was returning a new item in used condition, which was contrary to my return policy. Once again, they said I had my settings to automatically approve returns on items when the buyer changed their mind and agreed to pay return shippng. They said that my fine print policy (which eBay provides a place for me to enter) is irrelevant. Hassle free return settings trump everything else. So I shut down hassle free returns altogether. Now all returns require my approval.
Oh, by the way, great story. eBay encouraged me to “work” with the earbud buyer to see if he could understand my situation of not being able to re-sell the item at full price once he returned it used. Just for kicks, I explained the situation. He said he understood initially, and changed his mind about returning and said he would just keep it and re-sell. Then later that day he emailed me again and said he wanted to return it after all. He was leaving the country soon and wouldn’t have time to sell them himself. (I was pretty much at his mercy because the return had already been approved.) But apparently, when he briefly decided to keep the earbuds and resell on his own, he closed the return case. When he tried to re-open it, there was no place to do so. He contacted me and wanted to know what I could do on my end. So I called eBay again (always the safest bet) to find out what I was obligated to do. They said once it was closed neither the buyer nor seller can re-open the case. The only thing I could do was refund him through paypal, but that was totally optional and not required or expected. They said since he closed the case I could ignore any further attempts by him to contact me and “work it out”. His final email he had a brilliant idea, LOL. This guy was sure that what I wanted most was to make him happy and take the return. So he said, “Hey, I’ve got an idea! Since we can’t do the return through eBay. How about I just re-list the earbuds using your photos. You can purchase them back from me and I’ll offer free shipping, and that way you get the earbuds back and I get my money back!” I was rolling on the floor. Thanks, buddy, but no thanks.Week of Feb 26 – March 4th
* Total Items Currently in Store: 530
* Items Sold: 46
* Cost of Items Sold: approximately $155
* Total Sales: $1436.10
* Highest Price Sold: $295 Chuggington Roundhouse Double Decker Wooden Railway w/ Turntable Clock Tower (Paid $4 at yard sale. I saw NIB solds were around $100, so I was hoping I’d get $50 or so used. Got home and did my research and found I had one made in 2011, before Tomy bought out the original manufacturer. Mine had some features that were apparently preferable to the newer model. Priced it at $275, and sold for full price plus shipping after a couple of days.
* Average Price Sold: $31.22
* Returns: 6 (unusually high number of returns for me. Several clothing items due to fit, even though I provided all measurements. Also sold a SAS Tripad diabetic SINGLE SHOE!!! for the 2nd time to another buyer who didn’t read the title, item condition, OR listing description, all 3 of which said Right Shoe Only Diabetic Amputee. Yeeeesh. Maybe third time’s a charm.)Beverly – Far Out And Fabulous – (love the name)
I shared a story on one of my FB groups a couple weeks ago about my 1 day membership to FindArtInfo.com. It was $5 for 1 day, and it was immensely helpful.
Some of you remember a huge litho I sold by Bernard Buffet. It was called One Man Band. I sold it to a buyer in France with no issues.
A few weeks later, I sold the other one I had by him called Le Dompteur. Here’s my story about what happened and how it turned out (copied and pasted from a post I made in one of my FB eBay groups.)I found a resource by trial and error that helped me convince a buyer to close a return she had opened, and wanted to share with you all.
I sold a very high value framed / signed lithograph to a buyer in Illinois. The shipping alone was just over $100 via Fedex. A couple weeks after she received it, I got notice that the buyer was requesting a return based on lack of authenticity. I was floored. Of course, that meant I would have to pay return shipping. Ugh!
I was routed to a special department within eBay (specifically for high value items $700 and over), and they told me they no longer arbitrate cases for authenticity. Their stated reason is that if they rule that an item is not authentic, they can’t legally require the buyer to return a fake item. It should be destroyed. So in the past, when eBay ruled something to be a fake, the buyer kept (or destroyed) the item, and the seller had to fully refund and never received the item back. According to new guidelines, however, if the buyer alleges an item is fake and wants a return, eBay forces you to take that return and pay return shipping. No arbitration on authenticity. Just an automatic refund. So if the seller doesn’t convince the buyer of authenticity, the buyer has to fully refund, eBay doesn’t make a determination on authenticity, and buyer has to pay return shipping to get the item back.
Anyhow, my buyer said that the artist’s catalog raisonne stated that this particular series of lithos *always* had signatures on the right side, and the signatures were also *very* elongated. The one I sold was on the left side, and she said the signature didn’t look as elongated as she thought it should.
The first thing I did was to tell the buyer I was sorry she wasn’t 100% satisfied with her purchase and that she had concerns over it being a fake. I told her I would pay for the return shipping, but that I would first like for her to provide a photograph of the publication where she found this information, as the only way for me to gain access to it would be to purchase it, and the only copies I could find were close to $300 (obviously not an option.)
I didn’t hear from her for 3 days. Turns out she was out of town. While I was waiting to hear back, I rolled up my sleeves and got to work. I did a google image search for the identical litho. It was a limited edition of 200 copies, which means there weren’t a whole lot of images available online. That led me to a site called FindArtInfo. It’s a membership website, and perhaps there are others just like it, I don’t know. It was exactly what I needed, though. I paid a 24 hour membership fee of $4.95 and found a wealth of information.
Long story short, I found 4 other identical lithos in this series (each with a different # out of 200 than mine) that showed as having been previously sold through 4 different auction houses. Every single one of them had the same signature placement as mine, and the elongation (or lack thereof) of the signature was just like mine, too. I saved 10 images to my computer and uploaded all 10 in the return case correspondence with the buyer. The first 5 photos were 5 different images of the litho (mine first, then the other 4) FindArtInfo had the name of each auction house that sold each litho, with city, state, sale date, and sale price. Then I included 5 more photos of the artist’s signature close up (the one I sold first, followed by 4 nearly identical). I fully explained my research to the buyer, and asked what she had come up with regarding documented information of her claim. She eventually responded and said an “expert” (specializing in this particular artist) told her the signature placement was wrong and the signature was shaped wrong, and said he was citing the catalog raisonne. But he wouldn’t reply to her emails requesting more documentation for his claim.
The buyer decided to close the case (yay!) saying the “expert” never replied to her, and they decided that despite what he previously told her, she wanted to keep the litho anyway.
She never said that she was fully persuaded that it was authentic, but I think the research I did was very compelling, and can’t help but think it helped me convince her it was the real thing.
Anyhow, sorry to make this so very long. I was absolutely thrilled to find that website. I have sold a handful of art pieces, I have several more in my store, and I plan to source more when I find them. Actually, about a month prior, I sold another litho by the same artist to a buyer in France (without incident, a very happy customer, btw.) I’m thinking that website will come in handy for me in the future, and hopefully for any of you that need to do some quick and cheap research for an artist or signature. So happy to find a new resource.
Happy selling!
