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Here are my recent stats, for last week – Monday-Sunday 2/25:
Total items in store: about 200
Items Sold: 15
Total sales: $805
Highest Price: $120 – flatware
Cost of goods sold: About $100I’m so grateful for this month so far (no jinx!) but I’ve also been listing more items, more selectively and finally gotten over my earlier hump of about 160 items, up to about 200. This feels like the right amount, time and space wise.
January: 34 items for $1,192
February so far: 41 items for $2184 (+ 2 never payers + 1 return)I probably have about 30-40 ultra-stale items and need to run a sale/cull to unload these and make room for some more “freshies.”
Happy Scavenging!
What I have done in the combined shipping situation is to have them pay full price w/shipping for one, and then send them an offer on the second item, and the offer subtracts the price of the extra shipping.
Example: Item 1 is $15 + $5 shipping.
Item 2 is $22 + $5 shipping.
Combined shipping will cost them $6.
So that’s $4 off the total combined price. So I’d send them an offer of $18 +$5 shipping for item No. 2.Or: You can just do a partial refund via PayPal and communicate that in your eBay messages.
I enjoy many of the ones mentioned above + thanks for the tips.
I love “This is Actually Happening” by Whit Missildine. They are incredible true stories with basically no intro beyond “Welcome to the PermaTemp Corporation,” and usually no names. The person just starts talking. They all start out “What if you …” as in “What if you survived a shipwreck?” “What if you were hunted by the Japanese mafia?” My favorite is about a Target store manager who woke up in a hospital morgue. Hilarious and amazing. http://misfitrad.io/happening/67
I also really enjoy “Snap Judgment.” Like an urban “This American Life”; host Glynn Washington always tells a personal fable first, then launches into the story or collection of stories around a theme, like “The Fall Guy” or “By the Book”.
Well,
I got this sent to my personal email yesterday (I am cutting off her personal information):
“Hello, You have not responded to my messages,, I phoned Ebay .. They told me you were going to Refund me.. But I still have not Received the Refund .. They will be contacting you . Please send my Refund . Use my Paypal acct or send a money order Please, ”I am tending to believe her. I did get emails from eBay asking me to refund her at some point in this nightmare, but was told to ignore them. I think eBay has been telling each of us different stories. I believe this based on the numerous DIFFERENT FAIRY TALES the reps have told me.
I’m going to contact her about this email through eBay. And I’m going to ask her to give me the name of the rep she contacted and when she contacted this person. How much is my time worth? I’ve probably spent 5-6 hours of phone time on this already, including a completely unacceptable 25-30 minute wait for a rep to come on the phone TWICE.
I have lost confidence in eBay’s customer service department and I’m on my own. That said, I’ll still sell, because it’s a wonderful venue, but also be prepared to have absolutely no sane support network.
Retro – thanks for your thoughts.
The latest development goes to your first point, Retro: I got a message from eBay saying that the buyer had requested my personal information – name, home address and telephone number. Whether it was intended as a threat or not, it feels like one. Plus, who knows what story eBay has been telling her? The whole thing is exhausting.
Annnd. On with eBay again, asking about this case and the mythical PayPal hold. This rep says “I’m looking in your account and I’m very confused.”
Then she says that she’s going to close the return in the BUYER’S FAVOR and I can appeal if I want. She’s transferring me to the “appeals department…and don’t worry! It will be overturned in your favor! I guarantee it!”
—–
And I’m now talking to “Cherry” in the appeals department. She says there is no hold on the account. But she can’t escalate or close the case because the buyer is no longer covered by the money-back guarantee and can’t get her money back for any reason. She said the buyer has been “restricted” for a period of time, but it has been reinstated.Annnnd… eBay did call back! They said PayPal has a hold on my money for 30 days so they can’t close the case, but that it would close naturally after the 30 days has expired. They said the buyer has been banned from eBay. I asked how she was then messaging me, and they said she has access for another 24-48 hours and then she’s cut off (?).
So, calling PayPal because I cannot see any indication of a hold on the money in there, or what is going to happen with it.
—–
Annnd …PayPal is saying that what eBay is telling me is not true. That there is no hold on the payment. They told me to contact the buyer and tell her to open a case against me. NO. WAY.So: Why is the case not closing? Because of a non-existent hold. The eBay Rep told me I wasn’t seeing the hold in my PayPal account “because you must have too much money in there and your balance is not going negative.” Ummmm… OK.
The PayPal Rep is telling me that eBay cannot see into my PayPal account so they can’t know that.
I AM SO FRUSTRATED.
Well, after 25 minutes on hold, yet another rep tells me she’s going to close the case in my favor and I will get money back in my PayPal account. Which is interesting, because the last rep told me she HAD closed the case in my favor and the money was already released back to my PayPal account. When I checked just now, it was still there, and looked like it had never been on hold or left. ????
She also told me the buyer was lying about calling eBay. She probably was…But eBay reps have told me lots of things and then the next rep told me a different story.
I asked her if they would step in and contact the buyer and explain the situation, since they in a way created this expectation of a refund (from 3 reps ago), and she said NO.
At this point, I can tell this buyer may be really disturbed and I may just send her the money and/or the fabric to protect my family and myself from harassment. I told the rep this and she said DON’T DO THAT!!!!
I think it’s worth $100 to make this go away, though. Seriously.
The rep said she would call me back (???) after “looking into this” more. And do what? Confuse the situation even more?
I know there’s probably less than a 1 percent chance of a safety issue, but there is 100% chance of hours of wasted time and frustration for me and the buyer both because of eBay’s misinformation and lack of coordination.
eBay is great for many reasons and in many ways, but in this case, it’s been incompetent.Well, this appears to be getting worse. The buyer has again messaged me asking for me to mail the fabric back to her. I ignored her. Just a few minutes ago, she sent me a message saying that she called ebay and ebay told her THAT I HAD BEEN TRYING TO REFUND HER. WHAT?! I have no idea what that means. She kindly sent along an alternate PayPal email and her thanks.
I’m really frustrated here. I immediately called eBay but am on hold and have been for some time. But my call “is very important” to eBay. And they’ll be back in a moment! ARGH.I will update with whatever I’m told next. Is she mistaken? Is eBay a giant octopus where one tentacle doesn’t know what the other is doing? Stay tuned.
Retro: You make very good points. I might just put it in the mail today and reply to her refund request with a tracking number and be done with it. But still waiting for eBay to pick up the line.
Ah – it can be sold again. But it’s “luxury” fabric now faded, shrunk and “altered”. Retails at something like $50 a yard new. Think of a cashmere sweater that’s been put in the dryer. It is now worth less. It should have been dry cleaned or at least not put in a hot dryer. My question to eBay and to the buyer was how much money is fair to return to her? All of it? Some of it? If so, how much? Ebay said: None – we will refund her. The buyer said (before eBay told me to block her): All of it.
Well, this has developed strangely. The buyer messaged me back saying that she DID wash the fabric but that it’s still worth $100.
I called eBay. They transferred me from the Philippines to their U.S. ‘dispute resolution’ center, or some such. They looked at all our ebay messages, put me on hold for a while, and then came back and said, essentially, “Well – since they did admit to altering it, you don’t need to refund them. The case is going in your favor. But we will refund them their money, because they did return it.” Essentially, eBay was going to eat this one. I figured: Case closed.
A few days later, she says “where’s my refund?”, and I got an email from eBay reminding me to refund her money. I told her the situation and suggested she call eBay and ask them herself, since they told me they would refund her.
But I also called again. The eBay email warning me to refund her was troubling me. In Round 2, eBay said they had made a mistake. In reviewing the buyer’s account, they found some sort of violation from 4 years ago and had frozen her ability to get a refund. They advised me in very strong terms to block her and ignore the auto-generated emails from eBay asking me to refund her. They said they couldn’t tell me anything more.
Well, this was awkward. Because I’d given her wrong information the first time, I felt I should give her an update. I told her eBay said not to refund her, and to call them herself.
Round 3: She wants the fabric back. “I’m not paying $105 for nothing!!!! Send it back!!!”
What the heck do I do? I think this person may be someone whose ire I do not want to draw. She knows who I am and my address. The eBay rep was very firm in telling me to not deal with this person any longer.
I can ignore, or I can mail the fabric back. I paid $5 for this fabric, and sold it for $100. I still made great money. If I mail it back, it may cost me less than $10. It may be worth it to make this go away. I also don’t know who would buy it now that it’s washed. It took a year in beautiful condition. I have blocked her, but she can still message me and has been doing so. I don’t think asking her to pay for shipping again would go too well. I will call eBay yet again but I wanted to ask the hive mind.TL;DR: eBay gave me misinformation and a sketchy buyer is mad. Dang it! Should I make $85 instead of $95 to make this go away?
Enjoy your vacation, Scavengers.
Good points, thanks. I sent the buyer a message saying, basically:
“Thanks for the quick return. Sorry you didn’t like the fabric. Because it was washed (wrote a description of fading, frayed cut ends, etc.), I can’t sell it as new any longer. What do you think a fair return amount would be?”If she ignores me or is hostile, I will escalate to eBay. If she’s reasonable, then that’s easy.
I’m just wondering whether any fabric folks would have an idea of what’s a fair amount. I’m thinking 50% is fair.
Hello all,
My small store keeps trucking along. I reached and surpassed my goal of selling at least an average of 1 item per day.
I also invested in some file cabinets and this has helped my organization and storage a lot.May:
Items sold: 44
Cost of Items Sold: About $280
Total Sales: $2,064
Highest Price Sold: $225 – artisan-made wood box (paid $3)
Average Sale Price: $46.91
Returns: 1 – shoes – $120 🙁
International Sales: 1 through reshipper.
Number of items for sale: 106. This is nearing my comfort level right now with space and time constraints. But it requires me to be very particular about what I purchase.I tried a few estate sales this month. One had a line of intimidating and fancy looking ladies around the corner. Pass. And another was all junk. I mean, there was NOTHING that I could find that would net me more than $5 and most of it was really junky and moldy smelling. I found one item at a yard sale that would be fairly easy to flip and ship and one rough Stihl chainsaw for MrKensington for $5 (!) I’m going to try again this weekend.
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March:
Items Sold: 35
Cost of Items Sold: About $240
Total Sales: $2,967.42
Highest Price Sold: $1200 – furniture (paid $60)
Average Price Sold: $84.78April:
Items Sold: 28
Cost of Items Sold: About $185
Total Sales: $1398.84
Highest Price Sold: $250 – rare leather notebook (paid $3)
Average Price Sold: $49.96My store is so small, I’m going to do a monthly post – for both March and April.
Total items in store now: 94. It’s stayed hovering just below 100 for most of the past two months. I have listed about as many as I’ve sold, finding time between my job and my family obligations.March:
Items Sold: 35
Cost of Items Sold: About $240
Total Sales: $2,967.42
Highest Price Sold: $1200 – furniture (paid $60)
Average Price Sold: $84.78April:
Items Sold: 28
Cost of Items Sold: About $185
Total Sales: $1398.84
Highest Price Sold: $250 – rare leather notebook (paid $3)
Average Price Sold: $49.96I’ve gotten lucky with a few high dollar items, added to a bunch of bread and butter items. I’m hoping to keep up my average of about 1 sale per day, but the summer is coming, so it’s time to buy buy buy and list list list as I can find the time. But 65 items and $4,366 is a great result. My profit is about $3,000 over two months, and I’m surprised and grateful.
I have had a couple of returns not counted in the numbers above; one item lost in shipping; and probably 2 or 3 international sales (some through third-party shippers).
I have a full-time job, but it’s comforting to know that I could probably swing a basic living selling full time on eBay if I had to.
Thanks, everyone – I learn from you all every day.
