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A few slow, not really many unpaid. But it is that time of year: unpaid items, returns, etc. Just goes with the territory….
I had the flip side today. Before Christmas, got a low ball offer on something I had sourced for free. Countered. My counter offer expired. Today the buyer came back, offering me my counter-offer amount with a note: “I forgot to accept! Happy Holidays!”
Cool. Things can get crazy this time of year, so I accepted,sale made. I’m happy, buyer is happy, and Happy New Year to all!
Could be the pallets “fell off a truck” on the way to the warehouse, and the sellers are motivated to sell quickly…..But I doubt it. If the sellers got a really great deal on the pallets, they may be making good money even at a dollar an item….and with no need to research, list, ship etc. They obviously aren’t maximizing their profit, but they are probably moving it quickly.
I hope you keep finding great stuff, it sounds like a great way to source. We have Amazon warehouses in my general area, but I haven’t seen anything like this. May have to start looking….
Zach, I thought about that, but he has never actually conversed about it, never even really indicated he read any of my responses. It’s just a little odd….not troubling or anything, just a head scratcher.
This one has me scratching my head, because the buyer has never made an offer or even indicated he wants to buy the item. It’s an action figure, still on card. First question came in I think it was a few weeks ago, something like : Did you buy this from (the company) online when it first came out? I responded: No.
Not long after: Where did you buy this? I responded: I bought out a collection from a collector, don’t know where he purchased it originally.
I figured that was the end of it. Yesterday he writes again, after maybe a few weeks: Where did you buy this from, was it online from (a different company)? I responded: “No, it wasn’t purchased online”
The third question makes me think he either thinks this is a different listing (GTC, so maybe he got a notice when it auto-relisted?) But whatever, I can’t figure out why he’s asking in the first place. I’ve looked to see if there appear to be any rare variations of this figure, something like: the figures sold at such and such online had an extra accessory or something, but I could find nothing to indicate that, and besides, he could probably see that in the photos.
So, I just scratch my head and answer politely.
What I find odd is that , not only is he asking this particular question, but he offers no context. Nothing like: I’m very interested in buying this…or…hope you don’t mind answering a question about this…. just asks the question like he’s entitled to know where I source my stuff. He’s not rude or anything, and I can answer quickly enough so it doesn’t really bother me, I just am puzzled by it….
Any thoughts?
For what it’s worth, ebay’s Griff has hinted that Immediate payment might be coming to Best Offers in Managed Payments as the roll out continues. But I have no timeline for it.
I don’t get a lot of non-paying buyers, and when I do, I cancel if they request it, and if not, I start the ebay process and let it run its course. I don’t worry about the reason they give for cancelling, because I really don’t care. I just agree, cancel, and re-list the item. Sooner I relist it, sooner it can find a paying buyer.
A muddler, maybe?
Ryanne, Same here. Very glad to see ebay realizing that one size doesn’t always fit everything. Next year should be interesting.
Jay,
No, sorry, no handy link. I do know it was mentioned by the Blues in the discussions about GTC when the rule went into effect. Those threads are probably still on the Boards, but I don’t have time to hunt for it right now.Jay, Actually, I believe ebay has said exactly that. There is no real benefit in Best Match search order. I suppose there is some clear benefit in Newly Listed Search Order, but I personally think sellers have an exaggerated idea about the number of buyers who actually use newly listed search order. If ebay search is like most things on the web, the large majority of people use the default (best match) most of the time.
I’m pretty sure ebay can track how many sellers are actually ending their GTC listings early, and my guess is that the percentage is small enough that ebay doesn’t feel a strong need to try to convince those people that they are wasting their time. ebay doesn’t need to convince everyone, ebay just needs to convince enough sellers…if, as Jordan says, conversions overall have increased, then ebay’s GTC change has been successful, even if a few people continue to insist on using workarounds.
Jay,
I’d be very surprised if ebay went back to offering shorter duration fixed price listings. I switched to GTC long before ebay required it, and I found it more convenient and saw no harm to my sales. The shorter durations are really just a legacy of ebays auction site origins, and had long ago lost their real value to the site. They continued to have value for sellers who were gaming search, but , while some sellers may have benefited from that, I don’t believe the site as a whole really did.
I also think the number of sellers who really care passionately about this issue is pretty small. There was (as always) a lot of complaining when the other durations were eliminated, and a few sellers may actually have left ebay because of it, but those who continue to complain are probably the few who continue to cling to the idea that they need to end their listings right before they renew, which is a hassle….I think many would find if they stopped doing that, and actually used GTC, they’d be OK.
so, this is one issue I just don’t see ebay back-tracking on.
I’m pleased to see they are looking closely at some other issues, but I also agree with you that we’ll need to see ebay actually MAKE some of the propsed changes before we applaud too loudly….
4 Thanks for this one – think I’ve covered it in a few of the other answers around returns changes + differentiating retail standards on eBay by item condition/category. Some areas of the site will continue to need to have generous returns policies and that has to be build into the cost of selling in that category if that is the competitive benchmark, but others we can dial back the open approach to returns today and deliver an experience that still fully meets buyer expectations without exposing sellers to situations where they can be taken advantage of.
5. Great question – obviously Paypal is their own business and is free to make the choices they feel appropriate for the service they provide. There is a cost to process a payment and there is a cost to refund a payment… so it’s hard to question the entirety of their decision.
Now is that cost to serve equal to the full amount of fees paid? That doesn’t sit right with me. At the core I still operate under the philosophy that we (eBay) are successful when you (our sellers) our successful… if you sell something we both make money… if you get a refund I’m not sure that should put you in the negative on the transaction. I can’t promise you where we will land with managed payments (there is still a lot our teams are working through), but this should give you a sense of where I’m philosophically leaning.
6. To tackle the immediate question… No, there are no plans to reverse course of managed payments. I want to bring as much stability and predictability to your business as possible and the current setup with PayPal doesn’t lend itself towards that. Look at what happened with the USPS and the UPU in Sept/Oct – we were precariously close to all US sellers losing the ability to export anywhere in the world! That’s crazy. I’m not a fan of PayPal keeping the fees on a buyer return/cancellation – but same problem. When eBay is fully dependent on one solution we can’t bring the best solution/cost to your businesses.
Moving to managed payments still allows buyers to use PayPal, but as we progress it will also allow GooglePay, ApplePay and solutions like EFT + Wire Transfer. All of these additional payments will bring more shoppers onto our platform and, in the case of EFT + Wire Transfer, allow sellers who can’t make money with today’s PayPal fees be successful on our platform on really high priced items. We’ve already processed over $1 billion in payments and have no plans to slow down.
Having said all of that, it was actually news to me recently about the difference in the “per item” vs “per transaction” fee. If you are selling 40 different postcards to one customer in the same transaction I agree it would seem odd for us to charge the per item on each one. I don’t have the full history here, but will dig into it.
A lot will change and become clear as we get further into next year so please keep providing the feedback.
7. We have no plans to reverse the decision here. I’ve heard of a lot of things since I’ve returned that don’t make sense (and will drive to change), but to be clear I haven’t seen (yet) an example where the move on GTC is the wrong one.
GTC listings have better sell thru, the permanent item ID improves how those items appear in SEO (that helps everyone) and a consistent item ID helps search deliver better ranking.
I’m not sympathetic with the strategy of starting/stopping short duration repeatedly to appear at the top of time newly listed (this is bad for buyers and overall search relevance which actually hurts all sellers even if the person doing it wins).
If you’d like to share other use cases I’m certainly willing to listen and discuss.
8. Hopefully this one is covered in all of the other answers, but ultimately it ties back to the question on “how we are going to improve the relationship with our sellers”. More connection + understanding, a clear articulate of “value for fees” and a focus on where eBay has a right to win on our terms vs trying to be someone else.
9. Wrapping up for today so I’ll keep this one short, but I agree with the concerns raised.
It’s something I saw pretty quickly after my return… great sellers (top rated, amazing feedback, great prices) were ranking below sellers with 0 (!) feedback or (even worse) feedback scores of 94%, 96%, etc…
I think promoted listings is great tool for sellers when used correctly. Have a new product and want to have it rank up in search quickly? Use PL. But if you are new to the platform and haven’t proven that you can deliver the buyer experiences of our best sellers it doesn’t make any sense to have those items appear at the top. I certainly *do not* want someone taking $s out of shipping faster or packing better to invest in paying for a promoted listing placement instead.
Conversations on this topic are underway – I can’t commit to a specific date or change – but don’t be surprised to see us testing some things in the new year and announcing changes by Q2.
bingodate,
I’d guess—just a guess— that the low dollar cans are profitable because buyers will tend to buy more than one at a time (if the seller has enough listed)…kind of like sports card and coin sellers do…
I don’t know whether it’s a scam or not, but it is ebay fee avoidance and an ebay violation. He’s got the actual amount he wants in the description, along with his phone number. If the auction ends at a few bucks, he’ll just cancel it….
12/18/2019 at 6:21 am in reply to: Have Sneakers to sell worth $100 or more? Now FREE to sell on ebay … #71829High end sneakers can go for thousands, and this has been a very profitable niche for ebay, but the competition—niche sites, individuals on sites like Instagram, etc, has been heating up. I’m also guessing buyers who will pay thousands for a pair of sneakers also are willing to pay high amounts for other collectibles, fashion items etc.
Also, this is a category that largely appeals to the fashion conscious and the younger folk…two demographics ebay can’t afford to lose as buyers (and sellers) This will help ebay retain its prominence because it will attract sellers (no fees) and buyers (sellers listing more and better sneakers because of no fees)
The “sweet spot” on ebay for sneakers is about $50.00….which means, while ebay sells a lot of high end sneakers, this fee change really only impacts a fairly small percentage of transactions on eBay. A seller with a pair of sneakers that would usually sell for $50 would be a fool to bump them to $100 just to avoid fees, because they would never sell at all.
I think ebay has crunched numbers and decided that , ultimately, they’ll make more money with no fees here than they would make from continuing to charge fees. Also, high end sneakers on the site tend to get a lot of free press, which is good for ebay marketing.
I wouldn’t expect to see any across the board expansion with this, but I could see eBay eventually doing something similar in other “hot” categories.
“Oh my, oh my….I fear I shall have an attack of the vapors! The very idea of someone purchasing an item from a thrift store and re-selling it to ME! Call for the Doctor, James, I am unwell….”
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