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Jay, as I understand it, there’s a trade-off. This is my take: ebay REALLY wants free return shipping to become the new norm on ebay. They believe this will help keep the marketplace competitive. They also understand there is a LOT of seller angst about it. So they are saying: Fine, we get that. So here’s the deal: offer it, play fair with the buyer (ebay will be watching…if ALL your refunds are at 50%, you could lose the protection, etc)…but if you play fair with the buyer, ebay will take all the heat off…you issue your partial refund, and if the buyer isn’t happy, it’s between the buyer and ebay. ebay can aide with the seller or buyer, either way, the seller won’t be involved. If ebay sides with the buyer, ebay pays the buyer the difference.
Why would ebay do this? Well, like I said, that’s how important they think this is to keep the site competitive. But I think there’s a second reason as well. ebay has the data. And I think the data shows ebay that seller concerns around this are way overblown. In other words, they have some idea of what this will cost them, and it isn’t that much. Especially when they factor in their projections on the impact: they will save a lot of money on Customer Service, because one of the most time consuming issues is sellers arguing over so-called false INAD claims…take the seller out of the equation, and that will reduce the cost considerably. Also, they really believe there will be a substantial increase in sales, and thus revenue, as a result of this change (and others they are making).
I’ve been offering free return shipping for a couple years now, and I know others who’ve been offering it. No one I’ve talked to has seen a substantial increase in returns and false INAD claims pretty much vanish because the buyer has no reason to claim INAD just to get the free return shipping. Over the years I’ve been amazed at the amount of effort and time sellers put into fighting so called false INAD claims. I told myself it’s easier—and affordable—to just offer free return shipping, and that’s how it has worked out for me. And this change will make it even easier and more affordable. As always, your mileage may vary, but it simply hasn’t been a problem.
And one more thing…when I first went to free return shipping, I told ebay that one thing that was holding people back (and almost prevented me from doing it) was the fact that there was no way to offer free return shipping on domestic only….now that ebay could be paying out on buyer claims, they’ve suddenly had a change of heart, and come May —when it is finally offered—I will change all my listings to domestic free return shipping only.
Sonia, The restocking fee is going away, but, for now, I think it is still available. It goes away in May.
Sonia, No. The Promoted Listings credit is for TRS. Anchor stores get an additional credit. Other stores, none. This is from ebay:
Benefits for Top Rated Sellers and Anchor Store subscribers
✓ Top Rated Sellers are eligible to receive a $30 credit each quarter**
✓ Anchor Store subscribers are eligible to receive a $25 credit each quarter**
✓ If you’re both a Top Rated Seller and an Anchor Store subscriber, you’re eligible to receive the both quarterly credits, totaling $55http://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/listing-and-marketing/promoted-listings.html
MAtt, I think TRS also doubles the free insurance on USPS through ebay labels, from $50 to %100? Not sure if that’s TRS or having a store though…
Matt, TRS sellers get a higher shipping discount with ebay labels than non TRS. Also, I think TRS sellers get a quarterly credit ($30?) on Promoted Listings. Not sure if there are other benefits as well.
There’s no requirement for TRSs to offer 30 day free returns. That requirement is per listing, for the TRS Plus badge and 10% FVF discount. If you want the discount and the badge, you will need to offer 30 day free returns. You can do this per listing, offering it for light weight stuff but not heavy weight stuff if you so choose. I’ve been offering it for a couple years now, on pretty much everything I sell, it hasn’t hurt me at all. But I have a low return rate, your mileage may vary.
Retro Treasures, you saved me a bunch of time , because your reply sums up my view pretty much exactly. I’m getting better at passing on things….that’s partly because of my enormous death piles, and partly because I see no scarcity around here of stuff to buy and sell….
Yes, you will find listings like this on ebay, but that’s because ebay does not enforce this as aggressively as they could….they probably wait till someone complains. I think the listing is a rule violation, ebay views it as an attempt at fee avoidance (If each of the records were sold individually, that’s a seperate listing fee for ebay—this method avoids that).
What makes this confusing is that ebay actually permits “multi variation” listings, but only in certain categories or sub-categories. I don’t think records is an approved category For example, if I have 20 identical shoes, but ten are brown and ten are black and the sizes vary, I can list all 20 in a MV listing. And these listings follow a special format. What you did was create your own multi variation listing without using the format, and in a category that doesn’t permit it. Look as it this way: If I have ten identical T shirts, but they I have them in different colors, each buyer is buying the same T shirt, just a different color.
Read more here: https://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/listing-variations.html
And here’s the latest list of acceptable categories: http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/sellingresources/multiplevariationslist.html
I would NOT relist—that’s asking for trouble.
True. And I imagine if some of those B&M only sellers begin to see stores in their area with the ebay signs in the window, they might decide to start selling online too.
It is also good PR for eBay. Amazon has a lot of small sellers, but I think most people look at Amazon as a giant soulless corporation bent on world domination….ebay is a giant corporation, too, but if people start to view ebay as sort of an antidote to Amazon—as the company that wants to help Main Street Mom and Pops, not crush them—-well, that wouldn’t be a bad position to be in.
Jay, This program reaches out to those who already have an ebay store presence online, but also have a brick and mortar presence. I think the idea is to advertise ebay in all these local communities (signs in store windows, for example, indicating the store is always open—on eBay, AND to help these stores improve their online ebay presence….I assume with advice about international shipping etc…a lot of B&M stores are on eBay, but are too busy to really maximize their presence. I think this could be a really good thing, IF ebay makes a real and lasting commitment to helping these businesses, and if they provide good advice.
Thanks! I’ve been doing some scanning (just a regular 3in1 printer/scanner, nothing fancy, but I think I’ll stay with scanning unless there’s a specific need to use a photo.
John, You usually take photos of your postcards? Why not scans? I have some to list, as well as other ephemera, and have been debating which would be better
here’s a link to the patent:
Jay, It’s unusual because The card has a little “door” in the center, which can be opened to display the small booklet of views shown in the second photo. I’ve seen these before, but I don’t know about a dollar value on it.
I currently have PL on pretty much all my listings. I set them at “trending rates”
The majority of my sales since I started doing this have been via PL. However, not all of them.I think it’s pretty much impossible to know whether an item would have sold without PL, so there’s no way to know for sure how helpful this has been, but it has been responsible for quite a few sales (I’m a very small seller, so that number is relative LOL)
I think it’s important to remember that Promoted Listings don’t only show up on the Search Results page. I suspect, but don’t know, that some of my PL sales came from PL listings on other pages. My PL fees right now are about a third of the way to my quarterly credit. Not sure if I’ll continue with it after the credit has been used up, but I probably will.
