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Paul, I think that Griff’s advice is out of date. It’s true, something like a business card in a photo is not a watermark, and so it doesn’t violate the watermark rule. However, these is another rule in the Photo Policy section that it does violate. LIke many things on eBay, I don’t know how actively ebay enforces the rule, but personally, I would not want to find myself changing a lot of photos because I put a card in them, anymore than I’d want to do it for a watermark.
Jay, As i said, I’ve been offering free return shipping for a few years, with no problems. Keep in mind that you don’t have to offer it on everything you sell. You could experiment with it by trying it on selected items.
I cannot say whether it has or hasn’t helped my sales. It certainly hasn’t hurt me. I offer it partly I figure buyers feel more confidence in a seller who offers it. But whether that is really very important for my type of stuff, I don’t know for sure. But I suspect some buyers who might otherwise be on the fence, go ahead and buy because they see it as risk free.
I’m not trying to push it on anyone. Like a lot of what ebay is doing these days, it is probably more useful for commodity sellers than for scavengers. But what I can say is in my experience it simply has not been a problem. I plan on ramping up my listings for Q4 and will continue to offer it. If it becomes a problem, I’ll let you guys know.
Just a quick note about this store upgrade promo. I have a Basic Store on an annual subscription. Be forewarned: if you “upgrade” to a Premium Store on a monthly subscription, you will be charged a termination fee of your annual Basic subscription. My partner did this, and got hit with the early termination fee. She called ebay and they promised to reverse the charge.
So I went ahead and upgraded from an annual Basic to an annual Premium. That is considered an upgrade without termination, I guess because I’m retaining the annual configuration. So, no early termination fee.
However, this means if I decide the Premium is more than I need, I must cancel it within the next 30 days (the promotion period). If I go beyond that and then cancel, I will be charged a termination fee.
I just asked about this on ebay’s “Weekly CHat” discussion board. Here’s the answer from ebay rep Heidi:
I haven’t heard of this happening and I don’t believe it should be working that way. If you receive or see a report of this, would you mind @mentioning one of us on the thread? We’d be happy to look into it and investigate what’s happening. Thanks!Yes, that’s great—definitely satisfying to sell at full price after a low ball offer!
I’m not sure what you meant about ebay sending out notices? I know they send to watchers if you lower the price, but you did nothing? Or do they send a notice when an item gets an offer?
I still don’t know much about Mercari, but here’s another take on their shipping options:
http://www.debtfreedawn.com/save-money-reselling-clothes-buying-shipping/
BethGreen, I don’t know anything about that website, so I won’t comment on that for now. I’ll just say that its in ebay’s financial interest to get us the best deal they can, because it would increase sales and thus increase ebay’s FVF revenue (even if it would take a small bite out of their FVF on shipping). So I’m not convinced that they haven’t tried.
Jay, I’m just a very small seller (planning to ramp up in Q4 if non-ebay circumstances don’t intervene.) I often go months between returns. My return rate is very low. My items are generally one-offs, antique, collectible type stuff, used clothing, pretty much typical scavenger inventory. As a scavenger, my mark up is usually pretty high, which means I can cover the cost of the occasional return without any real trouble.
I have high blood pressure controlled by meds and am improving my lifestyle, losing weight etc. I mention this because I like to reduce my stress. When I see the seemingly endless threads on the ebay boards (and even here) about buyers claiming INAD to get the free return shipping, and sellers fighting the INAD claim, etc. , well, for me, it’s worth it just to avoid those situations…saves me time and stress. If I ramp up and find returns becoming a problem, I would absolutely re-evaluate, but I don’t think it’s going to happen.
BethGreen, Just a couple quick comments. I haven’t watched any of his other videos, but this one is definitely filled with misinformation.
Postage Cost, I suspect ebay has tried to get a better deal. With all the pressure on USPS, I’m not sure it’s an easy task.
Free Return Shipping. I’m a small seller of used stuff. I’ve been offering free return shipping for several years. It has worked out fine, and I don’t have to deal with the remorse buyers who file INAD claims just to get the free return shipping. That alone has been worth it LOL I think fear of what might happen is what actually prevents most small sellers from using it.
I’m not getting the credit you speak of, so I really don’t know what to say about that. Are you saying this is something ebay gives you monthly? I do get occasional listing “promos” but these are hit or miss, and the number has diminished.
We have basic stores. We’ve talked about this new offer ($30 for one month of Premium) and will probably try it. We haven’t used our Q3 Shipping Supplies credit yet, so we’re trying to figure out if we opt in now (before Oct 1st), will we also get the larger shipping credit for the end of Sept (still Q3), plus use the larger Q4 credit in October? That would leverage the savings.
We see it as a trial run. IF it works for us, we’ll move to Premium on a yearly subscription plan ($59.95)/month. The way I figure it, leaving out the free auction listings (which we rarely use) and the possibility of getting listing promos (not dependable), the break even point is around 450 listings per month. (Not in store at any one time, but total per month, including relists). I think most months we’ve been in that neighborhood, and we want to ramp up for Q4, so I’m hoping we can get past—way past—the break even point in October. God knows we have more than enough inventory to do that, it’s actually listing it the hard part for us.
ChristineR, PLEASE read my posts on our Promoted Listing thread, I eventually watched the video. It is filled with misinformation. In my opinion, you would be better off not watching it at all. I DO think there may be some glitches with the rollout of the new merged tool. I’m still waiting for ebay to give it to me. But his biggest error is about the fee. There is NO fee to use it. He is confusing it with Promoted Listings.
I’ve actually been begging ebay to give me the new tool, in part because there’s so much misinformation about just what they are doing. But eBay is eBay, and I’ll get it when they damn well feel like giving it to me, and not a moment sooner LOL
Do a search on “Arctic Cat Smiley”….mine is the ceramic kid on the snowmobile that is fixed price, not auction. Do you see a strike through, and some indication that it has been discounted? As far as I know, that’s what MM looks like now in search, and will look like once it’s merged with the new tool. eBay might add something else, but I don’t think they are taking this stuff away. But again, as I’ve been saying, I don’t have the new tool. I’m not aware of any bump in search placement, other than the fact that thew lower price might give it a bump…but that would be true if you simply revised the listing by lowering the price. Your watchers and some other viewers usually get an email telling them the price has been lowered.
I’m not sure about the value of store categories (although keep in mind, with some tools like MM, you can put store categories on sale…which can be useful). I don’t think the cats show up on mobile listings, so that reduces their value. I have them and frankly it’s on my list to revise them and simplify them. But my partner has no cats and does OK, so I’m just not sure how important they are.
Store name? I don’t think its a dealbreaker (unless the name is something offensive). I think if you are trying to brand your business, it becomes important.
Marjean28,
Thanks…I corrected the double commas in my header. Good catch!I tend to agree that Promoted Listings (which you do pay a fee for) are better used for items in crowded categories. I’m playing around with them with my stuff, but I see their usefulness as more of a way to get people to my store rather than to make the sale of that item. I need to do a better job of selecting which items to use.
Items don’t necessarily stay in a promoted spot in search results for very long. Here’s a summary from ebay’s PL Product Manager about that:
“If the item has tons of impressions and no clicks, that may be a candidate for demotion from top of search placements to middle and bottom. If the item has a lot of impressions and clicks but is not converting that too may result in a demotion. Currently our thresholds are really low so an item must be performing terribly in those placements in order for it to be demoted.
This holds same for single or multiple quantity listings. We have been given premium placements in search and we can only keep them if we deliver the same or better results than Best Match.
Please keep in mind there are other placements for promoted listings than just search results (such as related items module on item page, My eBay, Browse pages, etc.). These other placements will continue to deliver visibility to your item even though they may have been demoted from top of search placement.”
