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Rethinking here. Ebay could do one of 2 things:
(1) You can keep your TRS+ rating and Badge if you meet the 4 metrics currently evaluated monthly, but get no 10% discount if you do not offer Free Returns.or
(2) Make Free Returns a 5th metric, that you need to maintain (ie: >98% of active listings) to retain the rating, Badge, and discount.
I tend to buy from TRS+ sellers, so to me the Badge is very important to maintain.
Out of curiosity, I did a search just now on:
“Valentines Starbucks mug; Buy in Now”742 results … then added filters one by one:
653 USA only
511 Returns Accepted
265 Allows Best Offer
194 FREE Shipping
57 On Sale
18 FREE Returns
12 Guaranteed 3 dayWhat is interesting is when I sort by Lowest Price w/shipping, many of those 18 that offered FREE RETURNS were near the top.
I just listed about 400 35mm slides in 2 days. The fastest method is to get a small slide sorter like this one (I got one at a Garage Sale):
https://img1.etsystatic.com/000/0/5341006/il_570xN.54270003.jpgand use a Digital SLR camera on Macro mode. You literally can capture 1 slide every 2 seconds, then load the next batch onto the sorter and repeat.
After capturing all the slides into pics, upload them to the PC, view them and weed out ones that were originally out of focus, then list the rest one by one.
If you don’t have that many to do, use your PC screen with a bright white background, and rest the slides on the bottom edge so the light shines through, then use your camera. They come out pretty well too.
TRS+ level is based on 4 overall performance metrics on all transactions over the last evaluation period. Once you have it, you get a 10% discount on the total final value fees on each transaction that met each metric in that period. What they likely might do starting June 1 is to not provide a TRS+ discount on Final Value Fees for items you do not offer Free Returns on assuming you met all the other metrics in the period.
If you go to your dashboard, at the bottom it shows the number of active items that quality and do not qualify currently for TRS+. I have 2245 that do and 2 that don’t. Those 2 are Sold AS-IS no return items. This suggests we could have a large number that we do not take returns on, and thus we do not get the discount, which is only worth pennies on most items anyway.
I think I will turn on 60 Day Free Returns but exclude the larger and heavy items. What I am not sure of is at what point does eBay say you don’t qualify for the 10% TRS+ discount because you’ve excluded too much of your inventory from Free Returns. I currently get very few returns.
I don’t like the idea of Ebay approving returns and charging us for a label without giving us a chance to let the buyer keep the item instead.
That’s a first, though I do know people in many other Countries grow up with haggling being culturally part of the buying process. I know at Garage sales I have had success asking if they would take $50 after they already agreed to a higher offer ($60 in your example). Until the money flows, the deal is still open. Ebay doesn’t really have a comfortable scheme for the same type of final deal price discovery to happen.
The problem your buyer now has is that you won’t likely sell this item to them and may even decide to block them.
What did you end up doing?
I found a few posts on eBay Community Forums from 3/14 related to this:
#1
“I’d call eBay and inquire about the lack of shipping supplies offered.They phased out some box sizes and when I ordered bubble mailers I noticed the sizes were not all the same as when I ordered previously.
Perhaps eBay listened to seller complaints about box sizes and print on mailers. Many want the larger sizes back and the colorful eBay logo back on the bags.
Maybe, just maybe, we will have a better variety of supplies available when the next seller coupon arrives.”
#2
“They have been having glitches with items showing in the store, yesterday nothing showed.
I messaged them & got back a response below. So I guess it hasn’t been 100% fixed yet:eBay is having a glitch and doesn’t show any of the stock available although we have plenty at our warehouse. We sent an email out to the tech support team a short while ago and are hoping all of the listings we had up yesterday will be reactivated shortly.”
As of this moment they have 4 sizes. I really hope they offer larger ones again, but here is my experience in using these sizes:
6 x 4 x 4 – Medium use
8 x 6 x 4 – Heavy use; reduce the height (4) a smidgen and it fits in a Padded Flat rate envelope
10 x 8 x 6 – Heavy use
12 x 6 x 6 – Occasional useI have some of the 10 x 10 x 10 and they are great.
Are there box sizes that you use heavily that USPS and eBay don’t offer?
Marjean …
Here’s a snapshot of the last 31 days:
Total Sales of $6087 on 255 items
Promoted sales of $2374 on 97 items (38% of total)
Promoted cost of $144.70 (6.1%)It’s impossible to know what sales would be without the Promoted ads, but I think it is well worth the added cost.
Speaking of Return Shipping … if and when we need to offer “FREE” Returns to keep our TRS+ rating and get the 10% Final Value Fee, what are other’s thinking of doing? My 10% discount is only about $50/month and luckily I don’t get many returns. I can see how sellers might get pretty burned if they get a lot of returns.
Related, as an eBay buyer, I tend to buy from TRS+ sellers, so having that “Badge” I think does likely bring more sales, offsetting the cost of Returns. Opinions?
MDC .. the number in the left margin (10) includes available quantities of the (4) available boxes.
I’ll swing by Staples to see what they have. Thanks.
Most of my items with “Free” shipping are priced under $18.88, a ~$4 cost, so there isn’t a lot of room to offer a much lower price. For instance, I have a bunch of $14.88 trucker hats, with a 20% daily sale and ~$4 shipping cost built in, I don’t want to encourage lower offers. Most offers at the low end tend to be pretty ridiculous.
Most things I am happy to sell at 20% off, and even lower if the Offer isn’t too far below the sale price. Like many here, I get things so cheap, so I’m happy to move things faster rather than wait a longer time for a possibly higher price.
One other thing I’ve learned is that when I get what looks like a harsh offer, rather than decline it outright, I first check to see how close that offer is to the “Market” price. About half the time it’s indicated that my listed prices are currently too high (though they were “OK” when listed initially).
One remorse issues, it is suppose to default to your Business Policy on Returns on what you set for “Return shipping will be paid by:” You can Select BUYER or SELLER.
I think the shades are suppose to be between the bulb and the object being photographed. The shade diffuses the light.
