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This is why I exclusively use the chat function now. They email you a transcript after every chat so I have it on record.
So last night I had another one. A pair of rollerblades to Hawaii. Buyer got free shipping and when I checked the purchase shipping option, fed ex was “free” for me too. Oh you know fedex will bill me so don’t buy that free bullcrap!
I reported it again. After the rep tried to tell me I had free shipping on the listing (I didn’t) they did look in the bug report and technical does have this as high priority to patch. It appears to be only Fed Ex shipping options to hawaii and Alaska that are affected.
They told me I should expect a callback within 24 hours, and that they will credit me shipping on this order so I can still fulfill it. I will be shocked if they actually call me back – they never do.
Use the calculator in the listing to figure your worst case scenario for each box, add the numbers, and then charge flat rate shipping at that price. Put a note in the listing that item will come in two boxes.
Also, in shipping restrictions you will need to exclude Alaska and Hawaii or use the new tool that lets you charge a surcharge for those two states. I’d just exclude them though.
I wrote a post about this last week but the forum ate it.
Buyer in hawaii got free shipping on a very large and heavy item. I talked to ebay and they kept telling me it was because I had GSP on this item. I kept asking what GSP had to do with it and they said Hawaii and Puerto Rico were in GSP.
I told them that was not true, and even if it was that it wouldn’t give them free shipping. They said they’d look into it, but obviously they haven’t.
They’ve been messing with sipping in 4th quarter and that is INFURIATING!!!
They have not raised rates to match the new rates so I’m eating that cost. The shipping selector is all buggered. I even had an item yesterday where the buyer selected and paid for Fedex smart post – I don’t offer smart post!!! How did they select it???
There is a chat function that you can use on the website or the app that is vastly superior to phone support. You even get a text transcript of your messages for your records. If you haven’t used it, you should.
Maybe I’m inventing this in my head, but I swear I’ve heard someone on this site either call into the podcast or post on the forum that they used an old church. This sounds very familiar.
Items in Store 1494
Items Sold 24
Total Sales $974.00
COGS $87.00
Total Profit $887.00
Average profit $36.96
Average sales price $40.58
New Listings 2
Holy crazy returns week, batman!!! I had 6 return requests this week. We’ll see how many actually come back. The weirdest one was a sealed new in package video game. I bought this at walmart in clearance section so I know the original source. The buyer claims (several weeks after purchase) that when they opened it a completely different game was inside the case. I tried to write them to clarify and didn’t get a response.
I also had another amazing “gut feeling” thrift store run. Sometimes I will be running an errand with no intentions to go to a thrift. Then all the sudden I’ll get this irresistible urge that I MUST do a quick trip. I always listen to this unplanned urge because I always find the best stuff when this happens. True to form, I go to the toy section and find a TON of 80’s toys. The highlight was an original Voltron Castle of Lions. It is missing just a few minor parts, but will still fetch over $200. I’ve went through all of it and total list price will be over $1000! It is INCREDIBLY rare to find old toys like this anymore.
This week should be quite productive on the ebay front. My wife and kids started to get sick on Friday so I have to work from home this week. My wife and I will get a corona test today or tomorrow at HR’s guidance. I don’t think that is what they have, but protocol is that if anyone in household has symptoms then you can’t come to work until it is proven its not Corona.
My advice: Don’t do it.
Will you make money? Most Likely.
Alot of money? Probably not
Will the work input justify the profit output? Almost definitely not unless you happened upon a “unicorn” sale.
Just go cherry pick the good stuff. Then you don’t have to deal with the low profit items, broken items, long tail items, and outright trash. Odds are good that even at a unicorn sale you are better off cherry picking.
leave the bulk buys to the folks with the staff and infrastructure to handle the volume.
I missed your post while I was out of town.
Did you contact ebay to try and get it resolved?
They told me they would try to have it resolved within 3 days, and if I document the incorrect charges they can credit me the difference.
It is just considered a large flat rate box. It’s a rip-off too and I don’t recommend using them.
In the past I’ve used them and resized them a few inches as needed. If you resize them then you can use them for regular priority. Unfortunately, not all post masters know this and will charge you the large flat rate if they so choose. This happened to me once and I never used them again.
Here is what I do instead for board games. Get yourself some long skinny rectangular priority boxes, as well as some of the long skinny regional rate 8 boxes.
You will use two boxes per board game. Seal one end of each box. Put your item in one box, then slide the second box down over the item and the other box. You’ll need to press in the corners of the bottom box a bit so the top box will slip over.
Slide the top box all the way down as far as it goes, then tape up where the two boxes meet. I also like to run a strip of tape all the way around the long way to make sure the two boxes don’t separate.
This slip over two box method can be used on any longer item with any style box. I’ve even done it with 18x18x18 boxes.
Items in Store 1516
Items Sold 32
Total Sales $1,269.00
COGS $110.00
Total Profit $1,159.00
Average profit $36.22
Average sales price $39.66
New Listings 0
Last week we went back to Universal Orlando. I had been following a guy on youtube who has documented their safety protocols, so I felt pretty good that it would be ok. I was not disappointed in the least. Universal did an amazing job managing mask wearing and social distancing in the park. Surprisingly, wearing a mask in 90 degree florida heat wasn’t hard at all.
Then I get back home yesterday and go to the grocery store to find ZERO cart sanitizing supplies and numerous people not wearing masks. How messed up is it that I felt safer in Florida at a large amusement park than my own home town?
The new time away setting on ebay is AWESOME!!! It took all of 30 seconds to set it up and all of my listings were updated with the dynamic handling time as well as a message to the buyer that I was out of town. I didn’t get a single question from buyers asking when I would ship.
Speaking of luxury problems, I came home to 40 items to ship. It worked out well that I was awake before 4am due to the time change so I knocked most of them out this morning before I left for work.
No problem discussing mad max/star trek philosophy, but can we all agree that over the next week or two we will NOT talk politics on here? We lost multiple awesome members last time. I don’t want that to happen again. I’d love to maintain this little bubble where politics seems to not exist and we can all get along regardless of all those identifiers – it’s one of the very few escapes I have from it.
Items in Store 1548
Items Sold 24
Total Sales $1,059.00
COGS $177.00
Total Profit $882.00
Average profit $36.75
Average sales price $44.13
New Listings 8
Late to the party as I was out of town last week.
A couple high dollar sales right before I went out of town helped me out big time. The highlight was $200 for a women’s Harley leather jacket that I bought for $20 at a yard sale this summer. That was a fun one because the woman wanted it gone and her husband was really upset about it. As I walked away he said to her “that is totally going on ebay later today”. Yessir, you would be correct! Lol!
My company is forcing everyone to use all vacation by years end. Typically, you can always roll over a year’s worth of vacation. The longest tenured workers get 6 weeks of vacation, and since the pandemic cancelled vacations some workers have 12 WEEKS of vacation to burn!
I assume this is the case at alot of companies to free up liquidity, or worst case, ease their financial burden on vacation buyouts when they have to lay off a large amount of people in first quarter 2021.
