Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Some people make money through Ebay affiliate programs. Basically they create a website for some niche product (i.e. Cowboy Boots, Backgammon sets, whatever), and fill it with links to Ebay auctions. Anytime someone buys something through their link, Ebay gives them a cut of the fees.
Maybe your listing was posted by some of these affiliate marketers, driving views? Either that or maybe someone featured it in a created collection on pinterest or on a forum? I would love if Ebay would let you see where the clicks were coming from.
There’s a feature on Bonanza that will completely resynch your store (i.e. remove all items and start fresh with the sync). Did they have you do that? I used it awhile back and it fixed the issues I was having.
Two big red flags with buyers are asking too many questions and sending lowball offers. Doesn’t mean it won’t work out, but the chances of “problems” are higher.
I put best offer on everything I sell above $9.99. My theory is that prices on many items will fluctuate, especially more long-tail items. This way I will potentially sell the item instead of having to revise the price down if it changes in a year or two.
Also, Just a little tip for people, before I accept an offer, I will often sent the individual a message through Ebay and ask them if they’d be willing to do $5-10 higher, or more depending on the item. Most of the time they don’t respond, sometimes they say no, and sometimes they say yes, and you can get a higher price without having to counter offer (which almost never works).
I would also suggest getting a PO box address to use for your mailing labels and returns. I’ve heard lots of horror stories about people actually showing up at front doors angry and demanding refunds.
If you really wanna be safe, you might want to also use a gender neutral or masculine sounding Ebay store name. there have been cases of men harassing female sellers with creepy messages or worse. You can never be too careful.
Jay gave good advice. Any business that deals with customers will have scams / returns / disgruntled customers. In the retail world its called shrinkage. Yeah it sucks to know you’ve been scammed / lost money, but you have to think of it as a cost of doing business.
One of my favorite junky thrifts started buying Amazon Pallets, I think they are testing all the good stuff / selling it online and putting the junk out on the sales floor. Oh well, at least I can still find cool MSM / vintage stuff that they overlook there!
Velcro is a victim of their own success. In a way I feel “bad” for a company like Velcro that is so successful at marketing their product that they are at risk of becoming ubiquitous usage, but there comes a point where logic and common sense says it’s already happened! Like you’ve said, there are literally thousands of hook and loop listings with velcro in the title on Ebay, Velcro can’t even pull them down fast enough. If that’s not ubiquitous usage, I don’t know what is.
Ryanne,
Bonanza has “prior express permission of eBay” to scrape the site. I’m sure they didn’t give permission away for free. I’m a corporate Financial Analyst, these sort of licencing / profit sharing deals are pretty common.
I’m sure Ebay gets a cut of Bonanza sales, I guess they are figuring that Bonanza isn’t really a threat and they might as well grab some extra money and let Bonanza pay for the advertising fees on any sales.
I’ve been using Bonanza for around 3 years at this point, my store usually hovers around 700 items, and I’ve had maybe 20 sales over that period of time.
My experience was very similar to your own, I watched all those Youtube seller videos and decided to not use GTC because it supposedly would lead to worse search results. Once I got to around 400 items it became so obnoxious I decided to just go GTC and forget it. So far sales seem a little lower, but it could just be due to my product mix and increased competition.
Yup! Velcro is INFAMOUS for pulling this. They basically want to avoid the term Velcro becoming the common use term for “hook and loop” (which is obviously already is), which, if it legally deemed to be, they would lose their trademark. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_trademark for more info on this.
I never use the term hook and loop in my listings because I’m pretty sure that almost zero buyers would use that search term when looking for a “Velcro” item.
Sonia,
Thanks for the response! Do you sell alot of vintage clothing? Have you ever had any issues with your method? I’m always paranoid if I put multiple sizes in the title that I’ll have a buyer who doesn’t pay attention and then returns the shirt as “Item not as described”.
What they do to you depends on a number of factors. Ebay is always changing their punishments, and of course it depends on your current selling level as well. My takedown was a while ago and they just pulled it and said to list it in the A/O category, which is pretty much a death knell for most things as Ebay makes it practically impossible to get to the A/O section as a buyer. Back when I was newer, I listed a hat as “coogi style”, got a VERO claim, and was blocked from listing any new items for a full week. Not sure if that policy is still in place or has changed.
