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Mainly, I don’t want to have to deal with entering transactions manually. This way, I could do an entire year of mileage transactions all at once if I want. Also, it’s nice to have them divided by the dates they occur, that way I can have a more nuanced look at profit by week or even day if I desire. I suppose I could alter the macro so it combines each day’s transactions into one entry, but that might be a bit more difficult to get working, is more subject to rounding error, and I don’t see much benefit to the extra work.
Here’s one of the more detailed sob stories I’ve received, asking about a mini-disc player.
Hi, I’m I’m George, I’m a 66 yr old record producer. Just had heart surgery. I’m actually poor.
I know all about minidisk players. I bought one of the first 3 in Pa. MZ1. Then 6 mths later the MDS 101. I have 5 in my basement that are all dead. No parts avaliable… since 2009.
I’ve spent over 120 hrs trying to fix them plus hundreds upon hundreds of dollars. The real deal is……. They JUST DIE.
Therefore my offer. I’m still at risk.
Thanking you in Advance. Thanks
George
He didn’t include the actual offer with his message. Out of curiosity for how low he was going to ball, I messaged him back and asked what he was offering. The item is for sale for $350 plus shipping.
I’m so sorry, I thought the offer was in the Email with comments? As I said, The unit will die soon. They all do. That’s fact. Your unit came out in 1993 (about), So, it’s 26 yrs old. or so. I need one that works so I can copy my 18 (off the board ) record masters. Grand daddy needs tom pass it down to the grand kids. Not kidding here. I’m poor and need help. Not kidding. All true. I know the unit was over a Thousand dollars NEW. I bought One. It died. I have at least a thousand hrs in this. All true. They just wont read the TOC.
So. I’ll bid $120.00 Dollars. Total including shipping. Heay, it’s ,low, but, it has a 99.80% of not working correctly. The time to send it back, complain about it,. Is just not worth either of our time. Ok,
Thanks George
Between the first and second message, he apparently put an extra 880 hours into his mini-disc player. Not kidding. All true. Anyway, I respectfully declined his generous offer.
That sounds like a nightmare, but your persistence paid off. I’ve had at least a couple experience similar to that over the years (although maybe not quite as severe), but I’ve also had times where eBay was quick to understand my reasoning and rectified the situation.
In fact, just this last week I called eBay about a return where the buyer clearly was lying about an item being damaged in order to avoid paying for return shipping. The initial rep understood my argument and agreed with me, but the “system” would not let him refund the return shipping. He directed me to a supervisor, who called me back in about 20 minutes. She issued me a refund for the shipping and told me to report the buyer. It wasn’t worth the time to get back the $4, but it was nice that they actually did fix the problem.
I think eBay has too many rules (often conflicting) for the CS reps to follow, so some simply follow the golden rule of retail (customer is always right) and refuse any solution that harms the end customer. Also, the language barrier does not help things. My preferred strategy is to be totally calm when talking to a rep, avoid emotional language or excess details, and try to spell out the issue as simply and clearly as possible.
In my cited example above (a pair of high-powered reading glasses), I laid out that the customer indicated the magnification was not working properly. They did not say it was broken or the lenses cracked. These are reading glasses. They have no mechanical or electrical parts that can be broken. I received the item back and it is in perfect condition. Therefore, the customer created a false reason for the return to avoid having to pay the return shipping.
Sounds like a classic case of buyer’s remorse to me. They didn’t really say anything was truly wrong with it, just that they didn’t like it. That’s not the same as defective. They were just trying to get out of return shipping (or avoid a reduced refund). That’s how I would argue it with eBay, at least.
You got a crazy high price out of that inflatable. Unfortunately, occasionally you get those “I just got my paycheck and can’t control my spending” kind of buyers who really don’t have the cash for such an exorbitant collector item, so when reality sets in they return it. It’s even worse when the item is brand new and now it’s value will be cut in half. That sucks.
The idea behind VeRO is a good one (eliminating counterfeit goods from eBay), but the program seems to have been largely hijacked by companies simply trying to cut off the legitimate secondary market for their products. It’s such a shady practice and just makes me angry.
Last week, I did get eBay to close out an INAD case for me before the person had a chance to actually return the item. Of course, it was a super obvious situation, but I was still impressed they were willing to shut down the person’s ability to return it.
I sold a 1960s Creepy Crawlers set that was not working and in poor condition (other than the box, which wasn’t too bad). I listed it as “For Parts or Repair” (in the title, condition description, and item description) and I took photos showing everything. The person opened an INAD return, saying the item was not new (as was supposedly advertised) but used, was beat up, and what they received looked nothing like the item in the pictures. The buyer had no feedback. I think they just looked at the main picture with the listing that showed the box / box art and didn’t look at any other photos or even read anything but the first part of my title.
I’ve come across my fair share of online shoppers who only see what they want to see, then are disappointed when the real item arrives (even if it was accurately described). It’s so frustrating, but I’m glad in this instance at least, eBay had my back.
Wow, that is an insane story. I can’t believe that:
a) you still had the items on eBay for sale 3 years later.
b) the other person somehow found the lost items on eBay (again, after 3 years).
c) the other person had the audacity to demand the items back (for free).
d) you remembered where you bought this stuff and have records of it (I don’t keep any records like that).
e) you were nice enough to accomodate this person’s request, only charged them a nominal amount, and willingly met up with them in person.
f) instead of being grateful, the person instead complained and insinuated you were dishonest.
You are a saint. If someone contacted me with that request, I would tell them if they want it so bad, buy it back at my asking price. Don’t give that wretched excuse for a person another thought.
I agree on letting a professional pack it. I go to a local FedEx Office store. I usually pay $20 – $30 per item for them to pack it. I’ve just been adding that extra cost into the price of my item.
I signed up for a FedEx account and tied it to my eBay account so I get the same eBay shipping discount in the store as I do shipping from home. My account has my credit card tied to it, so I don’t even have to pay in store. I just have to give them my FedEx account number and the address where to ship it. With the really heavy, difficult to pack, and/or fragile stuff, it’s totally worth it.
In order to print FedEx labels on my thermal printer, I signed up for the Adobe Photography plan ($10 month). I just save the label as a PDF, then open it in Photoshop. I can adjust the label’s position when I click print so it will fit on my label properly. I use 4 x 6 labels with a Zebra thermal printer. It’s worth the $10 to avoid the hassle of using my laser printer.
It could be worse. I had a freight forwarder scam where they claimed I sent them an empty box instead of the item. They opened a Paypal case on me and skipped eBay’s return system entirely. They even denied that the item was intended to be sent overseas. The guy claimed he just works at the freight forwarding company and had the package sent to his job. Long story short, it was a big headache. After fighting them in the PayPal dispute resolution system for over a month, they finally just gave up and dropped the case.
If I were you, I would just ask them to return the item and see if they actually send it back.
I found a box of about 10 porno 8mm movies from the 1950s at an estate sale. The titles (hand-written in marker) were all semi-risque sounding names (such as “Strip Poker”). I looked at the reels under a light to confirm the contents. I sold the lot for $100 pretty quickly. Pretty sure I should have marked the price much higher.
Some items I’ve sold to movies/TV shows I have heard of:
1. A brand new / sealed Etch a Sketch from the 80s to the Tom Cruise movie American Made.
2. A 1950s picnic thermos set with leather outer container to Marvelous Mrs Maisel.
3. A 1980s Samsung microwave oven to Stranger Things.
A 20K debt burden would just increase your stress. I would not recommend it.
The joy of being an eBay scavenger seller is that your inventory costs should be very low. The challenge of this job is increasing your knowledge of what to sell and putting in the hours to make the necessary income. The knowledge part just takes time and experience, and there is not a lot you can do to rush it.
If you have a college degree, you might look into substitute teaching as a part-time gig. If no degree, you could still probably be a substitute para-educator. The requirements for these jobs vary by state. In either case, you can work a very flexible schedule (picking the days you want to work) and make a decent part-time income.
Have you talked to the buyer directly and explained what happened? If they shipped USPS priority mail, it will come with at least some insurance. Or maybe the buyer will admit to his carelessness in packing the item and maybe you can come to some kind of agreement on compensation for the damage.
Unless you wanted to take the buyer to small claims court, I don’t think you have any other recourse, unfortunately.
I had amazing sales in January, then hit a major skid starting in February which continued through the end of May. Literally, my income was cut in half from January to February. For 4 months, my sales were about equivalent to my worst month of 2017. And I had about the same number of items in my store as last year (around 1200 items). I have failed to find a concrete reason for the drop in sales.
I think I’m finally (hopefully) pulling out of the funk this month, as my numbers are looking better the last few weeks. Luckily, I have a part-time job, plus I have a lot of savings, or otherwise I would have really freaked out.
I have found a lot of good merchandise this summer and that has driven more sales lately. However, if my sales crater again for such a long period, I may have to reevaluate using eBay as my primary income source.
