eBay

horologysuisse · ‎04-11-2014

Hello,

Today is 1 week with no sales, I want to know how are you doing there? Only me? Or sales are down?

pjcdn2005 · ‎04-25-2014

You have a few listings that are not showing international shipping. To check, go to 'see other listings' and change shipping location to another country. You might have to refresh before it shows the shipping for that particular country on each listing.

reallynicestamps · ‎04-25-2014

The surprise of immense shipping charges can be softened by careful wording of the message on the invoice.

The odd time I've had this problem I give the canadapost.ca website along with the weight and dimensions of the parcel. Apologetically.

And if the buyer is upset, I immediately offer a Mutual Cancellation. Again apologetically.

Australia is less of a problem than coastal Canada. National shipping prices are scarey high. I recently had a $10 book that cost $18+ to ship to Halifax. He was actually buying two volumes and those together cost $21. The vagarities of dimensional rates.

Australians are at least prepared for high costs if they have ever bought overseas.

michaelbb2 · ‎04-25-2014

My sales appear to be picking up. March was very good and april is going very good too so far. I did not experience the slow down that others are discussing....not entirely sure why but I have a hunch.

I tried a search for best match on eBay.ca "1921 1 cent" which is a few words in my titles and my items came up on first page, 3rd and 8th placing. I'm happy with that but I'm not positive what I'm doing to get the good placing but again I have a hunch.

I did another "1948 5 cents" and it came up 5th place on the first page. ....???

My feedback is good but not perfect as you can see so I don't think that has anything to do with it.

I did make a bunch of changes in February that might have made a difference....or maybe they didn't.

1- I shortened my handling time from 5 days to 3 days on all items.

2- started using markdown manager regularly (Always have something from your listings on sale)

3-Always have an auction running, amount of items doesn't seem to matter....at least I don't see a difference of sales with few auction items vs many auction items.

4-I stopped using GTC on single item listings, Relist them every 30 days. I only use GTC on multi-quantity items.....I still have some GTC single items floating around eBay world though...I cancel them when I catch them.

5-Unclick the box in "Buyer Requirements" that blocks buyers who do not have a paypal account (this is important) ....I had hundreds of blocked buyers listed in the log that eBay said did not have a paypal account. Since I unclicked the box.....no buyers in the log listing, yet everybody is still paying via paypal....I can only assume that they successfully completed their transaction and that they did in fact have a paypal account (but maybe linked to a different eBay site so not recognized?)....nobody is getting blocked now.

Those were the changes that I did in February....I'm not sure if they are responsible for better search results or visibility but it doesn't hurt to try... Free domestic shipping is also helpful for those who can do it..

I am now considering Free shipping to the US for a test, maybe a 2 month period just to see what happens. If eBay.ca takes too much more time in their efforts to implement a shopping cart then it might be a worthwhile effort......I will pay more to get the items to the US but maybe more items will be purchased in groups if buyers are not turned off by the absence of combined shipping..

I have tried to get US buyers to use eBay.ca to get combined shipping but they would rather go buy somewhere else than go through the effort of switching sites......habit is hard to break.

worrly · ‎04-26-2014

Some items I didn't want to sell overseas due to size and weight so they vary. I can't remember if I excluded Australia on this sale but the item is light about 200 grams. But I checked and it doesn't show Australia is excluded and it shows International when I do up the invoice. I can't check the postage since the listing is sold.

I've also noticed the weight switching from imperial to metric at times for whatever glitchy reason and I don't notice when I input the numbers and when I check the postage it shows errors. I've caught most of them I think.

I checked and it is $22 for Small Packet to Australia. He has not indicated sticker shock and wants to pay but Ebay/Paypal is not letting him.

I'm on a "spend no money" spree so I can't buy something to test what is going on.

worrly · ‎04-26-2014

He sounds much more on the ball than the one from Belgium that still leaves me seething weeks later but that ended well in that she finally paid when I told her she had to click the yellow pay button on the invoice and she got her item. I just can't deal with morons who don't read or pay attention but it seems most of us buyers can't. LOL.

I'm still considering banning Belgium in case she repurchases but my sales gone to nil after a really great momentum so I can't be choosy.

I feel optimistic about this one. I take photos of the parcels with it date stamped and with postage. I hope if it comes down to it, it's accepted as proof of sending and he hasn't fainted from the shipping quote. But fingers are crossed.

worrly · ‎04-26-2014

I think Australia is the Canada of Oceania. They have the same quibbles about cost of living and their postal service.

pjcdn2005 · ‎04-26-2014

I'm still considering banning Belgium in case she repurchases but my sales gone to nil after a really great momentum so I can't be choosy.

You can block that particular bidder by putting her on your blocked bidders list. It doesn't seem reasonable to block a whole country because of a problem with one buyer.

worrly · ‎04-26-2014

I was afraid she would be sneaky and get someone else to buy it and then hilarity ensues all over again. I'm calmer now and need the sale.

38e_avenue · ‎04-27-2014

@worrly wrote:
I was afraid she would be sneaky and get someone else to buy it and then hilarity ensues all over again. I'm calmer now and need the sale.

This exactly happened to me: a buyer did not pay, so I blocked him. Then he reappeared with another nickname an bought again (also did not pay). I blocked then whole country (Oman).

worrly · ‎04-27-2014

The way things were going that week I wasn't counting on myself being so lucky. I shall add that country to the list if I haven't already.

femmefan1946 · ‎04-27-2014

I've also noticed the weight switching from imperial to metric at times for whatever glitchy reason and I don't notice when I input the numbers and when I check the postage it shows errors. I've caught most of them I think.
Although as an American company, eBay gives Imperial measures as the first choice, Canada Post went metric in 1974 and any other measures used will be inaccurate. Use the Options link to make all your postal dimensions metric.

BTW, that's $22 for Small Packet AIR, I hope. Surface is very slow and not worth the lower cost.

rose-dee · ‎04-27-2014

@michaelbb2 wrote:

I am now considering Free shipping to the US for a test, maybe a 2 month period just to see what happens. If eBay.ca takes too much more time in their efforts to implement a shopping cart then it might be a worthwhile effort......I will pay more to get the items to the US but maybe more items will be purchased in groups if buyers are not turned off by the absence of combined shipping..

I have tried to get US buyers to use eBay.ca to get combined shipping but they would rather go buy somewhere else than go through the effort of switching sites......habit is hard to break.

I'm considering doing the same (free shipping to US), for the same reason. I've had at least 2 buyers contact me in the last month to say they couldn't make a multiple purchase work. Apparently each time an item is put in the US cart, it must be paid for in full before going on to the next. I have to wonder how many potential buyers have just given up without contacting me. I hope eBay fixes this mess up soon.

And you're right -- I doubt many US buyers are going to want to bother working around this issue by logging onto .ca.

I'm going to also try your suggestion to "unblock" the Paypal buyer requirement. I never thought this could possibly be an issue, but you might be right.

worrly · ‎04-27-2014

I think it's a glitch not a setting as I'm using the CP one. I've noticed when adding my listings that it would some times show as imperial and some times metric but I wouldn't catch it at first until I was checking the postal prices. It doesn't tell you why it won't calculate either I've had buyers contact me.

The only International I didn't have a problem with was when I set shipping to flat rate.

barbsplace66 · ‎04-29-2014

My sales have taken a nosedive this week too,

amethyst1415 · ‎04-29-2014

The only time I sell anything is .99 cents listings. Then I sell, while losing money due to the free shipping. GRRR.

renfrewite · ‎04-30-2014

@treasure.hunter.d wrote:
I am very slow as well and that caused me to do some investigation.

Do some keyword searches for your items and I am sure you will find the same thing that I did. Where my items used to show up on the first or second page after a detailed keyword search now those same items are buried behind, in some cases, thousands of loosely related search results.

Something has changed! I called Ebay and have spent hours on the phone culminating with a call back from a gentleman. I just completed that call a few minutes ago.

To make a long story short, if you are a small seller forget about people seeing your items easily. I was told, if you can believe how ridiculous this is, that keywords are no longer weighted as the most important thing for searches. I was told that according to Ebay data they know better what people are looking for than the people themselves and so your keywords in your title and listing aren't returning the same results they used to when people make searches. I couldn't get the guy that called me back to admit to anything else being changed but the bottom line is that small sellers are pretty much officially screwed now. There is no way to improve your results in searches except for the bologna they have been pushing for ages about including shipping in the price (has never worked for me ever) and offering a no questions asked return policy. I'm sure that even if you implemented both of those the results would not be spectacular anyway.

the day of the small seller on Ebay is over! All hail the garbage Chinese resellers that flagrantly violate policies and run rampant over rules without anything being done about it. Ebay generates so much money from them that is all they care about now, large resellers.

We, the small sellers are done I am sorry to say.

I agree, it's sad because it's the small sellers that started ebay on the road to success. Now all you see if low quality **bleep** from China all over the place. I am sick as a buyer, doing a search and there are hundreds of listings from sellers in China. Now when I do my searches I change the location to North America only, unless I want to buy something from China that will either not work properly or break the day after you get it. And even when I change search to North America, there are still listings in there coming from China because they change thier address to a USA one, but if you look at thier feedback they are really located in China.

renfrewite · ‎04-30-2014

@treasure.hunter.d wrote:
@worrly wrote:
Racked with intermittent insomnia, but woke up to a sale to Australia. For some reason, Ebay would not give a shipping price. He had to ask for invoice. Second time that happened with International. Just hope he's not scared once he sees the shipping charge.

Ouch....From personal experience I don't know how your customer is going to be anything but scared to death when they see the shipping charges. To Australia via Canada Post there are 2 choices. pay through the nose a hugely exorbitant shipping price or send via a method with no tracking that will take literally months to get there.

I don't even bother with trying to ship there any longer after all the bad experiences I have had unless someone messages me, fully aware of the huge costs because they just have to have one of the rare pieces of glass or pottery I get in stock on occasion.

Best of luck seriously but I can't see this ending well!.

For all international I post for them to ask for a quote, on all my auctions that are not shipped light packet. The shipping cost is just too high, some ask for a quote then won't buy, which is understandable I wouldn't either. Some buy without asking for a quote, then when I send the invoice they are shocked at how much the shipping cost is and want to cancel the auction, which is also understandable but I wish they would read the auction and ask before buying. I explain to them about the high cost of shipping from Canada to thier destination, and also add it would not be a problem to cancel the auction for them. In all cases this has happened they were happy that I cancelled without a hassle, and left me good feedback as well.

Anonymous · ‎04-30-2014

As for a store seller, I noticed that I sell more items when I have auction-style auctions and also fixed priced auctions. I used to have the fixed priced auctions only for a year and decided to add auction-style auctions. Bingo I get more buyers buying the fixed priced items due that they checked my auction-style auctions first and decided to check my fixed priced items.

Since then I decided to have both, for auction-style auctions about 1/4 while the rest are fixed priced auctions.

I think the increased shipping costs are causing grief for many of Canadian sellers. I have so many US morons whining and were asking why so high shipping costs which I found out nearly all of them thought I am in USA even I am shown Canada (I am a Canadian seller with Canadian Id username and use US username for other reasons here). It shows that they don't check or read my listings fully. Those morons can cause problems for sellers like that. And now with this horrible insane new policy like "defect", etc., I am NOT looking forward to possible problems the upcoming months. Thanks to eBay for continue to be so mean to sellers!!