1) shari
Canadian flags are always good, but buyers look at the item location, ship to destinations and shipping cost at the top of every listing and decide if they are still interested or not. There's no point in being redundant, the less a buyer has to read, the happier they are because they can read more listings. Fill out the shipping info when you do the listing and the buyer will have all the info they need at the top of every listing to decide if they are going to sift through a detailed description or move on. "LESS IS MORE"
It will be 1-3 weeks from the time you ship, to the time the buyer receives the item, do you really think anything you say in the listing will matter 3 weeks later when the buyer is doing the feedback ?
Buyers are not going to reread a listing unless they are unhappy about the purchase and are double checking the description to see who's fault that is, so at the end of the day you just come off as whiney and desperate by begging for DSR's, assuming anyone reads that part in the first place... If you want to persue better buyer DSR's I suggest you put something in the package rather than clutter up the listing, money and candy seem to work best 😄
I've also had good luck by using collectable stamps to post the package, you need them to be themed with your business category, so go beat the crap out of Pierre for a quantity purchase at face value :^O
I looked at having my own stamps made, but that was even more expensive than Pierre :-x
As an avid buyer, I am buying on eBay less and less all the time because I can get better deals on new merchandise from full time businesses that have some sort of internet access, and many times that is just an email address. I have also grown tired of slogging though 6 page listings that only have 2 lines of description of an item and the rest is all terms conditions shipping returns etc etc etc.
Your one line regarding shipping times is misleading. Expedited and XpressPost are 2 totally different services with radically different guarantees. Basicly, "Expedited Parcel" is the same as "Regular Parcel" with tracking, there's really nothing expedited about it, which is why the cost is identical :_| Presumably a high percentage of buyers select the less expensive expedited service, so it's more important to let them know it won't show up quickly to US destinations.
Here are the standard lines that appear on my high value listings, they are immediately below the description, centre justified wit the first one in red, and there are is no other content other than the pictures and the prefilled shipping data.
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Auction is open to members having a confirmed Paypal shipping address.
Paypal Checkout Required
Payment due within 3 days of close of auction
Flat rate shipping to the USA with insurance is $19.99
Canadian and US residents may upgrade to Expesspost for an additional $10.00
US residents should expect US customs to take up to 4 weeks to inspect non express items for contraban.
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For my paper items, the description consists of a preformatted table with the key data and a picture, nothing else. Sometimes those will have a link to the local historical society's web site.
Occasionally I will auction something with the proceeds going to the local historical society. The last one got them 200.oo for an item that I would have gotten 10 bucks. It's important to support charitable and/or non profit organisations that promote or service your SIG.
Basicly what I'm trying to tell you is that you should not try to influence buyers into giving you higher DSRs and that you will get higher DSRs by not treating buyers as if they were cows you milk for DSRs. If you spend your time working on your business and ignoring feedback completely, you'll probably end up happier. Think of feedback like a lottery ticket, it would be nice to get some, but you don't expect it 🙂
2) rockyeb
Canada Post is a 24/7 operation, I ship from my local postal outlet 7 days a week, which has 5 collections per day because it is a busy outlet, so although there are no business/residential deliveries on Sat/Sun, that has nothing to do with when you can ship and when the buyer will receive the item. Check with your local Postal Outlet for current hours of service as well as current pickup times at the 3 closest mail boxes.
HotTip #37
If you go to an actual Postal Outlet to ship, try not to have auctions end close to a long weekend because the Postal Outlet can't open on stat holidays B-)
If you ship a lot to the US, you should be aware of their stat holidays as well because you don't want your parcel showing up at the border Friday and then not presented to Customs until Tuesday.
Never ship anything during a week that is bracketed by a US holiday on one weekend and a Canadian holiday the next, or vice versa :_|
