CA Sellers: Please share your insights!

[raphael@ebay.com]

I would like to hear about your insights on what it's like being a Canadian eBay seller. Please post your thoughts here, what works, what doesn't, ideas for improvements to the site or for new features, etc. Please keep the topic on selling.

Note: This is not a thread like our weekly Board Hour. I'll try to stay active on here as much as possible but please keep any questions or site issues (including any comments on what is not working with GSP! ;-)) for our weekly discussions. What I'm hoping to do here is get a sense of your business insights and perhaps even find an idea or two we can look into implementing.

Looking forward to read you!

[around_again_records]

My 2 cents

1. FVF on shipping should be reconsidered. I understand the rational BUT if a person wants to sell something relatively inexpensive that weighs a fair amount (in my case vinyl record albums) it's really impossible to offer customers a good deal, and I learned the hard way that I might as well not even list anything for overseas sales unless it's a very expensive item, otherwise the final value fee entirely eats up any profits, and in the case that taught me this lesson I actually ended up losing money.

I would love to offer customers some very good deals on records in order to downsize my collection. That used to be what eBay was about, regular people selling off items they no longer needed or wanted. I was selling records here about 8 years ago and I could sell at reasonable prices, sell all over the world and still make a teeny bit of money. It seems to me if you multiply my situation by thousands of other sellers, that it could only be good for sellers, customers, eBay and of course the post office. Perhaps with more volume they could even lower rates. Generally speaking I think if eBay makes selling less complicated and less expensive more people will sell - good for everyone!

When it comes to sellers overcharging on shipping, well, in most cases the customer will not buy from them. EBay should also be able to easily find a way to weed them out. Combine the 2 and you would be targeting the problem instead of making everyone else suffer for the few. Again - better for everyone. I know that I am not the only one who has decided to discontinue overseas sales and cut down drastically on what I do list. It's just not worth it when I have to charge such high prices in order to break even. I know I'm not alone. I also know that if things were different there is a market for what I want to sell, and a large part of that market is overseas.

2. I would like to see the seller have the option to require Immediate Payment on Buy it Now items regardless of the price. I like the Buy It Now format BUT the best way for a customer to save on shipping is to combine purchases. With Immediate Payment required, this cannot be done except by putting current listings in the cart, that's fine but for one thing it's pretty easy for someone to miss that step and for another, I would like to be able to offer customers a month to pay so they could wait for new listings, or request something from my unsold items to be relisted. The mandatory Immediate Payment, restricts both the seller and the buyer. Let me decide if I want to take the risk, and let me mark the item SOLD even if it is not paid for.

From the changes I've seen since I came back to eBay last year, it seems that eBay is trying to regulate their system to catch or prevent every bad thing that might happen. This may be very well intentioned BUT it's impossible. Someone will always find a way to cheat, and over regulating just confuses the process and causes problems for everyone else. Except for those 2 things I am quite happy with eBay and think it's a great service for sellers and customers alike.

[canadianfootballcards]

I don't like FVF, but I also don't consider it a major problem. For a low price/high volume sportscard guy like me, the FVF for shipping adds very little to the final tally. I keep my domestic shipping cheap.

The biggest external stumbling block to my success on eBay is Canada Post.

Everytime I come across something I think will sell well, I check how much it would cost to mail it, then check any potential competitors on eBay.

Inevitably, I reach the same conclusion. I can be competitive on the item price, but being competitive on shipping will undermine my profits to the point where it's not worth the trouble.

If these message boards are to be believed, there are sellers who are managing to compete, and do so successfully. I'm just not sure how.

Then there's eBay being completely ignorant/unresponsive to the challenges faced by the Canadian seller.

Speaking only from personal experience, my sales took a substantial nosedive when eBay removed my Top-Rated Seller advantages on eBay.com last year (very quietly if I recall).

eBay said it wasn't fair to US sellers, completely ignoring the flipside of that statement.

My response was to drastically scale back on the minor league baseball cards that were heavily targeted to a US audience, in favour of Canadian Football League cards targeted to the domestic buyer.

My baseball cards are/were competitive on every level (item and shipping price) with the US competition, but I couldn't offer tracking. Therefore, while my primary competitors got preferential search treatment, I had to go 26 pages deep one day to find the first of my 4600 listed baseball cards.

As I say, I responded and adapted and I'm pretty much back to where I was when the TRS status disappeared.

Of course, if eBay.com had never yanked that TRS status, I'd have been generating a couple hundred more sales a month over the past 12 months, with more revenue going into eBay's pockets and mine.

So... if Canada Post is the biggest external stumbling block I deal with, I'd say the biggest stumbling block to my eBay success is eBay itself. 

[michaelbb2]

I have many complaints and issues which have mostly been covered by all the other posts here.  I sell in CND funds and it would be nice if ebay would generate sales reports in canadian dollars. They supply only US dollar sales reports.  So at tax time, I have to either convert the sales report numbers to CND using an average exchange rate for the month or year or I have to add up all of my transactions through paypal which does give canadian dollar values. This sucks when there are thousands of transactions per year. 

Another thing that ebay could do is separate the shipping charged on sales reports.

And despite my best efforts, I can't get all buyers to make 1 payment for all of their items.  Maybe eBay could post a reminder for buyers that "If you have more purhcases with this seller then please click here to get combined shipping".  This could be done at checkout.....eBay knows if there are more items from the same seller......simple fix.

[pierrelebel]

"This sucks when there are thousands of transactions per year. "

Until my retirement, I averaged 8,000 to 10,000 items sold every year on eBay (mostly in US$), in addition to sales through my website.

I prepared my bookkeeping and tax returns by using the US$ received and converting to Cdn$ based on the Bank of Canada annual conversion rate - adjusted for PayPal conversion fee 2.5% or less (sellers with higher volume pay a lower conversion rate).  That method of conversion is acceptable to CRA. It only takes a minute, once a year, to find the applicable rate and do the calculation.

For the last few years, the Bank of Canada rate was:

2008 US$1.00 = Cdn$ 1.0660

2009 US$1.00 = Cdn$ 1.1420

2010 US$1.00 = Cdn$ 1.0300

2011 US$1.00 = Cdn$ 0.9891

2012 US$1.00 = Cdn$ 0.9996

[pierrelebel]

"Maybe eBay could post a reminder for buyers that "If you have more purhcases with this seller then please click here to get combined shipping". "

That is a very valid concern for sellers generally selling multiple items to buyers.  Until a few years ago, sellers could customize the email confirmations sent by eBay to buyers by adding a message inviting buyers to continue shopping and combine all purchases into one payment.  Unfortunately, the majority of eBay sellers do not sell multiple items to buyers and eBay found it more important to tell buyers to pay immediately than to keep on shopping.  Very short sighted in my opinion but the collective opinions of the majority of large sellers pravailed.

[rose-dee]

Thanks for posting this here Pierre.  Even with my comparatively miniscule annual sales, I was using the Bank of Canada annual rate to calculate the exchange difference because it was simple, but I didn't know whether it was kosher with CRA (now I do!).  

[michaelbb2]

Another thing ebay could fix is the notification telling me that "This item has not had any sales in the last 16 months" for many multiquantity listings. When I check the item sale history it says there was a sale last month. Any body else have this problem?

[michaelbb2]

I sold 13 coins to 2 different Canadian buyers tonight. Both buyers paid for their coins 1 at a time.  I received 13 payments for these 2 orders of coins.  Can eBay please get a shopping cart on eBay.ca similar to eBay.com or other coutries?  I just got dinged for 13 paypal 30 cent fees when there could have been just 2 fees.

I have asked buyers to select all their items first then pay at the end but many of them say that the only way out of the Pay Now page is to Pay Now....and so they do.....a shopping cart will be very helpful.  (I'm sure the back button would work but many of my buyers are elderly and not computer savvy)  I understand why some sellers don't want it but perhaps eBay could make it an option for sellers to add to their store.

When buying through the mobile app, I have been told that there is no way of combining your items before paying, is this correct?

[fundy_picker]

I so agree!!  I will not buy from any Ebay.com seller who collects GSP on their listings....I think a lot of Canadians feel the same way... I used to sell 10% of my items to Canadians...Now It is 30% and counting...Also I sell a lot of items that will fit into letter post so I can charge 2-3 dollars and self insure....And (knocks on Wood) Canadian buyers appreciate not getting gouged...It is so ridiculous to see what a lot of American sellers are charging for shipping on top of the GSP...

[kashka]

Fundy,I agree about the GSP.Ever since it was introduced my purchases online have signifigantly increased elsewhere..Even if the item is a little more in price it is usually cheaper to purchase elsewhere because here it costs more with GSP added on.But the silver lining with GSP is that I found many other venues and seller's websites to buy from.

[femmefan1946]

1.There is a workaround

Offer Free Shipping domestically. Now, don't panic.

FS means the cost of shipping will be included in the cost of the item. So a $5 item with $10 domestic shipping becomes a $15 item with Free Shipping.

But, you still want to ship to the USA and over seas. If it would cost $15 to ship to the USA , make the Flat Rate Shipping $5.

For overseas if the shipping would be $50, make it $40.

For those destinations, you will pay NO FVF on the shipping charges.

I suppose you could massage the international shipping farther by fudging on the dimensions for Calculated Shipping, but that's too confusing for my arithmetic -impared psyche.

2.  The mandatory Immediate Payment,

Now I'm really confused. If there were mandatory payment, then why bother with Unpaid Item Disputes at all? They would be unnecessary. What did I miss?

Is there a difference between Buy It Now and Fixed Price concerning payment? Or is this part of the "If you Buy It Now , but do not pay, the auction continues until you do pay or are outbid." process. The latter would seem better for the seller.

[i*m-still-here]

I would like to see some kind of survey which addresses why Canadian buyers are not buying from Canadian sellers more frequently.

I have several theories but they are just ideas and this continues to stump me.

Raphael:  Where are the Canadian buyers?

[brandeentertainment]

1)Do away with DSR Rating Simplify With just Neg.Neutral, or Positive and adjust TRS to work with feedback percentage rating ....

The DSR System has been brought up a million times I think it is time to do away with it as I think and many others would agree experience buyers know but the majority just click 5 star if happy and 1 star if not happy ..if say Description was perfect buyer is not happy so bam you lose here is a 1 rating for a perfectly described item because those star ratings mean nothing to a buyer and most don't even know how important they are to sellers...

2) Send Buyer notification directly to ebay messages instead of email.. I personally find this strange as i one time had to send threatening email from a seller who rage out on me the ebay rep told me emails are not a valid method of communication and is to easy to be Fraudulent so NOT VALID for proof of anything .. 

Not to mention all the spam and spoof emails out there would it not just be easier,safer and simplified for buyers and sellers alike to make automatic communications be sent through ebay messaging...

3) Reduce Auction listing a little 15 cents to maybe not make a penny is  a little steep in my personal opinion... Final Value fee structure SHOULD JUST STAY THE SAME FOR 1 YEAR and if you guys do something to the fee structure make it minimal maybe correct something that has negatively affected sellers in 1 area .. Basically if it ain't broken don't fix it .

It is rare anyone in my category complains about Final Value fee so like my daddy always said if it ain't broke don't fix it ....

4) Simplify the BEST MATCH criteria .. Again my opinion If sellers knew exactly how to with a FEW simple steps to get better or higher result on Best Match ....

EXAMPLE: I am sure ebay knows more about the buyer complaints then most so for example if buyer complains most about Pictures or Description You make those your number one Priority for Best Match and if Sellers know exatly how to to fix it they will AND THEN you have sellers listing what the buyers like to see so seller get more exposure and higher on the listing pages ...

I mean to me it just need to be simplified and clear which in my opinion would increase the amount of sellers trying to strive for it and the result would be happy buyers ..

[brandeentertainment]

Previous Post

Lastly it is our rights to run our business our own way, we shouldn't have to abide many of eBay's requirements on how to run our businesses.  We should be able to offer the most reasonable cheap mail service, not having to abide by eBay's requirements for "tracking" or expensive mail service.  We want our buyers to be happy.   I felt that if we make our buyers happy, then we are happy and eBay should be happy too but for some reasons eBay just want to be G R E E D Y.  Just be happy that we are able to sell our items than NOT able to sell them.

This honeybed was a horrible statement of course you have to follow ebays rules .. Ebay exist because good sellers  so if ebay does not control the sellers it could seriously affect things ..reducing buyers which bounces back a reduced sellers  and then all you have is a **bleep**py,unsafe less then satisfying,Low Traffic place to shop which **bleep**py pictures,description,service etc ...

If you add up all the money you have paid ebay in your lifetime it would not even pay for 1 commercial that would broadcast to the world ..Yet you pay them couple $100 or $1000 a month to be able to reach out and advertise to the entire world not only that but the payment method they have provided is international currency in a sense and simplify things for buyers who would never bother for fear of the unknown and not to mention would your business otherwise have the ability to tell people how to pay and there product without needing 20 translators for your international buyers otherwise...

I once has the hate on for ebay fees etc. but after years of being online I have realized no other place online could suit my lifestyle and still give me the advertising and sales volume in other words I have no time for alot of things but with ebay I don't need to do them because EBAY'S name helps me do it ...

[brandeentertainment]

Ebay you should open up Insurance set up for untrackable low value to medium valued goods charging sellers who opt in to pay ebay a monthly Payment to cover the odd lost item .. You can play with all the interest and make it happen would have to be alot of strategic thought put into something like that but you could possibly increase selling and buying if seller could some how charge buyers less for shipping ...

I mean really do the math if ebay can get 5 million people in at $10 a month the interest on that would cover a whole lot and considering items to no get lost to often and were talking about low to medium cost goods it would not be too bad ..

101 things to look at for something like that but it would not be to hard to keep people honest because you could have it set up so nothing is given back to the seller unless buyer is visibly refunded ...

anyways that is a rabbit in the hat idea and not even sure if it is anywhere close to a good idead LOL

[michaelbb2]

I like that idea.  An internal insurance department funded by sellers aiming to reduce the shipping costs across the board thus increasing sales.....makes buyers happy, makes sellers happy, makes eBay happy.  I also think that Canada Post should implement  barcode trackable stamps that can be placed on all lettermail....I would pay an extra few cents for this.  Or eBay could have a barcode printable address label or loadable digital band for lettermail that Canada post tracking system will recognize.

If we could get rid of the expensive tracking that sellers feed obligated to use to "insure" the delivery of an item then there will be lower shipping charged =  happy buyers and sellers

[tobyshitzu]

 Why on earth would anyone want ebay involved with insurance, where you'd have to cover the cost of claims, the cost of ebay administrating it, and no doubt significant profit margin too?  if you want to do that, just keep the money you'd pay them and do the same thing yourself without the extra cost.  Buying insurance only makes sense to cover catastrophic loss

[femmefan1946]

EBay and PP do from time to time refund a member without requiring the return of the disputed item. And of course when a seller does not refund voluntarily, PP does and then goes after the seller for reimbursement.

So having members pay into an insurance fund might actually make them money.

I agree that self-insurance makes more sense, but it seems to panic many sellers who would rather dribble away profit to third parties, whether the post office or an insurance company or eBay. 

[brandeentertainment]

For some a small monthly Fee would be worth it .. I mean if 1 dvd in 1000 for the month goes missing my $10 Monthly fee would be paid for when ebay reimbursement for the missing item ...

if you only ship Big item with tracking this would be useless for you ..

Either way just a thought because I know I would benefit from it ..

[pierrelebel]

"I mean if 1 dvd in 1000 for the month goes missing my $10 Monthly fee would be paid for when ebay reimbursement for the missing item ..."

OK - let's work the numbers.

If you ship 1,000 dvds a month at $10 each average ($10,000 insured value) and pay eBay (the insurer) $10.00 a month for insurance coverage (one cent per dvd) that may be good for you but, seriously, do you expect eBay or anyone else in their right mind to offer you $10,000 insurance coverage for a lousy $10?

Insurers are in the business of making money: they collect more from those who want insurance than they pay in claims.  That is how they make some money, pay their staff, their business expenses, pay taxes on their profit to the government, and a dividend to their shareholders.

To suggest eBay (or anyone else) should set up an insurance program where they lose money - where those who pay for the insurance coverage would in fact receive more than they pay - is a non-starter.