eBay

komics4sale · ‎10-02-2015

My 3 current pet peeves on buying & selling on ebay which should be unnecessary in a perfect ebay world.

(1) Having to send emails to ask if a seller does "combined shipping".

-especially if they sell small items in groups (like stamps, sportscards, coins)

-I can't understand why veteran sellers don't write this into their ebay descriptions to save from having to answer the combined shipping query. I know I've had to ask the same seller more than once during the course of a few months just to make sure combined shipping is offered.

(2) Having to ask sellers if they would sell their (less than $5 item) without having to go through the Global Shipping Program.

(3) Having to tell buyers NOT TO PAY for their purchases until they are finished bidding, especially when they expect to save through combined shipping. I guess many buyers don't know that every time a payment is received, the recipient must pay a fee of 30 cents where the payer doesn't need to pay any extras.

This last point is the main reason I don't like to offer Free Shipping in my sales.

I experimented a few times with offering free shippng for lower priced items (ie stamps).

Every so often a buyer would buy 5 items with free shipping @ $1 each & pay for each transaction separately.

The extra 30 cents that Paypal assessed me for each transaction means that my fee to Paypal was about 35% & my fee to ebay was less than 10%.

marnotom! · ‎10-02-2015

@komics4sale wrote:

(2) Having to ask sellers if they would sell their (less than $5 item) without having to go through the Global Shipping Program.

May I be nosey and ask how that's working out for you?

komics4sale · ‎10-03-2015

Actually I've only had to ask sellers if they would sell their items about 4 times over the past 2 years.

Thankfully I'm 100% successful so far, but just another step which should not have been needed to do.

Notice I avoided to use the word "unnecessary" here. LOL

I can fully understand if the items are pricier &/or bulkier, not for the items that I was interested in, it was totally silly to have to send items to GSP & then have them send it to me.

Items purchased were only a few stamps which of course can be just put into an envelope, write on the name & address, stick a stamp on it & drop it into a mailbox. Don't even need to fill any custom forms.

(the hardest part may be just having to lick the awful tasing stamp).

marnotom! · ‎10-03-2015

Did you get the sense that those sellers were even aware that the Global Shipping Program had been applied to their listings?

komics4sale · ‎10-03-2015

My sense is that they all were not aware that they were in the Global Shipping Program.

On a different subject if I may....

I believe sellers's days are numbered on ebay with regard to the high postal costs which are increasing like clockwork every year.

Much higher than the gov't officialy posted inflation rates which are doctored to make them look good.

When I started selling on ebay, I was selling small items which were shipped in small boxes.

Canada Post had reasonable rates for small packages then.

Currently I rarely if ever sell anything that must be put into a small box for Canada Post.

It costs about $12 to send a ping pong ball to my neighbour across the street.

The percentage of the cost pertaining to shipping has become much too high.

Thankfully, letter post rates are still relatively attractive both within Canada & to the USA.

marnotom! · ‎10-03-2015

So that's a fourth pet peeve. 😉

komics4sale · ‎10-03-2015

Nope....My ebay Pet Peeve remains at 3.

Bear in mind that these are only Pet Peeves which one can still work around.

Annoying to have to do, but we can still live with them.

That 4th one was directly at the Post Office & has nothing to do with ebay.

marnotom! · ‎10-03-2015

Have you ever looked into Canada Post's so-called "business solutions"?

komics4sale · ‎10-04-2015

No, haven't looked.

I have my own problems to deal with first before trying to delve into Canada Post's "business solutions".

I believe Canada Post is going broke but they had a decent last 2 years dfue to the huge increases they implemented 2 years ago.

The US Post Office was even in a worse position, so they also vastly increased postal rates last year.

I think ebay has been quite a positive thing for the Postal Systems around the world. Just think how much mail these days are attributed to ebay sales. Take that away & the Postal System will be on life support.

If I were the Postmaster General, I'd be constantly sending "gifts" the the head honchos at ebay.

reallynicestamps · ‎10-05-2015

This last point is the main reason I don't like to offer Free Shipping in my sales.

I experimented a few times with offering free shippng for lower priced items (ie stamps).

Every so often a buyer would buy 5 items with free shipping @ $1 each & pay for each transaction separately.

The extra 30 cents that Paypal assessed me for each transaction means that my fee to Paypal was about 35% & my fee to ebay was less than 10%.

Free Shipping is not free-- it's adspeak for 'the cost of shipping is included in the asking price.'

So if you are selling a single stamp for $1 it will cost you 85 cents* to ship it.

And you charge the buyer $1.85 with Free Shipping.

If your buyer buys 10 of those $1.85 with Free Shipping lots, you can :

Keep the bonus profit since you can ship all 10 stamps for the same 85 cents.

Give the buyer a coupon for $5 in future purchases.
Send the buyer an unexpected refund of $4.65 -- which frankly will make him wonder what kind of sketchy business you are running. Unless you want him to be confused by an explanation of Free Shipping and Paypal fees.

*If you are buying collections it will cost you a lot less since I have yet to see a collection that didn't have at least some mint postage somewhere in there.

reallynicestamps · ‎10-05-2015

You can ignore this too if you like but Paypal has a 'micropayments' program for sellers whose sales are under $10 each.

komics4sale · ‎10-05-2015

Likely too confusing for me to have another Paypal plan, as prices can range from 50 cents to many dollars.

I just wish Paypal would remove the 30 cent charge every time they process a payment.

And instead just increase their basic % fee to make up for this.

It would save many sellers from constantly telling buyers NOT TO PAY YET until they are finished buying in order to enjoy further combined shipping.

marnotom! · ‎10-05-2015

@komics4sale wrote:

Likely too confusing for me to have another Paypal plan...

"Likely"? You won't know for sure until you try. Or at least investigate.

komics4sale · ‎10-05-2015

Upon your suggestion, I spent the last 30 minutes exploring Paypal's Micropayment plan.

Not the easiest task to do, but I think I managed to find enough up to date information to enable me to make an informed decision.

I surmised that if the vast majority of my sales were under $10, then I would be ahead with this plan. The lower my usual transactions are from $10, the more beneficial this plan would be for me.

If, however, many of my transactions are consistently over $10, then this plan would result in me paying more fees to Paypal.

Also if I had the occasional $100+transaction, that would impact my bottom line immensely.

For every single $100 transaction I have, I would negate 8.4 "unnecessary" 30 cent paypal fees.

(sorry for using the word "unnecessary" again & I hope I've spelled it correctly).

pocomocomputing · ‎10-06-2015

PayPal micropayments plan is 5 cents + 5%, regular PayPal plan is 30 cents + 2.9%.

Break point is $12, not $10.

Micropayments 5 cents + 5%x$12 = $0.05 +$0.50 = $0.65

Regular 30 cents + 2.9%*$12 = $0.30 + $0.348 = $0.648 =$0.65 rounded up

Anything under $12 save fees if you use the micropayments. Anything pays more fees than regular plan.

komics4sale · ‎10-06-2015

Thanks for your more exacting calculations.

I was only doing a rough analysis when I used $10 as the approx break even point.

The thing that makes the analysis much more complicated is if you have to process the occasional large payment.

The extra 2.1 % fees in these instances can cancel out many of the smaller transactions that you may have saved by opting for a Paypal Micro Account.

For my ebay sales I think I am slightly better off with the regular Paypal account.

I don't believe Paypal allows you to have both accounts active as the same time for the same ebay user id.

00nevermind00 · ‎10-06-2015

Pet peeve #1: Sellers who use the GSP for $10 small light-weight items. (Sub-pet peeve: the fact that eBay puts sellers on the GSP without letting them know.)

Pet peeve #2: Sellers who don't answer questions from buyers, especially the ones who suggest that buyers email them for more details.

Pet peeve #3: US sellers who have the same shipping charges to everywhere in the world. It should not cost as much to send to Canada as it does to Australia.

mater721 · ‎10-06-2015

Pet peeve #1: Sellers who use the GSP for $10 small light-weight items. (Sub-pet peeve: the fact that eBay puts sellers on the GSP without letting them know.)

Pet peeve #2: Sellers who don't answer questions from buyers, especially the ones who suggest that buyers email them for more details.

Pet peeve #3: US sellers who have the same shipping charges to everywhere in the world. It should not cost as much to send to Canada as it does to Australia.

I agree with all of above.

Add - sellers who don't stock what they are selling and then cancel bids/won items. I may not lose money, but I lost time and opportunity - possibly a similar item for sale at same time.

komics4sale · ‎10-06-2015

I had a chuckle reading your 3 pet peeves as I experience these same minor frustrations many times every week.

I deal with sellers having thousands of sales with 100% positive feedback. More often than not, I must send MANY emails (both on the ebay site plus to their personal email addresses to to have a simple question answered.

Can't understand why it would take over 3 days to respond when these sellers have many active listings.

Even now I have a minor issue with a seller sending me an incorrectly identified sheet of stamps.

The item is only a $10 item with $1.80 shipping.

I've sent 2 emails politely asking for their assistance in instructing me how to rectify the situation.

No response as of yet.

All they have to do is maybe offer a small token refund or ask me to return item for full refund.

The the second case, even though they are not obligated to help me pay for the return shipping of $1.80, as a courtesy they should.

I know if it was my error, I would not make a buyer pay anything extra if it was my mistake.

Even when I'm travelling & knowing I have active listings, I still manage to check my messages & to respond in a timely matter.

pocomocomputing · ‎10-06-2015

@komics4sale wrote:
Thanks for your more exacting calculations.
I was only doing a rough analysis when I used $10 as the approx break even point.

The thing that makes the analysis much more complicated is if you have to process the occasional large payment.
The extra 2.1 % fees in these instances can cancel out many of the smaller transactions that you may have saved by opting for a Paypal Micro Account.

For my ebay sales I think I am slightly better off with the regular Paypal account.

I don't believe Paypal allows you to have both accounts active as the same time for the same ebay user id.

Have two PayPal accounts, one regular, one micro payments. List items under $12 with micropayments, list items over $12 with regular account. If you sell multiple items over $12 total, send an invoice with the regular PayPal account.

This is what I read to get around the $12 break point. In practice, I would think it is a pain. The amount saved per transaction can be very small and not worth the time.

Someone posted in these forums on the above method. I do not remember who. Perhaps they can comment on the above..