April 17th Weekly Board Hour

[raphael@ebay.com]

Hello Canadian eBayers!

Welcome to the April 17th edition of the Weekly Board Hour. Joining me this week are Rodney (Head of Product Management and Country Co-Manager) and Kalvin (Community Manager). You can start posting your questions and comments now, we'll start answering at the top of the hour.

Raphael

Country Product Manager 

[ottokitty]

Hi ottokitty,

The restriction also applies when using different User IDs. Here's a link to the policy for future reference just in case.

There are a few other promotions coming up, so hopefully you'll be able to take advantage of those.

-- Edited by kalvin@ebay.com at Apr 17, 2013 1:38 PM EDT

I know I can't have identical listings under 2 different IDs;

but does this still apply if the listing in my store ID is on "vacation" mode; it would not be "live" or searchable or able to be purchased.

The policy you linked to doesn't refer to this situation at all, hence the query.

[raphael@ebay.com]

Thank you Raphael.

The question is more about BOTH the buyer and seller agreeing not to use GSP and ship by a direct mean (USPS for example).

Post 137 http://community.ebay.ca/topic/Buyer-Central/New-Compulsory-Import/3000008783?start=130#msg400005572... 

"my seller called Ebay and they said it was against policy to sidestep Pitney once the sale has been completed. "

Did the seller misunderstand or did the eBay employee get it wrong?

The seller can't side step Pitney on that particular listing. If he and the buyer agree to not use GSP, the seller would have to cancel this transaction and create a new listing without GSP so the buyer can repurchase the item there.

Sellers can also offer more than just GSP as a shipping method on the same listing. In that case, the buyer could just choose USPS instead of GSP and get the item shipped that way. In the vast majority of cases though, that won't happen because sellers who offer GSP usually do so because it's cheaper for the buyer in the end (bigger sellers may have better shipping discounts and likely won't offer GSP in the first place).

[i*m-still-here]

I don't want to belabour the issue here as I know there is only an hour............

However, since I list on .com it sounds like I've been wasting my money when I upgrade shipping from Expedited to Express Post unless the item sold for $750 or more as far as qualifying for eBay/Paypal coverage is concerned.

Is that correct?

[pocomocomputing]

Curiosity question.

With the new fees with non-store and store and having free listings, why is eBay still having more free promotions?

Why not just give sellers more free listings with the new plans and avoid all of this waiting for promos?

Additional promos seem to make having a store useless even with the free plans. Just like the past year. Assuming of course that a seller gets invited.

Many sellers have started up additional eBay accounts in the past years to get free listings. Why have sellers go to all of the trouble to bypass the past and current fees plans? Seems like a lot of game playing to get insertion fee free listings.

[vintagenorth]

Hi, in regards to any future free listing promos.....

Under My account>Communication Preferences>Promotions and Surveys, I'm never sure which ones need to be checked off in order to be able to receive the free listing promos. (I know it depends on other variables as well). Can you identify which ones need to be checked off please since I don't seem to be receiving any invites lately. Thanks.

[kalvin@ebay.com]

I know I can't have identical listings under 2 different IDs;

but does this still apply if the listing in my store ID is on "vacation" mode; it would not be "live" or searchable or able to be purchased.

The policy you linked to doesn't refer to this situation at all, hence the query.

I'll track down that answer for you & drop you a note.

[postit4me]

Hi where is our extra 5.00  bounus buck promised to .ca accounts I have not received mine

[raphael@ebay.com]

I don't want to belabour the issue here as I know there is only an hour............

However, since I list on .com it sounds like I've been wasting my money when I upgrade shipping from Expedited to Express Post unless the item sold for $750 or more as far as qualifying for eBay/Paypal coverage is concerned.

Is that correct?

This may not necessarily be true. What really matters is which site the buyer purchases the item from. Items bought on eBay.com fall under the eBay Buyer Protection rules so if most of your sales go to US buyers or anyone else using eBay.com, you are likely to lose cases if you didn't use Express Post on high priced items.

[postit4me]

Promotions are supposly randomly picked invited sellers ---- yet on these boards many recieved both huge listing promotions this month and many did not receive one. Why is this so?

[pierrelebel]

Raphael.  You wrote:

"...sellers who offer GSP usually do so because it's cheaper for the buyer in the end..." 

Are you serious? Does eBay have statistics (actual figures) to back that up?

Have you read the hundreds of posts on the subject by Canadian buyers who complained about the substantial extra cost to buyers, in addition to the obvious slower service since the goods have to be shipped twice? 

Are Canadian buyers all wrong?

[pocomocomputing]

Using PayPal Shipnow feature, try the following cases for Tracked Packet USA

1) Dimensions 30 x 10 x 5 cm and a weight of 0.250 kg. result is 13.93 which is correct for a 250 gram package.

2) Repeat with 30 x 10 x 6 cm and a weight of 0.250 kg result is 14.51 which is incorrect rate for 500 gram package.

3) repeat with 30 x 20 x 6 cm and a weight of 0.250 kg result is 16.78 which is incorrect rate fo 1 kg package.

Dimensional weight override has been implemented apparently.

DW = L x W x H / 6000

Tracked Packet is supposed to allow any packages with a max length of 60 cm and a total of L + W + H <= 90 cm.

[raphael@ebay.com]

Hi where is our extra 5.00  bounus buck promised to .ca accounts I have not received mine

Hi postit4me,

The extra $5 was only promised to a portion of top Bucks earners. All qualifying members have been sent an email in their eBay Messages to that effect.

[Anonymous]

Curiosity question.

With the new fees with non-store and store and having free listings, why is eBay still having more free promotions?

Why not just give sellers more free listings with the new plans and avoid all of this waiting for promos?

Additional promos seem to make having a store useless even with the free plans. Just like the past year. Assuming of course that a seller gets invited.

Many sellers have started up additional eBay accounts in the past years to get free listings. Why have sellers go to all of the trouble to bypass the past and current fees plans? Seems like a lot of game playing to get insertion fee free listings.

Hi pocomocomputing.

That's a pretty interesting (and funny) observation. You have a point. 🙂

I've been working here a very long time, and for as long as I can remember, sellers have been asking us to move our marketplace fees away from insertion and more on FVF. Sellers would tell me that they don't mind so much paying the fees for things that sell, but it drove them nuts to pay fees for stuff that didn't sell. The situation was particularly bad for media sellers, collectible sellers, and others who need to have a large but slower-turning inventory in order to maximize their business.

What a long journey it has been to get there! Along the way, we had to shed our reliance as a business on that front-ended insertion fee revenue, as well as the revenue associated with various listing feature options (most of which are now retired). We also had to bite the bullet on the technical investments needed to host pictures for every listing, while moving away from picture fees.

So now that we've gotten this far, why the short-term promotions?

These are shorter-term changes that we can use to goose the business during a slow month, or to experiment with a change that can be locked in at some point in the future. They are like small experiments in how sellers react to different kinds of offers. General pricing changes are obviously much more permanent, and involve a much greater effort to put in place, and so are not the right avenue for trying something different, or trying to inject something into the marketplace short-term.

I suspect we will continue to have different kinds of short-term promos for the forseeable future. And we'll stick to modifying the actual rate card as seldom as possible.

[postit4me]

So what was a top earner

[raphael@ebay.com]

Raphael.  You wrote:

"...sellers who offer GSP usually do so because it's cheaper for the buyer in the end..." 

Are you serious? Does eBay have statistics (actual figures) to back that up?

Have you read the hundreds of posts on the subject by Canadian buyers who complained about the substantial extra cost to buyers, in addition to the obvious slower service since the goods have to be shipped twice? 

Are Canadian buyers all wrong?

Apologies, I should have been more specific.

GSP is not a program that aims to lower the cost for Canadian buyers, but to make it easier for US sellers to open up their inventory to the global market. As usual, what works for the US seller doesn't necessarily benefit Canada.

[pocomocomputing]

Using PayPal Shipnow feature, try the following cases for Tracked Packet USA

1) Dimensions 30 x 10 x 5 cm and a weight of 0.250 kg. result is 13.93 which is correct for a 250 gram package.

2) Repeat with 30 x 10 x 6 cm and a weight of 0.250 kg result is 14.51 which is incorrect rate for 500 gram package.

3) repeat with 30 x 20 x 6 cm and a weight of 0.250 kg result is 16.78 which is incorrect rate fo 1 kg package.

Dimensional weight override has been implemented apparently.

DW = L x W x H / 6000

Tracked Packet is supposed to allow any packages with a max length of 60 cm and a total of L + W + H <= 90 cm.

And a weight between 1 g and 1 kg.

So as you can see a seller can be charged the higher rate because the PayPal shipping calculator is incorrectly putting it in a higher weight class. Not supposed to work that way for Tracked Packet.

[kalvin@ebay.com]

Hi, in regards to any future free listing promos.....

Under My account>Communication Preferences>Promotions and Surveys, I'm never sure which ones need to be checked off in order to be able to receive the free listing promos. (I know it depends on other variables as well). Can you identify which ones need to be checked off please since I don't seem to be receiving any invites lately. Thanks.

Hi vintagenorth,

Please make sure you select 'General email promotions' to receive invites for promotions.

[pocomocomputing]

Apologies, I should have been more specific.

GSP is not a program that aims to lower the cost for Canadian buyers, but to make it easier for US sellers to open up their inventory to the global market. As usual, what works for the US seller doesn't necessarily benefit Canada.

It apparently does not benefit Australian buyers who have $1000 exemption on imports. They get charged additional fees that would not be if the item was shipped using USPS directly.

[kalvin@ebay.com]

Promotions are supposly randomly picked invited sellers ---- yet on these boards many recieved both huge listing promotions this month and many did not receive one. Why is this so?

Hi postit4me,

There are different criterias to meet for each & every promotion - sometimes both accounts will meet them, sometimes they won't. We do our best to try & include all sellers, but unfortunately this isn't always the case.

[i*m-still-here]

That's even more confusing.......................

It sounds like I qualify for eBay Seller Protection for items under $749 if the buyer bought the item on ebay.com and the buyer is in the U.S. and I used Expedited to ship.

Did I get it correct that time?