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!

[pjcdn2005]

If you sell 1000 dvd's in a month, you could add 10 cent to the shipping cost of each dvd and end up with an extra $100 month to cover any lost items.That makes more sense to me than paying ebay or an insurance company an extra amount for insurance. Also, as Pierre suggested, it's unlikely that ebay would give you blanket coverage for $10/month for that kind of volume.

[elly2mbk]

I am most grateful for your long dissertation! My experience of "making a go of on eBay from Canada has become far more difficult than it was 3 or 4 years ago" - exactly the same. I can't tell you when it started to go downhill in relation to the economy but I am quite sure that I am down and out for good. November & December Sales 1,200 Fees 300. Net Loss - still calculating. Kind regards!

[elly2mbk]

Thank you, eBay, for revamping the system - every day - something new.

And the timing, perfect. Getting ready for Christmas was . . . well, maybe it will sell NEXT Christmas (somewhere else!)

[pierrelebel]

"November & December Sales 1,200 Fees 300."

???

I do not get it.  As a Top Rated Seller, your fees should not exceed 8% net (after deducting 20% TRS discount) or a maximum of $100 on sales of $1,200.  Since listing fees are almost nothing, where and how did you spend the other $200 in fees?

I understand eBay also charges FVF on shipping but, considering the value of your items and your shipping charges,  that could not account for the difference.

Also, you may want to take a few minutes and revise a few listings.  I found one stating:

"If you need your item before the New Year please email me before you pay.

Your item will have to be posted Express or Priority to reach you in time.

Canada Post charges a great deal for this, so please check with me first!"

[pjcdn2005]

---

@elly2mbk wrote:
Thank you, eBay, for revamping the system - every day - something new.

And the timing, perfect. Getting ready for Christmas was . . . well, maybe it will sell NEXT Christmas (somewhere else!)

---

I agree that constant changes in the system are very frustrating.

If I may make a suggestion...

Part of the problem may be your shipping costs. Many buyers have a difficult time paying $11 shipping for an $8 item or even for a $25 item. You may want to try sending your less expensive items with with a non trackable shipping method.  Depending on your volume and the dollar value of items, you can add a specific amount to each item for 'cookie jar insurance' which you can make up for items lost in the mail.

[brandeentertainment]

It was just an idea Pierre by no means did I think $10 a month would be the price ...

But on that note let's say $20 a month 5 million users each user (100 Million a month) collect then the average sellers  having to file missing item once every 2 or 3 months for a $20 to $50 item who would be crazy to not wanna do that ..

we can twist the number anyways it was just an idea with not alot of thought put into .. They can do things to protect from losing they can be caps on they do whatever  they could ... Like i said early the seller would have to refund buyer in order to received insured amount which would keep sellers honest unless your a complete idiot and think Refunded $10 to a buyer to claim $10 loss in insurance is a smart move ..

I am sure if someone wanted to they could make it very profitable not to say it's an amazing idea or would even work but there is a way it could that's for sure

[brandeentertainment]

As for adding 10 cents to my price I sell movies there are sometimes 20 people selling 1 movie all within a couple cents of each other sometimes so for me to add 10 cents which I know is small but that would put me from best price to the 4th best price and effect sales beyond a simple monthly fee for insurance ..

Anyways it was thought ad by no means did i think i would have to think more about LMAO nor did I think people would go exact to the penny about it ....

[ricarmic]

Brande....

Personally I don't normally price myself as the cheapest, in fact in many cases I'm one of the more expensive guys if you just do a simple price compare (part of this is because of my built in free shipping which also covers self insurance etc too).

Despite that, I have a strong contingent of repeat buyers, (more than 50% of eBay sales $$$ each month are repeat buyers) my personal belief is because they can ask me questions which I normally answer promptly, they know they can trust me, my stuff is as described, or if it is not, or if it is lost, I will fix it with no hassles.

When I was able to watch what buyers bought from other sellers, yes they did also buy from the cheaper guys too but they kept buying from both of us over time.....which leads me to believe that the "undercutters" are just burning themselves for the extra income they could have received if they'd charged a higher price.

As is always the case, things could be quite different in your selling category than mine (stamps).... but those are my thoughts....

[femmefan1946]

But brande- if you are paying a monthly insurance fee, then the cost is in your asking price. You are just accepting a lower profit. The trick would be finding an insurer whose monthly charge is lower than your monthly claims.

In my opinion the only way to do that is by Cookie Jar Insurance, where every penny collected goes to cover occasional losses with no built-in porfit margin to the insurer.

ricarmic- remember that stamps can vary wildly in value while appearing to the non-collector to be identical, while a brand-new DVD will be the identical product from every seller.

Did you ever see the Apfelbaum ad vertorial claiming that the most expensive product in the world was stamp gum?

[ricarmic]

femme:

I understand what you are saying, and for certain brandee stuff is different from mine, however I took a look at closed listings for one of his titles he is running (John Carter blue ray 2 DVD) and the actual completed prices (of brand new) ran anywhere from 88% of his price to 153% of his price within the month of January (just search "john carter blu") I did not see any that were the same (completed) price. This does not seem to be much different from what I was suggesting happens in my category... although this is a pretty small sample size!

(PS the ones that are less than 88% are all "like new" versions....)

[brandeentertainment]

ya it was an idea and possibly a horrible one guys but I was just puking up ideas for fun ... Anyways I by no means think it was a golden egg Idea so I am not gonna defend it ...

I do see what you saying but people who buy stamps are more collectors then stocking stuffer weekend on the couch type of people .....

Example I am the lowest cost on many movies and though some of my competitors are priced way above me there are some buyers who are waiting a year and have no sold one copy of a title because they stay high priced ...

I mean I am a movie collector os Disney for my Children but past Disney movies have very little Value and when I pay .50 cents for a movie I prefer to make $1 a day then $10 a month ...

I think not positive but our categories yield a different type of customer.

[ricarmic]

Hi Brandee... while it is probably disguised in my discussion with femme, my point really was that at least for the item I checked out, your price was in the middle when comparing to other completed (sold) titles that were also new of the same item....and folks had sold the same title for over 50% more than your price (in January) - which would mean it is possible to build in a bit extra "cookie jar" insurance...although as you point out one has to balance out the impact it would have on slowing sales.....but 25c more per title still keeps you in the lower zone price wise and adds a fair bit to the "cookie jar" with the volume you sell in a few months....(again though I only did a comparison on your John Carter Blu ray disk, just to have an example...it might be an anomaly compared with your other titles)

[brandeentertainment]

oooooo ebay needs to kill the timeline for send cancellation request .. I could not tell you how many buyers ask me 4-50-60-70 days after that they have not received item or want to return for refund etc...

No matter what I give refund I don't tell my buyers sorry you waited to long ...

If I refund my buyer whether it is in 10 days or 150 days I should be able to get my  sellers fees back ..

[michaelbb2]

Selling DVD's I would not accept refunds.....DVD's are easily copied and then returned.

[brandeentertainment]

ya well ebay makes the rules I just follow them .. Can't refuse customers that know what they are doing INAD and bam what choice do I have and letting it go to INAD only increased the chance of bad dsr or feedback ..

The only thing is if a customer wants to return with no valid reason I do not refund shipping and handling which usually stops them from returning them ...

I learnt along time ago there is no point in putting negatively viewed comments in my description when at the end I do not get to set my own rules anyways ...

No Returns No Refunds.... Alot of people see that and run .. So not only am I scary off customer but I am trying to make rules that I can not make anyways ...

[davenjan2000]

Interesting point! It doesn't happen often, but whenever I sell a book within Canada it gets taxed at the appropriate provincial rate and it would be nice to be able to apply the exemtion to that commodity. It might make for a more complicated tax table though.

You implied that eBay takes FVF on the tax charged. I was under the imrpression that this was not being done. I'm pretty sure the Feds would consider that to be illegal. Can someone clarify this?

Good posts!

[cumos55]

Quote ---Whenever I sell a book within Canada it gets taxed at the appropriate provincial rate 

Books are exempt from PST in all provinces with a PST.

For provinces with an HST...  Books are exempt from the provincial component of HST

Link to the following for an update.....  with respect to Point of Sale Rebate

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/gm/b-094/b-094-e.html

Therefore...

For provinces with a separate PST  the only charge is GST = 5%

The tax applied to books in HST provinces is HST = 5 %.

The exemption for books is called a Point of Sale Rebate.

On eBay... there is no way to apply a tax on the book separate  from the tax on postage....  the tax on postage is GST for non-HST provinces  and HST for HST provinces.

I recently found out that a seller can charge the full HST value on books.....  The buyer would then have to apply for a rebate ... the Point of Sale Rebate... based on the HST paid  and the value of the provincial component of HST.

The only way I can collect GST/HST is to include the Tax in the price of the item.....both for books and for postage.

Another link

http://sbinfocanada.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=sbinfocanada&cdn=money&tm=179&f=00&su=p284....

The buyer can apply for the rebate if the full value for HST was charged

http://sbinfocanada.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=sbinfocanada&cdn=money&tm=179&f=00&su=p284....

[cumos55]

Check reply 7  early in this discussion.

Charging FVF on tax.... 

One can only suspect  that eBay should provide  all possible options with respect to how a tax should be applied to a purchase, to postage  and then to both purchase and postage 

FVF on postage is about $80  for me....   as GST/HST are included in the price of the item sold  and the cost of postage.....

Revenue Canada does stipulate that the amount of GST/HST charged be indicated on an invoice.

My invoices indicates that GST/HST are included in the price plus postage.....

[reallynicestamps]

which would keep sellers honest unless your a complete idiot and think Refunded $10 to a buyer to claim $10 loss in insurance is a smart move ..

I'm a complete idiot. I can think of a way to make money on that. Don't think I would share it , but it involves procurement cost vs selling price+shipping cost. 

[comicgeek74]

I had been a seller for many years, having sold many hundreds of items since. Now I'm at the end of going into retiring soon. I do have many many items yet to be put up for sale. But I will not post on eBay anymore! The last 2 months to now had now goten a bit scary for me.

I have noticed many things changed within eBay in the last few years to now. That is enough for me to decide it's over as a seller.

Why?

Because I'm a small time seller - only selling of what I have from collecting over the years. I had been downsizing in stages since. I do not own a business nor working for a business. It was just at home in my spare time.

One thing I have noticed is more fees added - one for opening a new auction, one after auction ended with percent based on final value, then there some few other fees for different services?  I now try wait for free listings on certain dates. In my last 2 months - I think I made almost $1000 when I sold many of my vintage auto parts... but I also noticed the FVF fees was close to $95 (give or take).  I remembered in early days it was bit lower than now.

DSR settings was bit scary when I have to ship from Canada to U.S. or to countries. I had to use tracking numbers and if the parcel was over a certain weight - then Canada Post will incude tracking number as part of the deal. Any less than this weight - I'm in trouble. I don't like to add cost of putting tracking on buyer's invoice. Everyone know buyers likes a good deal on shipping - keep it low as possible.  Sometimes I offer U.S. buyers by taking parcels over U.S. border.

Recently one buyer opened a dispute against me by mistake. He just wanted to send me amessage to discuss the problem with one item. But because he pushed a button to open a dispute by mistake - it opened a "paradox's box" into trouble. I learned that by opening a dispute against me had sezied my paypal account into lockdown! PayPal automatically grabbed a cetain amount from my bank account.  The only way to resolve is if the buyer agree to close the dispute and all was restored back to normal - got my money back after I gave back a refund to the buyer in direct.

That was enough to make me lose my interest in selling thru eBay. I do NOT want go thru in same thing like above - again ever! It's too dangerous and much troublsome. There are enough number of people dumb enough to push he "wrong" button out there! I can't take that chance - sorry!

Sadly, ebay had changed into a very different thing. There is very little protection for sellers, ebay seems to favor heavily with buyers and they get full protection with PayPal. Unless I provide solid proof with tracking number or have documents - I'm a S.O.L. for sure!

So, with my feed back still goo and at the high note... it is best I leave while it's still good.

I now do with CL, other online adversting and did well (yes, more slower but still good). Plus, I don't have to pay FVF! I'm not in a hurry so no problem!

Cheers to good years with eBay in the past.