DOOMSDAY APRIL 2010

[ameroindustries]

The new policy's going in effect for April 2010 if they extend there grips into canada will Wipe out alot of sellers cnd sellers . You are not allowed any more than 2% buyer Dissatisfaction . Right now its 4% which is not that hard but 2% have one bad month or get sick for a week or dont answer a few emails ... heeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyaaaa goood bye 😛

Me and ebay are business partners we each get 50% profit . I do all the work anwser the emails deal with mental workers , upload / maintain the listings work 18 hour days ... and ebay lords over me with a whip any bad move i make they hit me with it hehehe .

Its just a really bad relationship id say abusive but im addicted ... i think one day ill talk some sence into myself get outta this relationship and find someone who treats me right 😛

Break Down :

I sell 5000 worth of Goods a day on ebay ... Ebay / paypal take 13% = 650.00 Then paypal jabs me for another 150.00 for exchanging from Usd funds to cnd Funds (and they arnt stupid they are selling for a quarter point or less :P)

650+150= 800.00 ... Thats about what i make after canada post has its way with me ... Cinda a sick love triangle .

And now this ... Its pretty bad when i sell 150+ items a day on ebay and i can sell 10 items on my website and generate 25% of my daily profit off those 10 items i sell on my website .

Something is not adding up . But whatever im used to the abuse .

[pierrelebel]

" sell 5000 worth of Goods a day on ebay "

"Then paypal jabs me for another 150.00 for exchanging from Usd funds to cnd Funds "

????

Not sure where you get your numbers.

1) PayPal only charges 1.5% conversion fee for sellers with your volume (or mine). That would be only $75 on $5000. Very competitive with most Canadian banks.

2) You do not need to use PayPal to convert your money. With your volume, it is worth doing what many high volume sellers have done: get a bank account at a bank located in the USA to withdraw your funds without fees or conversion. I have had a bank account at a US bank since Spring 2001 and saved a lot of money in the process.

Your numbers also indicate a very low gross margin. I cannot imagine being in the mail order business with less than 100% or 200% mark-up (50% to 67% gross margins). Not sure how you survice on such low margins.

"DOOMSDAY APRIL 2010"

The changes taking place in April 2010 should not affect you. You will continue to have your 5% FVF rebate.

[surplusdealdude]

DOOMSDAY APRIL 2010

Funny, I thought it was 2012.:-D -------------------------------------------------------------------

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. Carl Sagan

[surplusdealdude]

You've got a lot more problems than this announcement, OP.

It may be that these changes will force you to correct something that has needed fixing for a while.

Take a look at your toolhaus stats;

http://toolhaus.org/cgi-bin/negs?User=ameropaintball+&Dirn=Received+by&ref=home

add in;


650+150= 800.00 ... Thats about what i make after canada post has its way with me
and

But whatever im used to the abuse .

And I see a guy who's got a great idea that needs some tweaking.

You sound like this has got out of control on you. You're stressed out, you're tearing your hair out and you don't know what's wrong.

2 suggestions;

1. RAISE YOUR PRICES 10%. You'll exchange some of your volume for profits and you'll slow things down a bit, but you'll make more money at it by doing so. It's the classic move if you're selling too much and not making enough and I think it's the best idea for you.

2. Start shipping through the USPS. Unless you're using a drop-shipper you should be taking that sort of load through customs and shipping by the much cheaper USPS. That will get rid of a lot of complaints right there.

If you are using a drop shipper, then I can't suggest anything, but you've got 8 months to find a better way or a new line of work. -------------------------------------------------------------------

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. Carl Sagan

[ameroindustries]

Paypal takes about 3-4 points always im used to .25 points . I have had a usa bank account before and was forced by usa Government to close it down . They were saying i was conducting business within usa .. I had to close it down . So ever since then dont feel safe having my money down there .

Paypal is taking alot more than 1.5% to convert the money from usd to cnd funds more like 2-4% depends on the day . Had many times where dollar was say 1.0975 and they were offering 1.055 .

My margins are tight you work on alot tighter margins when you "Push" product faster .. if its a item when i do fixed on most times im making 100% markup but % of what you sell of these is very low compared to no reserve which only has 25-50% markup (12-25% gross)

Regardless the demand on Higher customer service is right screwball in my books . I have 3 full time employee's we ship everyday but still i get 32 1/2's in ship time .. which makes me wanna rip my hair out .. LOL 😛

[ameroindustries]

Ya gonna have to in the spring and Cut alot of No rserve listings 😛 .

Ya thanks for the info on the Usps .. Thats saving me a ton like 800 bucks a week 🙂 Hopefully this will bring up some of the Ship time dsr .

My neg is i buy in huge volumes so i see ebay as a way to dump these volumes guess im opening up 3 stores in the next 5 months so i think this will work well with ebay then i would not be so concerned about profit margins .

[surplusdealdude]

I hope one of those stores is your own web store.

It'll give you some options.

And another ought to be a store on the River, if you can.

My margins are tight you work on alot tighter margins when you "Push" product faster

I was suggesting that you experiment and see if they NEED to be that tight.

Even an extra 5% will mean a world of difference to your bottom line, maybe give you the means to hire some more people so it doesn't drive you crazy. -------------------------------------------------------------------

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. Carl Sagan

[pierrelebel]

"Paypal is taking alot more than 1.5% to convert the money from usd to cnd funds more like 2-4% depends on the day "

Obviously there is a problem somewhere. You should talk to PayPal about it. The policy is very clear and PayPal only charges a 1.5% conversion spread for sellers with high volume.

"Paypal takes about 3-4 points always "

The transaction fee charged by PayPal should be 2.1% or 2.5% depending whether your monthly volume exceeds $10,000 or only $3,000

[dipmicro]

The transaction fee charged by PayPal should be 2.1% or 2.5%

Yes, I kept wondering, because I have been above $3000 for long time and they kept charging 2.9% + $0.30 until I found out you have to apply for merchant rate.

On fee structure page, there is a "View merchant rate criteria" link, click it and follow instructions. I just did that a week ago and was immediately approved and saving few cents here and there since then.

If ameropaintball did not apply, the 1% of fee difference will in his case be actually a nice chunk of money.

[dipmicro]

Another thing about PayPal fees. They have another structure called "Cross border fees" which apply to any payment received from buyers outside Canada/US. Structure is similar to regular domestic fees, but 1% higher.

[ameroindustries]

Regardless of all the fee's / costs . Ect its still a 50/50 business with eBay in the end if you factor in mistakes / problems / return's all the fee's ect . When it really should be 80/20 i have no clue what direction eBay is taking but judging from when i first posted on these forums to now there are alot less people here and im sure that represents the amount of sellers still listing .

Maybe they should just do away with no reserve auctions and have Fixed price with free shipping on everything .. make it againts ebay policy to charge shipping fee's .

I dunno regardless its frustrating with all the changes .

[surplusdealdude]

I don't see where it's a 50/50 split, frankly - it's more of an 80/20 for me. -------------------------------------------------------------------

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. Carl Sagan

[lil-angel-gifts]

In regard to Pierre's comment about getting a bank account in the US:
I had been thinking about this, as I was hoping to sell on another site, and need a US credit card, attached to a US address to do so. And of course, I would benefit from having a US bank account too I'm sure.

In trying to keep with doing everything "legit", what is the best way to do this? Does it have to be your living address (can you have a postal box?)
I don't want someone to come knocking on my door because I don't live in the US, and I'm doing something wrong.
Thanks!

[surplusdealdude]

A US PO Box is quite acceptable.

Half of the US PO boxes near the border must belong to ebayers.:-D

Nice thing about a US Bank account is that they issue a debit card that's also a credit card ( with a 0 balance). You can then use that card to set up with companies that require a US credit card and the funds just come out of the bank account.

You can then use the US Bank account to set up a US Paypal account and, 60 days after opening that account, you can get a Paypal debit card, so you can get your money out of Paypal INSTANTLY at any ABM. The Paypal debit card is also a credit card, too.

2 more credit cards = 2 more ebay selling ID's and stores, if you want them.B-) -------------------------------------------------------------------

It is our similarities that make us all human - it is our differences that make us all interesting

[jrdiiorio]

For Paypal fees I think he means the first you lose 4% on your total payment. Then when you withdraw you would lose the additional 1.5% on the exchange rate.

As for the new Top Seller system I see the major problem because of the buyers. So many times have I received 1 and 2's because the buyers do not read. People give low scores for shipping because they thought it took to long to receive and not the time it took to post. Buyer's will score low on product description if its not new even though its described as used. They will give you low scores if they think you overcharged for shipping even though the postage collected is exactly what it cost.

Just basically the name system will make it very difficult to keep your top seller status(discount). Just a couple of stupid customers can cause you to lose it.

[surplusdealdude]

Well, then, you should plan to do business without it, since you're so convinced you can't keep it. -------------------------------------------------------------------

It is our similarities that make us all human - it is our differences that make us all interesting

[craftycatsattic]

Maybe they should just do away with no reserve auctions and have Fixed price with free shipping on everything .. make it againts ebay policy to charge shipping fee's .

Everything is relevant to the market you are catering to. In my case, research has shown that fixed price/store items need auction items to stimulate their movement. My fixed price/store sales triple or quadruple when I run auctions. To me the end of auctions would mean the end of eBay.

And as for the FREE SHIPPING: by forcing sellers to build S & H into their item cost, they would be penalizing buyers since they will pay the shipping and handling fee for each and every item they purchase. Not only will this stunt multiple item purchases from the same buyer it will also drive buyers away from the site.


I dunno regardless its frustrating with all the changes .

The changes have been frustrating for everyone but lots of people have adapted and taken advantage of a system that rewards the top sellers...rewards which we never had before. It sounds to me like you've grown too fast and haven't been able to put an organized customer oriented system in motion.

[craftycatsattic]

"Yes, I kept wondering, because I have been above $3000 for long time and they kept charging 2.9% + $0.30 until I found out you have to apply for merchant rate.

On fee structure page, there is a "View merchant rate criteria" link, click it and follow instructions. I just did that a week ago and was immediately approved and saving few cents here and there since then."

Thanks dpmicro. To think about all the money I've could have saved all these years! I just applied. I was unable to find the link from the fee structure page but searched the keywords "merchant rate criteria" which brought me to where I needed to go.

[recyclemikey]

I think that I have a merchant account.
According to the 'fees' section, my rates are:

$0.00 CAD - $3,000.00 CAD 2.9% + $0.30 CAD
$3,000.01 CAD - $12,000.00 CAD 2.5% + $0.30 CAD
$12,000.01 CAD - $125,000.00 CAD 2.2% + $0.30 CAD
> $125,000.00 CAD 1.9% + $0.30 CAD*

Can it get better then that? If so, let me know. I've done some deals in the 10's of $1000's and it's a good chunk of coin that they take. Guess I should've just done a bank transfer at that point but PP is quick and easy ..

but is it quick and easy enough to lose that much cash too?