eBay

kronozio-canada · ‎09-10-2013

Hi guys!

We started a couple of weeks ago on selling hard time on EBay.ca and it's starting very well we are now power seller after a month! 🙂

But... as we have already shipped around 800 items we found that 80% of the sell are done to Canadian customers around 15% US and 5% others. We know that the potential on US market compared to Canadian are so much higher that we don't want to miss something big. As we tested already when listing our items on the ebay.ca site it look like we also find it on the ebay.com site. I tried from home and also from a US proxy to be sure. So does it may make a difference to sell on ebay.com also or just ebay.ca is the same thing???? Why some people are listing items on both site? Any advantages? There something I don't understand maybe...

Thanks

OSSC

femmefan1946 · ‎09-11-2013

You are doing so well, I am amazed you need any advice!

Any other payment methods would have be asked about ---This is an illegal statement

Order must be paid for within 48 hours. -- This is unenforceable and unfriendly. You can require that the buyer have an active Paypal account and require Immediate Payment on Fixed Price listings. These settings are in your Seller Preferences, not told to the customer.
If payment is not received customer is at risk of a transaction cancellation -- Empty threats are ignored by bad buyers and annoy good ones.
(Contact seller if you need to request more time)-- Don't encourage slow payment. Naturally, any such spontaneous requests should be treated with respect, but don't encourage them.

Registered or Xpresspost mail is always available for added cost which varies by location. – Given the value of your products, I would make these services standard. You need Confirmation of Delivery to win an Not Received claim, and you are in a high fraud demographic. If the value is over $250, you need Signature Confirmation.

On totals of $100+ we may require registered or xpresspost at our discretion.
This is for the safety of your package during transit. – Actually you are covering your own assets- and your customers know it. See above and make this service standard.

PLEASE WAIT FOR YOUR INVOICE BEFORE PAYING WHEN YOUR TOTAL IS OVER $50.00 – If this is to reduce the shipping charge, I believe it is better to give a refund (easy with Paypal) unexpectedly than to make the buyer wait while you do it. If it is to raise the cost (and the service) that is illegal.

BTW – “illegal” here just means it contravenes your eBay agreement. The Mounties are not going to show up on your doorstep.

As for slow US sales, while they are ten times our size, they are not as interested in hockey as we are, which may explain much of the difference.

pocomocomputing · ‎09-11-2013

In addition to the points above, drop the comment about shipping to confirmed addresses. PayPal Seller Protect no longer requires this and protects you for for any address that is on the PayPal shipping notification.

As for PayPal Seller Protection, it protects you only if you use a shipping service with proof of delivery. Lettermail or Letter Post with registered mail is not acceptable proof of delivery as far as PayPal is concerned from comments I have read on these forums. Within Canada you can use Expedited Parcel Canada for DC and use an option ($1.50?) for Signature Confirmation. You can also use Xpresspost Canada for signature option but that generally cost more than Expedited Parcel. To the USA you can use Expedited Parcel USA for DC (no SC available) and Xpresspost USA for SC. To other countries, you end up using Tracked Packet for DC and XpressPost International for SC. Both of these services are not available to all countries.

For PayPal Seller Protection, you must use SC for PayPal transactions amount (Price + shipping) over $250. Please note that PayPal Canada says $325 is the limit which is probably true for selling to Canada buyers. For USA buyers and worldwide, $250 US is the break point when to use SC.)

For low cost items, use Lettermail/Letterpost/Light Packet. It is cheap and gets more sales because of low shipping cost. Some buyers may make false claims of not receiving the item so self insure (that is, expect to have a claim and factor it loss into your pricing overall).

pocomocomputing · ‎09-11-2013

Other comments on your listings (looking at 251328785685)

1) See picture for condition or send us an email for more details

I would think that you would describe the item in detail rather than have a buyer ask questions by email. Provide information so the buyer can decide if they want to purchase now.

2) WE ARE SHIPPING TUESDAY & THURSDAY

You should consider shipping daily or at least Mon-Wed-Fri. Your handling time in the listing is 2 days. If a buyer purchase just after you 8 am cutoff time on Thursday, then it will not be shipped until Tuesday. This is more than 2 business day handling time. Your Shipping Time DSR may get lower scores because of this. As well, buyers often mistake delivery times for Shipping Time (time to mail the item) and give low ratings. An item purchased on Thursday morning after your cutoff time will not be mailed until Tuesday, 5 days later. If sending by Lettermail with Canada, it would have arrived by then and to the USA and the rest of the world it would almost be delivered. 5 days is a lot of time to lose. You are going to get some bad Shipping Time DSRs in my opinion.

3) If I recall correctly, your phone number is not allowed in a listing as it might encourage off eBay sales.

pocomocomputing · ‎09-11-2013

As for listing on eBay.ca and eBay.com, many sellers list on both because they get the same amount of free listings on both sites.

For a non-store account, 50 free listings are available on both sites for a total of 100. For a basic store 150 on each for a total of 300, a premium store 500 x 2 = 1,000 and an anchor store 2500 x 2 = 5,000.

If you wish to list on eBay.com, shipping is a little tricky. You do not have Canada Post options. So what you do is set up shipping using Flat Rate shipping. Now you have to remember that as a seller outside the USA, domestic shipping is actual international shipping from Canada to the USA and Canada shipping (domestic to you) is international shipping.

Typically, you would do the following on eBay.com for shipping.

For U.S. only domestic shipping use Flat Rate and select one of three Shipping from outside the USA options (economy, standard, express). Chose the one that has the appropriate delivery time estimate. This is usually standard.

International shipping is set up with two options using Flat rate shipping.

For Canada, select choose custom location and check off Canada and enter your shipping cost. For a shipping service, select one of the generic Int'l Shipping options (Standard, economy, Express) . I usually select Standard.

Add another service and leave as worldwide and enter a shipping cost to other countries. For a shipping service, select one of the generic Int'l Shipping options (Standard, economy, Express) . I usually select Standard.

pierrelebel · ‎09-11-2013

While listing on both eBay.ca and eBay.com is used by some sellers because of the "free" listings available on both sites, it may not be worth it for your business because most of your transactions seem to involve more than one purchase by the same buyer and eBay/PayPal invoices cannot combine purchases made on eBay.ca and eBay.com

Inconvenient for the buyer, costly to you (extra PayPal fee every time).

reallynicestamps · ‎09-12-2013

Generally, it is a good idea to buy and sell on separate accounts, when what you buy is related to what you sell. Why give away your sources?

kronozio-canada · ‎09-12-2013

OMG!!! Thank you so much all for those precious information!!!!
We are new to EBay and for sure need tons of advises. 🙂
It's hard to sell on EBay with all those fees (including Paypal) when your selling low cost items like our sports cards... 😞
So we try to minimize cost and fees and be sure to get good buyer feedback. So all your advice will help!
I will take the time to read and understand everything and apply your recommendation in the next couple of days.
It's bad that EBay does not do reduced fees for small price item, selling a 1$ cards cost me 0.10$ to list (Anchor Store)
then final transaction fees and Paypal fees so not much left... Maybe we will start selling cards that are 5$ and more.

Thanks!

Will post again soon.

kronozio-canada · ‎09-12-2013

What do you mean give your sources?

pocomocomputing · ‎09-12-2013

If you buy items for resale on the same eBay id as you sell, anyone can look at your feedback and see the items bought. If you sell the item, someone can see that you bought it and who you bought it from.

So your "source" will be known and your buyers might go buy from the same person you bought from bypassing you.

If you are buying for resale, you might want to create another id for buying to separate your purchases from your selling id.

pocomocomputing · ‎09-12-2013

Anchor store gets 2500 free listings per month. Have you used them all up so that you have to pay 10 cents for auctions? Auctions at 10 cents are 7 days compared to a Fixed Price listing at 5 cents that is 30 days. You need to manage your 2500 free better so you do not pay for extra listings. You should run less auctions and have more fixed price.

You may want to consider using the 2500 free you get on eBay.com. As mentioned above, having listings on both sites causes issues. You cannot combine shipping in eBay for sales to the same buyer if the items are purchased on both sites.

Another thing I noticed is that you list in US$$ but you say your buyers are 80% Canada. I would list on eBay.ca in Can $$ so Canadian buyers do not have to pay currency exchange fees. Plus you have to convert from US $$ back to Can $$ needlessly costing you 2.5%. Now the US $$ is stronger than Can $$ so you make up the exchange fee but if the dollar exchange changes, it might cost you.

As for $1 cards, only list them when there are free promos so you never pay insertion fees. Typically there are free promos once a month for stores it seems. No guarantee. Have all low priced cards ready to list when there is a promo.

kronozio-canada · ‎09-12-2013

Hahaha didn't think about that!! Thanks for that tips!!!
So much to learn from all of you 🙂

Cheer!

kronozio-canada · ‎09-12-2013

Ok so fixed price is 0.05$ par month per card in store. I was suspecting that putting cards in auction will sell a lot more then in store because 7 days auctions force buyer to rush on getting the card... Maybe that's not true... But auction are working hard time now. 🙂

Yes in fact we are using every month our 2500 free + promo, we are at 2500 each week starting next monday but the target is to push around 5000-8500 new cards every week!

Another thing that I don't know 🙂 Considering that we are selling sports cards and that buyer combine a lot to save on shipping.
Do you think that it's better to push around 500 cards in auction per day 5 days a week or it's more efficient to push 2500 cards every Monday...

Thanks again!

bb_cool_stuff · ‎09-12-2013

Very Competitive market unless you have some unique items.

I've known some friends who thought they would do well with 90s & up items & found their average selling price was two dollars.

Time spent was not worth it with buying, sorting, scanning & listing.

Not trying to discourage you, it just seems to be reality in the category.

Does you business plan include selling the cards in volume ?

Have you checked Completed Listings to see if your cards are selling ? That will give you a good idea if the cards are worth selling.

Hate to see you spend time in a category that is known for hard work & low profits.

Puck comes around from time to time & could offer some good advice.

femmefan1946 · ‎09-12-2013

I was suspecting that putting cards in auction will sell a lot more then in store because 7 days auctions force buyer to rush on getting the card... Maybe that's not true... But auction are working hard time now.

The usual posters are probably pretty sick of this by now, but the minimum wage in Ontario is 17 cents a minute. If you are constantly relisting auctions, then one of your costs is that 17 cents. Even if you are just pushing the Relist button.

Fixed Price and Buy It Now listings may not force the buyer to meet a deadline, but he doesn't have to hang about wondering if he won and possibly finding the same card elsewhere at a better deal.

kronozio-canada · ‎09-12-2013

Thanks for those comments, in faq we are 3 creative peoples with a lots of programming and IT background and we come up with a pipeline that by now we are able to sort, scan, document, Beckett price tag and list sports cards on EBay at a rate of 2,500 new cards per week easy.
We are still in testing phase but after all bug fix, and all listing adjustment we will climb up to 5,000-10,000 cards per week maybe more. 🙂
Yep you are reading correctly we made a hyper structured pipeline that with 3 persons we are able to push 5,000-10,000 NEW cards on EBay each week! So by now, we decided of a strategy that we hope will be profitable. Maybe all of you guys can give me your 2cents on that. All cards 0.50$-4.99$ will go on our private store (no fees), 5.00$-19.99$ will go in auction, 20.00$ and more will go in EBay store (visibility). For the main source (cards) we currently have bought 800,000 cards and still buying lot each 1-2 weeks.

We know for sure that this is a very competitive market but we think that with our huge speed advantage we can do good business in that market. We need to tune all possible fees, we are targeting mass not 10-100 high end cards per week.

So all of your precious advice will be taking into consideration.

🙂

whitman.hobbies · ‎03-15-2016

This post goes to show why people are called crooks on ebay ... you think buyers and sellers are different people... and that buyers don't read these posts... or that sellers don't put items in a watch list so they can then list all of that item for sale on ebay to get the lowest price... some sellers are stupid this is why ebay is going down hill