Why wont eBay allow me to ship my scrap ram in the bullion scrap section to the US

[michaelblackshadow]

I'm trying to auction off some scrap RAM for Gold Recovery in the coins and paper money>bullion>Gold>scrap and recovered gold section where I have seen many people post theirs. I am trying to auction it to Canada and the US, however when I go to post my add a warning pops up saying "Unfortunately, you won't be able to complete this listing until you select a shipping option that doesn't include the US. In certain categories, including the bullion category, shipping from a country outside of the US is not allowed." I have seen other auctions from my general location selling to where I'm trying to sell in the same categories and everything... How did they do that?? What should I do to be able to sell my Scrap RAM where I want too through eBay?? Thank You

[pierrelebel]

could you provide listings numbers for listings from Canada shipping to the USA for scrap gold?

[michaelblackshadow]

auction # 130982353445,

auction# 300962151580,

auction # 190897878927,

auction# 231050167608,

auction # 130979779934

auction # 251320246932,

auction # 331018606800,

auction# 330952559726,

auction# 300930306668 

[pierrelebel]

I took a look at those listings and, quite frankly, cannot understand why there is a problem.

I suggest you ask your question directly to the staff at eBay.ca.

They have weekly sessions every Wednesday afternoon for one hour starting at 1:00pm (Eastern):

http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Weekly-Board-Hour-Session/bd-p/23000000073

[kalvin@ebay.com]

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@michaelblackshadow wrote:

I'm trying to auction off some scrap RAM for Gold Recovery in the coins and paper money>bullion>Gold>scrap and recovered gold section where I have seen many people post theirs. I am trying to auction it to Canada and the US, however when I go to post my add a warning pops up saying "Unfortunately, you won't be able to complete this listing until you select a shipping option that doesn't include the US. In certain categories, including the bullion category, shipping from a country outside of the US is not allowed." I have seen other auctions from my general location selling to where I'm trying to sell in the same categories and everything... How did they do that?? What should I do to be able to sell my Scrap RAM where I want too through eBay?? Thank You

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Hi michaelblackshadow,

I looked up other items & narrowed down those located in Canada, and of the few I've randomly selected, US Shipping costs aren't actually specified: http://www.ebay.ca/sch/Scrap-Recovered-Gold-/162134/i.html?LH_PrefLoc=1 

But when I go through the Sell Your Item form, and chose Coins & Paper Money > Bullion > Gold > Scrap & Recovered Gold, it looks like I was able to select Flat Shipping to the US, and go to the Review Page.

Maybe drop me a note with the exact steps you're taking so I can try & replicate the issue to validate whether or not this is a technical glitch on our end?

Thanks, 

[pierrelebel]

"or not this is a technical glitch on our end?"

While it may be a glitch in this instance, could you please advise what the actual policy is?

"In certain categories, including the bullion category, shipping from a country outside of the US is not allowed."

Is this really eBay's policy?

[michaelblackshadow]

Well, I tried again, still no luck, same message. I changed the catagory to coins/papermoney/other and it allowed the listing, however it is not the prime catagory for this item.   Is there any solution for this?  Many others from Canada can post this in the proper catagory, and I would like to as well. Cheers and thanks   

[pjcdn2005]

Did you send Kalvin a message as he suggested in his post?

I just tried to do a listing on .ca using that category with shipping to the U.S. and it looks like it would post as there wasn't a problem going to the 2nd page of the syi form. At what point are you getting the message?

[pocomocomputing]

This looks like an interesting case to study with Terapeak, a third party site for analyzing eBay sales. 

Here are the results for 90 days sales from 2013--06-24 to 2013-09-21 on eBay.com.

I entered the search keywords "scrap ram gold".

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The overall results for any category on eBay.com are

$120.12 Avg. Price | $12.23 Avg. Shipping | $40.64 Start Price | 1,170 Listings | 61.62% Sell-Through

Auctions were used the most (782 of 1,170 or 69% of the time)

$97.21 Avg. Price | $10.85 Avg. Shipping | $35.63 Start Price | 782 Listings | 61.38% Sell-Through

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The two major categories for listing this type of item are

Coins & Paper Money > Bullion > Gold > Scrap & Recovered Gold

$116.73 Avg. Price | $10.57 Avg. Shipping | $39.91 Start Price | 752 Listings | 63.43% Sell-Through

Auctions were used the most (533 of 752 or 71% of the time)

$87.19 Avg. Price | $9.35 Avg. Shipping | $35.50 Start Price | 533 Listings | 62.29% Sell-Through

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Computers/Tablets & Networking > Computer Components & Parts > Memory (RAM)

$122.61 Avg. Price | $9.26 Avg. Shipping | $31.03 Start Price | 264 Listings | 63.26% Sell-Through

Auctions were used the most but not by much (150 of 264 or 57% of the time)

$120.34 Avg. Price | $8.32Avg. Shipping |$31.03 Start Price | 150 Listings | 62.67% Sell-Through

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If you look at the statistics above, they are very close and compare well with the overall search on eBay.com. So close that I would say statistically there is no difference is which of the two major categories you could be list in. I am  assuming potential buyer search on keywords "scrap ram gold" as a keyword and not by a specific category as their initial search.

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As for the Gold - Other category, here are the stats for it.

Coins & Paper Money > Bullion > Gold > Other

$92.71 Avg. Price | $18.48 Avg. Shipping | $30.00 Start Price | 7 Listings | 71.43% Sell-Through

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The number of listings in the Gold - other category are statistically too small for the results to be significant in my opinion. Average Sell Price is lower and sell through is higher and this would seem to indicate that less buyers saw it. Or just lower priced items here. Read what you want into this but the sample is just too small in my opinion.

In my opinion, I would list in the Computer RAM category instead of the Gold other (no one lists here) since this category has similar results to the Gold Scrap category where you can't list for some reason. Interesting, if you list by auction format, auctions seems to get a higher end price in the Computer RAM category than the Gold Scrap category, very close to the average price despite being only 57% of the listing formats used.

Please note that 154 of the listings were listed in categories other than the two main categories listed above. I do not have stats for them since I cannot find a way in Terapeak to just find them.

Disclaimer: Please take all of these statistics with caution. While I looked over the results on the first page (sorted by descending sales price on items sold first) and did not see any visible errors to skew the results, readers beware.

[pierrelebel]

"...changed the catagory to coins/papermoney/other and it allowed the listing"

Once listed, have you tried to revise the category?

[michaelblackshadow]

Thank you for all the interesting information. I surmise the computer catagory demands higher price as it is re-used as working parts, while scrap is just that, only good for its recycle value. Very ood information tho, Thanks.

I will try to change the listing now that it is active and report back.

Could this be a restriction because I am a new sellor? 

[michaelblackshadow]

Well I tried....

Alert

Unfortunately, you won't be able to complete this listing until you select a shipping option that doesn't include the US. In certain categories, including the bullion category, shipping from a country outside of the US is not allowed.

HMMMM   when I check the listing it DOES now show the U.S.   Wierd, as I had to cancel the changes to be able to list. 

[michaelblackshadow]

Sorry....yes it does show listing in U.S, but i still can not get it in the right catagory.   .......need more coffee.........

[femmefan1946]

Do people search by Category ? I have always depended on Keywords.

[pocomocomputing]

I will do the search by catagory and then refine with catagories or item specifics on the left side column.