Recent Selling Experiences Vent

[2nd-time-around-jewelry]

This is just a vent. Sales have been super slow for many months now. And then when I do get a few sales they have ended in  cancellations.

One person sent me an offer which I accepted, then they cancelled it because they changed their mind.

Next I sent a couple of offers out & one person bought both items but didn't pay for days. They then sent me an e-mail saying they didn't mean to accept both offers & would I cancel them.

Another person sent me a couple of offers & I accepted one. They then sent me a nasty e-mail saying I am doing false advertising because they had to pay taxes. I tried to explain that I have nothing to do with taxes & that eBay collects them for the government. So lost 4 sales. 

Then when I tried to add these people to my blocked buyer's list, it says the page no longer exists. My shortcut pages no longer work for ending a listing & blocking buyers.  And now when I want to revise an item a strange new page shows up.  I'm wondering what else can go wrong. eBay has stopped being any fun.

[femmefan1946]

https://pages.ebay.ca/services/buyandsell/biddermanagement.html

Do you usually get a good Christmas season?

Sales are way off since people got used to living in a pandemic, and we can't compare to 2020 or 2021, but we can look at 2019 and 2018 for comps.

Best wishes and a hug.

[2nd-time-around-jewelry]

I used that same link you added for blocking buyers but keep getting the message below.

The page isn’t redirecting properly

An error occurred during a connection to offer.ebay.ca.

This problem can sometimes be caused by disabling or refusing to accept cookies.

[rocketscollectibles]

Slow sales means bad price or low demand in most cases. Something i notice right away looking at your listings is that you seems to have a lot of $20 items with $20 shipping cost. Reality is that no one wants to pay $40 for $20 items. eBay is more competitive than before i think it needs to be taken into consideration. A lot of those items seems small and could be ship with lettermail for like $3. There is more to be made by shipping untracked and taking an INR case once in a while, than charging for tracking, when it's cheap items. It's maths. I see a lot of your inventory that could be priced 35%-40% lower while still making the same profit just by doing that, it's huge

[2nd-time-around-jewelry]

I've been selling for over 20 years on eBay as a hobby. I know what vintage jewelry is worth & my prices are competetive even with the shipping cost.  And you cannot send jewelry by lettermail. It is not allowed.  Everything I send in Canada has to be shipped expedited.  All items over $30.00 to the US are tracked.  So I  hardly ever had a buyer claim it didn't get there. I noticed you sell cards which are not the same as jewelry at all. Of course you can ship them in an envelope for cheap.

[pjcdn2005]

Here's a direct link to the bbl. 
https://www.ebay.ca/bmgt/BuyerBlock 

If you go to account/selling preferences there are a few links that have changed there

I've seen quite a few posts about buyers accepting offers and not paying so it seems to be a trend.  The only way to get away from it right now is not to accept offers and require immediate payment which doesn't work well for everyone.

[rocketscollectibles]

And you cannot send jewelry by lettermail. It is not allowed. Everything I send in Canada has to be shipped expedited

You can ship jewellery as non-standard and oversize lettermail. It's even on their list

https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/en/support/articles/lettermail/non-standard-lettermail.pa...?

[2nd-time-around-jewelry]

I actually tried to do that at the post office & they said it is not allowed even though the website mentions it. The envelope has to be completely flat & fit through their slot. I also put all my jewelry in a small gift box so that would never work.

[femmefan1946]

Yes you do have to be less than 2cm thick and weigh less than 500 gr for lettermail. But WITHIN CANADA,  you can use lettermail for goods. 

The gift box might work if it is less than 2 cm thick, however when I looked up on ULine, they start at 2.5cm.

I sometimes send badges by letterpost*, fastening the item to a thin card stiffener and using a bubble envelope.  This comes out less than 2 cm.

Then the trick is not to mail them at the counter. Just drop them in the mailbox, where there is no nosy (and misinformed) clerk to refuse you. 

Like @rocketscollectibles , the saving on many tracked envelopes offsets any losses, including loss or delay in transit (usually but not always real even with untracked shipments), damage, and perhaps refusal and return.

This is an example of the badges I would be sending Letterpost. They're pretty sturdy.

 *Even to the US. The thrill of being a scofflaw.

[flipistics]

I often use the ULine CD mailer boxes (S-2456) for things I want a little extra protection for. They're less than 2cm and certainly some things that can go out lettermail won't fit, but they seem to work well (they're also great for higher value CDs obviously). They fit in a lower profile bubble envelope and still go through the slot (but maybe not under their own gravity). I haven't had any issues. Some smaller things like pins I'll also just wrap in thin packing foam and put them in a bubble mailer.

[dinomitesales]

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@2nd-time-around-jewelry wrote:

I actually tried to do that at the post office & they said it is not allowed even though the website mentions it. The envelope has to be completely flat & fit through their slot. I also put all my jewelry in a small gift box so that would never work.

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This is 100% false information and a case of a post office being misinformed or making up their own rules. You can mail anything that isn't classified as "Dangerous Goods" via Oversize/Nonstandard Lettermail domestically provided that it fits the dimensions for said Lettermail. I would recommend applying the stamps yourself and just depositing the items in a mailbox so you don't have to deal with the workers at the counter.

You're right that when it's placed in the gift box it probably won't fit, but if you forego the gift box and just stick it in a bubble envelope (maybe wrapped in a bit of decorative tissue) you should be able to send out the vast majority of your individual pieces for $1.94 within Canada. If you insist on using a box there are companies that sell boxes sized specifically to be shipped via Oversize Lettermail within Canada - check out www.theslotbox.com. As @rocketscollectibles said, this would definitely make your listings more attractive to potential buyers; I would even suggest just rolling the couple of bucks into your selling price and going with Free Shipping to get that extra bump in search ranking.

[rocketscollectibles · Accepted solution]

I mean, is the gift box really a must and justify people having to overpay $20.00 per purchase. Let's be honest the ratio shipping cost to item prices is so bad on items under $60-100. Cheap items that have the size to be ship lettermail should be ship lettermail under a certain price

I see that quite often buying in my category. Sellers trying to sell something $35 and list $20 + $15 to ship tracked instead of exemple $28 + $2 untracked. Buyer pay less and seller do more money. It should be a no brainer decision. Seems like some stubbornness from sellers doing this, or the fear to ship untracked

Anyway i understand this is your things and the way you want to do but you can't blame the 'slow sales' when you could drop your prices by 30-40% while doing the same profit, and not doing it. This could drastically increase your sales. Unless really there's no demand

You could even ship lettermail as standard and offer the tracking + gift box as second shipping option, to whoever want to pay $20.00 extra shipping

[byto253]

Sorry to hear that things are slow, I hope they pick up for Christmas.  I have no clue about jewelry, those wish I did as I see enough of it at sales.

As you are in Vancouver, have you considered a shipping service to the US such as Chitchats?  You could send gift-boxed jewelery fully tracked for $7-$9 in most cases.   They often have much better rates for shipping across Canada as well, but that can vary.  Something to consider anyway if you have not.  

In case you are not aware of how they work, you are buying USPS postage from them, and they bring it across the border.  You can import ebay sales information is directly to their site, and only need to put in the weight and dimensions, the address and customs information is auto filled form the ebay info. 

[2nd-time-around-jewelry]

Yes a gift box protects my jewelry which usually has a lot of crystals & fragile parts that can break & bend. None of my pieces have ever got damaged in my 20 years of selling. But I have received so many broken & damaged pieces of jewelry when I have bought them from other sellers that sent them like you suggest. The postal system is not gentle on fragile items. 

[mrdutch1001]

I do not,never have,nor will I ever use"the offers" option. I rarely ever get asked to discount and/or get a request to lower price/ accept  offers... and I do not make offers to potential buyers and/or interested persons/watchers...

My items are listed on 2 other selling sites as well as eBay,plus listed locally from time to time, so there never is a need to discount/lower prices/make deals,etc. here on eBay...

The items sell...eventually...I am never in that much of a hurry to "get rid of items"and/or have any urgent need to do so...

hobbies are not a "must sell now" sort of thing for me...

[2nd-time-around-jewelry]

I also do this as a hobby. Thankfully I don't depend on it for my regular income. I am not on eBay just to get rid of things.  So a lot of my items may take a long time to sell till the right buyer comes along.   I only put best offers on my higher priced items.  I also list some things locally.  Items that sell really well for me on eBay are vintage electronics & audio & sound equipment.  They usually need a specific buyer or collector.

[rocketscollectibles]

In your listings i see small pins, thin necklaces, earings, and a lot of small items, no way those items could not be ship wrap and in bubble mailers without damage. We even can double bubble mailers and stay under 2cm while not increasing cost of postage when it was already a $1.94/$3.19 package. Lettermail is not less safe than parcels its shipped with letters and items under 2cm/500g. There's nothing heavy. I worked at purolator and if only you would see how parcels are thrown and treat like potatoe bags, with odds to have hundred pounds on them. Maybe some of your items needs extra packaging and would be too big for lettermail but saying all your items are not safe to be ship with bubble mailers seems really false

Anyway i shared everything i had to share but this is the kind of stubbornness i was refering to in my previous post. To me there is a part of slow sales by choice there

[flipistics]

Canada Post seems to do a pretty good job of sorting packages by weight. A while ago we got some light bulbs from Amazon, and they came in those flimsy little boxes that were simply shoved in a large bubble envelope. They arrived in perfect condition. There wasn't even any box damage. I couldn't believe it!

[2nd-time-around-jewelry]

I know you are only trying to help, but my original post was dealing mostly with all the buyers that cancel orders for no reason. That has nothing to do with how I ship my items at all. I only mentioned slow sales in passing but that has been going on for many years for most sellers.  Also I mentioned that a lot of the shortcut pages are not working properly & the new revise listing page is a pain.  That was my main vent not slow sales.