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Hello Ina,
I believe you have written before about the fact that eBay is "hiding" the identity of bidders on items over $200. I just encountered a lower threshold price. I have an auction going right now. The opening price is $95.00, and I have one bid. The bidder has feedback of 1.
Often when I have someone bidding on an item of mine - especially if it is rather expensive, and most particularly if they have low feedback, I check the history of items bid on by the bidder.
My item does not appear on the bidder list, and there is a statement at the beginning of the list to alert people to the fact that perhaps not all items bid on are shown on the list.
That does not give a lot of comfort to a seller who is trying to "size up" a possible buyer.
Do you have any information besides the previously announced policy?
Thank you for your continuing help.
Carol
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Re: "eBay to Focus on Enhancing Revenue Per Listing, Says CitiGroup"
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m02/i07/s01
Ina,
No doubt about it. Sellers will soon be required to pay eBay 25% of their gross income and a decade later 50%.
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Hi Ina... I was wondering if you were aware of the growing problem with Paypal and international sales.
There is a little known rule that you agree to as a seller with Paypal that you will ship all items with tracking capabilities. Well, the least expensive way to do that internationally is Global Express... and it is EXPENSIVE!
I learned this the hard way.. Last summer I had a buyer in Italy who purchased a few items from me totaling $250.00. He asked for them to be sent economy, saying he was not in a rush. He paid promptly by Paypal. And I sent his items the next day.
Ten days later he filed a dispute with Paypal that he did not receive his items. They wrote and asked me for "the" tracking number. I, of course, did not have one. At the end of the waiting period the refunded his money because I had not followed their requirements to send everything with a tracking number.
Many people have caught on to this and have found it a great way to get your items for FREE at the expense of the seller, and there is nothing you can do about it.
I have changed my ads to require Bidpay for international buyers, but thought I would pass this one.
Paypal will not discuss the issue... They told me that if I want to be protected I must use Global Express or similar... And yet they offer Global Prioirty as a shipping choice on their site. If you ship Global Priority... there is no tracking... so you are leaving yourself wide open.
Take care.. marina
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Hello Ina and David.
I'm wondering: what do you think about eBay's refusal to let choices be made in single listings? For instance, I sell a pacifier that comes in 10 designs. I have to list them all individually, instead of giving my customer a pull-down menu to choose style/quantity. eBay is the only "outside" site I list on, other than my personal site, so I can't say whether other listing sites have this same stipulation or not. I think this rule is "podunk" though. Maybe I can't say they are shooting themselves in the foot... afterall they ARE eBay, but it seems very antiquated and unsophisticated, and I'm surprised, over the 3 years I've been an eBay seller, that I've never seen this topic come up. Even here on Auction Bytes. I'd be interested in your opinion, either by email or in the newsflash, etc. Time permitting, of course.
Thx, Harriet
Note from the Editor: AuctionBytes has written about eBay's Choice Listings policy in the past. Two links that may be helpful are:
eBay's Policy on Choice Listings:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-choice.html
eBay Configurator:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-pilot.html
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Ina,
I thought you would be interested to know that eBay seems to have a new policy about spamming its own customers. I have received several emails saying "Hurry! Your watched item is ending soon. Bid now!" yet I am not watching or bidding on this item. It does, however, have keywords that match items I have bid on in the past. I also have received an email stating "(Member ID), You bought this on eBay. More treasures await you..." There follows a list of things I have purchased, sometimes going back several months, accompanied by links that say "see more".
When these emails have been brought to eBay's attention, the response from eBay has been mixed. I have been told that it is a bug they are working on and to please bear patiently with them. I have also been told that my preferences state I would like to receive these sort of emails. That is not true. Some responses from eBay have asked for more information, such as the headers, but then I have not received follow-up emails from eBay after sending them the requested information.
This has been discussed on eBay's discussion board with me as the original poster, and it seems many other people are receiving these emails and most are annoyed by it. I believe eBay would consider it a grave violation of their TOS if I were to send these sort of emails to my former customers who have not requested them! When I reported one of the emails to eBay, their response included the following statement: "Thank you for taking the time to write us. We take reports of spam from our community members seriously and will investigate your report as soon as possible."
I'd be curious to know if you have any information as to when eBay started doing this. I have not heard any official announcement from them about this new program, something that does not surprise me in the least.
Thanks,
Lisa
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Re: "eBay Drop-off Chain NuMarkets under Investigation"
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m02/i15/s02
Good morning Ina.
Well....looks to me that the drop off store concept isn't making anyone millions. Too labor intensive I think. And too much for someone to do for you without paying out the millions that you make in wages to someone with enough knowledge/intelligence to do it for you. I know I cant pay someone to help me. Not with collectibles anyway. I could if I was selling canned peas.....just price em and put em on the shelf.
Duane
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Hi Ina,
I always check up on eBay drop off news. I see ALOT have closed over the last 2 years. Seems like several drop-off stores a month throw in the towel.
We've been going strong and have been successful. Our plan has been and will continue to be slow and steady growth.
I believe a lot of the eBay drop-off's fail is because they are not eBayers and don't understand how to run an efficient eBay drop-off company.
You may agree that a lot of people opening eBay drop-offs are "Franchisers" Not eBayers. They have opened up franchisees in the past and thought eBay was easy and their golden ticket.
Again, as you know, this business is very labor intensive and you have to run a tight ship. The ones that grow to fast tend to over spend, buying company pickup vans, hiring to many employees to quickly and they are bound to fall short on operating costs and fail.
We originally sold on eBay since 1999 - and in 2004 we opened YourAuctionCompany. We obtained a storefront and did a lot of free publicity and we think out business decisions very carefully. We believe in slow and steady growth.
In the drop-off's that fail - I look at their auctions and business model and see exactly what's going wrong. They list EVERYTHING that comes in the door! Even the franchises do this. They have 100's or 1000's of auctions up. Looks impressive but at the end of the week they have a large listing bill and a lot of returns. There are a lot of auctions being sold for $9.99 final sale. After the commission and fees there is no profit, just a lot of work and business expenses to cover the labor.
We pay for research, and heavily research all items before we take them in. And after a customer leaves we re-research the items to check high and low selling prices, and if it doesn't make the grade it gets returned.
Our average item selling price is $150 and our sell thru rate is always between 97.9%-100%. We only have 1 or 2 items a month that don't sell. There is nothing wrong with raising your standards; it makes the eBay community as a whole better. We only sell the best of the best and our buyers and repeat buyers appreciate it.
These are just my thoughts based on our personal experiences.
Adam Leidhecker
http://stores.ebay.com/YourAuctionCompany
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