It was a big news week, with Amazon acquiring Zappos, and eBay, Overstock.com, Amazon.com and others announcing second quarter earnings. But the biggest news lies ahead - eBay will make a major announcement Monday (July 27) about coming changes affecting sellers.
Today's issue includes a Cheat Sheet to help you prepare for Monday's announcement and eBay's subsequent Town Hall meeting on Wednesday.
Online sellers were incredulous on Friday when they received notification of PayPal's new policy updates: If a seller loses a PayPal claim, his or her liability will include the full purchase price of the item and original shipping cost, and in some cases, they may not receive the item back. And if a seller loses an eBay claim, he or she agrees to allow PayPal to remove funds from their PayPal Account in order to reimburse eBay for the liability - Seller Protection does not cover claims filed with eBay. You can review the new policy that goes into effect in August by logging in to your PayPal account, and in the right-hand column under "Notifications," click on Policy Updates.
Last month I blogged about eBay adding package-tracking to My eBay so sellers could input tracking information and buyers could track their packages online. It turns out many sellers were unaware of the USPS Scan Form, which can help you get your packages scanned as received by the post office. Please feel free to share your experiences with USPS tracking and Scan Form on the AuctionBytes Blog.
In each issue, we include a story about a reader's first item sold online. I'd also love to hear stories from buyers and sellers about "the one that got away." Did you ever pass up an item at a yard sale or auction only to find out it would have been a great investment? Did you ever sell an unfamiliar item for a song, and later find out it was highly collectible? Share your stories of "the one that got way" by sending me an email at ina@auctionbytes.com.
Be sure to check out the rest of today's newsletter, including Barbara Weltman's review of Authorize.Net, which offers merchants a range of services to help them process credit-card payments.
And finally, a reminder to online sellers to take advantage of the EveryPlaceISell.com merchant directory where you can list all the venues on which you sell, from eBay and Amazon, to niche and alternative marketplaces, to your own storefronts and websites. There's no cost to list, and benefits include higher visibility in search engines!
Thanks for reading.
About the author:
Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and AuctionBytes.com and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). Follow her on Twitter at @auctionbytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com.
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