The Challenges of Selling on eBay

[Ina]

In a recent AuctionBytes survey, 65% of respondents said they would like to see stories about the challenges of selling on eBay.

What kinds of challenges do you face in your online business?
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Ina Steiner, AuctionBytes.com

[Lindaalexander]

i AM AN EBAY POWERSELLER AND I WOULD RATHER BE WRITING ABOUT THE REWARDS OF SELLING ON EBAY FOR A LIVING HOWEVER YOU PICKED THE SUBJECT OF CHALLENGES.

I FEEL EBAY HAS MADE LOTS OF IMPROVEMENTS OVER THE PAST FIVE YEARS I HAVE BEEN A SELLER HOWEVER THERE ARE MANY AREAS THAT JUST DO NOT COVER THE SELLER AND I WILL NAME ONLY A FEW.

#1. There are ways that buyers can defraud a seller using paypal....I recently had a buyer purchase $113 worth of clothing items from me. I shipped the items once they received them i got a notice from paypal that the payment was cancelled. I personally in my five years of selling and buying on ebay and using paypal i have no idea how to 'cancel' a payment but this buyer did it..

I am not talking chargeback i am talking cancelled..that is what the paypal site said next to the transaction-cancelled. Now if a buyer can cancel a payment where does that leave us as sellers?

This is a case of clear cut fraud but what recourse does a seller have?

a. File with square trade.
b. File a non-paying bidder alert and later a final value credit.

That is the only recourse. We cannot as sellers file fraud on ebay as buyers can do. We cannot file for non-receipt of goods with paypal as buyers can do.

So where does this leave us only to get the contact info of the person call them on the phone try to resolve the mess only to have them post you then one negative saying you are harrassing them. A kind phone call asking for payment of six auctions asking them to call you and try to work out the problem is harrassment.?

They have $113 worth of my merchandise i have nothing and i am harrassing them????? ..now keep in mind they purchased these items using six auctions to do so...they have posted one negative and have five feedbacks left to post.

This puts the seller in a situation that is no less than blackmail by a fraudulent buyer..unusual situation??? Maybe not if we were to really get out there and talk to every seller how often is this happening and back to my original question how in the world do you "cancel a payment" once made to a seller? That is the key here. How is paypal allowing this to happen?

if word gets out we have a real open can of buyer fraud to deal with on ebay in addition to the cases already ocurring daily.

Then back to the now (1) one negative feedback..why should i receive a negative feedback from a buyer who has $113 of my merchandise has not paid me and then when i try to use "eBay's rules" of contacting the buyer to work out the situation they are allowed to post me a negative???? Now what kind of support and right ways is this to even allow this to be able to take place against a seller who pays high fees to run a reputable business on a site that allows the buyers to call the shots?

I am in support of eBay but there are loopholes in the support for sellers that is for sure. Not to mention another can of worms of support regarding protection of a sellers reputation re; the eBay feedback system.

Why should a fraudulent buyer be even allowed or enabled to ruin the reputation of a seller by enabling them to post feedback when they have clearly commited fraud, clearly not kept their part of the so called "legal and binding contract to purchase" yet they have full priveledges to post feedback and continue buying.

Another note i must add is checking this fraudulent buyers bidding practices they only bid on the clothing section in my auctions..seven auctions and won six..why only me. Could this be a case of a disgruntled previous buyer? "Auction Interference" ????Who knows. eBay allows it with loopholes in the system that must be closed if this site is ever going to be a 'SAFE ENVIRONMENT' TO TRADE.


Any hints or additons email me or write a post.
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L.Alexander

[jjsgems]

That is strange that you mentioned a PayPal payment to you had been cancelled. My daughter placed her "first" auction on eBay - sold the item - got the payment from the gal with PayPal - sent the item - turned around and all of a sudden there was no money in the PayPal account - it had been cancelled. eBay is getting too big!!

[Lindaalexander]

Has your daughter phoned paypal? There is a toll free number i can give you if you dont have it but this clearly is not right.

Where is the money? I know that my money is in the account of the fraudulent buyer that has my merchandise but where is your daughter's money?

If she never got an email stating the payment was cancelled if she never got any notice from paypal then that leaves a big gap in security. Can someone possibly have her email password? strange huh?

I am sure there are a lot of strange things going on that need to be brought out in the open.

I sell as a Powerseller on ebay and for the most part it is a great place to sell a safe place to sell but as long as there are robbers robbing banks we will have fraud on the internet as well. It will never be stopped but please remember, eBay safe harbor and all who make the rules at eBay, who pays your payroll? Who pays Meg's salary and the salaries of all the eBay employees? It is the users of the eBay system. No, it is the sellers of the eBay system.

Please if any of you read these posts give us sellers a chance to have some freedom to run a business in a "SAFE FOR SELLERS" environment.

Don't give all the tools to the buyers who only trade and steal on your site..the sellers are your money makers, your salaries and your bread and butter the core of the business the core of the site. Give the sellers some protection and some tools to be protected with especially with the feedback system.
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L.Alexander

[jjsgems]

Amen to that! I'm not sure if she got a notice from PayPal....I don't believe she did, but will have to check with her. She has at this point chalked it up as a bad experience never to happen again at this time. I even went into Paypal after reading your note this morning and checked all my PayPal payments.

I have been on eBay for three years now ....... tried and tried to get to the powerseller point, but never got there. Did everything the way the others do it, except I just can't seem to get myself to sell everything for 99 cents, one penny, or one dollar. I tried it once and good heavens I lost my shirt royally. Never again. Besides the fact, that they just take that item elsewhere and resell it for more money. So, powerseller just isn't in my cards, I guess. I have recently gone over to Yahoo and started selling over there - did pretty good over there last Christmas and starting to do well again. Just can't compete with the big boys on eBay - even though a lot of my stuff is better quality than what I see on there. I don't worry about it any more.
patr

[Lindaalexander]

i do not consider my self a big guy i guess i started on ebay to clean out closets and give it a try. I have, in my past been in businesses several times over my years. You can read all about that in my about me page on ebay.

I think Ina had a great article a month or so back on getting started or making it big on eBay. The key as the article brought out is marketing the eBay market place by check out what is selling good on eBay. There are great products out there and good prices but what is the eBay crowd looking for? What will they buy that is the key.

There are so many 'wholesale and liquidation sites' out there it is so much easier to buy these days but what is selling is the key not what we can buy. Start looking at some wholesale sites. You can buy pallets of closeouts for around $2,000 for clothing which is what i sell and other goods are sometimes much less. But check out find what the liquidators have and then search it out on eBay checking closed auction and ongoing auctions see if there is money to be made..if not move on trying each thing until you come across a good selling item that you can buy and make some money on.

For me it is a matter of survival my husband fell at work in 2001 and has not worked since if i didnt have ebay we would not eat or pay our bills what he gets in work comp is pennies from what he was making and besides they harrass you so just to get a monthly check not to mention social security and trying to get that because you cant work..

but not to get away from our subject of challenges on ebay you bring up a good subject of challenges by the fact of finding a product that sells. I have been successful in many ventures over the years but looking back i did my best when i had to as a matter of survival and making a living which we all must do so i think the article Ina wrote on marketing the ebay site for what is a saleable product is one of the number one points and number one topics for anyone wanting to be a powerseller.

I am also a trader assistant on ebay and i cant tell you how many people contact me to sell for them one lady alligator wallets $450 they are beautiful they are hand made they sell at dillards for $700 they sell in New Orleans for $750 but they dont sell on eBay and she still insists that she wants to sell them on eBay. Last year she spent over $300 in eBay fees selling nothing and I still cant get it across to her these are not Ebay material. They are good, they are nice, but they are not "ebay".

I attended the ebay Live in orlando this year and it was wonderful and some very good security issues were discussed i think eBay got a lot of earfuls because i saw a lot of people who held nothing back and i am hoping for more security issues to be resolved but it is coming too slow for the growth of the site.

I believe eBay listens and i think that was one of the main reasons for the starting of the ebay live conventions to get to the voice of the people. We have seen tons of changes just this year alone, good changes but we need more changes in the area of security for the sellers.

I can look back to 1999 and see where you could leave feedback for any reason you did not have to complete a transaction or place a bid you could just post feedback. I had one user ask me why i was asking $6.00 for shipping of a set of king size sheets she said that she took her set of sheets out and weighed them and it would cost under the $6 i was charging..well mine were $6 to ship and she did not like that so she posted me a neutral feedback comment.

Now that is not right and ebay has since corrected such problems with making feedback transaction related but really we still carry the scars of their mistakes in our feedback from the 1999-2001 years that was not transaction related. I had one lady win one auction and she posted me four neutrals because she did not like the postal fees i charged and she works for the post office and my fees were not any higher than anyone elses or the cost to me.

That is life on eBay.
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L.Alexander

[jjsgems]

Thanks for so much information! Yes, I have checked out what was selling on eBay - more popular and hot items, etc. I tried some of those. I currently have jewelry - "real gems" not the fake - I buy them wholesale so can sell them at a lower price. I have sold a few on eBay, but more on Yahoo. I started in 2000 and sold real well that fall and xmas, did pretty well in 2001 - didn't get rich by any means. 2002 in the fall and xmas I did terrible - I was selling the same as the next guy down the block who was selling everything so I went over to Yahoo and sold like crazy. By then it was nearly over xmas.

Personally, I am trying to bring the bread into our home, too. To get even clearer than that, I am trying to retire. I am still working at 68 - have to. I was hoping to make enough on eBay like the others, but so far that hasn't happened. I can't afford the wholesale lots of $2000 or so - just can't do that one. I have been in business years ago. I use the auction managers. I use the bulk listings. I'm not your typical 68 year old woman! I have been working over 40 years and am very literate with the computer.

I'll check in again at the hot selling items. See what I can make a difference in. Times are hard for people and money is not always available for everyone right at the present. Thanks for all the advice.

[Lindaalexander]

Yes i realize it is hard if i was selling now what i started with back in 1999 and even my buying to sell on ebay days of 2000 to 2002 i would be falling on my face.

The problem is so many want to make it big on ebay but few have what it takes a good solid background in computer literacy and willing to work hard and long hours. I am sure from what you say you have what it takes now to find the product to make it with.

I dont know where you are from i know some good wholesale houses not far from me and i know some good items that do sell well on ebay and there is a shortage of them. If i had two or three of myself i could do more i have the contacts just not the time i spend early am to late pm on this computer and i cant do much more than i am doing and i cant do it any faster. It has taken me five years to realize that i am only one person.

too bad you dont live closer to me i could really use someone close to get into this with that needs some help trouble is most of the people i know here are computer illerate or dont even own a computer want me to do all the work for 10% no way!

Are you open to selling anything or is jewelry your main area of expertise? I know nothing about jewelry but i have one contact to buy it but never did since i am swamped with the clothing.
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L.Alexander

[jjsgems]

I live in the northern part of Arkansas - about 16 miles from the Missouri stateline....Ozark area. Really rural up here - no stores of any kind - except a big Wal-mart. Everything I buy is off the internet for my business selling and personal. The largest city near me is Little Rock - 3 hours away - but I couldn't ever get my husband to go down there and I wouldn't want to venture down there either. Nasty place.

My work is all based on the internet and I work for a company based out of Wisconsin. I am a medical transcriptionist and I grew up on computers so to speak. Been working on them ever since they came out. I get all my work off the internet and all my work is returned via FTP program.

I am presently selling all of my 30 year accumulation of craft patterns on eBay and the link below is my Yahoo auction. Just some of the stuff I have - Sold about 6 items the other night, but had to work this weekend so haven't had a chance to get more on there. I do make jewelry also.....sterling/crystals/pearls - not the beaded stuff. Mostly I buy from a wholesale place in New York. I don't have a sales license as in Arkansas they pester the daylights out of you if you have one....don't want that.

http://user.auctions.shopping.yahoo.com/show/auctions?userID=jjsgems&u=%3ajjsgems

My ebay auction....
http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewSellersOtherItems&userid=jjsgemsnstuff&include=0&since=-1&sort=3&rows=50

I probably don't live close to you, but you sound like I always feel - if I just had more hands!!!! My husband is not into computers at all - in fact he is not into eBay at all. I have a daughter-in-law in Michigan who would love to get into something but she doesn't have any money either. My daughter really could use the money in this stuff, but she just doesn't have the money or motivation sometimes to get started. It all gets overwhelming to some of them, ya know! I figure I'm not dead yet and I would love to hit the big one - so far it hasn't come in reach of me.

Hey, if I can help you out in any way - let me know. I do love the energy surge it gives one!
PatR

[Lindaalexander]

I live in Baton Rouge Louisiana so we are not that far away but not close either. MY husband is not into computers either i got a new one last dec and he got my other one not old either but a windows me i got a super dell windows for business xp professional really fast computer so since he has the other one he has learned to get on the internet and he looks on ebay for things.

we went to a do it ebay party last december here in town and he learned a lot from that and it got him on the computer looking for vans and cars and he has learned to get on some sites if i give him a link to it otherwise forget it he could never do auctions manage the messes or anything like that.

it sounds atleast like your work is all able to be done from home so atleast you dont have to dress for the office drive to work and deal with weather and traffic. If i had to go out to work it would cost us too much besides health it is best i be home.

I home schooled my daughter she can write auctions and she knows html but she is 19 has her first job she is taking driving lessons and is slowly maturing not like most 19 year olds. She could do ebay if she wanted to has all the assets know how and even things to sell but she is lazy like some young kids today. she wants a car and money but dont want to work for it.

at her age if i had ebay i would be at it night and day i have always been energic to earn money especially if in my own business.

i did medical work for a while had to enter in computer that was when i was living in california. it is a lot of work and keeping it straight too is a job.
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L.Alexander

[jjsgems]

Hi Linda,
I figured we would probably be too far away. I have a Dell, too! Love it. I need something that is dependable for my work - wouldn't have anything else. Your daughter is about like mine - could do it and make money - just doesn't want to go through the effort.....mine is 33 years old - she really needs more ambition, but with 2 little kids I guess that is pretty well gone by the end of the day.

It sure has been great talking with you. You know, you have given me a little bright star that is glowing just a little with incentive to kick in my "get up and go" a tad. I may never get up to the top, but I'm going to have fun trying anyway. Now back to my regular job for the rest of the day, then I'm off 4 days. Yes, it is nice to work at home but you have to be able to control yourself, too.

Good luck and I hope we can talk again. My email is Pat72529@centurytel.net if you ever feel like yackin' about eBay or anything else.

PatR

[Lindaalexander]

I have your email and i just sent an email to you earlier but i am glad that you have gotten some kind of encouragement from my post.

It is possible to do good on ebay even at our age. Just imagine if they had ebay when we were younger.

I think the people of our generation never minded working of course there are always a few but i have always been a go getter and coming from a family where my grandparents both had their own businesses it is work from sun up to sun set but it is your own and you are your own boss. At times you miss the pay check but atleast you know you dont have to wake up to day of traffic to work and a boss from another world.

anyway i have your email i guess i will send one email to get you into my email system and stay in touch please.
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L.Alexander

[jewelryspritecom]

My Biggest problems with Ebay are simply:

1) Too much rights for the consumer too few rights for the merchant and no way to defend your position against the consumer when getting a negative feedback.
2) Lack of support, as mentioned in the article, they should have an 800# for technical support. Amazon has it and they are great and I will always use Amazon when possible because they can resolve my problems on the phone if need be.
3) Fees. Man are they expensive, even for items with very little return such as $1 items. They need to learn from Bidz on at least these $1 bids. Moreover, they should addapt a model like Amazon for large merchants where you get a flat posting fee even if they raise the % for won auctions. They can even use a tear system based on number of postings. With the effectiveness of postings coming down every year, the prevelance of fraud increasing, and the high cost of doing business, they are shooting themselves in the foot and will pay in the end because many merchants will eventually have to stop posting as many listings as they used to based on low successful postings, fraud, and most of all the huge cost of posting.
4) Poor search features. Stores are not supported and the search feature stinks.
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Rey Tamayo
http://freejewelry.biz

[Lindaalexander]

Well i agree for the most part. If you are a small guy which i was when i started you cant make it and you have to start somewhere.

So any up and coming 'trying to be powersellers' really have a tough time. I see it every day.

I was making 3x the money last year as i am today and not because i wasnt doing the same hours the same kind of work.

The prices have come down way too far. Maybe eBay sees that and that is why they have raised the prices to support the big guy who can absorb those costs but it has ruined the prices we get for our items it has removed many of the smaller guys that sold things that i bought.

I like Liz Claiborne clothing for an example. In 1999-2000 I found tons of that expensive hard to get stuff on ebay. Most of it may have been slightly used or new with tags put in the closet never worn stuff but now you hardly find a piece worth buying. That is the same with many items that 'used' to be on ebay.

Reason is that many of the small guys are gone.

I listed stuff in my store last year never sold. Now i was running 200 auctions a week at the holiday times they could see my stores then but never bothered and as you said it does not come up on a search.

I have a store simply to keep my name and to wait for changes to be made so i can use it effectively.

No customer support. Well i have some as a powerseller but they cant make any decisions either. You call and for the most part unless it is a powerseller issue they have to turn the problem over to the right ' department ' at ebay.

I do realize their phones would be ringing off the hook with weirdos that i understand but take care of them and eventually they will quit. I have a lady as i mentioned in my earlier posts that wants to sell these $450 wallets on ebay.

she insists it has to be these wallets she sells there is no market for such on ebay..you cant hogtie the buyer to buy your expensive wallets. She hears that i am going to ebay live and wants me to ask ebay personnel what do you do when your product dont sell. i told her find one that does but she keeps asking over and over wants to call and ebay would get just these kinds of calls and be held on the phone for an hour at a time as she does me but you know you have to over look those kind of people you will get them in any business and eventually they will give up but us sellers get filtered to the back row because of this weird stuff and weird questions so no time for us " just give us your money so i can pay my salaries and pay for my servers and my trips and my vacations and you will be alright."

That dont work in business.

Ebay says we have to provide customer service to our buyers by answering emails by confirming our auctions as a buyer but what about them they need to confirm their caring to their customers "us" by providing the services that all businesses provide.

i expect if they keep hearing it we may see an announcement next ebay live if not before. I know this is a new company (ebay) a new field for all of us and they will get around to 'us' eventually.

Seeing Meg at the ebay live was a refreshing thing. She really seems to care i mean really seems to care and she gets some bad raps sometimes and probably rightfully so but i do think she is trying to meet the needs it is just coming slow very slow but the more they hear from the users the more changes we see.

The feedback thing is a thorn in all of our sides but from what i understand there are legal issues involved in this forum. I dont understand it but if you cant make it fair get rid of the feedback altogether. I know people have rights but when a contract is broken out there in the real world you lose your rights and bidder alerts should do that when a seller has to file a bidder alert that should block all rights to that buyer until they make the transaction right by completing their contract with the seller..

just my opinion.......................
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L.Alexander

[jewelryspritecom]

One way in which Ebay can resolve some of the mess with negative feedback is to have a challanged negative feedback which can offer the other side of the coin from the party challanging it or perhaps a mediation chat online much like this forum where the posting can be kept in record so that the readers can make up their own mind. I mean without a way to respond to the nasty things that buyers can do to you for no reason whatsoever, I mean they can arbitrarily decide to stick you with a negative feedback for no reason and you are stuck with no ability to defend yourself or show others your side.

If a buyer gets negative feedback all they need to do is drop the account and start a new one, a seller cannot do that if they ever aspire to get to the level of a poweseller. The only safe buying experience is when buying from another seller with high feedback because both of you will think hard before lobbying a negative feedback and understand enough that you need to stay away from that behavior because you can get one back.

Even a system where in order to give a feedback the person wanting to give a negative feedback will need to first accept to discuss with the person the reasons and try to let the seller explain in a scheduled time format online chat. If the seller does not want to engage in it then the feedback is allowed and his refusal to engage in resolution mediation noted. This makes it far harder to give a negative feedback because it gives the person a responsibility to get to know the person and perhaps understand the point of view of the other person and may lead to more amicable arrangements.
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Rey Tamayo
http://freejewelry.biz