Selling on Ebay

[TTR]

While I don’t sell (or buy) a lot of stuff on EBay, I’ve found it quite easy and convenient.

I usually have about 10-15 “Buy It Now” listings running, some with “Make Offer” option.

 

About a week ago, I listed an item (a slightly incomplete set of original manuals for a fairly rare, high value car) a friend gave me maybe 6-8 months ago. Not quite sure what to ask for them (brief research didn’t yield much), I decided to try 7-day “Auction” with what I thought to be perhaps little on the high side starting bid and figured if no interest within 7 days, I can always lower it.
Well, within few hours after listing, someone sent a message asking for “Buy It Now” price, to which I decided to reply with a figure almost twice the starting bid and received a prompt response “OK, I’ll take ‘em”. Few minutes later, the deal was done. Buyer has since received them and apparently is very happy. I’m too.

[Billy Kingsley]

I just saw a post on Twitter today from one of my other hobbies...the seller said "everything you see here" and the buyer is having a fit because he didn't get the kitchen table the photo was taken on.  I wouldn't believe it but he posted screenshots. 

[Dynaflash8]

Because Hershey wasn't open this year, I just went back to eBay.  I've found it so complicated I simply hate it.  But, with nothing else to do and no place to go I tried to figure it out this past weekend.  I listed six items.  I tried listing them for what I felt they were worth and what I'd have put them on the table for at Hershey if I could have gone.  So far I sold one color & trim book for a 1964 Buick, but nothing else.  I have loads of 1941 Buick parts, good stuff too, left over after my last restoration.  And I have a lot of nos parts for Buicks I've sold in the last 4-5 years.  I'd love to just price this stuff and set it on the table or the ground and hope it doesn't rain.  After listing just six parts, I don't know if I'll try to wade through all of the new rules or not; especially trying to price mailing.  Most of the stuff won't fit in a priority flat rate box, so the only way I can list it is pack it first and measure and weight it

[TTR]

4 hours ago, Dynaflash8 said:

Because Hershey wasn't open this year, I just went back to eBay.  I've found it so complicated I simply hate it.  But, with nothing else to do and no place to go I tried to figure it out this past weekend.  I listed six items.  I tried listing them for what I felt they were worth and what I'd have put them on the table for at Hershey if I could have gone.  So far I sold one color & trim book for a 1964 Buick, but nothing else.  I have loads of 1941 Buick parts, good stuff too, left over after my last restoration.  And I have a lot of nos parts for Buicks I've sold in the last 4-5 years.  I'd love to just price this stuff and set it on the table or the ground and hope it doesn't rain.  After listing just six parts, I don't know if I'll try to wade through all of the new rules or not; especially trying to price mailing.  Most of the stuff won't fit in a priority flat rate box, so the only way I can list it is pack it first and measure and weight it

I hear you,. I’m not very computer/modern tech savy, but still a fairly quick learner and after 8 or so years on eBay have developed ways that work for me, but get easily frustrated when they or any other computer or interweb operators/systems “update” (i.e. change) the way they work. I would almost like to use word “hate”, but since I don’t appreciate or approve its connotations, I prefer not to use it.

 

Most of my listings are for items (vintage car parts) from couple of hundred to few grand a piece and most are something I reproduce for a market which I know, while worldwide, to be  is very limited, so I don’t mind the if they just sit and wait for someone to find them from eBay, although good portion of prospect buyers either know about me or my products and buy directly.

 

I’m not familiar with numerous other online market places, but with recently occurred and upcoming closures of millions of brick & mortar small retailers around the globe, any and all online selling is going to multiply hugely in the near future and become way more cluttered/competitive than it (probably ?) already is. And influx of cheap Made in Ch**a crap, which  has become a beacon of choice for most people, including so-called classic car guys, most of the quality or original items are destined to become landfill material very soon.

Edited August 10, 2020 by TTR (see edit history)

[TTR]

In my experience, as limited as it may be, vast majority of shipping damage is caused by inadequate packaging, i.e. preparation or lack thereof by the sender/shipper.

 

I've been producing and shipping fragile items, including custom-made/-produced one-off automotive glass, like large curved one-off windshields, back windows, etc for variety of classic/collectible/exotic/etc cars over 25 years to every continent on this planet and only once received a claim for arrival (within U.S.) of damaged product (one of the several very large compound curved windshields I produce) which I immediately sensed/suspected* to be BS, but promptly apologized for the inconvenience it has/will caused delay before the (free, including expedited shipping) replacement will arrive in few days. 

Buyer/claimer sounded very surprised** and called to thank me after receiving the replacement in perfect condition. 

 

*Both the initial and replacement windshields were packaged using exactly same methods and materials, which I originally designed to accommodate just about any and all eventuality, including potential of the packed crate falling from a forklift, loading dock or transportation truck. 

 

** I did ask if he had, by chance, taken any photos of the (allegedly) damaged shipping crate prior to accepting , opening, removing the content or discarding it. Obviously not, but (later) sent a picture of cracked glass, taken from such close proximity and poor resolution it was impossible to identify whether it was one I had sent or even new.

This was over 20 years ago and ever since I've advised/instructed buyers to photograph any visible damage on the crate or package AND refuse delivery they appear significant.

[60FlatTop]

38 minutes ago, auburnseeker said:

oliticians on all sides of the aisle

 

Oh! It's aisle. I thought they always talked about an isle. Poplar Island in Chesapeake Bay came to mind.

Here I imagined them running hither and thither about the island like a bunch of Hatfields and McCoys.

 

Hmmmm, I understand better now. They are in the same building like the Irish/Italian wedding my family once had.

[thunderbird sunroof]

ARE YOU STILL BUYING NOS NORS PARTS.  I HAVE 25 SPEEDO CABLES IN BOXES 40,50.  INTERESTED.   PAUL.  PBW395@VERIZON.NET.  201 481 4401.  

[60FlatTop]

Tomorrow is Tuesday. There will be a green wheeled container in front of my house and every other house on the street. It w2ill be full of American made blow molded plastic, packaging pieces, probably some letters marked "Urgent", "Important USA" with an eagle logo, and various other fake authoritative emblems, black plastic liners with their contents, and much more trash that bought home a paycheck for many more families that the auto plants and durable products manufacturers made.

Three days a week this happens in neighborhoods of my small village. People's lives, families, and futures depend on the weekly production of garbage for next week's pick up.

Watch the ten wheeler garbage trucks go by and just imagine the economic dependence on the manufacture of garbage.

 

From the big trucks to the used drinking straws hidden in the debris, it's a whole ecosystem. And livelihood depended upon.

 

That's tons of manufacturing.

[Dynaflash8]

I've just spent some time trying to figure out the "automated" listing form provided by EBAY.  It is ridiculous. I wanted to offer some items as "make an offer".  I could not.  I looked at the "help" and they said where to go, but that place wasn't there. Another item is listed as "buy it now" and I don't know how it got that way, nor could I figure it out.  It was okay, I wanted it to be that way, but I don't know how it got that way.  The form is one of the worst to use I have ever run across in my life.  Please dome back Hershey .

[auburnseeker]

I keep my ebay as simple as possible and always use auctions only listing each new item using an existing one as a pattern so I don't venture into any other type of selling.  I'm sure however they did it 6 months ago,  is totally different than how it is now.  As it is their improvements usually require me yelling at the computer for an hour or more while I learn where they hid all the features that were there the day before when I did my previous listing. 

 

I wish I could help you out. 

 

About once a year I have to help my wife set up to sell things, auction style and even that is always a different experience than my own.  

[edinmass]

eBay, UPS, and Fedex have a competition to see who can have the most asinine website that is unnecessarily complicated and defies logic. They are all very successful at making their pages incomprehensible.

[60FlatTop]

Sometimes you wonder about the shipping routes and you just have to save the tracking data. If it only happened once it would not have been noteworthy.

 

[1937hd45]

eBay will get worse with the new upgraded information required for a listing, try and list a 100 year old postage stamp and see what I mean. Bob 

[TTR]

Personally I haven’t seen anything effective enough done or happened within last 3 years that will change the (inevitable) outcome of damage caused by decision making and subsequent actions spanning over several decades.

OTOH, I haven’t seen much anything else to that effect a long as I’ve been observing and paying attention to world affairs in general, let’s say at least 30-40 years now.

Everything appears to be based on ideology of “kicking the can ...”
 

While I may not be old enough to escape that outcome unscathed, I’m glad I don’t have children or grandchildren to leave with a continually worsening mess created by my generation.

————

 

BTW, blaming eBay, Amazon or any other online entity (websites/-store) providing platforms for consumers & suppliers to conduct business transactions is just silly, like blaming brick & mortar retailers for same.

What’s next, blaming grocery stores selling crap that makes our cholesterol too high... or doctors diagnosing diseases & illnesses we don’t want have ... or AACA organizing swap meets where vendors don’t sell items we need or have interest in... or for providing an interweb forum were we might encounter opinions/views different from our own ...  ?

Edited August 11, 2020 by TTR (see edit history)

[auburnseeker]

1 hour ago, 60FlatTop said:

Sometimes you wonder about the shipping routes and you just have to save the tracking data. If it only happened once it would not have been noteworthy.

 

I've had several like this.  The customer then gets upset at me because it's taking so long.  I tell them as much as ebay says I'm responsible for the product until it is placed in your hands,  I have no control over what happens to it once I drop it off at the post office within the 24 hour period I have specified.  One item just took 2 weeks to travel 60 miles.  

[TTR]

14 hours ago, edinmass said:

eBay, UPS, and Fedex have a competition to see who can have the most asinine website that is unnecessarily complicated and defies logic. They are all very successful at making their pages incomprehensible.

Hmm, I must say I find this ^^ surprising. 
While I also still prefer handling my business transactions in person, whether buying, selling or shipping and often find many modern, digital age things overly complicated or at times even intimidating my pea size brain, I would’ve thought if a numb-skull like me finds aforementioned websites rather easy & simple to navigate/use  ...
...

Edited August 11, 2020 by TTR (see edit history)

[auburnseeker]

I just had the customer tell me that Mirage piece is still insured because they give all shipments $50 insurance.  No they don't.  Only Priority mail and that would start at about 8.00 for that shipment, then add in the box for 2.50 and we are at 10.50 for shipping.  That's almost what the whole order was. Plus I make even less as ebay then gets 15% on the 10.50 shipping not the 5.30 shipping.  I love having customers tell me about shipping.  I just have to shake my head.  Most rarely ship anything.  You learn just enough shipping every day, Have a pile to get out today, that you know the basics in and out.  

 

Had another customer bid (now bidding is worse than buy it nows when it comes to cancelling a sale) won 6 items last night,  then immediately wanted to cancel the two most expensive items he ran up to $70 total and only buy the cheaper items.  What the hell.  My two best sales of the night.  I'm sure the second bidder won't touch them as a second chance.  I even told him I can put them in the order you paid for and you have shipping left over I will refund so they will ship for free with your order and you will get a refund because he paid without asking for an invoice so he was upset about ebay's lumped shipping price,  even though every listing I have listed states right in the beginning block 

“Read the Description!!! For Combined shipping, Message me once the final item you are interested in has ended, that you need an invoice. (Do not request a total it will Not work) I will then get one within a day or so. Ebay checkout will not combine shipping automatically!”

 

It's hard to be added to my blocked bidder list,  you really have to P me off but guess who just joined the list.  as he still wants the transaction cancelled.  When you burn the olive branch that has been extended,   don't expect it to regrow. 

[60FlatTop]

11 minutes ago, auburnseeker said:

then immediately wanted to cancel the two most expensive items he ran up to $70 total and only buy the cheaper items.

 

Ebay probably showed the cheaper ones at the bottom of the page when it updated after his bid.

[auburnseeker]

I don't understand,  especially on bidding how ebay can even consider allowing to request to cancel a transaction.  I have had it happen a few times this year as soon as the auction ended.  One the guy even paid first for a single item then requested the cancellation.  I don't know of too many real life auctions that allow you to back out after you bid and especially paid for an item you haven't even seen yet to determine if there is anything wrong with it.  I also believe cancelling bids days after they are placed and right before the auction ends is a crock.  They run the price up,  scare off other customers then the item sells for pennies over the opening bid because no one is expecting the price to go from $50 down to 2.99 the alst day of the auction. 

 

These are reasons we gripe about ebay for anyone not familiar with fatal flaws to the system that they never address. 

[PONTIAC1953]

19 hours ago, 60FlatTop said:

Sometimes you wonder about the shipping routes and you just have to save the tracking data. If it only happened once it would not have been noteworthy.

 

i shipped a used gas tank from the greyhound bus terminal in springfield missouri going to a place in west virginia, i could not believe where they took it when it left springfield, 1st it went to atlanta  georgia, next i track it to chicago illinios, then it was in a eastern ohio town near the west virginia state line, so the buyer drove there and picked it up, not knowing how much longer greyhound was taking the gas tank around the country. it was like a month when it should have been about one week.

[edinmass]

Bill......I don’t think people are concerned about the PO ability to handle voting by first class mail. I think the concern is tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of ballots going out unaccounted for, and then getting turned in. Example.......in Massachusetts the lottery would send out coupon mailers for free lottery tickets four times a year. Each booklet was worth five bucks if you “returned or cashed them in” at the store. It only took two times before we saw fraud in the try it for free system. A salesman who was picking up his mail noticed 90 percent of the junk mail with the coupons were in the trash at the PO. He pulled them out, and then when working his part time job cashed in thousands of dollars with of coupons and took the money out of the cash register. Since he wasn’t making money disappear and the machine balanced out at the end of the night, the store was credited and every one was happy......and the salesman made thousands for a few hours time. This went on for five years till the state caught onto the scam. Some postal workers were eventually sucked into the scam.........taking trays of coupons and not placing them in the mail. It all ended up as a giant mess, and people getting convicted. The same issue can be applied to the ballots that half the people won’t bother returning. Some group, person, or organization will try to collect them and use them to sway results........remember, it’s not just the national ticket they want to change, it’s the small local, county and state wide races that can easily change by just a few hundred votes. Pandemic aside......showing a photo ID and voting in person is easy, safe, and not subject to much funny business. When election results are publicly called into question with legitimate questions, we are all in BIG TROUBLE. 

Edited August 12, 2020 by edinmass (see edit history)

[Harold]

The biggest shipping issue I ever experienced came to a happy conclusion yesterday.

 

I sold a tackle box on eBay to a buyer in Illinois.  I mailed it (by Retail Ground since it was oversized for Priority Mail) on July 16th and the last racking entry was on  July 22nd (in transit, arriving late).    I filed a lost mail report with the Post Office and didin't make much headway.  The buyer (who is very patient, luckily)  wrote that the package was delivered yesterday, after nearly a month.

[1937hd45]

We had a storm come through Tuesday August 4, got power back Saturday August 15, some people in town are still out. It closed the post office until Monday. Trying to get eBay to remove two late shipping postings to my Seller Rating. Seller Rating, the LARGEST PITA eBay has come up up with to date. Bob

[39BuickEight]

8 hours ago, pontiac1953 said:

i shipped a used gas tank from the greyhound bus terminal in springfield missouri going to a place in west virginia, i could not believe where they took it when it left springfield, 1st it went to atlanta  georgia, next i track it to chicago illinios, then it was in a eastern ohio town near the west virginia state line, so the buyer drove there and picked it up, not knowing how much longer greyhound was taking the gas tank around the country. it was like a month when it should have been about one week.

I used greyhound once.  They just stick it on whatever bus it will fit on to keep it moving.  They don’t want it looking like it’s just sitting somewhere.  That’s what they told me.  If a bus going your direction is packed, they just stick it on the next one going who knows where.  My package went through Arizona on the way to Minnesota from Kentucky.

[JACK M]

9 hours ago, Buffalowed Bill said:

In the states of Washington and Oregon  complete mail in voting has been successful for twenty years. Comprehensive studies have determined that fraud is virtually non existent (.00004%).

 

I think I saw that they are even going to start covering the stamp in Oregon.

I wouldn't have the voting by mail any other way. (And yes, it can be done on my own time schedule which makes it nice).

Also there is a drop box in the PD parking lot. Easy Peasy.

[Joe in Canada]

On 8/10/2020 at 12:34 PM, Dynaflash8 said:

A lot of business and manufacturing has come back to this country in the last few years.

 

Manufacturing is moving mainly to India from China seeing all the issues with China and India with a lower overhead now. Remember not long ago in the 90s  Mexico was the place to move your factory for a higher profit with less overhead. But with the environmental issues and wage increase Mexico's manufacturing has been moving to China slowly. It is a never ending cycle so do not believe what you hear about manufacturing coming back to the US. Until they publish that alleged long list of who came back that they will never do .  

I watch the North American industrial auctions and see who is bankrupt or moving and there is not much moving into the US. It is called smoke and mirrors what you are being told. 

I myself use Bidspotter

https://www.bidspotter.com/en-us/auction-catalogues

https://www.go-dove.com/search?isAdvSearch=1&timing=bySimple&timeType=atauction&locationType=state&country=ZAF&countryName=South Africa&redirect=international.go-dove.com&results=results

[Buffalowed Bill]

Ed,

 

I don't want to start a fight, I'm just trying to set the record straight. When I first heard the term "alternative reality" I laughed. Since that time I have come to realize that what it means in the real world. If a disingenuous statement is repeated enough times it becomes the truth to some. This is not political, and it isn't some hypothetical process, for which there is no track record. What seems to be ignored is the facts regarding comprehensive studies, done on millions of votes, that have been cast over five western states, over twenty years. These studies indicate 22 cases of people trying to vote twice, in more then on location, or .00004%. All of which were caught, and votes not counted. 

 

I'm a retired postal employee with forty three years of service, the last thirty five of which included oversight of the process of mailing out the ballots. I can vouch for the security of that part of the process. For the rest of the the process I would like to defer to Washington, Secretary of State, Kim Wyman (R), who has invited national leaders to the state for a review of the process. An invitation which has not been accepted, by any national leader.

 

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/washington-was-a-vote-by-mail-pioneer-now-other-states-are-following-suit-amid-coronavirus/

 

Bill

Edited August 12, 2020 by Buffalowed Bill (see edit history)

[TTR]

3 hours ago, Buffalowed Bill said:

... if a disingenuous statement is repeated enough times it becomes the truth to some.

The most common denominator between all major organized religions and political movements throughout the recorded history.

Not only are they banking on it, but wouldn’t succeed/survive without.

Edited August 12, 2020 by TTR (see edit history)

[TTR]

7 hours ago, 39BuickEight said:

My package went through Arizona on the way to Minnesota from Kentucky.

Same/similar thing happens every day with countless classic/vintage/etc cars around the U.S. (& the world), when individuals choose/use “cheap(est)” transportation service providers (i.e. online brokers) they can find for long distance hauling, usually after buying or selling a car. 

 

Edited August 13, 2020 by TTR (see edit history)