What's the scoop on being a new E-bay seller

[flatfinger]

I read a few threads a while back on the web where ebay sellers were pissed about new rules that made it easy for buyer to screw with them..;

If you are just starting out , do you need to do a bunch of small transactions to build up rep or something ? Whats the 411.

 

Any insight appreciated

[Beck]

Personally I would recommend starting with some small items as a buyer and only then start selling. eBay has become a royal pain in the ass... I loathe it, and I've been buying and selling since 2001 with 100% feedback.

 

Sellers are screwed because buyers can give negative feedback, but sellers cannot. This is a fairly recent change. I've dealt with enough bad buyers that I think this change is misguided. I still have 100% feedback as a buyer and a seller, but I think it's only a matter of time before some crazy buyer's dog, Sam tells him to give me bad feedback and then try to track me down and shoot me... good luck to them on that last part,

[D Charles]

I agree, you should start out buying small things, cds, dvds, books and such. Then after at least 10 feedbacks, start selling small priced items. Build up slowly, quickly answer questions and quickly ship once you start selling. Email the buyer a ups tracking no. immediately after you ship.

 

Sellers can get messed over by not following paypal rules to the letter. You must have sig confirm on anything over $250.00 or the buyer can simply say they didn't receive the item and you're out the item and your money as well as paypal will refund the buyer. This happened to me once, but luckily UPS took care of me. Total pain in the ass though. I sold so much last spring that I was a power seller but quit after that and only now thinking of getting back into it.

 

I'm 100% as well but like Beck, I feel the hammer coming down if I get back into selling. Times are bad and scams are rampant. I suggest you read up on the ebay sucks and paypal sucks threads that are everywhere and see how you can really mess up if you don't pay attention to detail.

[UstadKhanAli]

 

Sellers are screwed because buyers can give negative feedback, but sellers cannot. This is a fairly recent change.

 

 

I didn't know that...that really doesn't make any sense at all.

[elsongs]

Hmm, I've been on eBay for a number of years and have bought a number of items and have perfect feedback from sellers. I've sold a few items in the past but NO ONE HAS BID ON THEM (or the reserve was not met), so I never actually sold anything.

 

Because of that experience, and because the whole shipping/handling thing has been confusing for me, I haven't sold anything on eBay since. But I would like to soon. Am I screwed now?

[techristian]

 

Because of that experience, and because the whole shipping/handling thing has been confusing for me, I haven't sold anything on eBay since. But I would like to soon. Am I screwed now?

 

 

Ebay is real messed up now. My original plans were to retire ,then clean up this house (using Ebay to sell all of the items I now longer use) and then move closer to Toronto. However, with the new feedback structure as it is, I'll sell very little on Ebay.

 

Also, if you haven't had a transcation in a long time your % of positive feedback will be set to ZERO.

 

I have 100% feedback for 40 transactions, but even with that Ebay is not a very good option anymore.

Many here in my neighborhood are using http://kijiji.com or http://kijiji.ca nowadays.

 

Dan

[Beck]

The other thing I really hate is I have nearly 600 transactions and 100% positive feedback. But now they calculate the feedback every 12 months instead of factoring in all of your transactions. What that means is if I do get a negative or even a neutral feedback it will pull down my feedback score into the pits because I haven't bought or sold much in the last year. So all my work over the years being a good eBayer is for naught.

 

I think a class action lawsuit is in order. eBay is sued all the time, as they should be. If another comparable auction site came along I would jump in a heartbeat.

 

I know they're doing it to make people list more often, but I'm not the sort of guy that will put up with my arm being twisted... in fact that doesn't work at all... only pisses me off... you twist my arm, I'll break yours. I know that's not what Jesus would do, I guess He has magic powers I just don't have.