Selling stuff on eBay

[mulletpelini 5211]

I haven't sold a single thing in over a month.  Stimulus must have ran out.

[RDCanecutter 26442]

Dead here. To top it off, eBay goofed up the gallery pics on, oh, a few hundred of the items I want to relist. So we are looking at a few hours re-diting for stuff on a site that doesn't bring in money.

Or maybe we aren't. Sometime when the boat is too far gone with rot, best thing is to let it slip under the waves.

 

[mulletpelini 5211]

Had 3 sales after a month off, maybe its a buying surge!

[RDCanecutter 26442]

Hey, anybody ever have any luck setting up a second eBay account? I have two batches of widgets that would appeal to completely different sets of buyers.

[mulletpelini 5211]

Yep, I run two, two separate paypal, two different accounts.  If you run on same comp use separate browsers ( I use chrome for one, firefox for the other)  Phones/Ipads are harder, they like to lock in on one.  Good on the run, but laptop is your best friend.  One acct is my original and one is the old ladys.  I sell the girly shit on hers and the manly stuff on mine.  Works well.

[RDCanecutter 26442]

Semi-related to eBay, I have started using targeted ads on FB again. I did it in the past, and I guess it paid for itself. It's hard to tell. Seeing as how I just parked about $6000 worth of new widgets on Etsy, I figure, pitch in 1% of that to advertise them.

I do my ads small and quirky. As in, I'll spend $5 each in every New England state for groups of people in the 30,000 population range narrowed down by specific interests that match up to a widget*.

No idea if it will produce sales. More eyes is always good.

*"Widgets" being almost always Swedish Penis Pumps.

[RDCanecutter 26442]

After letting my eBay activity drop to zero, I decided to clean up our spare room and have tossed a bunch of stuff on there. People are bidding on it. It's like old times.

[NorthLoop 14203]

Make sure if you're using USPS that you physically watch them scan the package and get a receipt. They lost one of my packages that I put in the drop box and there isn't jack shit I can do about it. They keep saying it'll end up getting returned or might be scanned later but at this point I'm pretty sure I'm fucked. 80 dollar item that some POS postal employee gifted themselves for Christmas. 

[RDCanecutter 26442]

6 hours ago, NorthLoop said:

Make sure if you're using USPS that you physically watch them scan the package and get a receipt. They lost one of my packages that I put in the drop box and there isn't jack shit I can do about it. They keep saying it'll end up getting returned or might be scanned later but at this point I'm pretty sure I'm fucked. 80 dollar item that some POS postal employee gifted themselves for Christmas. 

I always hand my packages to humans. Good crew locally.

[NorthLoop 14203]

My reverse jinx worked. Package was scanned 1000 miles away near the buyer's location 10 days after I dropped it off here. 

[mulletpelini 5211]

Seconded, always hand it to an employee with a receipt.  I've had to collect on a few insurance claims.  Zero issue when you have the receipt. All kinds of problems if you don't.  I sold the original 6 SW on laserdisc for $100 recently.  Didn't really want to, but it's not liking I'm watching it much myself.  I'm in a real purge mode, but some stuff still is a bit of a struggle to let go, just because.

[ImissWallyPryor 9046]

One of my daughters (no f’n pics) likes nice bras. She drives right by a hospice thrift store every day, and she frequently stops by to look for bras, dresses, etc. to resell. She almost always finds a few bras for $1 that she can resell for at least $10-15 on eBay. It’s not worth the time as far as I’m concerned, but I guess it gives her the thrill of shopping for bras.

My wife and I let her look through stuff we are trying to purge. If she can sell it on eBay or our local online garage sale, we usually let her keep the money. 

Edited November 26, 2020 by ImissWallyPryor

[NorthLoop 14203]

I think most of us on this thread understand that thrill of the sale, even for a meager profit. She's got the itch.

[EZ$ 2105]

On 11/24/2020 at 7:14 PM, NorthLoop said:

My reverse jinx worked. Package was scanned 1000 miles away near the buyer's location 10 days after I dropped it off here. 

Same thing happened to me about a month ago. Dropped it off, got the “picked up” notification, but nothing else for like 8–10 days until I got the notification it was delivered. Was on a $100 item too, so was getting nervous. 

[NorthLoop 14203]

14 minutes ago, EZ$ said:

Same thing happened to me about a month ago. Dropped it off, got the “picked up” notification, but nothing else for like 8–10 days until I got the notification it was delivered. Was on a $100 item too, so was getting nervous. 

Mine wasn't even "picked up". It was "label created" until it was finally scanned in Florida. 

[RDCanecutter 26442]

The main bit of scanner fun I had was when I dropped off a package at my local post office for a guy in Wisconsin. The lady scanned it, sent it back to the truck.

When I got home and checked the status, I saw that she had set her scan gun to "delivered" by mistake, so I wrote the Wisconsin guy to splain, but he was already flipping his shit., thinking I'd delivered it to myself. The thing popped up in rescans as on its way, and got to him on time, but dude was jittery. I mean, you'da thought I was his dealer. Worst case, he was gonna get a full refund.

[Funk Doctor Spock 12199]

Ebay kills me on fees, so I just use Mercari. I've had more success on there than eBay in the last year. 

[Jkwellborn 6702]

We used Mecari a few times to get some stuff. Just got a copy of Dogma on there.

[RDCanecutter 26442]

Local Post Office has bogged down. I have one package that has been "processing" a couple of miles from me for 11 days now. Have been writing buyers to explain, so far everybody is cool. I mean, I don't drive the damn mail truck.

Oddly, some of my packages to California have gotten there on time. I guess it depends on how much transport they had allocated to different routes. Or maybe it's whatever was on the top of the heap that day.

[RDCanecutter 26442]

Oh joy. Starting off 2021 on Etsy with somebody sending me multiple messages about wanting to buy various paintings, but asking for a private email where they can contact me instead.

Not sure what Etsy's policy is on this, but on the mean streets of eBay it's not only frowned upon, it's how the noobs get scammed.

I'm thinking, you're communicating with me here on Etsy, so what's the problem?

I am thinking it's possibly

1. Info-Harvesting Bot

2. Some human looking to play a clever scheme

3. An actual buyer who wants me to knock down the price (Hey, just ask me on Etsy. I might do it.)

4. Needless complication.

[NorthLoop 14203]

Yeah you need to dictate the rules there

[RDCanecutter 26442]

17 hours ago, NorthLoop said:

Yeah you need to dictate the rules there

Now the messages have disappeared from my list. Somebody else must have reported them as spam. And there I was eager to sell them my "listed artwork product."

second adventure of the day: eBay buyer, human this time, made me an OK offer on a widget. I was about to click "accept," when I remember my rule to always check out the buyer's rep. Not the rep they received, but the rep they gave to others. This guy had 35 transactions, and at least a third of them, he left negative reviews and snark. Nope nope nope. It was bad enough that he's the second guy I ever blocked. 

If it was one of y'all, sorry.

[RDCanecutter 26442]

On the upside, long-time customer showed back up and bid on 4 items at once. Endorphin rush!

[Francisco 2.0 32393]

8 minutes ago, RDCanecutter said:

On the upside, long-time customer showed back up and bid on 4 items at once. Endorphin rush!

Give me your eBay handle so I can badger you there with needless questions.

 

 

[RDCanecutter 26442]

Welp, me and eBay might be splitsville soon. They'd been bubbling about "Managed Payments" where instead of a Paypal account, they send your sales money directly to your bank account. Which if that's not creepy enough, they'll take anything you owe them out of your bank account. Could just see eBay inventing various Convenience Fees like a damn bank, but even if they don't, the goobers wanted my SSN and DOB + routing number, or else I can't list items after the 20th or somesuch.

I really don't have a problem with dropping them if they wanna be like that. I suppose they are less and less popular than alternatives, and are milking the poor guys who set up entire online stores there.

Who's selling on other sites?

[mulletpelini 5211]

Yeah I got that message to.  Sounds like a backfiring plan.

[RDCanecutter 26442]

15 hours ago, mulletpelini said:

Yeah I got that message to.  Sounds like a backfiring plan.

I guess they figure the guys who have built up actual stores that they live off of are stuck, and will go along.

I did some figuring, and if they lose 1/4 of the small fry like me, they still break even. 

I can't see how they pick up new sellers doing this. They remind me of some company that buys a declining business, and starts stripping it down and selling it for parts.

[dingleberryswitzer 2724]

I gave up on eBay after they started charging their 10% or whatever cut on the shipping.  I need to just close my account.  

[RDCanecutter 26442]

5 hours ago, dingleberryswitzer said:

I gave up on eBay after they started charging their 10% or whatever cut on the shipping.  I need to just close my account.  

I remember back before they did that, people would sell stuff for 99 cents plus $60 shipping, tricks like that.

What an innocent time that was. Now they'll go all Scientologist on bloggers who criticise them.

I am leaving up one listing as Good Til Cancelled. It's a cartoon telling people to google my name if they want to find out where I'm selling stuff now. I spent 8 years building up a repeat buyer base, maybe I can keep some of them.

[mulletpelini 5211]

Well if you find something better let us know, I'm gonna take a vacation, see what they say.

[RDCanecutter 26442]

Moving all the art to Etsy.

Still got some non-creative stuff to sell that isn't allowed on Etsy, so I snuck back into eBay. Went to relist a thing, eBay said I was "nearing my deadline" to give them all the info I don't trust them with. (They last said the deadline was back in January) But there was a button that I could pick to continue making the listing. So I pushed it, and the listing is active. Listed a couple more things, no talk about a deadline.

So I guess they could delay paying me when stuff sells, or possibly so many people have pushed back that they are backing off. We'll see.

[RDCanecutter 26442]

On 2/1/2021 at 10:38 AM, RDCanecutter said:

Moving all the art to Etsy.

Still got some non-creative stuff to sell that isn't allowed on Etsy, so I snuck back into eBay. Went to relist a thing, eBay said I was "nearing my deadline" to give them all the info I don't trust them with. (They last said the deadline was back in January) But there was a button that I could pick to continue making the listing. So I pushed it, and the listing is active. Listed a couple more things, no talk about a deadline.

So I guess they could delay paying me when stuff sells, or possibly so many people have pushed back that they are backing off. We'll see.

OK, just sold something. Money went straight into my Paypal like normal even though I am technically post-deadline for switching to Managed Payments.

[gsoda3 3261]

1 hour ago, RDCanecutter said:

OK, just sold something. Money went straight into my Paypal like normal even though I am technically post-deadline for switching to Managed Payments.

the emails i've been getting say feb 14 is the deadline.  

 

are you sure they can take money out of your bank account?  the emails i've gotten say they'll deduct fees from your sales revenues before transacting to your bank account. 

[RDCanecutter 26442]

10 minutes ago, gsoda3 said:

the emails i've been getting say feb 14 is the deadline.  

 

are you sure they can take money out of your bank account?  the emails i've gotten say they'll deduct fees from your sales revenues before transacting to your bank account. 

My original notification said 20 January. I believe they wanted to shift sellers gradually so everybody didn't switch at the same time.

You may be right about them only taking fees out of sales. I thought I saw a line where they can access our bank accounts for withdrawals, but I don't have that message anymore.

I did get this in an email 26 Jan 21:

You missed the deadline to update your account details and effective February 1, 2021 your ability to revise or relist existing listings, or create new listings will be disabled. Update your account details today, including adding your checking account information so you can get paid.

I didn't do any of that, and I relisted a few items, just sold one, and the money went into Paypal just like old times. It's probably a fluke.

Funny thing is, I reviewed the finances of my Etsy account, and it's set up about the same as what eBay wants me to do. The difference is, I trust Etsy a lot more than I trust eBay. https://www.wsj.com/articles/ebay-harassment-campaign-pig-cockroach-blog-11593009038

[gsoda3 3261]

i sure hope they're not able to automatically deduct from our banking accounts.  if they can i'm going to unlink it, but in the meantime i've linked the accounts.  here's some relevant info i got from my "congratulations you've linked your accounts!" email.  they don't explicitly say they won't take $$ from the banking account so there's always that niggling doubt.

 

Quote

• Your eBay selling fees and expenses will be automatically deducted from your earnings before you get paid. The remainder of your earnings will go directly to your bank account. Examples of eBay selling fees include but are not limited to: insertion fees, listing upgrades, and store subscription fees.

• You can cover the costs of refunds and other charges from your bank account or credit card when your available, processing and on hold funds are not sufficient to cover the refund amount.

 

[mulletpelini 5211]

Why would you not trust a company where high level management might stalk you?

[RDCanecutter 26442]

huhuhuhuuuu... Looks like I'm an eBay Bad Boy.

Today I relisted one thing, it went through fine (Anybody want a Batman Bat Boat model kit? I gotcha covered,) then for the next one I tried, I got this:

It looks like there's a problem with this listing.

• Effective immediately, your ability to list new items has been interrupted. To continue listing on eBay, please register now at (some web link that will probably dox me).

Yeah yeah whatevs eBay.

They still let me bid on stuff, I just can't sell.

Edited February 11, 2021 by RDCanecutter

[mulletpelini 5211]

yep, got my final notice for the 14th, same.  Which probably means our listings aren't even visible.

[RDCanecutter 26442]

1 hour ago, mulletpelini said:

yep, got my final notice for the 14th, same.  Which probably means our listings aren't even visible.

I mean, fine if they don't want their cut of a sale. My eBay stuff is probably better off donated to a church or scout troop.

[RDCanecutter 26442]

Etsy's perking up. It's funny how when you spend time making listings, and then do what you can to promote them, that people actually come around and buy a few.

[RDCanecutter 26442]

Meanwhile eBay just keeps getting more eBay. Got a message that April 1st they are canning the eBay Bucks program.

I mean, they had already neutered it, dropping it down to 1%. WHO CAN RESIST 1% OFF?

Back when it would hit 10% off and eBay wasn't yet charging sales tax, you could get actual gold for less than spot price. I guess that was way too good to last.

Edited March 1, 2021 by RDCanecutter
two to too stoopid language

[El Diablo 4232]

On 2/27/2021 at 1:51 PM, RDCanecutter said:

Etsy's perking up. It's funny how when you spend time making listings, and then do what you can to promote them, that people actually come around and buy a few.

I watch a series of conversations on Youtube, it's a bunch of photographers having a round table a couple times a week with a guest doing an AMA. One of the regulars is all about marketing, an old guy but apparently pretty savvy about selling his stuff online. His big thing is search terms and key words. Says using the right words gets him up the Google ladder in search results. All that to ask, you mess with that much in your endeavors to find buyers? 

[RDCanecutter 26442]

9 minutes ago, El Diablo said:

His big thing is search terms and key words. Says using the right words gets him up the Google ladder in search results. All that to ask, you mess with that much in your endeavors to find buyers? 

I use all the key words they'll give me, for bigger paintings I'll tailor them, for small drawings that all have something in common, for those I just do one batch of key words and devil take the hindmost, because I'd rather list 20 more drawings than spend the time making unique key words.

One thing I do, which seems to pull views, is to use really long specific titles with lots of words that might snag a search engine. EG if I were Charles Schultz selling a drawing of Lucy getting Charlie Brown to kick the football [spoiler: I am not Charles Schultz and I don't sell Peanuts cartoons] instead of titling it:

"Lucy asks Charlie Brown to kick the football"

I'd go

"Children in vintage clothing; girl in bun holds leather football in front of bald boy running fitness shorts shoes autumn day"

I exaggerate, but even though sites say you should use short titles, I have done better with long ones.

[El Diablo 4232]

6 hours ago, RDCanecutter said:

I use all the key words they'll give me, for bigger paintings I'll tailor them, for small drawings that all have something in common, for those I just do one batch of key words and devil take the hindmost, because I'd rather list 20 more drawings than spend the time making unique key words.

One thing I do, which seems to pull views, is to use really long specific titles with lots of words that might snag a search engine. EG if I were Charles Schultz selling a drawing of Lucy getting Charlie Brown to kick the football [spoiler: I am not Charles Schultz and I don't sell Peanuts cartoons] instead of titling it:

"Lucy asks Charlie Brown to kick the football"

I'd go

"Children in vintage clothing; girl in bun holds leather football in front of bald boy running fitness shorts shoes autumn day"

I exaggerate, but even though sites say you should use short titles, I have done better with long ones.

It's surprising what search terms people will use. The photographer I was talking about mentioned some of the ones that he uses and they, though I can't remember them specifically, were not what I was expecting. He does fine art portraits and it would seem like that would be something you'd want to use in a tag but he said everyone does that so he uses (making shit up) "expensive high-end exorbitant lavish photos".  Apparently discerning well-heeled shoppers actually use those terms. 

[RDCanecutter 26442]

I will have to start throwing out "expensive" as a key word-- if that's what people want, who am I to make them unhappy?

[mulletpelini 5211]

So, I didn't bow, and ultimately closed shop.  I talked to them, told them it was bullshit.  Said I should be given an option whether to stay as is or go.  They didn't care.  I don't like one entity controlling everything, it's too easy to get painted into a corner by someone with that much power imo.

Also, we lost power on the 18th, so I couldn't print labels for shipments that day, because, no power.  I could do it by hand though, right?  Buzzzz, couldn't access computer, because no power.  Dropped off the shipment on the 19th a day late, where it apparently got left in a bin, untouched for the next 3 days without reporting any movement because the airlines are down and everything is backed up.  So this fuckface from California starts freaking out about why his shipment isn't on the way blah blah blah.  I asked him if he watched the news about what was going on in the midwest, he didn't like that.  Finally on the 23rd it reports that the PO has it, only that it still remained here apparently for 3 more days until it finally left.  Update, as of today, it's just out for delivery.  He has the tracking number, has the tracking info. but somehow I'm the bad guy.  Yes, I told the PO to hold your package....restoring power and heat to my home was much less important to me.  He's already negged me, only neg I've had in probably over 5 years.  I'll dispute it just because fuck this guy, I want him to see it gone from my rep just to piss him off more at this point.

Ironically I had 5 shipments either right before or right after his and they all snail paced at exactly the same slow rate, so I know his wasn't an abnomality.  Not one of them said a word.

So I need a new place to sell.

[NorthLoop 14203]

5 hours ago, mulletpelini said:

So, I didn't bow, and ultimately closed shop.  I talked to them, told them it was bullshit.  Said I should be given an option whether to stay as is or go.  They didn't care.  I don't like one entity controlling everything, it's too easy to get painted into a corner by someone with that much power imo.

Also, we lost power on the 18th, so I couldn't print labels for shipments that day, because, no power.  I could do it by hand though, right?  Buzzzz, couldn't access computer, because no power.  Dropped off the shipment on the 19th a day late, where it apparently got left in a bin, untouched for the next 3 days without reporting any movement because the airlines are down and everything is backed up.  So this fuckface from California starts freaking out about why his shipment isn't on the way blah blah blah.  I asked him if he watched the news about what was going on in the midwest, he didn't like that.  Finally on the 23rd it reports that the PO has it, only that it still remained here apparently for 3 more days until it finally left.  Update, as of today, it's just out for delivery.  He has the tracking number, has the tracking info. but somehow I'm the bad guy.  Yes, I told the PO to hold your package....restoring power and heat to my home was much less important to me.  He's already negged me, only neg I've had in probably over 5 years.  I'll dispute it just because fuck this guy, I want him to see it gone from my rep just to piss him off more at this point.

Ironically I had 5 shipments either right before or right after his and they all snail paced at exactly the same slow rate, so I know his wasn't an abnomality.  Not one of them said a word.

So I need a new place to sell.

Fuck that guy. I remember selling something right after 9/11 that took forever to deliver and the guy left some scathing review. People are entitled shitheads.

[RDCanecutter 26442]

6 hours ago, mulletpelini said:

So I need a new place to sell.

A few years back, Bonanza had a deal where you could transfer all your eBay listings there with the click of a button. I sold a few things there but never really got into it enough to find out if it would work.

[RDCanecutter 26442]

40 minutes ago, NorthLoop said:

Fuck that guy. I remember selling something right after 9/11 that took forever to deliver and the guy left some scathing review. People are entitled shitheads.

csb I once sold some stuff to a crazy chick in England who, upon checking her "feedback left for others", engaged in ritualistic neg rep pissing matches with lots of people.

So my time comes up and she drops the info that she never got my package, prolly working up to a refund request. Of course tracking numbers don't work once it leaves the US. But forearmed with knowledge of her past behavior, I played it helpful and polite, googled her local post office, and messaged back that I'd be happy to contact her post office down on 102 Fishvomit Lane, phone # etc etc. Well, that rang all the bells of her petty criminal cunning and in the next text she had FOUND it, no need for me to contact the authorities.

We got along quite well after that. /csb

[RDCanecutter 26442]

On 3/2/2021 at 2:43 PM, mulletpelini said:

So I need a new place to sell.

So it seems that Etsy is opening up to more than just arts and crafts. A few years back I think they were pretty strict. But recently I checked, and people are selling machine-printed tshirts, coins, plastic model kits... whatever it is you sold on eBay, there may be a slot on Etsy for it now.