A new eBay experience

[RockMyAmadeus]

I kinda get the feeling that some people here get annoyed if someone asks for additional pics. If I feel that I need additional pics to better make the decision to buy or not, I'll ask. It never crossed my mind that I was doing something bad.

 

Mike

 

Same here.

 

You're not doing something bad. However, a seller's refusal to provide additional pics is not bad either. It's simply a choice and there are pros and cons to that choice

 

This. If you're going to ask a seller for their time, you should take that into account and be serious about it. There are a lot....a lot....of tire kickers out there, who have no interest in actually purchasing an item, but are perfectly willing to waste your time.

 

I've sold on eBay since 1998...in that time, I don't remember ever selling anything to anyone who asked for more pics. More information, sure, but more pics? No.

 

As usual, it's the actions of "the few" who make it hard on everyone.

[Doktor]

I kinda get the feeling that some people here get annoyed if someone asks for additional pics. If I feel that I need additional pics to better make the decision to buy or not, I'll ask. It never crossed my mind that I was doing something bad.

 

Mike

 

Same here.

 

You're not doing something bad. However, a seller's refusal to provide additional pics is not bad either. It's simply a choice and there are pros and cons to that choice

 

This. If you're going to ask a seller for their time, you should take that into account and be serious about it. There are a lot....a lot....of tire kickers out there, who have no interest in actually purchasing an item, but are perfectly willing to waste your time.

 

I've sold on eBay since 1998...in that time, I don't remember ever selling anything to anyone who asked for more pics. More information, sure, but more pics? No.

 

As usual, it's the actions of "the few" who make it hard on everyone.

 

Sad but true.

 

I am one of those people that don't kick tires. 10 out of 10 times, if I am even contacting a seller, I'm very interested in the book and 9 times out of 10, if I ask for extra info or extra photos so I can see something better (I asked for specific photos to check 1 aspect of the book that the front photo, not scan, left me with questions about), it's because I'm almost definitely going to buy the book but I want to make sure that something I see isn't as bad as my brain might think it is.

 

Granted, I could always just blow the $5 and buy the grading notes, but still.

[jcjames]

I think what we have here is the difference between people with stores on eBay and those of us who dabble with it.

 

My approach is rather simple-- I create a listing that informs and attempts to describe any issues with an item. I take as many photos as I think are needed to show the entire item or some issue worth showing. If I describe a problem with a book-- short of me labeling it a reader copy-- I will take a picture of that problem and tell them this issue is pictured.

 

I take the approach of what I would want to know if I were buying this item. What would make me interested in buying something from an internet ad.

 

I can see how someone selling CGC slabbed books could easily get away with a simple picture of the book in the slab-- the grading portion takes care of most questions. I've never owned a CGC slab myself- I strictly deal in raw books.

 

I always try to include a scan of the back though. Yeah-- going all out on a listing might take longer and be impossible for the 1000+ item seller. But for us small fries, it is bread and butter-- and because we tend to have less volume moving through (less eyes on our stuff)-- that listing can be up there for many cycles before it sells. So why not do it right the first time?

 

The sad thing is that some small fries barely put any effort into their listings-- and those are the types of sellers I scrutinize or just avoid.

Yep.

 

I don't see the big deal about taking a picture of the inside (splash page and/or centerfold) unless it's a super-delicate book.

 

However, I don't post hundreds of books at a time (maybe a couple dozen or so) so maybe selling hundreds at a time can be time consuming to take pictures of the inside.

 

ALSO - I do NOT take pictures of books in their bags. Bags, especially the corners, can hide a lot of defects - and I don't want to hide or even APPEAR to be hiding anything with my pictures.

 

I use either a front and back scan (or a front and back picture if the scans look crappy) and usually a spine close up or two along with one or two of the inside to show page and print quality.

 

 

When I sell a book online, I try to follow the "Golden Rule of Comicbook Selling":

 

Grade, show and ship unto others as you would have them grade, show and ship unto you.

 

 

 

btw... the last guy that asked me for an extra picture.... bought the book.

 

[CODLIVE]

Taking extra pictures can be a hassle but I try to do it whenever possible, My picture area isn't set up at all times, The books are put away, My camera battery is in the charger and I have a tone of health problems so I try to describe the book the best I can before hand and picture the problem area / areas, I agree with most people that the more difficult buyers are less likely to buy.

 

In some cases (this happened last night) Buyer requested pictures of an area that he saw a problem, I checked and he was correct, I added said pictures to the auction & description and was appreciative that it was brought to my attention, Him or another potential buyer could have received the book and been disappointed, In this case it wasn't a false alarm and I am happy about it.

[Buzzetta]

No.

 

Customer service

 

Send the extra picture.

 

No-brainer.

 

Customer service is reserved for customers, not tire kickers.

 

I disagree. If I have a book that someone wanted an additional picture of then someone else may have wanted to see it as well but did not take the time to message me.

 

I figure I can take the picture and edit it into the auction. If the book sells to the guy that asked then that is great. If the book does not sell, well now I have an additional picture up there when I re-list the item.

 

This is what happened when I went to sell a book. Someone wanted to see the corners. Okay... so I took the pictures and uploaded them to the auction itself, (not through private message). The book did not sell, but when it was relisted, a couple of people decided to watch it and then had a small bidding war over it.

 

If I have the time, it is not a big deal to do.

[RockMyAmadeus]

No.

 

Customer service

 

Send the extra picture.

 

No-brainer.

 

Customer service is reserved for customers, not tire kickers.

 

I disagree.

 

Ok.

[RockMyAmadeus]

I am a big fan of actual pictures of the books in the main photo. I hate having to wade through the stock photos of certain bigger stores that give the lame excuse of "the picture is a stock photo and provided to help the customer identify the item" and then give you a handful of sentences (if that) about the item. The rest of there stock posting is more or less useless to me.

 

They seem to do this most often with low grade copies which they tend to over price on top of it. Kind of like- "just throw that out there, maybe we'll catch a fish every now and then". It is too bad you can't filter out certain sellers

 

You can.

[youmechooz]

I am a big fan of actual pictures of the books in the main photo. I hate having to wade through the stock photos of certain bigger stores that give the lame excuse of "the picture is a stock photo and provided to help the customer identify the item" and then give you a handful of sentences (if that) about the item. The rest of there stock posting is more or less useless to me.

 

They seem to do this most often with low grade copies which they tend to over price on top of it. Kind of like- "just throw that out there, maybe we'll catch a fish every now and then". It is too bad you can't filter out certain sellers

 

You can.

+1

You can filter out the successful sellers. In advanced search options i think.

[RockMyAmadeus]

I am a big fan of actual pictures of the books in the main photo. I hate having to wade through the stock photos of certain bigger stores that give the lame excuse of "the picture is a stock photo and provided to help the customer identify the item" and then give you a handful of sentences (if that) about the item. The rest of there stock posting is more or less useless to me.

 

They seem to do this most often with low grade copies which they tend to over price on top of it. Kind of like- "just throw that out there, maybe we'll catch a fish every now and then". It is too bad you can't filter out certain sellers

 

You can.

+1

You can filter out the successful sellers. In advanced search options i think.

 

sorry-- I wasn't specific enough I suppose.

 

I want to be able to click on something and ignore a specific seller for good, not as the result of a properly formatted query.

 

They have it for adding a favorite seller-- how about one that makes ones you can't stand go away?

 

PS-- and before you tell me to save my search with specific seller IDs in it-- please see the second sentence of this post.

 

Not possible at this time.

[Doohickamabob]

sorry-- I wasn't specific enough I suppose.

 

I want to be able to click on something and ignore a specific seller for good, not as the result of a properly formatted query.

 

They have it for adding a favorite seller-- how about one that makes ones you can't stand go away?

 

PS-- and before you tell me to save my search with specific seller IDs in it-- please see the second sentence of this post.

I doubt eBay is ever going to have its programmers spend time on the option you're describing here. The percentage of browsers/bidders/buyers who want such an option must be very small, and the existence of such an option is very unlikely to increase eBay's bottom line in any way.

 

The current option works pretty well, and you can build it into a generic bookmark to be used every time you do an eBay search. It's not like you have to jump through a bunch of hoops every time you go to eBay. Just make a bookmark, click it, and search away. All of your blocked sellers will be blocked. I don't know what the limit is on how many sellers you can block, but you can probably block at least 10 at a time.

 

I recently figured out how to block sellers, and there were only a couple who really needed to be blocked. Without naming names, the sellers were the sort that essentially spam the comics section daily with hundreds of listings, making it difficult to find other stuff from smaller sellers (I assume they use TurboLister or some other application, and repeatedly dump their entire inventories via a rotating, time-spaced upload). That's their business plan and they're welcome to it, but they're not selling the kinds of material that interests me.

 

Ever since I set up a bookmark to automatically block a few particular entities, browsing has become far more enjoyable.

[kav]

WOW now I can block all the people selling those god damn freezer magnets....

edit-I just went to block the seller who blocked me so I wouldn't waste my time and it seems he has been NARU'd

[Doohickamabob]

WOW now I can block all the people selling those god damn freezer magnets....

edit-I just went to block the seller who blocked me so I wouldn't waste my time and it seems he has been NARU'd

I get really tired of all the freezer magnets, postcards, giclee canvases, CDs/DVDs/drives of comic scans, color photocopied reprints, home-published book reprints, metal signs, etc. I just want to browse comics.

 

The most annoying one lately is the person who offers a color photocopied reprint of a golden-age comic, and then adds "CGC IT!" to the title.

 

That's rather vindicating about that blocking seller being NARU'ed.

[jcjames]

WOW now I can block all the people selling those god damn freezer magnets....

edit-I just went to block the seller who blocked me so I wouldn't waste my time and it seems he has been NARU'd

I get really tired of all the freezer magnets, postcards, giclee canvases, CDs/DVDs/drives of comic scans, color photocopied reprints, home-published book reprints, metal signs, etc. I just want to browse comics.

 

The most annoying one lately is the person who offers a color photocopied reprint of a golden-age comic, and then adds "CGC IT!" to the title.

 

That's rather vindicating about that blocking seller being NARU'ed.

 

"NARUed"???

 

 

 

[CBT]

"Not A Registered User" account deleted, I think is what he means

[1Cool]

I had a new E-Bay moment. I got a request to return a high grade X-Men 221 last night which is perfectly fine but the buyer's reason was "I don't need it anymore". Probably the worse reason I've ever seen to return a book.

[Chip Cataldo]

I had a new E-Bay moment. I got a request to return a high grade X-Men 221 last night which is perfectly fine but the buyer's reason was "I don't need it anymore". Probably the worse reason I've ever seen to return a book.

I had one of those recently, but the guy lied about it. Flash (#1987) #1, high grade. The reason was "book damaged in shipment" and when I received it back it was in the exact same condition it was sold in. Part of me wanted to call the guy out on the lie, but in the end it's not worth it.

[ttfitz]

I had a new E-Bay moment. I got a request to return a high grade X-Men 221 last night which is perfectly fine but the buyer's reason was "I don't need it anymore". Probably the worse reason I've ever seen to return a book.

I had one of those recently, but the guy lied about it. Flash (#1987) #1, high grade. The reason was "book damaged in shipment" and when I received it back it was in the exact same condition it was sold in. Part of me wanted to call the guy out on the lie, but in the end it's not worth it.

 

Better than having the guy damage it himself just so he justify it.