New eBay change (for a change) 6 6

[Ride the Tiger]

On 8/12/2023 at 9:04 PM, Nick Furious said:

We have no idea what you charge for your books.  We just know that if you ship more than one in a box and don't reach out to the buyer to offer a discount you must be a greedy dog.  

I don't use boxes for raw books. Oh no I made a few extra bucks. When you buy a book from someone who way under graded it, do you offer to pay more? I mean you should otherwise you're being dishonest and greedy.

[pickycollector]

On 8/12/2023 at 10:05 PM, Ride the Tiger said:

One seller is charging $200 with free shipping. The other is charging $170 plus $25 shipping. Which is the better deal? 

I would go with the 2nd seller charging $170 plus $25 shipping cost because, if I buy five of his books, I would pay $170 x 5 = $850 + combined shipping cost (let's say it's $50) rather than $200 x 5 = $1,000 i.e. $100 less and as you said, the bottom price is what that matters.

Now that used to be the case in the last 24 years from sellers that I am still regularly buying from on eBay but now with that new change, I am not sure anymore if that may be still possible or if an adjustment will be feasible and/or hassle-free.

[Nick Furious]

On 8/12/2023 at 9:10 PM, Ride the Tiger said:

I don't use boxes for raw books. Oh no I made a few extra bucks. When you buy a book from someone who way under graded it, do you offer to pay more? I mean you should otherwise you're being dishonest and greedy.

Hopefully you read my comment as being facetious.  If a buyer wants to buy multiple items from you they can reach out in advance and try to make a deal.  If they don't do that, they should expect to pay for what they get.  Including shipping in the price doesn't obligate you to offer the buyer a discount that they didn't negotiate up front.  The value of a comic book is such a variable thing.  When a price includes shipping there is no way of knowing if the buyer is paying the full shipping cost or if it being subsidized by the way the seller priced the book.   

[Lightning55]

On 8/12/2023 at 10:05 PM, Ride the Tiger said:

The final price is all that matters. Let's make an example. If there were 2 CGC slabs for sale. Both X-men 112 in 9.4 with white pages. One seller is charging $200 with free shipping. The other is charging $170 plus $25 shipping. Which is the better deal? Are you upset that the one seller is charging $25 to ship 1 slab when you know dang well it doesn't cost that much? Aren't you just concerned with the bottom price?

In this case, of a single item, your argument is very valid. The cheapest total price for the same item prevails, unless, as you said, there are other variables such as return policy, method of shipment, quality of packaging, etc. A person might pay more if they feel the benefit is worth it.

Multiple built in shipping fees are a different story. But if someone pays them willingly, that's their prerogative to overpay.

Smart buyers know when a seller is profiting on shipping at their expense. Certainly they dont like it, and shouldn't. They will ask the seller to compress the total price to compensate, to be fair. You don't have to comply, and they don't have to buy from you.

[skypinkblu]

On 8/12/2023 at 11:21 PM, Lightning55 said:

Smart buyers know when a seller is profiting on shipping at their expense. Certainly they dont like it, and shouldn't. They will ask the seller to compress the total price to compensate, to be fair. You don't have to comply, and they don't have to buy from you.

Not everyone profits when they list free shipping. I was a power seller from when the program started, I  sold a lot on eBay for years, not just comics, but stuff I had in the house, things I inherited, things friends inherited...things I was no longer using. Comics I wanted to liberate so I had room for more...so the idea was to sell the stuff, and the last nickel was not important, I wasn't paying rent bills with the money.
I learned early on that the best keyword was "free".  So many times, I just auctioned things and paid the shipping, or with a bin, tried to get below the lowest sale being offered with shipping.

There are also ways (don't know if you can still do it, because I've sold very little recently) to give someone an automatic discount if they bought more than one thing.

 I've gotten decent deals from eBay and I've gotten stuff drop shipped from Amazon (which made them terrible deals but taught me to check Amazon first for some things) ...I don't hate eBay, just don't love their changes...which is pretty much why I rarely bother selling there anymore.

Edited August 13, 2023 by skypinkblu

[Lightning55]

It is very true that not everyone profits from free shipping. It depends on how much you are adding to your perceived value of a Buy-It-Now item, and certainly a vulnerability on auctions. 

My main point is that for multiple "free shipping" items sent to 1 address, that each definitely have typical shipping included, to pay for all the separate included shipping amounts in aggregate is punitive to the buyer.

[Lightning55]

On 8/13/2023 at 12:27 AM, skypinkblu said:

There are also ways (don't know if you can still do it, because I've sold very little recently) to give someone an automatic discount if they bought more than one thing.

There are ways it can be done. Sellers can set up shipping rules that automatically combine costs or weights. And you can use Promotions to remove shipping over a certain number of items, or reduce it.

[skypinkblu]

On 8/13/2023 at 12:37 AM, Lightning55 said:

My main point is that for multiple "free shipping" items sent to 1 address, that each definitely have typical shipping included, to pay for all the separate included shipping amounts in aggregate is punitive to the buyer.

There are always variables. My nail polish seller is an example of someone who can't possibly be making money on free shipping. She lists something for $5.00, you offer her $3.50 and she takes it and most of the time ships it separately if you don't ask her to hold it. 

Between the fees, the envelopes, the shipping costs...and the little thank you's she adds, she's pretty much running a charity. I keep thinking of her. Now I (used) buy a bunch of stuff from her and ask her to hold them so she can ship one time, I pay when I buy them...but I'm not sure everyone does that. I feel guilty making offers sometimes, but I find that is what she accepts by looking at her sold items and I try to make it up buy buying other stuff from her.

It's kind of the way we started on eBay ...except there were no bins or offers...just auctions, but you talked to people. Most of them really nice people.

I guess I started on eBay so long ago, I still remember it when it was just a fun place to trade stuff you had zero use for and a place you could find treasures from your childhood (like comic books) Every time I call they thank me for being with them for more than 25 years...I want to ask when they are going to send me some silver;)?

 

 

Edited August 13, 2023 by skypinkblu
this was in the past, so I added "used to"

[Ride the Tiger]

There you go now yer starting to understand it. My books are always a good deal to begin with. So if you buy 1 book, you just got a good price. If you buy 5 books, you got a good price on 5 books. And that my friends is what my feedback is all about. No unhappy customers. Just people who saw my book, my price, and said hey this is a good deal. If the value of any particular book can vary by $10 and I'm on the low end of that every time, then isn't that what you want from a seller?

[Lightning55]

If your customers are happy with what they received for their money, and you are happy with the money you received for your goods, then all is well.

Most purchases, probably over 90%, are for single items. This thread relates to the difficulties eBay is creating for buyers who want to buy package deals at a good price, and multiple auction wins from the same seller. With combined shipping that is indicative of actual costs, not stacked shipping, not inflated amounts. It's not an unreasonable request. 

A blanket solution of listing everything with free shipping does not even come close to solving this new problem, and especially with auctions, will result in buyers paying more in shipping than they should. 

Edited August 13, 2023 by Lightning55

[Lightning55]

I have some new data resulting from this new eBay "experience". I won 4 auctions from the same seller. I asked him earlier if he would combine shipping for multiple auction wins, and he said he would. Each one had $10 shipping. 

He sent me an invoice with $17 shipping, down from $40. When I went to the invoice and clicked Continue, whoosh, it was completed! But without going through the typical checkout step where you have options of delivery address, choice of payment method, adding a note, etc.

So in spite of me making every effort NOT to get into that automatic payment, I must have slipped up somewhere, cuz it went flying through. Turns out it was OK, I would have chosen that particular credit card anyway, but that might not always be the case.

The only good news is that eBay didn't make the charge immediately upon the auctions ending, individually. I was able to get the shipping combined ahead, instead of depending on a refund from the seller. 

Definitely a new road hazard to manage.

[Gaard]

[fastballspecial]

On 8/12/2023 at 9:04 PM, Nick Furious said:

We have no idea what you charge for your books.  We just know that if you ship more than one in a box and don't reach out to the buyer to offer a discount you must be a greedy dog.  

Agree I always refund some shipping when I can once I cover costs. The ones that really bother me are the ones that tack on a $1 per book per purchase for shipping and ebay lets them get away with it.

 

[fastballspecial]

On 8/13/2023 at 3:05 PM, Lightning55 said:

I have some new data resulting from this new eBay "experience". I won 4 auctions from the same seller. I asked him earlier if he would combine shipping for multiple auction wins, and he said he would. Each one had $10 shipping. 

He sent me an invoice with $17 shipping, down from $40. When I went to the invoice and clicked Continue, whoosh, it was completed! But without going through the typical checkout step where you have options of delivery address, choice of payment method, adding a note, etc.

So in spite of me making every effort NOT to get into that automatic payment, I must have slipped up somewhere, cuz it went flying through. Turns out it was OK, I would have chosen that particular credit card anyway, but that might not always be the case.

The only good news is that eBay didn't make the charge immediately upon the auctions ending, individually. I was able to get the shipping combined ahead, instead of depending on a refund from the seller. 

Definitely a new road hazard to manage.

Its been that way for years and I hate it. They make it next to impossible to combine shipping unless you use the cart and then PM the buyer for combine shipping. I dont think they realize how its hurts their bottom end too.

 

[Lightning55]

On 8/13/2023 at 4:28 PM, fastballspecial said:

Its been that way for years and I hate it.

MOST of it has been that way for years. The part about having a payment method preloaded, and entirely skipping checkout is new. EBay overstepping, for no good reason. 

If I need to ship to a different address, too bad. Need to use a different cc? Out of luck.

These functions have been available for decades because they are necessary to the system. Denied.

[Poka]

On 8/14/2023 at 7:10 AM, Lightning55 said:

MOST of it has been that way for years. The part about having a payment method preloaded, and entirely skipping checkout is new. EBay overstepping, for no good reason. 

If I need to ship to a different address, too bad. Need to use a different cc? Out of luck.

WellThese functions have been available for decades because they are necessary to the system. Denied.

Well - don't worry. Ebay does not apply it to everyone. Had a buyer yesterday make a best offer, which I accepted. After 12 hours (without paying) he requested the order to be cancelled. Told me that when he tried to cancel, it was too late and that ebay asked him instead to contact the seller and request seller to cancel the order for him.

So in substance, not much has changed, buyers can still do as they please; ebay still put all the effort on sellers and sellers continue to get xxxxxx

Edited August 14, 2023 by Poka

[lizards2]

On 8/12/2023 at 4:21 PM, lizards2 said:

So eBay made me designate a card before I could even bid on auctions anymore. I just won four auctions from the same seller, and it autocharged me for all four, with the shipping for each item. I am pretty sure it is a seller that combines shipping, so we'll see if there is an adjustment...., 

What a dumb@ss system.

Interesting that I bought two stand-alone items earlier today, and I had to manually pay for each of those.

The eBay seller refunded postage today on three items to make the postage work out as "combined". I somewhat expected that, as the seller has a great reputation (zillaf4)

The chit-show part of this is my bank account was charged for all four purchases - I don't recall designating that as my auto-payment, but I will have to see if I can get that fixed. I never use the bank account except to transfer occasional Paypal balances. F-ers.

Meanwhile, I switched over to my wife's eBay account, which has not made me designate a card for auto-purchases.

[lizards2]

On 8/13/2023 at 4:10 PM, Lightning55 said:

MOST of it has been that way for years. The part about having a payment method preloaded, and entirely skipping checkout is new. EBay overstepping, for no good reason. 

If I need to ship to a different address, too bad. Need to use a different cc? Out of luck.

These functions have been available for decades because they are necessary to the system. Denied.

Yes - and what if it is a large item that you want to use Paypal Credit on? I can get six months no-interest on larger ticket items using Paypal Credit.

Man - this is a pain.

[lizards2]

I can't seem to fix the Paypal automatic payment from drawing on my debit card. If anyone figures this out, let me know.

[Lightning55]

On 8/14/2023 at 7:40 AM, Poka said:

Well - don't worry. Ebay does not apply it to everyone. Had a buyer yesterday make a best offer, which I accepted. After 12 hours (without paying) he requested the order to be cancelled. Told me that when he tried to cancel, it was too late and that ebay asked him instead to contact the seller and request seller to cancel the order for him.

So in substance, not much has changed, buyers can still do as they please; ebay still put all the effort on sellers and sellers continue to get xxxxxx

So eBay enacts this new policy to force buyers to pay immediately, and it still doesn't work, lets people off the hook. And makes the seller do the unhooking.

In the meantime, as collateral damage, all the legit buyers who pay promptly are affected with bypassed buying options and misdirected payment sources.

The entire purpose of this has failed, and just served to p-o the core buyers. Congrats, eBay. You have found a new way to screw up your declining marketplace. 

Edited August 14, 2023 by Lightning55