Ebay sellers getting cranky. 5 5

[GeeksAreMyPeeps]

On 10/31/2023 at 9:42 PM, ramithard said:

I always combine shipping on the invoice and discount it....or if they paid full shipping on items I ask them for their Paypal so I can refund some....or include cash in the package

Best to do a partial refund through eBay, as you'll get back part of their fees (they charge fees on the shipping amount you collect as well). Also, if someone decides to return everything as "Not as Described" you'll end up refunding that part of the shipping cost again

[GeeksAreMyPeeps]

On 10/31/2023 at 6:30 PM, Patriot6 said:

EBAy should force a minimum offer acceptance amount when you select that option.

Playing devil's advocate here: if you forced that, you'd have sellers that don't want that setting the amount at a penny lower than the BIN price. If you forced the auto-accept to be a certain percentage lower than the price, then savvy buyers are going to know that they can send an offer at X percent lower than the price and never risk losing out on the item.

[Patriot6]

On 11/1/2023 at 8:14 AM, GeeksAreMyPeeps said:

Playing devil's advocate here: if you forced that, you'd have sellers that don't want that setting the amount at a penny lower than the BIN price. If you forced the auto-accept to be a certain percentage lower than the price, then savvy buyers are going to know that they can send an offer at X percent lower than the price and never risk losing out on the item.

True 

What if they made a new listing type that was offers only. No price, buyers just make offers?

[Hamlet]

It might just be that I am lazy ( I am ), but I can’t imagine selling on EBay when MCS exists ( assuming you’re selling at the $50+ price point that makes sense on MCS ).

[ramithard]

How does MCS work?...you ship them the book?

[Hamlet]

On 11/1/2023 at 8:50 AM, ramithard said:

How does MCS work?...you ship them the book?

You give them a list of books you want to sell.  They approve it, and you ship those books to them.  They put them into their system, and then you can list them as Buy-it-Nows or put them in one of their auctions.  When they sell, MCS handles everything, takes their commission, and either cuts you a check or drops the money in your account.  It’s really easy.

The only drawback is that they can be slow to get raw books into their system because they have to grade them.  The turnaround on that is dependent on how busy they are. Also, the minimum $7 fee on raw books makes it a bad way to sell real cheap books.

So I can sell books by shipping one box and I never have to deal with anyone crazy.

I haven’t done in it a couple of years though.  Turns out shipping that one box is a bigger barrier for me than it should be

[D2]

Let’s be serious, does anyone actually care and go out of their way to shop with a specific seller (outside of, mycomicshop)?

100 to 1 says, the majority of your purchases will never be with a seller more than 1 time, and that is because we are all driven by best price. 

The eBay seller was a total **** though, for sure. 

[MAR1979]

On 11/1/2023 at 10:17 AM, D2 said:

Let’s be serious, does anyone actually care and go out of their way to shop with a specific seller (outside of, mycomicshop)?

100 to 1 says, the majority of your purchases will never be with a seller more than 1 time, and that is because we are all driven by best price. 

The eBay seller was a total **** though, for sure. 

I have several sellers I purchase from over and over, due to professionalism and return policies. As for MCS I exclusively use their website - why pay 15-25% more on eBay for same item?

[Dr. Balls]

Ebay isn't making it easier on sellers either - I got a little crossways with a seller on combined shipping.

His listings say he combines shipping - great! I buy two books, but it's not set to automatically combine shipping. So I send him a request for total. One, two, three, four days go by - all with reminders from Ebay that I have to pay for my items. I send another message - still no response.

On the 5th day, Ebay sends me another notice, but now it says shipping is free on one book, and then the total is correct on the other. However, they are not combined in the cart. So I check out individually - first book charges shipping, second book, which should be free.......charges me shipping. Now, I'm stuck - because I want both books. So, I pay, and send a scathing email to the seller with my screen capture showing free shipping (take that, Ebay - I screencapped your BS) telling him it has been a pain-in-the-arse transaction, and I'd appreciate some sort of response if I'm getting hosed for 2X shipping.

Finally, I get a response loaded with apologies, etc - which is fine. I'm not trying to be difficult, but a seller needs to address his paying customers in a timely fashion. I get ignoring questions about price, etc, but if someone has paid, the least they deserve is a response to their PMs. The books arrived, graded conservatively and he refunded me back my shipping charge - so it all worked out, but it seems frustrating anymore that you have to chase people down like that.

[MAR1979]

On 11/1/2023 at 10:28 AM, Dr. Balls said:

 I buy two books, but it's not set to automatically combine shipping... I send him a request for total. One, two, three, four days go by - all with reminders from Ebay that I have to pay for my items. I send another message - still no response.

On the 5th day, Ebay sends me another notice,

This is now a somewhat common seller tactic.  Say you combine shipping and then do nothing, do nothing, do nothing, buyer more times than not will cough up the extra (double) shipping fee to avoid "trouble". It's passive-aggressive congressional type BS loophole eBay sellers are learning to exploit. IMHO give harsh well-worded negative feedback - while it wont do much or anything it's the only thing you can do.

 

My first 22 years on eBay from 1999-2021 I left only 1 negative (to a fraudulent seller as ruled by eBay) and 2 neutrals. That was on at least 2100 transactions (number determined based on my feedback as buyer).  I now leave negatives quite a bit more. I've not changed and am VERY forgiving, however the sellers - at least some of the ones I've encountered - have becomes worse. Perhaps they still feel entitled to bigger easy money on collectibles as they were getting from 2020-early 2022. Well those days are gone and for most will never be back in their lifetimes.

 

Yo sellers - It's a Buyers market; Accept and Adapt! The Bear is hungry and will not be sated feeding on most collectibles for a loooong time.

Edited November 1, 2023 by MAR1979

[lizards2]

On 11/1/2023 at 7:25 AM, MAR1979 said:

On 11/1/2023 at 7:17 AM, D2 said:

Let’s be serious, does anyone actually care and go out of their way to shop with a specific seller (outside of, mycomicshop)?

100 to 1 says, the majority of your purchases will never be with a seller more than 1 time, and that is because we are all driven by best price. 

The eBay seller was a total **** though, for sure. 

I have several sellers I purchase from over and over, due to professionalism and return policies. As for MCS I exclusively use their website - why pay 15-25% more on eBay for same item?

I buy over and over again from sellers who can grade their comics correctly. 

[rjpb]

I automatically combine orders when I can and refund extra shipping without a request from the buyer, though ebay won't let you combine orders after purchase if their international shipping option is used. Even then, I've walked buyers through the cancellation process so that they can reorder items together. 

[Brock]

On 11/1/2023 at 11:55 AM, rjpb said:

though ebay won't let you combine orders after purchase if their international shipping option is used.

This should be such a simple fix for them, but since they're taking a cut, it's in their own interest not to solve this problem. Kudos to you for helping your buyers with this.

[Lightning55]

On 11/1/2023 at 8:53 AM, F For Fake said:

It's annoying to specifically state that buyers should wait until an invoice is sent before paying, so that you can combine shipping, rather than have to issue a refund after the fact. It's annoying, and when it happens again and again, it's maddening.

Paying early will likely happen even more now. EBay collects your payment info when you bid "to be charged when the auction closes". So afraid someone might skip out without paying, that they make it more difficult for the other 99% of purchases. A new low level of stupid.

[Lightning55]

On 11/1/2023 at 7:19 AM, Brock said:

I have a fun one currently… I’m in Canada, and there’s a seller who is also in Canada with a book I’d like to buy. Unfortunately, his listing is set so that he only sells to the Unites States. I message him (politely) to see if he can adjust his settings so I can buy the book.

He replies almost immediately, saying “I don’t get much business from within Canada - 95% of my sales are to the USA.” I’m thinking to myself that now we know why… He suggests, however, that he will have a look and see what he can do.

Three weeks have gone by, and the book is still only available to US buyers. I get that some folks here don’t like to sell internationally, but this is the first time I’ve run into someone who doesn’t like to sell domestically.

You'll have to ask how to become one of those 5% of Canadians he will sell to.

[Lightning55]

On 11/1/2023 at 9:49 AM, Hamlet said:

It might just be that I am lazy ( I am ), but I can’t imagine selling on EBay when MCS exists ( assuming you’re selling at the $50+ price point that makes sense on MCS ).

I sell on both, but definitely get higher sell prices on eBay. Something that will sell on MCS for $130 will sell on eBay for $160-$170. But each platform has its advantages and disadvantages. 

[FigaroToe]

I sell on eBay as a hobby, mainly to fund my PC comic/vinyl record collection. I honestly try to be as nice, lenient, and accommodating as possible. You need a week to pay? No problem! You send me a nice message about the auction? I'll probably include extra related comics. You need to cancel an order because of a family emergency? No problem! Hell I may just gift you the item for free (which I've done in the past). I guess that's a privileged take since it's not my career and I'm not dependent on my sales to pay my bills. Still though, I don't understand sellers doling out unwarranted animosity. Don't get pissed at me because your business is flailing, meditate a bit and maybe consider another career path.

[jsilverjanet]

On 11/1/2023 at 7:53 AM, F For Fake said:

First, I'm not saying in any way that these sellers were correct to react that way. I don't doubt that you were friendly and professional in your communications, so I am not standing up for them specifically, nor am I saying you were in the wrong at all. Ok? ok.

BUT

I will say, as someone who has been selling on eBay for 25 years, it has never been more annoying to be an eBay seller. The number of deadbeats and crazies has skyrocketed in recent years. Also, lowballs are annoying, but sellers can weed a lot of these out by setting a minimum low offer. Of course, this doesn't prevent annoying people from messaging you 24/7 asking "What's your lowest price?" any more than it stops the messages of "What's the Buy It Now?" when you've listed an item as an auction and specifically stated that you don't end auctions early. Nothing seems to stop that.

Also also, it's very annoying when you give every detail about the item in the description, as well as your rules on combined shipping, etc, only to get endless messages asking questions that you've already answered if they would just bother to read what you've already written. It's annoying to specifically state that buyers should wait until an invoice is sent before paying, so that you can combine shipping, rather than have to issue a refund after the fact. It's annoying, and when it happens again and again, it's maddening.

Again, not directed at you AT ALL, but it's a thing. It makes my eye start twitching like Inspector Dreyfus.

So, not defending these sellers or their practices, but I have definitely been in situations where I've put up with so much BS that I'm about to snap at the next illiterate insufficiently_thoughtful_person that comes down the road . In these situations, I always compose an immediate response, DELETE IT, take a breath, and then react in a professional manner. Sounds like they should have done the same. 

I don't think these sellers were correct to react the way they did, but I can get the grumpiness.

for every ebay story there is always another side of the story that people never talk about when they create these threads

as an example

I had someone ask if would except price X for a book, I said yes and reduced the price of the book

they said they were going to look at other books to see if i would combine, i said sure go ahead

a couple days later i ask if they still want the book that i lowered the price of so they could purchase ($15 to $10 by the way)

and they said they still wanted the book but could not purchase until 11/1. they then asked me to raise the price back up which i did not

the book sold on 10/31 and the person interested contacted me upset that i had not raised the price of the book so he could purchase the next day (today)

 

 

[VintageComics]

On 11/1/2023 at 5:03 PM, jsilverjanet said:

for every ebay story there is always another side of the story that people never talk about when they create these threads

as an example

I had someone ask if would except price X for a book, I said yes and reduced the price of the book

they said they were going to look at other books to see if i would combine, i said sure go ahead

a couple days later i ask if they still want the book that i lowered the price of so they could purchase ($15 to $10 by the way)

and they said they still wanted the book but could not purchase until 11/1. they then asked me to raise the price back up which i did not

the book sold on 10/31 and the person interested contacted me upset that i had not raised the price of the book so he could purchase the next day (today)

 

 

I had an buyer beat me down incessantly on a decent sized book and ask if he can do time payments. 

I said I'd do time with a 20% non-refundable deposit. 

He said he could only send 10% - I repeated that it was non-refundable. He agreed. 

He sent me the 10% and less than a day later asked for a refund because his wife wouldn't let him buy the book.

I explained that the deposit was non-refundable (screw you, you wasted my entire day negotiating with me only to back out?) and because I sympathized I told him he could put the deposit toward a future purchase. He went on to talk smack about me and threatened to tell everyone how horrible I am.

Never heard from them since which is fine by me. 

That is EXACTLY how it went down. 

You reward horrid behavior and they only come back to annoy you again.

Every horrible human story has two sides, and I've got plenty just like that. 

Edited November 2, 2023 by VintageComics

[Stefan_W]

All these stories are why people use auction houses to buy and sell their comics. Cuts out the of dealing directly with the other side of the purchase.