I tip my hat is off too all the sellers out there.

[feliz_da_kat]

I have to say I’m so GLAD I have sold everything I need to for the time being on eBay. I seriously don't know how the regular sellers do it.

Postage costs. I undercharged $70 for shipping on the last lost of items I sold and I still had buyers complain about my postage costs, and rating me down for it. I've even had buyers accuse me of overcharging even after I've sent them receipts as proof.

Sellers not understanding PayPal. Sometimes I need to wait for the buyers payment before shipping. I explain this to the customer and still cop attitude. Yes, you may be paying instantly, but this doesn't mean 'instant' payment for me.

Double whammy on fees: sellers will know what I mean by this.

Nearly every auction people contacting me to ask me to end the auction early for them. This in itself I don't mind, but then the attitude filled replys I receive when I refuse.

Ratings and communication. Buyers that can't be bothered to rate you even after you have rated them, or taking a week to pay and not bothering to contact you. When I purchased something if I'm going to take more than a day I always contact the seller to let them know when they can expect my payment, and if I need more than 5 days I always contact the seller before placing a bid and ask is this will be an issue, and if they respond with a yes, I don' bid.

All being said and done, I've had some greater buyers.

So yes, I don't envy the good sellers out there and I am in no rush to be a seller again any time soon.

P.S Sorry for the rant.

[gigabean-au]

As Randall said in Clerks: "This job would be great if it wasn't for the customers"

That said, you might not make much money without them 😉

The bad customers are certainly in the minority, but they just stick around in your head long enough to make you think they're more than they are... good customers you mostly don't have to communicate with at all.

We had an issue with the company that handles our distribution recently, a customer had ordered two of our most expensive items, paid for express postage and the warehouse didn't send it. When we realised it hadn't been sent we apologised to the customer and submitted another order file to have it shipped out express the next day so it would arrive in time for the birthday it was meant for and we refunded the customers postage + some extra (doesn't matter if it's not our fault, we want customers to have a good buying experience with us, or at least as good as it can be)... once again the warehouse delayed the postage by a day and now it wont be received until monday. I contacted the buyer about it expecting abuse and threats about refunds and what not, and all they said was not to worry, these things happen.

(Our warehouse/distribution company is generally very reliable, they've just changed premises and had a few issues setting up their systems)

The point is, you need to take the good with the bad and if you can get the jump on issues that arise and identify them before the customer does and inform them of what's happening and what you're doing to fix it, then things can go a lot smoother. You're always going to get bad customers, there's no avoiding that - you've just got to try and handle them the right way.

[phorum_junkie*]

Postage costs. I undercharged $70 for shipping on the last lost of items I sold and I still had buyers complain about my postage costs, and rating me down for it. I've even had buyers accuse me of overcharging even after I've sent them receipts as proof.

I never undercharge for postage and my rating is fine, never had a buyer email and complain about the cost which is always over actual stamp cost.

Sellers not understanding PayPal. Sometimes I need to wait for the buyers payment before shipping. I explain this to the customer and still cop attitude. Yes, you may be paying instantly, but this doesn't mean 'instant' payment for me.

I would never expect a buyer to wait while I withdrew their money to my bank account and would expect my ratings to drop and probably cop some red if I did.

Double whammy on fees: sellers will know what I mean by this.

? Fees are less now than they have been for years.

Nearly every auction people contacting me to ask me to end the auction early for them. This in itself I don't mind, but then the attitude filled replys I receive when I refuse.

I rarely get requests like that and have certainly never had any nasty replies when I have declined, very politely.

Ratings and communication. Buyers that can't be bothered to rate you even after you have rated them, or taking a week to pay and not bothering to contact you.

I a sure ebay won't mind if you give u:^Op selling

[gem-boy-g]

phorum how can you say the fees are less when the fvf is now fixed at 7.9% with no sliding scale?? the amount saved on the free gallery and pics no way makes up for this.

[phorum_junkie*]

I have been closed for business since stores were $19.99 per month, listing fees were 40c and FVF were 7.9%.

When I re-open my store fee will be fifty bucks but my insertion fee will be only 20c and my FVF will be 7% so unless I list a lot fewer items than past years my overall fees will be lower.

I will still make use of the 30 free listings with a capped FVF of 7.9% and for the sort of prices I get for my second hand goods it will work out about the same with the free gallery in most cases.

[syrupsmummy]

Regarding postage, I think some buyers know you could send the parcel cheaper as some buyers are also sellers. I think that the reason some buyers complained about postage price.

You must have sent your items as ordinary parcels because your postage prices change depending on which states they go. And maybe you can put your cost down by using Australia Post Prepaid satchels.

If you use Australia Post Prepaid satchels it's the same price Australia wide.

500g satchel $7.85 (size 355mm x 220 mm)

3kg satchel $12.50 (size 405mm x 310 mm)

5kg satchel $15.90 (size 510mm x 435 mm)

5kg satchel has PayPal seller protection covered if you post through counter and get stamp on a tear off slip for you to keep. And it’s very big so you can put pretty big items in the satchel. Sometimes it’s cheaper to use 5kg satchel even items are under 3kg when the size of item exceed the size of 3kg satchel.

You can also use eBay Australia Post satchel for 500g and 3 kg. They are covered by PayPal seller protection. But you need purchase the satchel online and pay postage online and print labels by yourself. But once you get satchels handy you can pay postage via PayPal online so you don’t have to worry about transfer money from PayPal to your bank.

Click and send postage for 500g is $6.20 and 3kg is $10.55 and comes with tracking and cover up to $50. You can pay extra $1.00 to get cover up to $100. Prices of satchels are about 20c to30c each depending on how many you buy. Unfortunately no 5kg satchel for click and send.

[lovebeautyproductsaustralia]

Syrups with the 500gm tracking satchel is this price of $7.85 with bulk buying?

So its increased from $7.20 to $7.85, i dont know cause i havent needed to purchase any for a while?

[tall_bearded]

PJ, I think you have missed entirely the whole point of this thread, which is, when it comes to selling, eBay has become an increasingly hostile and dangerous place to do business, with your “I would never expect a buyer to wait while I withdrew their money to my bank account and would expect my ratings to drop and probably cop some red if I did.” being a prime example.

There are cases where a seller simply can’t afford to post an item until the PayPal payment has cleared into the seller’s bank account.  As an example, I recently sold a part dinner service in the Spode “Byron” pattern for about $150 where the postage was $230, and that didn’t include the $10 or so for special boxes and packing material purchased specifically for that consignment. 

Now though not well heeled, I’m not short of a quid, so I sent it as soon as payment was received into my PayPal account.  However, what if I were an aged pensioner, selling off the family china so I can pay this quarters’ electricity bill.  Are you really suggesting that this person would be in a position to come up with $230 so they can send a $150 consignment  before the PayPal has cleared into their bank account, and are you really suggesting that, if they can’t, negative feedback is warranted?

“Fees are less now than they have been for years.”

I suggest you get a new calculator. 

I can still remember 1 cent listing fees for stores. 

I can still remember the regularly free listings days with no increase in FVF.

Yes there has recently been an a reduction in auction listing fees of item under $20 but, any savings achieved have well and truly been eaten up by the loss of  the $50 auction listing category.  That is, before, if I want to list an item at an auction start price of $49.95, the listing fee was (from memory) about $1.20, where to list the same item now, will cost $1.50.

Then there’s the double whammy of the 3 fold increase in shop up front store fees, which, for smaller sellers' has well and truly eaten up any savings achieved in the reduction in store listing fee's coupled with an increase in the FVF. 

But wait there’s more.  Now to protect their TRS status sellers will have to make all items “Free Postage” (AKA Postage Included), which means for a five dollar item sent in a 3 KG post pack their FVF on the postage will be almost three times as much as the FVF on the item sold.

“I a sure ebay won't mind if you give u p selling”

And that is exactly the reason why in recent past eBay has been, and for the foreseeable future, will continue to loose market share.

[viewmont1071]

As more sellers roll over and offer

"postage included in the saleprice of the item while posted promptly"

for an automatic 5 star dsr

( I am trying hard not to use those two four letter words starting with F 'n' F anymore....anywhere....)

Over time the norm will be for most buyers to leave a seller that charges exact postage a 4 as a maximum DSR

nothing surer human nature will work again on ebays side so that to be visible you will need to  be a banana and hang with the bunch.

Astute sellers, I believe, that sell new doodads will include into the items  with hidden postage the extra final value fees so that they can also run the same item with external postage at a slightly cheaper price because of the smaller fvfs

.....now.......

not when your starts really start to drop

[beanishells]

I think its great if you can get a sale. But when you dont, you are left with lots of fees.  I can remember at this time of year doing really well a couple of years back and made enough to pay for store fees. Now, I am in the red atm and waiting for my listings to take off...I have just reopened less than a week ago... just for the xmas season.... I cant remember a time when I had to wait so long for a sale.

so I for one appreciate the OP's salute to sellers. It IS hard these days, esp if a hobby seller.