On being an organised seller

[essel_emporium]

I find selling on ebay a bit difficult with the set up on ebay.  Sure you can list stuff and see it selling, but if you have more than a few items it can be difficult to know what’s going on with each item.

I have someone who bought an item and paid for it (incl postage), and now wants to buy other things.  I said that would be fine and I’d combine postage for them.  Then there was someone else who wants to do the same but had the paypal amount reversed and I will also combine postage with them too.  And there are all the emal notes.  I find the ‘notes’ feature handy for summarising my communications with people but you put the notes on an item not against a buyer.  And when I refund paypal and reissue a new invoice there is no record of it being reissued (on ebay that I’ve found) except in my personal email; which is okay so long as I remember!

Then there are people like me.  I spent years buying from regular sellers who were happy for me to either pay immediately using paypal, send cheques, use bank cash transfers, (with or without postage costs) or pay in cash upon pickup.  And they never complained once.  I don’t know how they managed all this, along with their other buyers who may also have been like me.  I don’t know how I’d cope with someone like me!

I can see all this getting very messy if I have a lot of things going on at the same time.  How do other people manage their selling activities without getting into a mess?

[chuk_77]

im finding it difficult to understand your OP but as for your neg

"6 days between payment and asking for more postage - seller blamed ebay"

Why would you do that? Your policy is you post within 2 business days. So step one if I was you is know your postage costs before listing. You can ask a buyer for more money can cant expect it or enforce it.

Buyers bid/buy seeing their total cost up front, you can not expect them to cough up extra if you dont know your own cost proir 

I organise myself by

1. I list

2. It sells

3. I post/leave feedback

4. check emails a few times a day

[*sparklz*]

It could not be any easier or simple to follow.

I am a small seller compared to some with over 300 items on 1 ID and up to 100 on another and there is nothing hard about it.

I post items the same day payment is received and if a buyer wants to purchase more after postage then they simply pay another lot of postage.

[daniellebradydesigns]

EBay is fairly easy to follow. It's designed that way. I'm not sure what you are finding so difficult in regards to combining postage etc. It really is straight forward. I'm primarily a seller, and have not had issues. And don't find that things get 'messy.' But I suppose if you are relatively new to selling it could be a bit daunting.

Also as Chuk said in regards to your neg. Asking for further postage costs from a buyer isn't the right way to go. You need to know your costs before listing. If you underestimated you need to wear the cost. The buyer is not liable for further costs apart from what is specified in the listing. Regardless of whether you stipulate certain things in your descriptions. And if you state that you post within 2 business days. Post within 2 business days. You'll get less backlash from your customers.

Perhaps going over the eBay's policies page and help pages will assist you in working out how to go about dealing with issues you may come across. And you may find yourself becoming better organised. If you know the policies, and you are aware of all the functions that are available to you as a seller, I honestly think you'll find selling on eBay a breeze.

Good luck!

P.S Good idea to take note of Sparklz tip too, in regards to buyers and further purchases after payment has been made.

[essel_emporium]

Let me put it this way, if I send a new invoice with new details, and my buyer comes back to me after a while saying they didn’t receive it.  Such advice might make me wonder whether I actually sent one or had just intended to send one.  If I want to check on this where can I locate my copy in ebay?  I can’t seem to find a copy of the invoice anywhere on ebay.  Any advice would be welcome.  The only spot I have been able to locate it is in my personal emailer.  The trouble with the emaler is that it fills up with every other bit of ebay correspondence that helps hide what I’m looking for.  I was just wondering if there was something more sophisticated that what the standard ebay system offers.  There used to be something called turbolister (or something like that).  Just wondering if there is some sort of 'turboseller' for  want of a better name.

[davewil1964]

Turbolister still works, but only works for new listings.

You seem to need a crash course in the site map.

FYI if you send a buyer a combined invoice, your 'My Selling' page reflects that. If you choose to get a copy sent to you, that will appear in your nominated email.

I don't know, or care, how many listings you have, or how many you sell per day, but I run 2 or 3 sales a day and I don't have issues keeping track.

You COULD set yourself up a spreadsheet to keep all the relevant information, use eBay and Paypal invoices for your expenses, see an accountant if you can't keep track, but there is a fair chance that the average seller here doesn't have your issues, and so doesn't really understand what you are talking about.

And your buyer has complained about you. And I defended you. But I just read the listing for your one sold item (how hard is that to keep track of?).

A good idea, before you worry about anything else, id to READ the site map re selling. Specifically the bit about asking buyers for extra postage after the sale. You can expect a lot more negs if you do that. Use calculated postage, and list at BIN. Very few books are auctions (unless they are valuable) these days.

[*crikey*mate*]

I have issues

[chameleon54]

Hi essal, ebay can seem very complex when you start. Organisation starts when listing. If you use standard large letters, 500gm, 3 kg & 5kg satchels for your mailing, they cost the same to post anywhere in Australia. This allows you to offer fixed post costs and means you dont need to send custimised invoices. Just click "send invoice" when the item is sold ( assuming you only sell to Australia ). I only officialy accept paypal, so once the item has been paid for it shows up in "sold items " icons.  If people ask to direct credit I request that they send a short message AFTER payment has been made. Once I recieve the message I mark as payment recieved immediately ( rather than checking bank for the next 3 days ). As soon as an item has been paid for I mail it and mark it as sent in "sold items", This tells me the item has been packed and mailed. If you purchase a few satchels and Signiture on delivery stickers from your post office, you can add tracking numbers at the same time as you are marking "item sent" and checking buyers address. I carefully double check buyers postal address after writing it on the parcel every time. I only pack one item at a time as this avoids stuff ups. I only use ebay messages for communication as the email gets totally clogged up with ebay cr#p as you say, making it hard to see the wood from the trees. If I purchase an item on ebay, I send feedback on reciept as this becomes my marker for recieving the item. Basically my whole business is run from the icons in sold items and ebay messages.

[chameleon54]

One more quick thought. If you use ebay messages for all of your communication, ebay have an arrow icon which shows when you have answered a message, helping to keep track of communication.I dont even go near the emails, wife just auto deletes them.

[digital*ghost]

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@essel_emporium wrote:

Let me put it this way, if I send a new invoice with new details, and my buyer comes back to me after a while saying they didn’t receive it.  Such advice might make me wonder whether I actually sent one or had just intended to send one.  If I want to check on this where can I locate my copy in ebay?  I can’t seem to find a copy of the invoice anywhere on ebay.  Any advice would be welcome.  

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Do you subscribe to Selling Manager? It's been a while since I had the standard SM, and because I have a store I now subscribe to Selling Manager Pro as it's free ($9.95 without a store), but if these functions are the same, you can check there for what has been sent to the buyer.

Here's a screen shot from a multiple purchase I currently have awaiting payment, so sent an invoice to reflect combined postage total etc:

The envelope indicates how many eBay-generated emails (like invoices) you've sent the buyer, in this instance it's showing 1, and is a hyperlink.

If you click it, a window pops up with a log of emails you've sent (buyer's email blanked out for obvious reasons 😄 😞

There are other very handy sections to help you keep track of your buyer's purchases, this is a quick list of the type of simple links that can take you to all transactions that meet the criteria (eg all items awaiting payment, buyer's who have purchased multiple items and haven't paid yet etc). Sometimes you need to cross reference things, because there are a few glitches that can result in items awaiting postage when they haven't been paid for yet and the like, but once you develop a system, you will find which tools make that easier, which ones don't, and will be able to streamline your processes.