topic Re: fvf gotta love em in Selling

fvf gotta love em

davidc4430 — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 07:39:26 GMT

sold my first item since losing the $1 fvf offer today

1 item $55 + post to usa $29.50

fvf charged $9.20

highway robbery

Re: fvf gotta love em

kopenhagen5 — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 07:47:49 GMT

It's lucky you have the $9.20 built into the price of the item.

Re: fvf gotta love em

brerrabbit585 — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 08:10:10 GMT

Highway robbery is when you have a gun held to your head and you don't have a choice. Nobody forced you to list it on ebay and nobody forced you to agree to post worldwide.

Re: fvf gotta love em

brerrabbit585 — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 08:44:59 GMT

If there's somewhere else you can advertise your item worldwide to a target audience for $9.20, go for it. I doubt you'll find anywhere else that gives you as good a value as ebay.

With the exchange rate so high in the US's favour, if there's a fair chance your buyer will be from the US you should be increasing your prices a bit. 8 or 9 years ago I was buying from the US and the exchange rate was less than $1.10 AU to $1 US. Now it's over $1.40 AU, which means that Australian goods would look like real bargains to US buyers. Something that would previously listed as $11 AU could now be listed $14 AU and should have the same chance of selling. Why sell at the cheaper price if you could add another 30% and cover your fees AND have a bit to spare.

Re: fvf gotta love em

*tippy*toes* — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 08:59:00 GMT

@davidc4430 wrote:
sold my first item since losing the $1 fvf offer today

1 item $55 + post to usa $29.50
fvf charged $9.20

highway robbery

Same as what you would have been charged had the $1 promo never existed, or you were one of the ones that didn't qualify for it. I can't believe people are still banging on about this. 12 months ago you'd have been none the wiser and would have got your money and posted your item without thinking about it.

Re: fvf gotta love em

onekiwi0 — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 09:05:59 GMT

I hear you OP - BUT at least you got a sale!

Re: fvf gotta love em

digital*ghost — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 09:33:00 GMT

@davidc4430 wrote:
sold my first item since losing the $1 fvf offer today

1 item $55 + post to usa $29.50
fvf charged $9.20

highway robbery

Welcome to my world, lol. (Store owner, so no special FVF deals for me, and I get charged higher FVF than a lot of other categories, because.... ‾\_(ツ)_/‾ )

Re: fvf gotta love em

purplemon18 — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 09:39:21 GMT

@digital*ghost wrote:
@davidc4430 wrote:
sold my first item since losing the $1 fvf offer today

1 item $55 + post to usa $29.50
fvf charged $9.20

highway robbery
Welcome to my world, lol. (Store owner, so no special FVF deals for me, and I get charged higher FVF than a lot of other categories, because.... ‾\_(ツ)_/‾ )

Damn it. I never thought about it that way before. Probably becuase many of my items are on the lower scales. Now I have something else to be irritated by. It makes no difference whatsoever to ebay what catagory an item is in, it's not like they are warehousing the products or anything.

Re: fvf gotta love em

davidc4430 — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 09:40:41 GMT

@onekiwi0 wrote:
I hear you OP - BUT at least you got a sale!

yup, 1 sale in a month, last sale was 20th of july.

raise my prices?

that'll help.

Re: fvf gotta love em

digital*ghost — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 09:52:52 GMT

@purplemon18 wrote:

Damn it. I never thought about it that way before. Probably becuase many of my items are on the lower scales. Now I have something else to be irritated by. It makes no difference whatsoever to ebay what catagory an item is in, it's not like they are warehousing the products or anything.

From eBay's perspective, I'm guessing it was meant as a subtle way of encouraging higher-quality listings, and / or reducing the volume of lower quality ones in those particular categories.

This sort of becomes more evident when you look at which categories are given lower FVF than the standard rate - i.e. tech items, like iPhones etc, eBay really wants those items on the site, they always mention them when they spam around for sellers to list their Christmas gifts and the like. Conversely, they don't really need more fashion items, jewellery, books etc here, so if they charge a higher fee, they can kind of passively reduce and curate listings in those categories.

That's the theory, anyway. I suspect in practice it didn't quite have that kind of impact, it just made more people more resentful. (the smiley is because I include myself in the resentful camp, but I shuffle on regardless).

Re: fvf gotta love em

brerrabbit585 — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 10:33:59 GMT

@davidc4430 wrote:
@onekiwi0 wrote:
I hear you OP - BUT at least you got a sale!
yup, 1 sale in a month, last sale was 20th of july.
raise my prices?
that'll help.

Was your last sale next Saturday or in 2018?

It's a well known fact that a lot of people question a low price and assume there must be something wrong with it, but a high price and they suddenly want it. That's what a lot of items sell after the seller raises the price. It's always been the same - I remember someone telling me at a trash & treasure market back in 1977 that they'd had something on the table for months without any interest but when they put the price up it sold the next week. I've heard this many, many times.

Re: fvf gotta love em

*tippy*toes* — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 10:42:36 GMT

@brerrabbit585 wrote:
@davidc4430 wrote:
@onekiwi0 wrote:
I hear you OP - BUT at least you got a sale!
yup, 1 sale in a month, last sale was 20th of july.
raise my prices?
that'll help.
Was your last sale next Saturday or in 2018?

It's a well known fact that a lot of people question a low price and assume there must be something wrong with it, but a high price and they suddenly want it. That's what a lot of items sell after the seller raises the price. It's always been the same - I remember someone telling me at a trash & treasure market back in 1977 that they'd had something on the table for months without any interest but when they put the price up it sold the next week. I've heard this many, many times.

It's true and it works. Every now and then if my sales are slow, I'll up the prices. Suddenly stuff starts selling. I sometimes wonder if the buyer thinks, shyte, the price got put up, I better buy it before she puts it up again.

Re: fvf gotta love em

brerrabbit585 — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 12:20:44 GMT

I heard a joke last year that was about a woman not wanting something because it wasn't dear enough but when the assistant took it out the back and then came back with the same item and put double the price on it she was happy to buy it. Unfortunately I can't remember the exact words now.

I told it to a friend and she said her mother told her that back in the war years the hairdresser had several bottles of shampoo on display at different prices, but she confided in my friend's mother that every bottle contained the same shampoo and the dearer price was just for the snobs who liked to think they were superior to everyone else. In those days they didn't have the vast array of shampoos that we do now.

People who make craft items often don't sell much until they put their prices up by quite a lot. If you devalue your own work you can't expect others to value it either.

Re: fvf gotta love em

*tippy*toes* — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 12:51:12 GMT

My sister used to be an industrial chemist in a cosmetics factory (she did quality control or something). I asked her about different moisturisers and she said she'd ask her boss (I asked within a few weeks of her starting the job, so she didn't have the knowledge at that point). He said go to the Reject Shop, or similar 2 dollar shops, and buy the cheapest moisturiser. If that doesn't suit, buy the next one up. Chances are, that one would suit. The reason being, any leftover batches got badged up into the $2 shop brands.

There was a shampoo they made, that was a high end brand. My sister later informed me of the cheap brand that was identical. It was leftovers that got badged up as a cheap brand. So instead of paying $20+ a bottle, you could get exactly the same thing for under $5 from Coles......in a bigger bottle! Even if you told the "high class snobs", they would still pay for the expensive brand.

I agree with the craftsmen comment (that includes women.....I'm not politically correct). If you undervalue your work, so will everyone else. They will think it rubbish if it's too cheap

Re: fvf gotta love em

brerrabbit585 — Thu, 18 Jul 2019 00:23:27 GMT

I remembered the joke last night. It was just the last words I couldn't remember yesterday and they're crucial.

The general manager of a store was trying to impress on his staff that the way they treated customers had to be based on biblical principles. One day he watched as one of the staff served a woman who came in looking for dress fabric. The shop assistant asked what sort of thing she was after and then went out the back and came back with a roll. The woman asked how much it was and was told $10 a metre. She said it wasn't exactly what she wanted but it was close. The assistant took it away and a few minutes later he brought back the same roll and told her it was $20 a metre. "Ah yes, I think this one's just right." After she'd left the store manager came over and asked the assistant what scripture he'd apply to his behaviour. "She was a stranger and I took her in", he replied. 🙂 🙂 🙂