[first name], this is so you

[countessalmirena]

eBay have sent me a charming communication by email.

They inform me in the subject line that "this" (which presumably is all the stuff contained in the email), is "so me".

Well, it wasn't.

It started off with another pitch for eBay Plus. (They know by now - or should know - that eBay Plus is not "so me". I haven't joined eBay Plus even with all their blandishments and eBay marketing.)

      Score: -1

Then it said, "Popular In Your Interest". The items shown were items I'd checked in the process of getting information for the purpose of replying on these boards. None of the items shown were of any personal interest to me.

      Score: -2

Then it was "Washing Machine" followed by the smaller words "Because you searched: refrigerator". Hmm... I don't recall searching "refrigerator". The last time that I recall that particular search was no later than 4 September, 2017, when I bought (I admit it!) a gorgeous taller-than-the-usual red bar fridge gleaming with the redness that only a truly glossy red bar fridge could possess. Since then, I haven't needed any information on another refrigerator (to the best of my knowledge).

Have there been any refrigerator-based questions on the boards lately?

(And anyway, I never ever store milk in a washing machine. Never.)

If not...

      Score: -3

Then there's something about flybuys. I don't have flybuys.

      Score: -4

In short, that is a wasted marketing opportunity. If only eBay had said something about Georgian silver soup labels being "so me". (I have been searching!) If only they'd tempted me with some more Swiss Diamond frypans (because I don't have every size; go on, tempt me!). I'm in the market for a butcher's block/kitchen island unit in solid timber (with end blocks on the top), on wheels, with two heights for the top so that part of it will fit under the existing kitchen island/bar and the rest of it will give me more room to chop and mix and let the tagliatelle dry and debone fish - or rather, I was in the market for it. My father has said he wants to make it for me. (I'm going to have to make sure he does this very gradually so that he doesn't push himself too hard.)

I'm in the market for some out-of-print books... but I think I've now tracked most of them down.

I'm in the market for a Mauviel 20cm diameter straight-sided saucepan (or possibly stock pot) and steamer insert.

I'm thinking about Vicovation or Thinkware dashcam; the specifications look superb.

I am trying to resist Hakuhodo brushes with richly red wooden handles.

But washing machines, hidden spy camera, boxy-looking entertainment centres and Forza 7 Forza motorsport thingies - no.

Has anyone else had some wildly inappropriate "so you" suggestions from eBay?

[brerrabbit585]

Springy, when I look at my buyers' feedback (which I do occasionally out of curiosity, not paranoia) I see that some of them buy a LOT on ebay, so there are lots and lots of people that would benefit from ebay plus. Just because most of us who post in the forums don't have much use for it doesn't mean a lot of others wouldn't. I've seen buyers in the past who don't seem to go to the shops for ANYTHING but buy even the most trivial items on ebay.

@ digi - did they indicate what time period the $708 refers to? Perhaps they meant daily, not for the whole year.

Whoever writes their marketing emails doesn't live in the real world, that's for sure. Apart from the irrelevant content, sending several emails a day is more of a turn-off than anything else. It's a slightly different thing but the principle is the same - you can cry wolf too often!

[digital*ghost]

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@brerrabbit585 wrote:


@ digi - did they indicate what time period the $708 refers to? Perhaps they meant daily, not for the whole year.

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I think they meant for the whole year, as they are talking about "everyday people" and just use the generic 'last year'. ($708 a day is over $250k a year, so that mighta piqued my interest, if I wasn't selling on eBay already  ).

I just double-checked the email to see if they made it more explicit, and noticed that while the email was received yesterday, it says "we can help you get selling in 2018..."

Been there, done that. 

[brerrabbit585]

I wish they could help me get selling in 2018 because my sales from July to early Dec were way down on other years and I'd love to be able to bring last year's sales up to the normal level. 🙂

It does prove that in some respects they're definitely behind the times!

[countessalmirena]

I did indeed.

[springyzone]

I'm sure you're right & for some people, ebay plus is a winner. I know I shouldn't judge it just on my own buying patterns.

But what does strike me with ebay plus is I think their marketing is poor. I've seen the offers to join up, but what I am not seeing in any ads I look at is any big sign or flash, that says-Join ebay plus now & postage on this will be free, you would save $10 (or whatever).

As it happens, I am a fairly big online buyer. Probably last year I spent several thousand online. I do in fact pay one company (Catch) every year for free postage. The reason I do that though is everything there incurs a postage cost. There are some conditions on it unfortunately,  the most irksome one being I have to spend about $45 or $50 before free postage kicks in.

But in every case when I buy, it shows the postage and then shows the subtraction for catch club membership.  So I can work out my savings. My main incentive was knowing postage was never free unless I joined and that once I joined, 99% of items were covered by it.

On ebay I find the opposite, there are a lot of things that are free post anyway and for those that aren't, only a small number are covered by ebay plus. It makes me wonder whether many ebayers will be tempted. Time will tell, I guess.

[digital*ghost]

If eBay respected (and worked with, instead of against) their sellers and made it so that Plus was voluntary, I suspect some of the sellers willingly participating would set a postage cost, even if it was just a token amount like $2, and then those who have paid for plus would actually see some tangible benefit to it. 

If not that, the odd free upgrade to express shipping would probably sweeten the deal for those not really getting much benefit out of their $50, since most sellers still charge extra for express (there would need to be limitations, especially as some sellers have astronomical express shipping costs). 

[brerrabbit585]

A lot of buyers would never do the sums, just as many never check their credit card statements to see what they're spending. They'd just think "this sounds good" and they'd join. There are probably many others who think it'd never pay for itself and wouldn't join, but if they added up what they'd bought at the end of the year they may find it would have paid for itself.

For those of us who don't buy heaps and heaps on ebay there's no way to forecast what we'll buy so we tend not to join up in case we don't use it enough.

[springyzone]

Plus should be voluntary.

I sometimes buy from a couple of sellers who stock spices, tea etc

One of them gives the price of some items with free postage & exactly the same item & quantity, but listed with item cost & postage  cost.

The total comes to exactly the same so I am not sure why they do it that way, but for sure, if the one with postage was listed as Ebay plus, it would be more tempting to ebay buyers who have that.

Mind you, if I were a seller, I am not sure how keen I'd be to have my items in ebay plus if it ever meant that I had to pay for the free returns cost etc no matter what the reason etc. I understand that ebay picks up the tab at present, which is as it should be.

[digital*ghost]

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@springyzone wrote:

Plus should be voluntary.

I sometimes buy from a couple of sellers who stock spices, tea etc

One of them gives the price of some items with free postage & exactly the same item & quantity, but listed with item cost & postage  cost.

The total comes to exactly the same so I am not sure why they do it that way, but for sure, if the one with postage was listed as Ebay plus, it would be more tempting to ebay buyers who have that.

---

I buy from sellers who do similar - buying in singles with free postage and a discount from ebay means the free post ones are cheaper, since postage doesn't get discounted if listed separately.

Buying multiples, with or without an eBay discount, and postage listed separately, often means that one works out cheaper. It also allows buyers who pick up to pay less, regardless. 

Strictly speaking, sellers shouldn't be duplicating listings, but a lot do and while i can't condone it wholeheartedly, I certainly won't report them either, and I have to admit it provides more options for buyers. 

[springyzone]

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@digital*ghost wrote:

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I buy from sellers who do similar - buying in singles with free postage and a discount from ebay means the free post ones are cheaper, since postage doesn't get discounted if listed separately.

Buying multiples, with or without an eBay discount, and postage listed separately, often means that one works out cheaper. It also allows buyers who pick up to pay less, regardless. 

Strictly speaking, sellers shouldn't be duplicating listings, but a lot do and while i can't condone it wholeheartedly, I certainly won't report them either, and I have to admit it provides more options for buyers. 

---

I had not thought of the situation where a person might buy multiples. I doubt many would of the same item as they come in different weight choices anyway, but a person could definitely buy a range of items and combined postage might be cheaper. So postage separate option would suit those buyers better, you're right.

I would never dream of reporting them, they are good sellers, & I had never thought of the ads as duplicated listings, probably because the ads were not identical in every way. I always assumed they tried the variation of free postage & separate postage charge on some of their ads to see which one proved more popular. I can't even remember which way I bought last time.

I suppose one difference (from the seller's point of view) would be that with freepost, the buyer could not mark down stars for postage, although when postage is only about $2.50, it would be a pretty lousy buyer who would do that, you'd think.