THOUGHTS ON COMPLETING MY FIRST EBAY 500
I’m way behind many sellers and buyers on eBay, but have just received my 500th feedback. So now I have my purple star, although just occasionally it felt more like it should have been a purple heart.
(For those not familiar with US military decorations, a purple heart is awarded to members of the US military wounded in action. And this is not meant of course as a slight to the sacrifice of anyone who has received it; indeed my father was awarded it twice, in Normandy and in Germany during World War II.)
This of course is a glib comment, for the process has not been that difficult, if much harder work and more time consuming than I expected. By and large the sellers and buyers with whom I have dealt have been most reasonable. Of course I had the people who were too slow to get in touch and even slower to pay – but everyone has paid, so far. I had two cheques bounce, but these were just oversights and new cheques were immediately issued and went through without any problem. I have never had to give negative feedback, but once I did report a case of non-payment and it was eventually resolved satisfactorily.
I have had a couple of frustrating experiences involved with PayPal payments as well, notably a fairly large payment that was frozen and then taken from my account because the buyer made the payment from someone else’s computer while on the road. PayPal acted to combat possible fraud, of course, and therefore it was commendable if frustrating at the time. A second payment was made once the person got home, and it sailed through. Also I found it annoying once to wait two and a half weeks for a sizable e-Cheque to clear.
I of course have also had mainly quite minor problems with the eBay system, but given how much data is being handled I would say I’m generally impressed with eBay's efficiency. One fairly recent and very useful "discovery" is the system whereby eBay sends users an e-mail when an item fitting their favourite searches is listed. This all but eliminates the need to browse -- useful for people who see eBay as a work tool rather than entertainment -- and has allowed me to make regular fine purchases of late for my collections or stock.
And, to be sure, I’ve met some extremely interesting and helpful people and learned a lot in the new world that eBay opens up.
I guarantee everything I sell and allow no-quibble returns, but I have never had one item sent back. I have had no negative feedback, and I will do everything I reasonably can to keep up my clean record. Unlike some sellers I welcome the new detailed feedback, and my score here is good: 5 out of 5 for descriptions and 4.9 out of 5 in the other categories. These less than perfect ratings have spurred me on to try to improve my service, and no doubt that has been the same for many other sellers.
I have had at least one item sent beyond Europe go missing, but in that case I was able to arrange a refund for the buyer.
I started on eBay in June 2001, strictly as a buyer for the first four years. I have long been a keen collector of stamps and postal history, but by that time had narrowed my collections considerably. In fact I concentrated on just three areas: postal history and postcards from my home town of Abilene, Kansas; used compound postal stationery (items with more than one value printed on them); and a few nice items for stock for what at the time was a part-time stamp and postal history business.
The buying for my collection was spurred on by the fact that I had a presidential display for the Scottish Philatelic Society coming up, and I needed totally new displays because the good collectors of Edinburgh had already seen my other collections during a year as president of the Edinburgh Philatelic Society. The power of eBay quickly became evident. I would say 90 percent of my Abilene collection and 25 percent of my postal stationery items were acquired on eBay. In fact I have never ever acquired even one item for my Abilene collection in the United Kingdom, as this material is so hard to find once you have the basic Eisenhower and downtown postcards.
I started selling on eBay in March 2005, when my feedback total was about 75. Now nearly 80 percent of my feedback is for selling. I only got started on eBay when I left my job as an editor on the foreign desk of The Scotsman newspaper, as suddenly I had more free time and a need to beef up my alternative income.
However I did not want to get chained to a computer again, so I decided to adopt what I call the Dave W method of selling on eBay. This I got from a dealer friend in Ohio who wants to take advantage of the internet but doesn’t want it to take over his life.
So, like him, I list roughly 10 lots a week: fewer if other things are taking lots of time or during slower sales periods such as the summer, more if eBay UK is offering reduced price listings. I list roughly equal amounts of postcards and postal history, with a lesser amount of stamps, ephemera and anything else I come across that I think might prove popular. I sell roughly half of the lots the first time around, then relist items generally just once. As half of the relisted items sell too, I don’t have to return all that many items to stock after exposure on eBay. Eventually my wife is going to be able to help me more with my business and then I hope to double the number of lots I list.
I have found Turbo Lister to be a big help, but would not recommend it for beginners because of the lack of prompts for the various steps. I particularly like the fact that you can make up lots in advance and download them at a convenient time.
Like most vendors I have had some tremendous successes. Once I sold some covers for nearly 500 times the price I paid for them as a postal bidder in a stamp club auction, but of course such excellent realisations are few and far between.
As I said, I have had little trouble with buyers, but I do have a few small bones to pick with some sellers, although the ones I have had dealings with have almost invariably been excellent. Here are a few things I don’t like to see from sellers: (Some of them rule out any bidding at all as far as I’m concerned.)
* Listings where postage costs are not given.
* Listings of postcards and envelopes, etc, where the vendor has taken a picture of the object rather than scanning it. These photos invariably provide inadequate detail and are squint, ruining the perspective.
* Vendors who do not mention serious faults. Usually you can see the fault on the photo and bid accordingly, but sometimes the image is so poor, or in the lower left-hand corner and obscured by the eBay anti-copying device, that you are caught out.
* Vendors who do not allow refunds or returns.
* Sellers who pack only one day a week.
* Hidden reserves -- but I understand why people use them. One thing that annoys me a bit is when sellers say their lot has no reserve, but the minimum bid is $9.99. Call it what you like, but that is a reserve, a sum below which the vendor will not go. It is perfectly reasonable to set a minimum price, of course.
* Wild claims, usually with lots of capital letters, about the rarity or investment value of an item.
* Inadequate descriptions or simply "see scan". Of course these offer opportunities to the alert, well-informed buyer.
* Sloppy descriptions with lots of spelling errors and other mistakes, sometimes in the midst of elaborate templates.
* Vendors who do not give feedback until they have received theirs. All we need is for buyers to decide not to give feedback until they've received theirs and the whole system will grind to a halt.
No doubt many people could look at my listings (I have a link from this page) and find fault with them. To be sure, I have made some howling errors, but often eBay browsers are kind enough to point these out to me. In fact, I would be delighted to hear from buyers or potential buyers about anything I can do to improve my listings. I am not, however, interested in adding a lot of bells and whistles as I want to keep my listings simple and costs down.
I do not claim to be a world-beating seller. I just don’t want to miss out totally on the astonishing power of the internet.
(For those not familiar with US military decorations, a purple heart is awarded to members of the US military wounded in action. And this is not meant of course as a slight to the sacrifice of anyone who has received it; indeed my father was awarded it twice, in Normandy and in Germany during World War II.)
This of course is a glib comment, for the process has not been that difficult, if much harder work and more time consuming than I expected. By and large the sellers and buyers with whom I have dealt have been most reasonable. Of course I had the people who were too slow to get in touch and even slower to pay – but everyone has paid, so far. I had two cheques bounce, but these were just oversights and new cheques were immediately issued and went through without any problem. I have never had to give negative feedback, but once I did report a case of non-payment and it was eventually resolved satisfactorily.
I have had a couple of frustrating experiences involved with PayPal payments as well, notably a fairly large payment that was frozen and then taken from my account because the buyer made the payment from someone else’s computer while on the road. PayPal acted to combat possible fraud, of course, and therefore it was commendable if frustrating at the time. A second payment was made once the person got home, and it sailed through. Also I found it annoying once to wait two and a half weeks for a sizable e-Cheque to clear.
I of course have also had mainly quite minor problems with the eBay system, but given how much data is being handled I would say I’m generally impressed with eBay's efficiency. One fairly recent and very useful "discovery" is the system whereby eBay sends users an e-mail when an item fitting their favourite searches is listed. This all but eliminates the need to browse -- useful for people who see eBay as a work tool rather than entertainment -- and has allowed me to make regular fine purchases of late for my collections or stock.
And, to be sure, I’ve met some extremely interesting and helpful people and learned a lot in the new world that eBay opens up.
I guarantee everything I sell and allow no-quibble returns, but I have never had one item sent back. I have had no negative feedback, and I will do everything I reasonably can to keep up my clean record. Unlike some sellers I welcome the new detailed feedback, and my score here is good: 5 out of 5 for descriptions and 4.9 out of 5 in the other categories. These less than perfect ratings have spurred me on to try to improve my service, and no doubt that has been the same for many other sellers.
I have had at least one item sent beyond Europe go missing, but in that case I was able to arrange a refund for the buyer.
I started on eBay in June 2001, strictly as a buyer for the first four years. I have long been a keen collector of stamps and postal history, but by that time had narrowed my collections considerably. In fact I concentrated on just three areas: postal history and postcards from my home town of Abilene, Kansas; used compound postal stationery (items with more than one value printed on them); and a few nice items for stock for what at the time was a part-time stamp and postal history business.
The buying for my collection was spurred on by the fact that I had a presidential display for the Scottish Philatelic Society coming up, and I needed totally new displays because the good collectors of Edinburgh had already seen my other collections during a year as president of the Edinburgh Philatelic Society. The power of eBay quickly became evident. I would say 90 percent of my Abilene collection and 25 percent of my postal stationery items were acquired on eBay. In fact I have never ever acquired even one item for my Abilene collection in the United Kingdom, as this material is so hard to find once you have the basic Eisenhower and downtown postcards.
I started selling on eBay in March 2005, when my feedback total was about 75. Now nearly 80 percent of my feedback is for selling. I only got started on eBay when I left my job as an editor on the foreign desk of The Scotsman newspaper, as suddenly I had more free time and a need to beef up my alternative income.
However I did not want to get chained to a computer again, so I decided to adopt what I call the Dave W method of selling on eBay. This I got from a dealer friend in Ohio who wants to take advantage of the internet but doesn’t want it to take over his life.
So, like him, I list roughly 10 lots a week: fewer if other things are taking lots of time or during slower sales periods such as the summer, more if eBay UK is offering reduced price listings. I list roughly equal amounts of postcards and postal history, with a lesser amount of stamps, ephemera and anything else I come across that I think might prove popular. I sell roughly half of the lots the first time around, then relist items generally just once. As half of the relisted items sell too, I don’t have to return all that many items to stock after exposure on eBay. Eventually my wife is going to be able to help me more with my business and then I hope to double the number of lots I list.
I have found Turbo Lister to be a big help, but would not recommend it for beginners because of the lack of prompts for the various steps. I particularly like the fact that you can make up lots in advance and download them at a convenient time.
Like most vendors I have had some tremendous successes. Once I sold some covers for nearly 500 times the price I paid for them as a postal bidder in a stamp club auction, but of course such excellent realisations are few and far between.
As I said, I have had little trouble with buyers, but I do have a few small bones to pick with some sellers, although the ones I have had dealings with have almost invariably been excellent. Here are a few things I don’t like to see from sellers: (Some of them rule out any bidding at all as far as I’m concerned.)
* Listings where postage costs are not given.
* Listings of postcards and envelopes, etc, where the vendor has taken a picture of the object rather than scanning it. These photos invariably provide inadequate detail and are squint, ruining the perspective.
* Vendors who do not mention serious faults. Usually you can see the fault on the photo and bid accordingly, but sometimes the image is so poor, or in the lower left-hand corner and obscured by the eBay anti-copying device, that you are caught out.
* Vendors who do not allow refunds or returns.
* Sellers who pack only one day a week.
* Hidden reserves -- but I understand why people use them. One thing that annoys me a bit is when sellers say their lot has no reserve, but the minimum bid is $9.99. Call it what you like, but that is a reserve, a sum below which the vendor will not go. It is perfectly reasonable to set a minimum price, of course.
* Wild claims, usually with lots of capital letters, about the rarity or investment value of an item.
* Inadequate descriptions or simply "see scan". Of course these offer opportunities to the alert, well-informed buyer.
* Sloppy descriptions with lots of spelling errors and other mistakes, sometimes in the midst of elaborate templates.
* Vendors who do not give feedback until they have received theirs. All we need is for buyers to decide not to give feedback until they've received theirs and the whole system will grind to a halt.
No doubt many people could look at my listings (I have a link from this page) and find fault with them. To be sure, I have made some howling errors, but often eBay browsers are kind enough to point these out to me. In fact, I would be delighted to hear from buyers or potential buyers about anything I can do to improve my listings. I am not, however, interested in adding a lot of bells and whistles as I want to keep my listings simple and costs down.
I do not claim to be a world-beating seller. I just don’t want to miss out totally on the astonishing power of the internet.
posted by Chad Neighbor at
4.7.07
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2 comments
