Selling on Ebay: What you really need to know December 22, 2008
Posted by James in : all, ebay help , trackbackAfter selling on ebay for years, I have found out what happens when you face “problems.” When you face problems on ebay, it’s not always clear what you are supposed to do. Although most problems can be resolved without too much difficulty, some problems seem to slip through the cracks without the appropriate help from ebay (or paypal).
I will discuss the following:
- Ebay’s fees
- International prohibitions
- Refunds
- Delivery confirmation
- Disputes
- DSR statistics
- Ebay’s Rules
Part 1: Ebay’s Fee
This is the easiest problem to understand about Ebay. Expect Ebay and PayPal to take about 20% of the money you make. If you buy something for $10 and sell it for $20, you didn’t make $10 of profit. Ebay/Paypal will take $4, so you only make $6 of “profit.”
Part 2: International Prohibitions
No matter what you sell, some country might forbid you from selling your item to people in that country. “Playing cards” are not allowed to be sold to people in Italy, and even Magic cards are considered to be “playing cards” by people in Italian Customs. They might throw out the item you sold.
It is possible to stop people from a country from buying your items by doing the following:
- Make your seller account settings say that people from a country you don’t sell to are blocked from buying your items. Go here for more information.
- Don’t list a “worldwide” shipping option. In order to stop people from Italy from buying your items, you can’t ship to “Europe” (but you can ship to Britain and Germany.)
- Right after the shipping options, there is a place that asks about whether or not you ship worldwide. Do not do it. Select what regions you will be willing to ship to (or none of them.)
What if you want to exclude Italy, but not all of Europe? Sorry, but there is almost nothing you can do about this. If you know of any person in Europe in particular who wants to bid on your items, you can add him or her to your Exemption list. There is no official link to this page for some reason.
What if someone buys an item, but it is not legal for you to send the item to that person? In this situation, ebay will still bill you. However, you can try to get a refund for the listing fees in two different ways: One, you can wait 8 days later to tell ebay that this is a non-paying bidder. (Go to the item page and click on the ‘resolve a problem’ link.) If you do this, the buyer will get into trouble and might give you negative feedback for that reason. (It might also be possible for the buyer to pay and to dispute your claim.) Two, you can ask the buyer to agree to cancel the listing (also on the resolve a problem area). If the buyer disagrees, then you will not get your money back.
I noticed that when you want to cancel a listing that there are a list of reasons for wanting to do so. “This buyer wants me to do something illegal” is not one of them!
There might be a way to report to ebay when buyers want you to do something illegal, but that is something I have not figured out yet. If it is possible, then it might help you get your fees back, but I’m not sure.
Part 3: Refunds
It is generally a good idea to allow a buyer to return an item if it is not as described. In this case you will give the buyer a refund. Generally you will refund the amount and the shipping, so you will lose some money. Also, some sellers will refund the money that the buyer had to pay for shipping.
However, what if your item isn’t worth much more than the shipping cost? In this case it is pointless to allow returns but it might still be a good idea to refund the money. In fact, you might not have a choice if the buyer says that it is not as described.
When you give a refund, ebay will still want to take your money. Therefore, you might try to cancel the transaction, but the buyer will have to comply. (I don’t think that saying the buyer is a non-paying bidder is appropriate in this situation.)
Interesting fact: None of the “reasons” ebay lists for canceling a transaction is that you gave a refund. Ebay lists that “the item was returned” as a reason, but not giving a refund without a return.
Part 4: Delivery Confirmation
Whenever you sell on ebay, you have to get delivery confirmation. If the item is worth a lot, you will need a signature confirmation. This is because you have to prove that the buyer got the item. (Paypal has mistakenly said that you have to prove that you sent the item, but this is false. If the item never arrives, you will get into trouble.)
Facts you should know about delivery confirmation:
- If the post office doesn’t deliver the item fast enough, then paypal will refund the money whether or not you sent the item. Sometimes the post office can take longer than a month to deliver a package.
- It is possible for the post office to mistakenly say that the item arrived, even if it didn’t. I had this happen recently. The post office said I got the item, but they actually just left a note saying that I had to get it from the post office. This could make someone think I am a liar when I say that I don’t have the item yet.
- Delivery confirmation only says that the item was sent to a zip code. The actual address is not listed.
- If you lose the delivery confirmation code, you are screwed. There is pretty much no way for the post office to find this for you.
- You can’t get regular delivery confirmation for any package that is deemed to be too thin, but you can still get certified mail, which is about the same thing, but it’s more expensive (over $2).
- If the order is worth too much money ($500), you will need a signature as proof of delivery. (updated 2-3-2008)
- In order to get delivery confirmation for international orders, you will need registered mail ($10 extra) or express mail to get a signature. (updated 2-3-2008)
Part 5: Disputes
If the buyer does not get the item (or it is not as described), then he or she can ask paypal to investigate. The only thing you can do is tell paypal the delivery confirmation number. This is not easy to do. In fact, sometimes ebay takes away your ability to do so!
Once I had a buyer who won my item and gave me positive feedback saying how fast the item arrived. Then several months after winning an item the buyer decided to tell paypal that they never got the item. (This was probably done by telling a credit card company that the item was not delivered.) I didn’t see any way to tell ebay what happened (or give the tracking number) and the person got a refund. I later had to call ebay with the delivery confirmation number… which was no longer listed on USPS.com, since so much time elapsed. Paypal had to wait to get information from USPS before reversing the refund.
One more thing: I just found out that if buyers win multiple of your items and pay for them separately, you have to mail separate packages. If you don’t and the buyer files a dispute, you can only use your delivery confirmation to prove that you sent one of the items. This makes me angry because my buyers want discounts for shipping, but it is a huge hassle to refuse their money and make them pay again! (updated 2-3-2008)
Part 6: DSR Statistics
Buyers can leave feedback concerning various things: item as described, communication,
shipping time, and shipping and handling charges. Many Sellers think that this is unfair for two reasons. One, because ebay gives misleading information concerning “rating sellers.” Ebay demands that sellers get near-perfect scores or they can get into trouble, but buyers are told that 3/5 stars means “satisfactory” rather than “get this seller off of ebay!” Two, Ebay’s system expects buyers to have a vast knowledge about how ebay works. Consider each of these categories:
- Item as described: This seems self-explanatory. I suppose if it is better than described that might be taken as a 5/5 stars, but that seems unrealistic.
- Communication: I have a high communication score despite the fact that communication tends to be unnecessary on ebay. I don’t communicate a whole lot, but I am still rated for this. (If I wasn’t rated much on this, I might get into trouble.)
- Shipping time: Sellers have no control over how long it takes for the post office to deliver the item. (Unless they charge more money for better shipping services.) Shipping time should refer to when the item was shipped by the seller. Did it take the seller two weeks before shipping it? (The fact that buyers constantly rate sellers based on the post office’s performance proves that sellers are being unfairly punished. Some sellers have stopped selling overseas for this reason!)
- Shipping and Handling charges: This should be agreed to before the buyer even decides to buy your item. (The fact that some sellers break ebay’s rules by charging a ton of money for shipping is another issue.) Buyers don’t understand the need many sellers have for charging more for shipping than the “postage costs.” The profit margin of cheap books can be so low, for example, can require the seller to charge enough for shipping to counteract their seller’s fees.
To point out how terrible DSR’s are, consider how a buyer might see rating a seller’s shipping charges: If a 5/5 is “super-duper” and a 3/5 is “satisfactory,” then rating a seller 5/5 might mean “free shipping” and 3/5 might mean “I paid for the postal charges.” However, if this is how all buyers rate sellers, then a lot of sellers would get into trouble and might lose their selling priveledges for being unwilling to give free shipping!
Part 7: Ebay’s Rules
Ebay decided that the best policy was to act like a dictatorship and tell us what we can and can’t do. Ebay’s rules would make sense if they were made just to keep us from “circumventing fees” or committing fraud, but there’s a lot of rules that exist just because ebay feels “threatened” by it. Furthermore, it is impossible to know the rules. There are too many and I don’t know of any place that gives a nice neat list of them all. And if there is, then it has to list hundreds of them.
If you do not follow the rules of Ebay, you will get your listings taken down and you could lose your listing fees. If you have an unlimited inventory, then losing your listings is going to equal lost profit.
Some rules that I agree with:
- Sellers can’t ask for an unreasonable amount for shipping and handling charges.
- You can’t sell anything that would be illegal.
- You can’t take a buyer’s money without shipping the item.
- Buyers can’t ask you to do something illegal.
- Sellers are “obligated” to sell any item someone wins.
- Buyers are “obligated” to buy any item they win.
Some rules that are rather unpleasant:
- You can’t link to a website unless certain specified requirements are met.
- You can’t sell certain “offensive” items.
- You can’t ask someone to buy something (or sell something) outside of ebay. (Where? When? I can obviously still sell things to some people outside of ebay, even though I sell there as well!)
- You can’t “say that you allow” checks or money orders for payments… unless certain specified requirements are met.
- You have to upgrade your paypal account (which costs you some money), and you have to accept credit card payments… and you can never ask someone who pays using their bank account to pay your “personal paypal account.” (updated 12-22-2008)
Basically the unpleasant rules are created so that ebay can “control” us and keep us from doing something that makes anyone money other than ebay.
Update:
Comments»
There is a “trick” to the Delivery Confirmation for small items.
1) if you are sending in a bubble mailer, put in some balled up paper or pieces of cardboard to make it more tha 3/4 of an inch thick.
2) if you are sending in a regular envelope, wrap the item in enough paper that it reaches the required thickness.
If you follow this, you can get Delivery Confirmation on any item. You will be paying Parcel rates instead of First Class, but you do not have to register the item. It just makes it slightly more expensive.
I’ve used popcorn to puff up a package. Also, you can fold a padded envelope for more thickness. Are you sure you have to pay for Parcel rates when you puff up a package a little bit?
Yes. You do. If the package is more than 3/4 of an inch thick it is considered a parcel.
rules for bubble mailers
>Be no more than 12 inches high x 15 inches long x ¾ inch thick.
rules for envelopes
>No more than 6-1/8 inches high x 11-1/2 inches long x 1/4 inch thick.
If you excede those limits, you are not first class but a parcel.
Even though it is a parcel, I’m not sure that you mail it “parcel post.” When I mail packages they stamp “first class” on the package, unless it weighs a couple pounds or something.
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