OT: eBay's Top Rated Seller Qualifications Suck

[glchen]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

I did not realize this was a workaround. I always offered 1st Class Mail as my first, cheapest option..........but for some reason is supposed to be delivered faster then Priority Mail, if a package gets it's first scan later then the 24 hour time frame.

So, if I just offer the generic Economy shipping, and then ship out via 1st Class Mail, they give a longer time frame for it to get where it's going?

Seems pretty half-assed by Ebay......but it IS Ebay, so I guess I shouldn't be shocked.

Exactly. Offer generic Economy and ship via First Class. eBay is trying to solve the issue where customers think their packages are arriving late. However, if customers don't expect to receive the package for two weeks but get it in one, then they are pleasantly surprised. The flip side is that you may lose a handful of customers who want their package by a certain date. (For a Birthday present for example). They may not buy from you because they think your package would arrive too late although it would have arrived on time.

[Buythatcard]

Originally Posted by glchen

Exactly. Offer generic Economy and ship via First Class. eBay is trying to solve the issue where customers think their packages are arriving late. However, if customers don't expect to receive the package for two weeks but get it in one, then they are pleasantly surprised. The flip side is that you may lose a handful of customers who want their package by a certain date. (For a Birthday present for example). They may not buy from you because they think your package would arrive too late although it would have arrived on time.

If you still ship out within the next day, you customers will keep coming back. If this brings back my Top Rated Selling status and saves me money in fees, I think its worth a gamble. It won't be long till eBay changes its requirements once again. But for now this is a great plan.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

wow, if this works I owe you! I won't pay you, but I'll owe you!

[glchen]

Just showing a screenshot of the part of the listing in ebay where you set the shipping to Economy.

[ngnichols]

The standards for Top-Rated are pretty easy to maintain for me outside of 100 items in 12 months. Selling for me can be a seasonal thing so some months are HUGE and some are sparse. I was Top-Rated for a while, but lost it due to that specific criteria. I've just now gotten it back this coming month.

The problem lies in that eBay does not do enough to reward people for having to maintain those high standards, especially if you go even farther and do Top-Rated Plus. If I have to give someone 30 freaking days to possibly return a card, all sorts of things could happen in that time-period that are fraudulent. I also know that cuts both ways in that I could possibly take a raw card and have it quick graded to see if it will meet my standards. If it does, I keep it, if it doesn't then I just return it for a refund. It just keeps the seller hanging out in the wind and that's just not cool. I don't offer refunds to people I've sold to at shows and then take the cards home. Once it's out of my hands, it's yours. Same goes for eBay in that I have a "no return" policy.

The fact that they are getting a 10% cut of my sales is almost ridiculous as I can come on here and other places and sell pretty much just as effectively and safely and only take the 3% hit from PayPal which is a much more modest and reasonable transactional fee. The fact that I'm potentially paying eBay $300 on a $3000 item is insane and they certainly did not do $300 worth of work to assist me in selling that item AND having to go through all of the things they require to maintain ratings.

In regards to late shipment issues, I simply go inside and put it in the mail slot that's for regular mail. They usually just grab those bins once they get full and then scan the items. That eliminates the waiting in lines for a PO worker to scan it in and also eliminates the lag of putting it in the outside drop which is only collected at the very end of the day. I also maintain a stock of bubble mailers and a small digital scale so I can weigh and package everything at home in my own time and drop them off. If you can't get to the post office within 24 hours of someone handing you money, something is wrong with you and not the rules eBay has on that. That is insane to me that someone couldn't take 5 minutes to put the stuff together and drop it off at a post office somewhere along their day.

Another trick I've learned long ago is to offer free shipping on all of my items. I just build it into my asking price. When I first started doing eBay I was adamant about buyers paying the shipping, but it just got to the point to people were haggling about paying me $3 for postage and supplies and I got tired of it. By offering free shipping it eliminates them being able to mark you down on star ratings for that category when they're leaving you feedback and it honestly can win you some customers over someone else who has a similarly priced item, but is charging for shipping. I know it's small, but people are cheap too.

[buymycards]

Hi Howard,
The clerk who picks up the mail from the collection box is REQUIRED to scan the packages that are in the collection box. There should be no exceptions.

If I were you, I would ask for an appointment with the Postmaster and talk to him/her about it. If the Postmaster drags his feet, ask for the telephone number for the Postal Operations Manager, who is the Postmaster's boss.

It pisses me off when the clerks are too lazy to do their job correctly, and it causes a lot of problems down the line when a package is late or missing. The Postmaster is responsible for making sure that the employees are doing their job correctly, but the Postmaster won't know this is happening if you don't make him aware of it.

Rick

[Luke]

Question for you guys with ebay stores:

I decided to give 30 day returns a try in order to get the 10% off final value fees.

I thought I had done everything I needed to, but my discounts still show as "NONE". Can you see what I am missing here? If I'm missing some info I can look it up and post it.

Thanks!

[bobbyw8469]

I don't offer refunds to people I've sold to at shows and then take the cards home. Once it's out of my hands, it's yours. Same goes for eBay in that I have a "no return" policy.

I bought a card at a show one time. A 1960 Topps Mantle. It looked so nice I didnt bother taking it out of the Card Saver for fear of messing it up. It was a fake. According to your policy, I would not be due a refund.

[thecatspajamas]

Originally Posted by Luke

Question for you guys with ebay stores:

I decided to give 30 day returns a try in order to get the 10% off final value fees.

I thought I had done everything I needed to, but my discounts still show as "NONE". Can you see what I am missing here? If I'm missing some info I can look it up and post it.

Thanks!

If I recall correctly, the Discount bar you are looking at reflects your status as of your last monthly evaluation, which may not take into account recent revisions you have made.