Hello Giovanni:

If you think eBay is stupid just try Catawiki. eBay has its problems but overall one can call them and I have been satisfied mostly both with my purchases and their responses to my concerns. On a 1-10 scale, I would give eBay a 6 or 7. I would give Catawiki a 1 or if that was permitted I would move into a range like minus 3 to minus 10.

Errol 

Dear Errol,

I did try Katawiki once and I have not been satisfied at all. The main point is that you are submitted to their experts, which could be good in general but only from the point of view of unexperienced buyers.

About ebay, are you speaking as a buyer or as a seller? It seems that you are speaking as a buyer. In that case, I see no reason at all for concerns for the reasons that I have exposed in the previous post.

Giovanni

Dear Giovanni:

Yes I'm speaking as a buyer. I have never sold anything on eBay. I did not mean to minimize your concerns. I cannot even begin to address them.

Regards,

Errol

I forgot another point about ebay’ stupidity: the search function.

I start the title of my listing by “Chinese antique ….”. Well, if I search for “Chinese antique”, I have pages of listings including any kind of things, shoes, cameras, everything, which does not have in title the word “antique” nor the word “Chinese”. That is because of algorithms in the search function that are designed “to meet users needs”, which is simply STUPID.

The user knows what he is looking for and a simple search for the input words is surely better.

Anyway, the scope of my post is to hear other sellers about the worst point, the fact that ebay is not protecting, but actually inviting not honest buyers to steal.

How to prevent that, is there a possibility?

How to obtain that “no return” is really no return?

Perhaps the only possibility is to not accept paypal payments but only wire transfer instead. But I am afraid that in such case the number of buyers will decrease substantially.

What does more experienced sellers suggest?

Giovanni

BTW dear Errol, your clair de lune gu shaped vase is very nice ? 

You raise some valid points, Giovanni. I was a seller on eBay for some years, but finally moved to a different platform that made more sense for me, mainly from a financial point of view (I got sick and tired that combined, eBay/Paypal ended up taking almost 20% of my gross, which also included their phoney exchange rates).

I live in the EU, so as a buyer, I appreciate the consumer rights that we have, including the right for returning an item within 14 days of receiving it. I've had to use it a few times on eBay, mainly on items that turned out to be either fake or definitely not as described. I think if you are serious about selling, you do have to offer a fair return policy, because it also shows that your confident in the quality of the items you offer. That said, I've been lucky and in the time I was selling only had a couple of issues with buyers, and they were in all cases simply something I had missed. That said, the system does inherently seem to reward dishonesty from the buyer's side, but I can't see how that can be changed in a way that doesn't involve some kind of escrow service on all items, or that wouldn't end up hurting the honest buyers more.

I also agree that the search function is idiotic, and that if you search for something, all results from all the regional ebays should show up as well. If they want to be a global marketplace, anything less than that seems, as you pointed out, stupid.

And regarding catawiki. I've not been able to find a way on there where you can directly contact the seller and ask a question about an item. I might have missed it, but if not, that is likely one of the biggest flaws on that site, and it will hurt sellers. I had my eye on a vintage diver watch on there, but since I couldn't contact the seller, I never bid on it. I doubt that I'm the only one who thinks that is a major problem.

Hi Giovanni,

When using ebay you can chat to a customer service. It is deceptively hard to find this function but if you search and search you will find the path the leads to customer service.  They deliberately make it very hard to ind the customer service chat, however if you find it then it is free and they will deal with your issue there and then and fix it as best they can. 

I agree there are many buyers that cheat and demand a refund so that they can try and get a partial refund. When dealing with these buyers, it might help to remind them that they must pay for the return postage. 

This is where customer service comes in. If you have described the item properly then the person returning the item has to pay for the return postage. This is important as it will stop the majority of cheaters that are only issuing a refund to try get a partial refund. 

You can also cancel an item a bidder has won. One method to avoid refund or returns, is to speak and communicate with the buyer after they win but before you post the item. Give them as much information as you can about the item. Exaggerate and if you see anything on the item, tell then in the messages. Make sure they agree to everything. Say you are not happy to send it unless they are happy about it's condition. 

If you ever worry about a bidder just cancel the order and mark it at the request of the buyer. This is almost impossible for the  buyer to appeal. However you risk getting a negative feedback if doen without communication and some form of agreement. 

Ebay is in fact better for the seller than the buyer, the buyer has to pay but the seller can cancel. If a buyer has doubts then offer to cancel the order. Always communicate with the buyer and be friendly, even if you feel they are a cheat they can still be won over by kind words and friendly communication. 

Communication is key. The Ebay customer service look at all the communications and if you are friendly and busy communicating they will always take your side over a buyer/seller that does not communicate or is rude. 

You can have good experiences on ebay but you have to be a super communicator. Always get some form of agreement from the buyer before you post. Make sure they agree in writing they are happy with everything and offer to cancel if the order if they are not.

Psychologically they are much less likely to break their honor and word but are more than happy to exploit ebays policies.  

Also if the transaction is overseas then the buyer who is making the return  must provide a tracker that is recognized by ebay or they will automatically not get their postage paid for. 

The only loss that you then face is the cost of posting the item to them. You might even avoid this if you can show ebay that the item is as described and the buyer agreed in communications. 

You can also always cancel an order as item broken during packaging if you do not get the price you want,It is risky and can result in bad feedback but with lots of kind and good communications you can get around almost anything. 

The risk is buyers that want to cheat by abusing ebays return policy, To counteract this you communicate with the buyer before sending and get a good rapport going and make sure they know everything you can think they might use to circumnavigate the ebay returns. 

Sometimes a buyer may genuinely just want to return the item. Be very kind to them and try get a good feedback from them. 

Dear Iluvatar,

you are right, I was accepting returns in my listings because it is more correct, but switched to not accepting it after the returns claimed from unscrupulous buyers. Many Chinese buyers do buy just because they heard that something could be valuable, so they buy without appropriate knowledge, and after that they refuse the item because a friend, who probably knows even less, told them that it is a fake.

But the fact is that it has been a useless decision, because ebay’s policy force me to accept the return regardless if the buyer is an idiot or not.

The reason that you didn’t like Catawiki is exactly the same that I didn’t like. You are forced to be submitted by the decision of their “expert”, which in my case it has been a shame.

It is vital to have the possibility to communicate between buyers and sellers before bidding.

I also didn’t like the fact that they are who set the ending time of the auction.

What cost me selling on ebay is more than 20%, it is about 30% considering also the dollar/euro exchange.

In my case, beside that if I have to take back an item I have to pay import duties, which indeed should not be paid, but actually it is.

What I would like to know is: should I have much less bidders if I will only accept wire transfer?

Giovanni

Posted by: clayandbrush

What I would like to know is: should I have much less bidders if I will only accept wire transfer?

Giovanni

You might get less bidders, but I figure it is not the amount of bidders that matter, but the quality of the bidders. The serious collectors will probably bid, no matter if you accept Paypal or not. They will probably be more concerned about your reputation as a dealer and trustworthiness, but here I think it is crucial to offer a "no questions" return policy (at least that is something I would like to see if bidding on something a seller has, who doesn't offer Paypal as a payment option).

~ Michael

Thank you dear Michael,

I think that I will follow your suggestion, will restore the "return accepted" and probably refuse paypal, at least officially.

Giovanni

Hi Giovanni

I have a question even if you accept only wire payments, ebay will still force you to refund the payment. So where is the advantage. Also i was looking through Vase's today and i saw a beautiful brown etch 19th blue and white crackle vase, it was huge. I then notice it was from Italy 🙂 

It is your Vase Giovanni 🙂 It is amazing Vase. I stuck a bid on it but I doubt i will win, but at least with me you know i wont return it. How on earth will you send it. You will need a special container. 

Uk salvage sold this vase for £65 and it was stunning Dragon, look at the second pic. However she has re listed it for some reason. The dragon is the selling point on this.

You're correct in being angry although I wouldn’t use the word stupid. I have some absolutely choice adjectives for ebay but stupid isn't one. The fact is they are very very clever at running an algorithm based marketplace that serves one purpose and one purpose only. Making money. It is perhaps us who are the stupid ones. On the other side though as a buyer "most" of my purchases have been more than satisfactory with only two complete howlers that didn’t get resolved as they were ages ago. Luckily the amounts weren’t too much and didn't leave me going hungry that month. Be careful what you buy and from who and if you sell be very careful what you sell. The world is a very bad place and full of very bad people who buy on ebay. My opinion of course before the tsunami of retort arrives.

Ebay should be stricter about returns...if there is not a very good reason for a return then the postage to the seller and the custom duty should be given back to the seller. 

I agree you can return because that is the law but we are people dealing with people and the return policy should not be abused to try get a partial refund. A change of mind should not be at the expense of the seller either. Only legitimate returns where the item is not as described. In the case of Antiques this rule should be more contextual and sensible, in fact it is a very difficult situation to make a rule about. 

I have never returned an Antique as of yet. I have asked sellers to cancel orders on the rarest of occasions and they do not like doing that. Even though it costs them nothing but because they have to relist. However in technology that is a very different matter.

Hi Short-dong , I would not go overboard with the crackle ware dragon vase , it is a very common type of export ware and the size is quite small (8 inches); I think £65 would be too much. You used to see these in antique centres in the UK sometimes, and ten years ago you could pick up a small one for £20-30 . 

I always convert into chinese yuan now , because I buy in the UK when I (occasionally) visit and then sell here ,  and chinese customers would be unlikely to pay 600 yuan for this, so I could not make a profit .  Anyway this kind of rough export ware is not very popular here.