Wow, lots to take in!  Thank you - looking forward to the video.

Julia

Great advice! Thank you Peter!

Regards

Michael

Thanks a lot ! Very good help for beginners and people who sell only occasionally ! ? ? 

Thank you Peter! I like your blog, there are many interesting entries. 

Thanks Peter,

WOW ! R@RE ! will now bite the dust !

Vic

That is excellent....Cassini. However it encourages shill bidding but nonetheless 🙂 

Thanks so much Peter. A must-read for anybody selling on Ebay. Great information!

Todd

Dear Peter,

that is very interesting, thank you for posting such “how to do” notes.

I found some points that may be the cause why my listings have low visibility, will change accordingly.

I have some questions.

What about text in images? Time ago ebay did try to forbid it, then it seems that it was not so strictly forbidden. Could Cassini consider also this?

What about text format? Does it change something if the text is written in HTML format?

Thank you very much if you can answer to the above.

BTW ebay has some rules/attitudes that really need to be changed.

As said before by ShortDong, it is not possible to report to ebay sellers who do shill biddings or purposely sells blatant fakes. Simply impossible. That’s not right. It is clear that ebay is privileging the amount of money coming from fraudulent sellers than morality.

And as for return policy, they are really wrong in ALWAYS protecting buyers. There should be the rule of accepting return only if the item is not correctly described, and not for any obvious excuse. This is a serious point. In some instances, I have spent for the return (totally not justified) more money than the value of the object. It is not admissible, there should be a way for avoiding not justified returns.

Another crazy point is that it is not possible to send messages to ebay.com. It is only possible to call them by phone.

I call this a sort of “racist” attitude, clearly privileging sellers that reside within USA. If they do not like listings in ebay.com by sellers from other Countries, why just not allowing them instead of adopting such irritating subterfuges?

Regards

Giovanni

In case I should choose to sell on eBay, does anyone know how badly it would affect the listing by using the camera on an iPad? I can now achieve fairly evenly lit photos this way but they do usually need to be cropped as the zoom isn’t great. I’d be loathe to buy a camera, lighting etc just to sell the odd item.

Also, does it affect the listing if you specify ‘UK only’? I don’t feel terribly confident about filling in customs declarations etc. 

Finally, what’s others’ experience of a low starting bid? What’s the ratio of good : bad outcomes? Maybe this tactic is best left to high-volume sellers and very popular items? Perhaps low-volume sellers are better off using Buy it Now and keeping the price reasonable?

Any and all suggestions welcome!

Nic

Posted by: NicDan

In case I should choose to sell on eBay, does anyone know how badly it would affect the listing by using the camera on an iPad? I can now achieve fairly evenly lit photos this way but they do usually need to be cropped as the zoom isn’t great. I’d be loathe to buy a camera, lighting etc just to sell the odd item.

Also, does it affect the listing if you specify ‘UK only’? I don’t feel terribly confident about filling in customs declarations etc. 

Finally, what’s others’ experience of a low starting bid? What’s the ratio of good : bad outcomes? Maybe this tactic is best left to high-volume sellers and very popular items? Perhaps low-volume sellers are better off using Buy it Now and keeping the price reasonable?

Any and all suggestions welcome!

Nic

The obstacle with selling on ebay is just as Giovanni has outlined. Ebay has adopted the rule of consumer law and placed the cost of that on the seller, but then fail to provide a reasonable communication process for the seller even where there is obvious cases of ( It was as identified and or the buyer is acting fraudulently to try get a partial refund or worse theft. 

The consumer law in relation to second hand items is that they must be as described, if the you buy a second hand item on the street in real life then you can only return it if it is not as described ( there are very unique other reasons) but you cannot change your mind. That is the law of the land. That is consumer law in society, however  ebay  treats every 'second hand' transaction under the consumer law as if they were new products and because they do not need to guarantee a return on a second hand item unless it is as described they unnecessarily burdening sellers with a cost that is not required because secretly ebay wants to have a return policy on all items and does not want to treat second hand items any differently then new products. 

Ebay then in regard to second hand items should at least facilitate the seller in any 'return' of a second hand item where the 'second hand' item is being returned under a false pretense. The 'second hand' market is the backbone of ebay. 

As a buyer i dread ever returning an item. I will avoid it if i can, i would rather keep a broken item with a partial refund then send it back. My reason being that i have to pay for the return post, and as i am outside the UK i then have to contact ebay customer support and it is a nightmare. Ebay chat is great but they cannot change policy or the systematic outcome and eventually i can get the problem resolved but not until it becomes a problem. I have to suffer a loss and then fight my way back. 

As a buyer of something on ebay in a catagory i am unfamiliar i do not treat the sellers as good as i would in a catagory i am familiar. So i understand and emphatise with Giovanni. In Antiques it is very different and you get to know the sellers and in fact do not want to upset the apple cart.  We as consumers are a nightmare. Ebay needs to apply the  'second hand' rule of not as described rigidly and with more attention and particularly in Fragile Antiques porcelain especially ( As postage insurance does not cover) , antiques that cannot be shipped around with risk of damage and buyers may not and most likely do not have the skills required to properly package antiques on return. The seller can lose 2 postage payments and his product because ebay would not listen to his concern about a buyer that  'changed their mind' and sent back a parcel they did not package properly. 

At least in antiques the rule should be applied and sellers better facilitated. 

I totally agree. The only thing I would say that even the ‘not as described’ rule does not work if the buyer is determined that they don’t want it. I dare say they would just come up with another reason, or break it and say it was broken on arrival?

We have an antiques store, it amazes me the excuses people come up with when trying to return an item, of course we have the benefit of not having to send by post. Having said that, we once had a rock-solid chair that apparently “broke the minute someone sat on it” (it looked like someone had taken a chainsaw to it!).

We once had someone try to return an item that had a hairline, luckily we keep all tags for 3 months so we were able to quickly retrieve the description that clearly stated ‘has hairline’. 

The most bizarre incident was the mother that came in with an antique sword that her son had bought. She was absolutely furious that we had sold a sword to her ‘boy’, she didn’t approve of it and thought we should be ashamed of ourselves! This would be a fair accusation if her son was 15, but he was 25 (we’d asked for ID)!

In all 3 instances we gave a refund. As a local business we can’t afford to have false accusations of unfair practices flying around. Our reputation is too important. But, I absolutely agree, the pendulum has swung too far in the direction of the buyer on eBay. 

Nic

The Global Shipping programme covers breakage.

I list almost exclusively on EBay Uk and when you list with International shipping tick the Global shipping box.

This allows your item to be displayed on EBay.com without any additional cost.

When an International buyer purchases your item the shipping address displayed to the seller is Pitney Bowes in the Midlands of the Uk.

They then Containerise consignments and ship them overseas.

The only problem you can have is SNAD as breakage is an automatic refund not by you but by EBay and you keep the sellers money.

Item value is covered up to £2k so that is just about everything.

Vic

Dear Vic,

I would like to see how Pitney & Bowes get the address from the Chinese buyers. For about 90% of my sales in China I must become crazy trying to get the correct address in Western and in Chinese characters.

It is incredible, they should know much better than me that if there is no address in Chinese characters most probably the parcel will not arrive at destination.

Most of the time Chinese buyers send you an address that has been translated from Chinese to English with Google translator, which is ridiculous most of the times.

Then you have one address from eBay and a completely different address from PayPal.

In my opinion both eBay and PayPal should request both address as a must from Chinese users.

BTW not all eBay platforms has the same rules/privileges. Here in Europe eBay.co.uk and eBay.de are privileged toward eBay.it for example.

Regards,

Giovanni

Dear Giovanni,I think that you complicate matters by overthinking them.

Simply Cut and paste the address from PayPal or EBay order details so that it appears exactly as shown.

That way you are covered for item not received as long as you have shipped it tracked. 

I take it Global shipping is not an option on EBay.it ?

Vic