E-Bay And Ridiculous Shipping Estimates !

Discussion in 'Bullion Investing' started by mpcusa, Sep 22, 2017.

  1. mpcusa

    mpcusa "Official C.T. TROLL SWEEPER"

    i found it very difficult atleast on the items i was selling to even turn a notable profit
    First you have to compete with the market price and under cut that, then you have
    To give ebay a cut and then there evil twin pay-pal dips there hand in to your pocket
    And your encouraged to offer free shipping and then you have to deal with the customers...LOL most are civil but you get a few that are not :(
     
    LA_Geezer likes this.
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  3. BooksB4Coins

    BooksB4Coins Newbieus Sempiterna

    "Idiots" and "bottom dwellers", huh? Pure genius, sir; how long did it take you to come up with such a brilliant comeback?

    Seriously, though; shall we think about this one for a moment?


    Idiot: a foolish or stupid person

    Bottom Dweller: (of a person or organization) characterized by poor, questionable, or unethical performance


    Hmm.... sound like anyone familiar to you? Perhaps some insufferable schmo who doesn't feel constrained by simple decency or the very agreement he willingly enters into? You, sir, are a black eye upon every decent eBay buyer, and a thorn in the side of every honest seller. You should be very, very proud.

    This, sir, is "in kind".... we'll save the spelling lesson for next time.
     
  4. GoodLife Auctions

    GoodLife Auctions New Member

    Someone mentioned Sellers Handling time in a post above. That is always added by eBay in their arrival estimates. eBay penalized us for not meeting estimated ship times a few years back. When we audited the prior 3 months we found that auctions that ended on Fridays were the culprit. We don't pack and ship on weekends so we were having some items arriving 1-2 days past eBay's estimate. We now state a 3-day handling policy and have built that into our shipping profiles. Problem solved except for those few that demand they receive their items faster than possible.

    Of course, now eBay discourages buyers and sellers from having a conversation about anything and that will probably include negotiating a better rate for faster shipments.
     
    LA_Geezer likes this.
  5. SilverWilliesCoinsdotcom

    SilverWilliesCoinsdotcom Well-Known Member

    eBay makes it nearly impossible to make money on low ticket items in general. As an example, say you offer a Morgan Dollar, common date, for $20, a fair price. eBay is going to take 10%, PaypPal 2.9 % + 30 cents, and shipping with Tracking will add $2.61. That's $5.49, leaving you 14.51. Melt today puts it at $13.24.

    This doesn't make eBay evil though. They deserve SOMETHING for putting your item in front of what generally amounts to thousands of potential buyers. Plus, they give you a secure online payment interface with PayPal. We never seem to appreciate the value of that, especially in this day and age, as it is rather taken for granted.

    And face it, $2.61 to ship a $20 item is silly. But, we do not trust each other, as many buyers without tracking will claim they "never got it."

    Bottom line, it's still cheaper to sell online than to mortgage your soul and get a brick and mortar, then be a slave to the clock and calendar to be there from open to close waiting for the little bells to chime when someone crosses the threshhold, and hopefully without a gun.
     
  6. mpcusa

    mpcusa "Official C.T. TROLL SWEEPER"


    Yes, i thought about it for three seconds exactly, since you dont know the full
    Story maybe you should keep your comments to your self ! not going to name
    Names here but certain members which shall remain nameless, like to follow
    Me around and make rude comments, "Sir does that sound like anybody you Know"
    :)
     
  7. NYandW

    NYandW Makes Cents!

    And I turned off football for this rant? :-(
     
    Kentucky likes this.
  8. mpcusa

    mpcusa "Official C.T. TROLL SWEEPER"

    I am right with you on that, just to many hands in your pocket, the only way
    Really to make any money is to offer something unique, that way there is
    No one selling the same thing, you can still offer a fair price and everybody
    Wins, the trick is finding that unique item...LOL
     
    LA_Geezer likes this.
  9. SilverWilliesCoinsdotcom

    SilverWilliesCoinsdotcom Well-Known Member

    Either that or I know some people who just sell on Facebook Groups and cut out eBay, takes checks, money orders or preferably the fee free avenues like Google Wallet, ZellePay, Facebook Pay.

    People DO like the protections of PayPal and Tracking though. Distrust of one's fellow man costs us more than we realize, but sadly it is what it is. The mere fact that we are buying something based on some faith and a couple of photographs and a few words of description plays on our demand for spontaneous gratification.

    Tracking to me is the silliest of all. It's valuable for security in that we are protected from loss or theft to an extent, but 1st class mail is 1st class mail. I hardly need to know that my package has moved from the sorting facility to the outbound bin or whatever in the middle of the night. It's be here in a couple few days. So will my junk mail.

    But, it just takes one lost package or a buyer who claims they NEVER GOT IT to wipe out what little you might be making. My rule these days is I use tracking when I ship until I have a good sense that the buyer is legit. Repeat customers who have bought nice coins from me in the past and I know are coming back because we respect each other. But that takes time, and we're all in a hurry.

    Otherwise, it's best, at least from my experience, to state your shipping policies in PLAIN ENGLISH and brutally honest terms. if you don't stuff envelopes on weekends, say, "I don't stuff envelopes on weekends." Give examples... i.e.
    "For example, if you order after 5 pm on Friday, your order will most likely not go out until Monday's mail, which is generally at (noon, or whatever it is.). Don't assume people are going to do the calendar math in their heads.

    And as far as the costs go, if I have low priced coin(s) to sell, I try these days to sell lots or groups of related coins that push the 3-4 ounces that can safely go in a USPS 1st class envelope for $2.61.

    I also don't make any money near as I can tell, but it pays for my hobby, somewhat.
     
    LA_Geezer likes this.
  10. mpcusa

    mpcusa "Official C.T. TROLL SWEEPER"


    Yes, that is a very attractive part of ebay, but again that is put in for the buyer
    The seller still has all the other non sense to deal with, the bottom line
    Is if you cant make it worth your while why bother.
     
  11. BooksB4Coins

    BooksB4Coins Newbieus Sempiterna

    And perhaps that's your problem: you don't think. This would be a perfectly reasonable point, though.... well, other than the fact everything I've said was based directly upon and/or in response to YOUR OWN WORDS, but don't let this reality get in the way of a good excuse or whine.

    We could also take this one step further and point out the FACT that you don't know the "full story" when you decide to deem yourself judge, jury, and executioner, not because of any genuine delay in shipping, but because precious little you feel yourself above the very agreement you willingly entered into, but this is okay? Can we say "hypocrite"?

    Don't flatter yourself, sir; if one wished only to make "rude comments", with each new post you provide ample opportunities to do so. This is a discussion forum, and means one cannot decide who participates based only upon their reaction to spewed nonsense.

    It is quite clear, by both your own words and actions, that you feel yourself the center of the universe, and not bound by the constraints of reasonable behavior, so perhaps you should simply post your eBay username so whatever sellers who may search you out can decide for themselves if you're worth the trouble. If so sure you're in the right, what have you to lose?
     
  12. SilverWilliesCoinsdotcom

    SilverWilliesCoinsdotcom Well-Known Member

    Can you feel the love?
     
    LA_Geezer likes this.
  13. mpcusa

    mpcusa "Official C.T. TROLL SWEEPER"

    Well we can do this all day long ! however I refuse to continue with your
    Non sense so I think it would just be easier to put you on "IGNORE'
    So you need not respond as I wont be able to read it, LOL :)
     
  14. Aquahollic

    Aquahollic ֍ E Pluribus Unum ֎

    So just put them on your ignore list, why even bother responding? That's so immature. You're acting like a child that has to have the last word.
     
    baseball21 likes this.
  15. LA_Geezer

    LA_Geezer Well-Known Member

    I guess I was wrong to think that the sort of people who would collect coins would be just as meticulous about composing their prose as they would be at examining their coin purchases. Still, as a former English Grammar teacher who became a textbook editor, I cringe at some things I see; the ubiquitous then where than is intended is just one example. There is also the most commonly misspelled word on the WWW: the word is indefinitely, not indefinately.
     
  16. LA_Geezer

    LA_Geezer Well-Known Member

    My hat is off to you for putting up with eBay. I found them so exasperating that I stopped selling there about six years ago.
     
    mpcusa likes this.
  17. mpcusa

    mpcusa "Official C.T. TROLL SWEEPER"


    I stopped selling when they bought pay-pal and made that a requirement
    For purchase another fee...LOL
     
  18. GoodLife Auctions

    GoodLife Auctions New Member

    I wish management would ditch them but eBay is the only option for some items.

    It is shocking that no one has built an eBay clone circa 1999. That's when I first started selling there. It was a wooly, wild west of a place but life seemed simpler... until someone got scammed or the PC police got involved. :p
     
    LA_Geezer likes this.
  19. baseball21

    baseball21 Well-Known Member

    They split off into separate companies a while ago so eBay really doesn't have anything to do with that and has opened up the payment options more since the split.

    I wonder how many MBAs it takes for someone to say hey maybe we shouldn't have the exact same policies for every category
     
  20. Old Coin Dawg

    Old Coin Dawg Active Member

    Very good, loved it. But I will wait until tomorrow to tell you what I really think.
     
  21. Old Coin Dawg

    Old Coin Dawg Active Member

    What gets me is the fact my piece of mail can lay for any time like 3 days to a week at a post office on the path to my house. Maybe that's why they do what they do.
     
    LA_Geezer likes this.
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