Former eBay sellers, why did you stop?

Why did you stop selling on eBay?

 

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Dangerous shift in balance of power toward buyers. For me, the final straw was losing the ability to leave negative feedback for crooked buyers.

I'm considering dipping a cautious toe back into the waters, though. If the whole site hasn't fallen apart by now, it must mean that most buyers aren't abusing the system.

 

They wanted to run too much of my business, and after more than 40,000 items sold, no two the same, I was just tired of it as well.

But mainly too much meddling.

 

Very true Jeff. I really hate that I can't leave negative feedback for a buyer. Fortunately for me, there was only one instance where I felt it was appropriate. And believe me, to make me want to leave negative feedback, to a buyer no less, really takes a lot.

 

I grew tired of sending one thing, and buyer taking photos of a damaged or broken other thing claiming it was what i sent.

 

Mostly because I had worked my *** off becoming a power seller 3k in sales for 3 consecutive months to get the discounted seller fees or something to that effect.

Then almost over night every body was a "top rated seller" getting the same discounts.
Just irked me I guess.
May give it another go still on the fence.

 

I got sick of paying the income taxes.

 

My last sell was March 1 after 8 years of selling. Just got tired of working for Ebay. It was a great place to sell, no doubt. Two of my last three buyers were problems (no payment) so I was glad to get out. Haven't missed it at all.

I ended with 100% feedback and all sections were 5 Star, 943 transactions.

Maybe I should buy 57 Dime Sets to get the next colored star......

 

I ran out of ink for my printer, so I can't print the postage things. Yes, I know I'm pretty lazy

 

I am actually stepping up activity again after 2 years, although I am cautiously waiting to see what Gibbons-bidStart comes up with, the site purportedly to be stamps, coins, and postcards only, which is 99% of what I sell. I've been a seller 16+ years with a perfect 100% 2200 Feedback.

Ebay undoubtedly is the best (general) postcard market in the world. Delcampe is a close second, although most buyers there want European cards, a very thin market for US cards.

Now that eBay has spun off their cash cow, maybe they will be a little more cooperative with sellers.

 

I stopped because it seemed that more and more thieves found out that Ebay is a safe place for them to operate.

I shan't go back to Ebay.

 

It's some crap buyers that ruin the whole seller experience.

There was a buyer that I sold at a loss and whinged about some defect that wasn't evident in the photo as well as the slow shipping. Geez, you are talking about some coins that were sold for a few mere dollars and it was mailed internationally. Obviously buyer expected some kind of international tracking service but it was not doable for just a couple of dollars. I refunded the money and said he can keep it to avoid trouble. Yet he demanded an apology on top of the refund for wasting his time and left negative feedback. Needless to say, he was blocked. He got another friend to stir up more trouble and similar thing happened. So in a matter of a month, I sold them at a loss and was awarded a couple of negative feedback.

You can imagine how much furious emails I wrote to ebay. They weren't willing to remove the negative feedback as they claimed it is not within the guideline. It took quite a fair bit of effort to convince them that this was unwarranted as I did everything I can and that they were working together to frame me. While both negative feedback were removed after another month, my reputation was hit.

To add to the irony - both of them were known to sell counterfeits! Few months down the road, they got slapped with a few negative feedback. They got what they deserved I guess.

 

Postcards?

 

Yes, postcards - a very lucrative collectible if you know what you're doing. And as I implied, a reason to maintain a presence on eBay.

Email me your postal address, and I will send you one, free. Maybe your first ever?

 

Right now I only sell coins under $10 since USPS lost a package. After 2 weeks it hadn't arrived so I refunded the buyer and now I am out the money and the coin. It sold for $14 and lists at $20. I now have a small basket of coins worth over $10 I got to figure out what to do. Maybe just keep them or take them to a coin show to sell them but no they will try to get too low of a price. I may stop selling low cost coins. I have a case open for a coin I sold for $4. The support agent I talked and seller raised issue with me not having tracking. How far does Ebay think $4 goes? At least the buyer understood.

 

I always see those "junk drawer" lots with post cards and other collectables. Too bad the coins are often worthless.

 

Right now I only sell coins under $10 since USPS lost a package. After 2 weeks it hadn't arrived so I refunded the buyer and now I am out the money and the coin. It sold for $14 and lists at $20. I now have a small basket of coins worth over $10 I got to figure out what to do.

his makes no sense at all. The important figure is how many out of 100 you lose.

It is inevitable that you lose the occasion item. You do not lose the coin and the money,just the cost of the coin to you, and the postage. the 'money ' came from the buyer and went back to the buyer. It was never yours. You cannot own the item and the payment.

To stop because of one trivial problem is just plain silly. Ebay is a good place to sell low value coins because you can shift hard to move items in large enough numbers for the occasional loss to be written off against profits. With $10 coins, 10c. added to your shipping.handling charge will cover you for 1 in 100 failing to arrive. Just refund and look cheerful when it happens.

In general the buyers of the occasional coin of modest value as you describe are the most trustworthy market.

Few people who are into coin collecting in the first place are going to be tempted to try and steal $10 or $20. My self respect might take a knock or two for tens of thousands but not for pocket change.

I have sold thousands of such coins, invariably sent by basic untracked post to all round the world and domestically and my losses have been too trivial to matter.

 

Yes, I lost the money and the coin. The coin cost money and has value, the money goes back to the seller. Did you think the coin was free? Does that make sense to you? The coin costs money, I refund the buyer. I am out. This was not out of 100 sells. Is this a number you simply made up? It is not based on any fact. I had other coins the seller claimed not to get I seriously question. This not including coins I bought the postage office lost. I have a purchase and return currently, both shipped to the wrong place.

 

I haven't totally stopped selling, but in the past few months I felt like eBay must have changed something in their algorithms so that I was not getting the sales I used to. Coins I'd been selling steadily for years suddenly I couldn't get rid of and had sit around for months. In the past year they had a few seller-friendly developments like giving you three automatic free relistings and more free listings, and that was great, but then they took it away. Now you only get to list 20 free per month outside of special promotions, and the relisting costs money. Their recent policy updates are all aimed at big volume sellers and pushing you into getting a store membership, and I don't sell enough for that to be worth it, especially with my recent drop in sales. I was lucky that one person came along and bought about 90 percent of my coins. It allowed me to finally get rid of the coins that had been sitting around for months, and now I'm taking a break and seeing how things develop.

 

Your posts are a little confusing at times as I think you are mixing up the words buyer and seller. In any case, afantiques is talking about absorbing losses. It's a fundamental part of running a business. You have to account for it if you plan on succeeding. If businesses don't overcome their losses then they are not profitable, obviously.

I believe afantiques is using 100 transactions to simplify the calculating on your rate of loss. If you have one loss out of every 100 transactions then your loss rate is 1% (duh). Which in my experience would be high. One loss for every 200 transactions would equate to 0.5 per 100 (0.5%).

If you know your rate of loss, you can calculate (taking all other expenses into account) how much profit you need in order to profit overall.

I'm guessing from your comments though that you are not trying to run a business. In that case it does suck if you only sell few coins per year and one happens to get lost. Yes you are out of the money you sold the coin for (which should at least include the cost of the coin, hopefully).