I wanted to check in on the thoughts behind signature confirmation on sales below $100. Obviously the two things to balance are the cost and also the potential hassle for the buyer if not available to receive package. For sales around $15 to $35 I have never added the feature. For sales over $100 I use it every time. I am curious how sellers on this board handle things in the $35 to $100 range. Concerns would be theft from front porch/mail box, loss in mail and buyer claiming they never received. Thanks for the input.
If it costs extra it is a waste of money. Ebay selller protection (such as it is) does not need it and it can easily be inconvenient for buyers. I sold over 40,000 ebay itens, mostly international from Britain to USA and never used any form of tracking at all, my loss rate was trivial. It is wrong to assume buyers are out to cheat you, just about all of them just want the item they bought, as described and in reasonable time. One thing you could do is build a self insurance fund with all the money you are spending on signature confirmation, this would cover any losses you made anyway. I am assuming you sell coins or similar, and not high risk elecrtronic gadgets or expensive 'designer' items, things that might appeal to a more dubious demographic.
50-100 is not really worth it. 90-100 maybe if you really wanted to but definitely not on a 30 dollar item. If you ever get the sense it is the type of buyer you will need signature confirmation for something like that just cancel the sale and refund their money. Canceling is really the only form of protection sellers on ebay have.
I agree with afantiques. I've sold hundreds of coins and never used signature confirmation. Most of my sales were under 50 dollars. I've sold a few dozen over a hundred, a handful over 200, and for these I never used it. It generally seems inconvenient for the buyer. If a buyer requests it and it's an expensive item (eg over 200) then I'd do it. Only then though.
Canceling is really the only form of protection sellers on ebay have. It's a fine way to be banned as a seller. Not selling on ebay is probably a better plan. For the trivial risks involved sellers can easily cover the risks of doing business, the cheapest and simplest being self insurance, where you spread the risk over all your buyers.
I agree never have used signature either. Always track the package though. Like been said most buyers just want what they ordered as quickly as possible.
I only add signature when required by ebay/paypal, which is something like $700 or more. I then add it by buying insurance for an amount that requires a signature, so it is included with the insurance.
The only test is, how much money are you prepared to lose on a sale if it becomes a non-delivery claim?
A more businesslike test or question is how much money are you prepared to lose on however many out of 100 sales become dead losses? The probabilty of any individual sale becoming a loss is very small, over a period of regular selling it becomes a near certainty that you will have one or more losses. Lets say your average item sells for $50 and you make $10 per item. On a hundred sales you'd make $1000, so if you lost one $100 item, well above your average item price, you'd still be $900 ahead. If you added Just one dollar to the handling/shipping charge for all those items, you'd wind up with one item lost but still have $1000 in your pocket as profit. I don't know how much signature confirmation would add to the buyer's postal costs,(and you have to remember that if the item is truly lost, it is just as lost with tracking and signature as it would be without) but if it is over $1, doing without it is the bettter course of action and one that, in conjunction with a simple self insurance, leaves you with the same money in your pocket as if you had never lost a thing. As a major advantage you have simpler delivery and a lower gross shipping price for your buyers. Remember, if the commercial shipping insurers can make a profit charging $1 per $100 cover, They must think the average risk of loss is well under 1 in 100, and their actuaries will have figures to support this. With auto or fire insurance there is a chance of a catastropic loss so you buy commercial insurance to spread the risk. With ebay items the most you can lose is whatever the item cost you plus the shipping, no chance of a massive loss so insurance is something any seller can afford to handle themselves.
As a person that is mostly a Buyer on eBay, I thought I'd give my humble opinion. I think, and I'm talking about coins, unless the item is very valuable tracking should be enough. I live in a rural area and the Post Office has contract mail carriers. The mail is deposited in cluster boxes, not to the individual home, so if a signature is needed, a trip to the Post Office is needed to get your package. I have over 1,000 buys on eBay and, knock on wood, have never had a problem receiving an item I've won on eBay. It may just be luck, but if the item has a high enough value, I do check the Seller's feedback rating. eBay does favor the Buyer and from speaking to other eBay Buyers, they seem to try and satisfy the Buyer if there is a problem. I won a coin (worth around $40) one time and the Seller sent me the wrong coin. I contacted the Seller, they apologized, told me to keep the coin they sent by mistake and they sent me the correct coin. I think the vast majority of Sellers on eBay are fair and honest and really want that positive feedback with all 5 stars. I am speaking primarily of Sellers in the US, I tend not to deal with overseas Sellers because of time delay and the chance of counterfeit coins. The few coins that I do sell on eBay, I just use tracking and have never had a problem.
