@shopnyc - wow, long time in NYC, I'm envious! Some time ago, I lived on Long Island and commuted to my job in Manhattan. I was crazy enough to love it so much that I thought I should be paying them to let me have an office in the sky LOL. I loved every minute there....now I think I would feel differently because the city has changed so much.
More recently, I lived in another large metro area, but still had a car, so I hear you on the adjustment....now my driving is measured in distance vs. time...I am acclimating, slowly.
Later this morning I will head to one of the big farmers markets in this area, so at least I will get some walking in there.
When I lived in the other city, I always applied for airport shops, since I lived close to a huge airport, but never got them...I had a feeling they had long time shoppers they used for those, but still kept posting them.

I also recently lived in Florida...shopping was lucrative there - not as many shoppers in the area I was in....I found one crazy route where there were like 10 Circle K gas stations within 5 miles of each other. I have never found those kind of clusters in the north. Same with restaurants.....probably because we don't have as many tourists and visitors here.
I can tell from reading the various posts, that msing definitely varies dramatically from location to location.

@ServiceAward
Thank you for all the helpful insider tips....
I've had pretty good luck so far, I think...probably because almost nothing I buy there is urgent for me, they mostly fall in the category of nice to have on hand....and I try very hard to avoid clutter, so I am choosy I guess.
but I have one more question if you don't mind....
you mentioned having items sit on the site for quite awhile....does eBay charge you any ongoing fees just to keep a listing active? or do they only collect a fee when you sell?

I do have a few things I would like to sell, so I need to learn how to do that...

@sueac101 - wow you have a lot of experience with merchandising. I've always wondered how that pays
in comparison to mystery shopping.
I think I've written the story here before, but I only have one experience with merchandising.
In the early 90s, I rode with a friend who used to do a route for those, all around the state....miles and miles. In addition to payment, he also got reimbursed mileage, all meals and hotels. This was pre-internet, so I don't remember how he got into it. His trunk was full of boxes of inserts and flyers and I helped him at each grocery store. It's hard to picture a similar arrangement now, but maybe they exist.

@BarefootBliss wrote:

@ServiceAward
Thank you for all the helpful insider tips....
I've had pretty good luck so far, I think...probably because almost nothing I buy there is urgent for me, they mostly fall in the category of nice to have on hand....and I try very hard to avoid clutter, so I am choosy I guess.
but I have one more question if you don't mind....
you mentioned having items sit on the site for quite awhile....does eBay charge you any ongoing fees just to keep a listing active? or do they only collect a fee when you sell?

I do have a few things I would like to sell, so I need to learn how to do that...

Whether you pay an insertion fee depends on several factors. First, if you choose to do an auction, you will pay an insertion fee for most listings. If you have an eBay store, which likely would not be factor for you since you are only trying to unload some personal stuff, then you do get a handful of free auction listings each month but only in certain categories. Since eBay shifted to more of an online store with items on the shelf instead of an auction format, there is little reason to do an auction. I rarely do them. Maybe 2 or 3 times per year. The only reason why I would do an auction would be if all the following are true: I don't know the value of an item, I cannot find any sold comps for it, it is a rare item, and it is something in demand. Otherwise, from a selling perspective, I could be leaving money on the table. Plus, there is always the issue of buyers who do not pay, then you have to relist. Also, many buyers just want to buy what they want when they want. They don't want to have to compete with other buyers, wait a week, and still may not end up with the item. Some sellers are still stuck in the 2000s and refuse to move away from auctions.

If you list an item in the Buy It Now format, you get 250 free listings per month, meaning you do not pay any insertion fee. There are a few exceptions, like if you are listing a vehicle. For those of us with stores, we get additional free listings per month, depending on what level store we have. I think I get about 1000 free listings per month. Why would I pay for more free listings than the number of items I have listed? Because I like the ability to end stale listings, then relist them under the sell similar option. This creates a new listing without me having to do any additional work. eBay rewards those sellers who consistently list. After a while, listings will go stale. By ending the listing and choosing to sell a similar item, this will generate a new listing with all the data from the old listing. I can adjust something if I feel the price may be too high or my title may not have the correct keywords. This will not only show eBay I am listings "new" items, which will boost other listings in the search, but it also boost the item I've just relisted so it is no longer stale. I do this process several times per month, and having more free listings than the number of items I have in my store gives me the flexibility to do that. The downside from a selling perspective is that you lose any watchers you have and the data on the number of views an item has received. I'm willing to give up that data for the chance I get the eyes of a fresh buyer interested who may follow through. If someone has watched an item for 3 weeks and they've not bought, they have moved on to another seller or they merely were "window" shopping because they like the idea of buying that particular item.

If you list an item as Buy It Now, it will automatically renew after 30 days. Every time it renews, it will count toward your 250 free listing allocation. The only time it could mess you over is if you list 130 items on the first day of a month with 31 days in it, because those 130 listings will renew on the 31st day of the month, generating insertion fees for 10 of the listings. You probably aren't going to do that, so it shouldn't be a concern. If you ever decided to have 225+ items listed at once, then I would subscribe to a Basic store. It is around $20/month and it pays for itself. Plus, you get a $25 coupon for free shipping supplies every 3 months.

When items sell you do get charged a fee. The fee is based on the cost of the item, shipping, and sales tax. The % of the fee varies and it is too much (and confusing) to detail here, but plan on 13%-15% of the total sale. If you choose to advertise, you'll pay more, depending on what percent of advertising fee you selected. I normally promote all my listings at a 5% rate. That's just my default. When an item sells, I know roughly 20% is coming off the top to eBay. I don't offer free shipping except during Christmas, so when I price an item, I know I have to account for 20% going to eBay, plus my cost of goods. Since the buyer pays shipping, I don't have to factor that into the item price, which lets me list thing cheaper than other sellers. I've tried free shipping, calculated shipping (where shipping is based on item weight and the USPS zones), and flat rate shipping (where everybody pays the same shipping regardless of where they live). I have found the flat rate model works best for me. It has actually generated more Zones 1-4 buyers, even though my shipping cost is based on Zone 8. I suspect eBay was giving buyers in Zones 1-4 bad estimates when I was using calculated shipping, because most of my business was from Zones 5-8. It's now flipped, and I am making a nominal amount off the shipping charges as a result. This works out well since it is enough to cover my supply costs. When USPS raised rates in July, many sellers had to raise their costs. I didn't touch mine, because I was already making a little bit off each sale. I might lose 50 cents on a buyer from California, but that's no big deal because I'm not getting as many buyers from that area now.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/14/2024 07:54PM by ServiceAward.

@BarefootBliss wrote:

@sueac101 - wow you have a lot of experience with merchandising. I've always wondered how that pays
in comparison to mystery shopping.
I think I've written the story here before, but I only have one experience with merchandising.
In the early 90s, I rode with a friend who used to do a route for those, all around the state....miles and miles. In addition to payment, he also got reimbursed mileage, all meals and hotels. This was pre-internet, so I don't remember how he got into it. His trunk was full of boxes of inserts and flyers and I helped him at each grocery store. It's hard to picture a similar arrangement now, but maybe they exist.

When I started it was pre-internet days, everything was done by snail mail. I got started in it when I took a neighbor to the state employment office, while waiting for her I was looking at the job boards and saw an ad for a merchandiser for Huffy, the bicycle company. It was their merchandising division, so didn't do bicycles. at the time I had just closed my hobby store and was looking for work anyway. I called them and did a phone interview and was hired. The job paid $7.00 an hour, plus mileage, plus travel time between the stores. And if we had a reset that was not close to home, and it would be a 12 hour or more job they paid for a hotel for the night. I had a route that went from Ontario, Oregon to Mountain Home, Idaho. Which was 125 miles one way. I mostly did K-marts on a weekly basis. Then later we got Albertsons for jobs and as the area grew, we got more stores. When I started, you were not allowed to work for any other merchandising companies at the same time. After about 5 years it changed, and you could work for more than one company at the same time. At one time I was working for 10 companies. When I quit due to health problems, I mainly was doing the Boise area and a few surrounding cities. Unfortunately, the pay rate has not gone up with the times. One company I worked for never gave raises started out at $10 hour and when I quit 15 years later it was still $10 hour. I heard that they just raised the pay to $15 hour.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/2024 09:56PM by sueac101.

sueac, thank you for sharing your story.
On a side note, it just proves what I've noticed over the years....working, for the most part, is just not as lucrative as it used to be...

Well.. I did a thing. One I swore I wasn't going to do, but 6 months of begging for rides in a car with no AC in the hottest part of the year, wore me down. I traded in the POS Jeep on a running car.. Lets see how this goes. I'm independent again, I have AC, and the car only has 55K miles on it. I'm not unhappy..

@Morledzep wrote:

I'm independent again, I have AC, and the car only has 55K miles on it. I'm not unhappy..

I'm not unhappy Hopefully, you've been able to do a lot more on your own terms!

I just wanted to post an update on the progress of my goals. Sorry for the length!

This past year I've been having complications with diabetes. The first year I had diabetes was when I was a kid. I took Insulin injections for a year and disliked it. I've always disliked needles. I was strict and disciplined the first year I had diabetes, with diet and exercise. After the first year, I was able to get off Insulin injections and transitioned to pills instead. For 21 years after that, I had diabetes under control with pills. But I was lax with my lifestyle, as the pills mostly managed it for me. During that period, it was moderately managed on my own part. But this past year, things eventually caught up. It got out of control due to poor choices, being down, and other life events. I was losing feeling in my extremities, feeling a burning sensation, my vision got slightly worse, and it was difficult to walk. This was the first time I had to transition from pills back to Insulin injections. There's been a lot of resistance on my part, as I personally dislike needles. But after trial and error and persistence, I've finally been able to stick with something that works for me and turn it around.

I had my three-month checkup today. I am happy to share that my A1C (three-month blood sugar average) was in the non-diabetic range. This has been the first time that this has happened since 22 years ago, one year after I was diagnosed with diabetes. Taking care of my diabetes has taken care of my body in turn, my ailments, and other related stuff. There's also the cosmetic benefit to it, but I'm just happy not to be in physical pain and to be healthy. There's still some other goals that I'm still working on and towards, to decrease my Insulin dosage and dependence on it. I found some motivation and inspiration on the "what are you having for dinner" and "what are you doing today" threads. I'm trying to do a better job of bringing it full circle with exercise and sleep. It's a concerted effort that I have to make, to maintain all three on a daily basis.

My next goals are to get a lot more serious about work and scale back on electronics. It's going to be hard. For me, I think setting time limits might be the best way to go. Also, cleaning and optimizing my workspace at home.

Mystery shopping wise, my goal is to scale back a lot in general. I got started on last year's taxes and compiling last year's records. I'm in the process of setting up Google Sheets, organizing, and staying on top of things.

This year has felt like spring and summer break put together. Unfortunately, I lack self-control, and this looked like it could dangerously turn into fall break too. I got too used to this lifestyle. However, I'm glad to have had a lot of downtime this year, find these forums, and have fun with mystery shopping again. It was a long journey that got me to the place where I am now. If I didn't have all of this free time, I wouldn't have been able to make the progress that I needed to in my life.

I just wanted to say that I enjoyed being a part of these forums, and thank you for being a sounding board these past months! For me, I always find it therapeutic and beneficial to write things out, be transparent, be truthful, and be self-accountable. As evidenced by my long-ass post. Anyways, I'm going to cut back, and hope to still read and follow along the forums every once in a while. Thank you again for all of the support these past months!

Okie, so glad to see you are managing your health...and your A1C is in line! great news!

as we know, the rewards are there. I lost my mom last year to Type II...or rather, complications of Type II....which she had for 30 years...so I watched her situation evolve over the decades...and I miss her so much. She didn't manage her disease except to take her meds - so no real lifestyle changes.
When I read about the meds now available for her illness, it's so bittersweet...bitter because hers was so advanced that they would not have reversed her situation....sweet because we now have big hope for others who deal...maybe I'm making an outrageous claim here but I believe peptides will eradicate metabolic disease in the coming decades.
Her case was somewhat odd though, diagnosed young and seemingly not genetic in nature - none of us in the family have had to deal with it...not her parents or siblings, nor any of her children. One of her endocrinologists said sometimes this happens, just happens.

I know what you mean about keeping it all together....health, finances, peace, joy, friendship....sometimes for me, life feels like a juggling act lol....a big one, complicated one too sometimes....
I filed for an extension this year, so I am reminded that October 15 is coming and it's causing me a bit of stress.

We're all here in this together...Carry on the good work, mate

BarefootBliss, So sorry about your mom. I wish there could have been some additional treatments. Hold onto the memories you shared. I am glad though that there was not a history of it running in the family.

For me, there was a genetic history of it in the family. Initially diagnosed as Type I. Partially, because my body type did not meet the typical Type II mold. But after one year, got re-diagnosed to Type II. My endocrinologist as a child transitioned me to pills. My endocrinologist as an adult was constantly pessimistic, and thought I would have to eventually have to go back to Insulin after one to two years, from when I first saw him. Even thought it was after 20 years from when I switched, I still should have taken what he said more seriously. It really is a chronic condition.

Deep down though, I feel like I can take of this holistically after trying some other stuff, but will take some time and have to stay on the Insulin for a while though.

Thanks, I'm sure you'll get everything together. One thing to tackle at a time. In my case, I still have a lot of "adulting" to do.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/28/2024 08:36AM by Okie.

I am sure you can....we have so much more data now to look to for, for guidance. I am convinced my mom would still be here if GLP1 drugs had been available sooner. She was always a light eater, a reasonably healthy eater, but could never overcome her sweet tooth....and you know - the more something is considered forbidden, the more we crave it. Human brains are often wacked.
Best to you....I think adulting is overrated lol.

circling back to the eBay topic....I do not completely understand how the shipping is priced.
I get that it's USPS and there are categories set by USPS.
But some sellers will charge $8 to ship me something and another seller will charge $16 for the same item.
Further, USPS does not guarantee their Priority Mail packages.
I pay the same whether they take 3 days or 11 days to reach me (recent, real life examples)

@BarefootBliss wrote:

circling back to the eBay topic....I do not completely understand how the shipping is priced.

Service will comment in 3...2...1... -lol-

@drdoggie00 wrote:

@BarefootBliss wrote:

circling back to the eBay topic....I do not completely understand how the shipping is priced.

Service will comment in 3...2...1... -lol-

I was wondering where he's been. Beetlejuice, beetlejuice eBay, eBay

@Okie wrote:

I was wondering where he's been. Beetlejuice, beetlejuice eBay, eBay

Don't believe it when he says I've been monopolizing his time.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/11/2024 10:41PM by drdoggie00.

@BarefootBliss wrote:

circling back to the eBay topic....I do not completely understand how the shipping is priced.
I get that it's USPS and there are categories set by USPS.
But some sellers will charge $8 to ship me something and another seller will charge $16 for the same item.
Further, USPS does not guarantee their Priority Mail packages.
I pay the same whether they take 3 days or 11 days to reach me (recent, real life examples)

The Short Answer

Sellers can ship USPS, UPS, or FedEx. USPS is generally cheaper for us, unless it is a heavy and/or large item going to Zones 6-8.

When you say USPS does not guarantee their Priority Mail packages, what do you mean? Do you mean the delivery date? If so, you've been told incorrect information. If a Priority Mail package arrives late, we can file a claim. For Ground Advantage service, the package has to be more than 30 days past the expected delivery date. In either case, eBay buyers can file a claim with the seller anytime after the delivery date has passed. Generally sellers will slow walk that claim to give hopefully enough time for the package to arrive. Otherwise, if we refund right away, then the package comes, we are screwed.

As far as what you pay, sellers have several options when it comes to how we charge shipping on eBay. There are ways for us to offer shipping discounts or set it up in another manner that works for us and hopefully the buyer, too. In your example, it is possible the $8 item was located closer to you (thus cheaper shipping). That may not be true, but without more it is hard to say.

The Long Answer

Some finer details on how shipping works from the seller's perspective and what we have to consider if we are genuinely trying to run a business. It will help to keep in mind that most sellers (at least the good ones) are doing research to know how to price items. There is a max total buyers are willing to pay. The max total includes the item cost and the shipping. How we divide that up really depends on the seller's preference. We want to maximize sales, and one way to do that is to adjust how we present the shipping to buyers since we do have options.

First, we can choose to not directly charge for shipping. This will show up as "FREE SHIPPING" to the buyer. All this means is that shipping is not a seperate line item in the sale. The upside to this is that the idea of free shipping appeals to a certain class of buyers. There are buyers who refuse to buy anything if there is a shipping charge for it. I've even had buyers pay more for the item without shipping as a seperate line item, than had they simply bought the item listed at the cheaper price but with shipping added as a seperate line item.

The downside to the "FREE SHIPPING" choice is that, of course, shipping is not free for us as sellers. We have to be diligent to ensure we include the shipping costs into the cost of the item. If we don't do that, then we lose money. Sellers that don't grasp this tend to not stay in business very long because they are bleeding cash. Of course, there are exceptions. If you are selling trading cards, for example, then your shipping costs are very minimal. If you sell household items and other larger items, then you definitely want to make sure your shipping costs are included in your pricing of the item. The other downside is that when you offer FREE SHIPPING, if someone returns something, you have to give them all of their money. If you charge seperately for shipping, you can withhold original shipping charges from the refund.

Another option is to offer what is called calculated shipping. This option bases the shipping cost on both the seller's zip code and the buyer's zip code. Ideally, this would work perfectly since shipping costs are largely controled by the original and destination zip codes. To use this option on our end as sellers we must input the weight of the item, along with the dimensions of the box or packaging it will ship in, at the time we list the item. We have to remember to account for the weight of the box, because even small boxes can had a few ounces to the weight of the item. Oftentimes we may not have the box it will ship in on-hand, so then we have to guess. This can lead to inputting weights and dimensions that are not accurate. Buyers may not be charged enough, which results in less profit or a loss for the seller, or buyers may be overcharged. If a buyer is shown a shipping cost too high, they may move on to another seller. Sellers cannot directly see what price a buyer will be shown since it will depend on the zip code. There is a tool we can use to see an estimate of the shipping costs, but we would have to type in zip codes for each zone to actually know what buyers in every zone will see. That process would be quite time-consuming when you consider diligent sellers try to list at least 5-10 items a day. Sellers can also set a surcharge to be added to the calculated shipping costs. A seller may do this to ensure the costs of materials (e.g. boxes, tape, bubble wrap, etc.) are covered.

Sellers do get steep discounts on shipping. It can be anywhere from 20% up to about 70%, depending on various factors. For a long time we've had the option to pass those discounts along to buyers. eBay recently changed their policy to automatically show buyers the discounted prices unless a seller opts out. This applies only to sellers who use the calculated shipping method.

The final option we have is to offer flat rate shipping. With this set-up, buyers pay the same rate for shipping, regardless of their zip code. We manually decide what that rate will be. This gives sellers more control. First, we know what the shipping costs shown to all buyers will be. No wondering if a buyer in zone 8 was shown a crazy shipping cost like $25 for an item that weighs less than a couple of pounds. It ensures that we not only account for our actual cost to ship the package, but we can include the cost of our materials in the pricing as well. Third, it saves us time when listing because we do not have to input any weights or dimensions into the listing.

I've done both free shipping and calculated shipping. With calculated shipping, one of the things I discovered is that eBay will sometimes adjust the cost higher or lower than what should be shown to the buyer. Even if I input accurate information, eBay will sometimes pad it further. In other cases, they will deduct some from what the costs should be. I'm not clear on why they do this. They use numerous algorthims to manipulate buyers to take certain actions. I have quite a bit anecdotal evidence that indicates making adjustments to calculated shipping costs is one of them.

About six months ago I changed to a flat rate shipping model: everybody pays the same amount, no matter where they live. Sellers can set up policies so that we only have to select the policy we want to use when listing an item, rather than select the shipping carrier, the service, and input the amount. What I have set up are probably a dozen or more flat rate shipping policies of various amounts. We can set the policy up to show buyers up to 4 carriers and services, or we can select a general service; such as "Economy Shipping," "Standard Shipping," or "Expedited Shipping." These general service terms do not show the buyer any carrier options. Instead, the choice of carrier is left to the seller. There are advantages to this. Since the flat rate is a set rate, keeping the carrier choice on my end ensures I shouldn't have to overpay for shipping so long as the flat rate I've set is accurate. What I do is I offer "Standard Shipping" which covers USPS Ground Advantage, UPS Ground, FedEx Ground, FedEx Home Delivery, and a couple other options that do not pertain to what I sell. I can always upgrade to a faster option on my end. There were times when Priority would be the cheaper option, but since USPS made changes earlier this year, it no longer is. I haven't shipping priority in many months. In fact, I recently tossed out all my Priority boxes as they were in my way. With both calculated and flat rate shipping, sellers do not have to return the original shipping charges to the buyer.

Without giving too much away on my own personal methodology, what I'll say is I have a quick way to know what my shipping costs will be to a reasonable degree of certainty. For example, any item that will have a ship weight of 4 ounces or less, I know will cost me (at a discounted rate) about $3.79 if it is a Zone 1 buyer to $4.36 if it is a Zone 8 buyer. Therefore, for those items that are 4 ounces or less, I select my $4.49 flat rate policy. Regardless of zone, all buyers will pay $4.49. I make a little extra on buyers who are closer, and a little less extra on buyers further away. From a business perspective, I don't have to make enough from each sale to cover all the material costs for that sale, because other sales will even that out. Because my policies already had a small amount of padding built in, I did not have to raise my rates when USPS did back in July. I am getting ready to raise my rates because USPS has gone up due to their holiday surcharge. They went up on October 6th. I'm going to raise mine on Tuesday to account for this.

Having tried all three methods for extended periods over the last almost two-years, I think the flat rate works best for me. I know it does, because my numbers prove it. There are several reasons for this, but the central one is that most buyers are willing to pay for shipping as long as it is reasonable. In fact, I would argue that if you are selling something breakable, if you are not charging shipping, you will turn off buyers because they will be worried you are going to half-a** the packing process. I like having the shipping as a separate line item because it helps me track my numbers more efficiently. It also means I can give larger discounts on items, because I know I do not have to worry about trying to figure out the shipping. If I want to run a 30% off sale, I can do so knowing I'll still turn a profit and not lose out due to the shipping charges.

Sellers can use any combination of these shipping options. While I have all of my listings set to flat rate, I could just as easily set some listings to free shipping and some to calculated, if I thought those might fit better with certain items. For example, with Christmas nearing, I may offer free shipping on items that weigh less than 13 ounces.

One last thing, back 10+ years ago eBay only charged selling feels on the price of the item, not the shipping. What we used to back then was charge $1.00 for the item, then like $40 for shipping, if it was a $40 item, for example. eBay changed that, and the fees are applied to the total cost (item price + shipping + taxes). There are still old sellers out there who list very low item price, but very high shipping, because that was the work-around to the fees back in the day.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 10/12/2024 06:54PM by ServiceAward.

wow, lots of data - thanks!
Ok, I think I get it now....since eBay knows a buyer's zip code, I might get a different shipping price quote than someone who lives closer to the seller.
I thought the shipping price was the same for all buyers.

It just initially seemed as if the shipping price was overly inflated to increase profit - and I was thinking - just adjust the price.

@BarefootBliss wrote:

wow, lots of data - thanks!
Ok, I think I get it now....since eBay knows a buyer's zip code, I might get a different shipping price quote than someone who lives closer to the seller.
I thought the shipping price was the same for all buyers.

It just initially seemed as if the shipping price was overly inflated to increase profit - and I was thinking - just adjust the price.

To clarify, it could be the same for all buyers. The listings used to inform buyers if the shipping was a flat rate (re: the same for all buyers), however, I do not believe that information is on the listing anymore. The only way you would know would be to click on the "see details" link beside the shipping information on the listing page. (This link is below the large buttons where you can buy an item, like it, or add it to your cart.) Once you click on that "see details" link, a page will open up with a box to input your zip code. Ideally, it already has your default zip code filled in so you see the price you will pay to ship to your zip code. If you wanted to see whether you were paying a flat rate or a calculated rate (based on zip code), then you can type a new zip code in that box and see if the rate changes.

It really does not matter whether you are buying an item that is listed as "free shipping" or, if you are charged, which method is used by the seller. The main thing is to research what the item has sold for over the past 90-days. You can see sort from lowest to highest, and get an idea of the price. New/unopened items will sell more than used items. Quality matters for used items too, so it isn't a direct apple to apples comparison. But, if you can get an idea that the highest total cost (item cost + shipping costs) sold for, then you can weed out the sellers who may be overcharging. You want to focus on the total cost, and not get too caught up in the shipping, unless you plan to return something. As I said, we have discretion over refunding original shipping charges. Some sellers do use the tactic of setting the item price below market value, but up charging on the shipping. This way if a buyer returns something, they still make profit off the shipping. There are no rules against this. eBay does have safeguards in place so that if a seller attempts to truly overcharge on the shipping for the item they are selling, it will not let us list it. I don't know what their threshold is. There is some leeway.

My new listings always start off above the total of what has sold in the past 90-days, assuming I did not pick up a bad item, in which case I may start it low just to get rid of it. I try not to make those mistakes. LOL. I start off high, so that I have room to do markdowns and offer coupons. I have no problem letting something sit for a while because I have other stuff selling.

I will tell you that Mercari and Etsy only offer flat rate shipping to sellers, or sellers can choose to offer free shipping and buy their postage elsewhere. That's what I do, because I think both Mercari and Etsy overcharge for their labels. Something that weighs 8 ounces they will make you ship it for like $8. That's insane and is turnoff for buyers, if I don't lower the cost of the item. So for Mercari I offer "free shipping" and include the shipping cost in the price of the item. I then buy my postage from Pirate Ship. I only sell items that weigh a 2 pounds or less on Mercari, so I know I won't get too screwed over if I don't allot enough shipping cost in the item price.

Poshmark just announced they're rolling back their buyer protection fees...must have gotten pushback on that.

Thanks for the shipping explanation. I was looking at a particular kind of tote bag that I was interested in buying. Exact same item - one seller showed $20 to ship it to me, another only $10.

@BarefootBliss wrote:

Poshmark just announced they're rolling back their buyer protection fees...must have gotten pushback on that.

Thanks for the shipping explanation. I was looking at a particular kind of tote bag that I was interested in buying. Exact same item - one seller showed $20 to ship it to me, another only $10.

Selling platforms are trying to keep their sellers. With newer options like Dibdit, Bonanza, and others, some sellers are leaving the more popular platforms because these platforms almost always side with the buyer. I'll give you a recent example. A buyer made a new eBay account on September 28th. They made their first purchase from me. That's always a risk for a seller. First, we cannot leave buyers anything other than positive feedback or no feedback at all. We cannot leave negative feedback for a buyer, even if that buyer scammed us, which does happen, especially around the holidays. The only way we can get a hint at what type of buyer it is, is to look at the feedback they left other sellers. If a buyer has left 1 or 2 negatives out of 100 buyers, that's not bad. If a buyer has left 10 negatives out of 50 buys, that raises a red flag and that buyer is really hard to please. Sellers do not want those people buying from them. When it is a new buyer, we have no way to know what type of person that is, and how they may treat us, as sellers. Anyhow, the new buyer ordered from me, then, two weeks after delivery, leaves me negative feedback. I've never had negative feedback, but I knew it would eventually come. This what their feedback said: "Not what I expected. Junk." The listing was a lot of like 20 small dollar value items from Amazon. MSRP on all of it was nearly $200. I sold it all for $25 plus about $10 shipping. The listing showed multiple clear photos, and I even listed out the manifest and MSRP on Amazon. A lot of times people that sell at flea markets or have yard sales, buy stuff like this because they can make money off the items. Everything is new, by the way.

It was fine that they were apparently unhappy, but I allow free returns for 30 days, so they could have simply sent it back at my expense. They never contacted me before leaving feedback. After I saw what they said, I reached out to them to find out exactly what the issue was. I did not know if was something specific or what. I also told them they could return it for free. They responded, simply, "Thanks. I already threw it away."

Then, I decided to see if they had made any other buys with their new account by checking to see if they left feedback for any other seller. It turned out they did. In fact, they had bought 5 other items the same day they bought from me. Ironically, they bought similar items: Lots of small dollar Amazon stuff. They left negative feedback for every seller. Their feedback for every seller said the same thing they said on mine. This was clearly a buyer who was either mentally unwell, or another seller posing a buyer trying to get dings on their competition's accounts. I appealed the bad feedback to eBay and pointed all of this out. They would not remove it. That's really frustrating and a good seller who strives to make buyers happy. If I had actually messed up, then yes, I deserve the negative feedback. I don't deserve it over BS, which this was, but eBay was nowhere to help me. Sellers on that platform are sick of the treatment.

The same stuff happens on other platforms. I do not sell on Poshmark, but I've heard stories. And I got banned from Etsy. Without informing me there was an issue, they sent messages to all buyers who had orders placed with me and told them there was an issue and they could request an immediate refund from me. I had no idea about any of this until I started seeing the funds in my account depleting. I still did not know why people were asking for refunds, so I started messaging them, and they told me what Etsy had sent them. It was only after I reached to Etsy that I was simply told my account had been closed and they could not tell me why, and that any future inquires would be ignored. I didn't really care, other than I wanted my money that had built up in my account. Etsy is a terrible platform. If you choose to use their shipping services, which you have to in order to have seller protection, they set the shipping charges. An 8oz package that would cost maybe $4-$5, Etsy would charge $7-$8. This forces sellers to lower the cost of their items, because as I said, buyers have a max dollar they will pay (item cost + shipping).

Platforms like Mercari and Poshmark have been trying to appeal to frustrated sellers and hang on to the sellers they have. They've done this by coming up with line item charges to force their buyers to pay.

I think there is a simple solution to all of this. First, I have no issue paying selling fees. Reasonable fees are appropriate because the platforms allow us to list to make money, plus they do handle things, like collecting and remitting sales taxes. I would not want to have to keep up with that. I have no issue having the option to pay for promoting my listings. I do that, and it helps me to have more sales. I'll gladly give eBay $20 a month, to make an extra $400. That's a good trade in my book. I don't think buyers should have to pay a fee to use the site, or buyer protection, etc. Buyers should get all of that for free. I don't even care if I can leave negative feedback for sellers. What needs to happen is that buyers should get a certain number of returns every quarter as an item not as described. It can even be a percentage of their purchases. Buyers will often say an item was not as described, and that forces us to take it back at our expense. If we don't, eBay will refund the buyer out of our account. The problem is you have buyers who think we are Amazon, and they want to buy, try, and return everything. This is by no means a majority of the buying community, but those that practice should have their account locked or prevented from buying for a certain amount of time. Implementing a procedure similar to this would cut back on buyers who take advantage of sellers. Also, I do not think buyers should be allowed to leave bad feedback for high shipping costs or high item costs. Nobody makes anybody buy anything. In your case, if you feel the shipping is too high, do not buy from that seller. If you do buy from that seller, that is certainly your choice, but to then be allowed to leave negative feedback based on that seems unfair. The star ratings are fine, and shipping is one of the elements rated, but to leave negative feedback is going too far IMHO.

Thank you for the snapshot from across the other side. I have sold on eBay, but not often....same with Poshmark, I am a very very part time seller. I am more of a buyer, so I see things from that perspective.
I have never left a negative review on any selling platform because if there's a problem, I first work it out with the platform or the seller, depending on the details.
There are two more platforms I've noticed recently: DePop, and Thred Up.
Easy money for them I guess. Even easier if they don't really provide any assistance.
Even though it's not a platform, I can't stand dealing with PayPal. They are the worst at offering any kind of assistance.
Amazon is getting there....omg all you have to do is read the Prime reddit. The horror stories started about a year ago and they're only getting worse. I guess they've changed their policies.
Facebook, Amazon, Walmart - all too big to fail...so what do they care lol.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/24/2024 11:30AM by BarefootBliss.

oh on the comment about buyers who think you are Amazon..here's the issue.
Clothes and footwear are a big category on selling platforms.
Everybody knows you can't really tell fit in advance because each manufacturers uses different metrics, unfortunately.
Ok, ding a buyer who wants to return a known commodity like a piece of hardware or a game or book, etc.
but clothing? shoes? there needs to be a separate return policy - given the circumstances, one that is fair to both sides.,,,or maybe those items shouldn't be sold online at all - but good luck because brick and mortar places have been disappearing.

@BarefootBliss wrote:

oh on the comment about buyers who think you are Amazon..here's the issue.
Clothes and footwear are a big category on selling platforms.
Everybody knows you can't really tell fit in advance because each manufacturers uses different metrics, unfortunately.
Ok, ding a buyer who wants to return a known commodity like a piece of hardware or a game or book, etc.
but clothing? shoes? there needs to be a separate return policy - given the circumstances, one that is fair to both sides.,,,or maybe those items shouldn't be sold online at all - but good luck because brick and mortar places have been disappearing.

There are certainly categories, like clothing, where returns run higher for the reasons you mention. I actually do not deal with clothing for that reason, and because the market is simply saturated. I have sold 2 or 3 pairs of shoes, I sell ball caps, and I'll sell Harley-Davidson clothing. I do have a stack of jeans to sell. Basically, men's clothing is a little less risky for returns because men generally do not return items. Especially men middle-aged or younger.

Get very little in the way of returns. Maybe 1 out of every 150 items sold. There is nothing wrong with occasional return. My issue is that you have certain buyers who never keep anything. Those are the buyers who need to get dinged. With something like clothing, it is understandable that sizes vary. I think most sellers understand that, and you know if you sell clothing you run that risk. But everyday merchandise? I had a guy buy a replacement lithium-ion battery from me last year. I had several different ones, depending on the model number of the item it goes in. He ordered one battery, cancelled it 5 minutes saying it was the wrong one. He then ordered a second battery, gets it, then sends it back because he said it is the wrong one. He orders a 3rd one, and does the same thing. We get to the 4th battery, he gets it, then sends it back because he changed his mind and decided to get a new vacuum. That is ridiculous. Some people do stuff like that because they see you as Amazon. The other thing that is about to be a problem is that around Christmas, you have buyers who expect you to wrap their presents. They'll put a note with the order that says something like, "Please gift wrap with red paper and a red bow." They actually expect you to take your profits and spend it on wrapping paper, not to mention the time. I did it last year because I did not want to lose the sales. Or, more likely, someone would leave a negative feedback and eBay won't remove it. I'm prepared this year. If you want something wrapped, you can buy my gift wrapping service. That's the only way I'll do it.

I give you credit. I don't like dealing with the general public, quite honestly.
You ought to develop a course and sell it to would-be new sellers on various platforms.
You have so much important knowledge and guidance with your experience.

PS/Amazon has recently taken to simply permanently banning repeat offenders. I assume other sellers could do that somehow?