My Ebay Observations From the POV of a Power Seller: Buyer discussion

So, anyone who has read the articles in my blog space here, listened to my comments on the forums, or seen my rantings about it in my created topics knows that I spend an insane amount of time on Ebay. Seriously the equivalent of a solid 2-3 hours a day. I love to shop (but not physically) and I really love to find deals. Most of the time I don't care if I actually want it - I like to find those "diamonds in the rough", etc. My views and opinions on Ebay have changed quite a bit in just a short period of time because of my vastly differing experiences on Ebay (which I will explain below) so I wanted to go through some things from the point of view of where I am now for any of those looking to get to that point or people who might take info from here and understand more about what goes on in the background for a bulk Ebay seller.

So first off, I have never really given an introduction at all on the website - I feel like I am pretty predictable so you all know me by now (nothing special obviously, lol) - but I think understanding where I come from is important in understanding my viewpoints.

I am 26 years old and I work as a network engineer for a large company in Alabama. I went through school for electrical engineering. This by no means indicates I am smart - I was actually overwhelmed for much of my college career. It more indicates my one talent : I am a hard worker with unlimited motivation. I am also a very analytically, statistical, and logical person when it comes to anything in my life, especially buying and selling Lego.

Anyway, I got into Lego about a year ago after I saw some Star Wars sets and was amazed at the detail. I am a big Star Wars fan and the recreation was insane. Shortly after I found this site and got into everything I am into now (which is debt, lol),

Fast forward: I got inspired to start selling on Ebay after finding some good clearance deals in July. I got several sets which I felt were not going to be great in the long run, but I could make a good amount of money parting out. I was already on Ebay and was fairly experienced at selling and running an "Ebay business" (I used to design and sell guitar equipment). Lego was definitely a different story - more on that below.

So I started with selling those sets and it went really well. When the promo came out for September, along with all the new Star Wars sets, I saw a possibility to expand what I was doing. I had sold about 40 items over 2 months up until then. Over September, I ordered from S@H 12 times and as you can believe, my Ebay account really took off. This was on top of EE deals, Amazon gold box deals, etc. that I bought and either flipped or parted out. I also cruised Ebay and grabbed items that were under-priced to flip as well.

I didn't really realize until the end of the month how crazy things has become: 150 transactions, close to 7K in sales (Although maybe $500 in profit and $500 in "free" lego sets, and a lot of missed sleep from packaging. Now most people who do as many different things as I do (I do all of them mediocre for that reason, Ha) would say "I should slow down". For some weird reason, this just fuels me. I thought "if I really work at this, I wonder what I could do".

I sat down last week to look at my progress and was amazed. 488 Sales, 13K in sales, and I am thinking about hiring a shipping department. I now have an Ebay store, I am a power seller and top rated seller, and have established myself with a group of customers that order from me once a week or so.

Now, this is in no way to tote myself up. I have said before, there are probably 100 people on this site who could do this better than me. I am not greedy, nor do I really care about money honestly. Its more of a motivation factor for me. However, since I have written many Ebay articles and have really discussed Ebay a lot, I wanted to offer more viewpoints from a seller with very high volume and an Ebay store (to get an idea of volume, 465 items in the last 62 days = 8 or so items selling per day).

So first, I want to start with some Buying tips, advice, discussion - whatever you want to call it - to maybe give some buyers perspective on how a seller of this volume works and how we can all become better buyers. I want to say as well: this is absolutely an open discussion. I in no way think I am right about everything and I think only through discussion do we mold and change our views on things to where they need to be. So without further background:

Reading a description is not just to the advantage of the buyer: It is a responsibility.

Alright, I will go ahead and call out the hypocrisy police: we have all done this. I have publicly admitted to doing this. You should always do it because it protects you.

There is a lot more to this though. A responsible seller (you will know who is and who isn't) has spent time to write the best description they can. It seriously can take a good deal of time. So reward their hard work by reading it. Why? Because it should be able to answer all the questions you have. As someone who receives somewhere near 20 offers a day, 4-5 questions, and with my selling capacity - it is really more disheartening to get a question from a buyer that is answered in the description. Time is money as we all know. Answering these questions takes more time on top of what has been spent creating the description for the item. Before you ask a question, you should make sure you understand the description.

More importantly, don't only look at it from just your point of view. This is hard because you are obviously out for yourself, but try to think about things in the description from the point of the seller before you send an offer, before you ask a question, and before you buy an item in general. For example, I have gotten people complaining about first class being slow in certain cases (5 days). Now I would love to use priority, but are you going to purchase an item I have to price 3$ higher to make up for that? These things help a buyer understand where a seller is coming from, and helps the Ebay community.

Read a seller's rules if they are in the description

Again, I am really bad about this. But there is nothing more disheartening than selling an item and feeling that great feeling, and then getting a message saying "it says you don't ship internationally?", etc.

These are actually important for a buyer themselves anyway. You can read a lot into the seriousness and integrity of a seller by reading their rules. This may make you feel better about "should be 100% complete" with a used set, or about how well they pack the item for shipping.

Understand what constitutes a low offer

Not everyone uses Best Offer. I love it, but it can be a drag sometimes. In general, I don't have a problem with low offers because they can be countered or declined. But I think it is a buyer's responsibility to think about what they offer before they offer.

Let's look at a couple of situations:

1. A seller is selling 30 sets they have had in their attic for 5 years for $500obo. They have a list and say "may be complete", but they are all thrown together.

2. A buyer is selling a set currently on the retail market, at a 15% discount off retail already with Best Offer.

To me, an offer of half the price or lower can easily be justified on the top one. But the bottom? very questionable. People are normally on Ebay to make money right? And we know there is no one on Ebay selling their current retail sets for half price or lower and making money.

Now one low offer is really no big deal most of the time. I generally will decline if the offer is asinine (I have a gunship with no minifigures that someone offered 10$ on the other day. Not worth the time), but other times I will counter and be honest that I can't really discount it like that.

However, when people repeatedly offer like this on items, counter back with another low ball offer, or send notes like " this is for my sons birthday" (yeah well I am not invited to the party?!?) with a low offer, this is not only frustrating, but again time consuming for a seller. And honestly, for me, it gets you on my banned bidders list.

So whats the rule? Well there isn't any - its obviously a judgement call. What I have learned to do (and I didn't used to do this - I would definitely make unrealistic offers in the past) is to think before i press the offer button "can I justify WHY someone would sell this to me for this price without dreaming?". If I can't - its immediately amended.

For me, when I get a good, well thought out and respectable offer, I generally will send the person a message and offer them discounts on other items because I am so happy to receive something that makes since. Offering 10$ for a $25 figure when it is already the cheapest on Ebay is not kosher. Adding to that, offering half the price on an item that already shows as "on sale" is in the same book.

Responsibly open and close your cases

So I will admit, when a customer opens a case for something I can easily resolve, it frustrates me. This is not on the buyer - Ebay pushes the buyer to do this. But, as a buyer I try to contact the seller first before opening a case.

Furthermore, if the seller resolves the issue - close the case. Yes, they time out. But for a high volume seller, there could be several open at one time. I generally check through them to just make sure I don't have new ones I missed, or randomly have to respond. Having these promptly closed out lets a seller know everything has been taken care of.

Understand mistakes in orders

Out of 488 items, I have made 4 mistakes in orders. It happens. We all wish we didn't, but it just happens. As a buyer, I definitely get irritated if I am excited about something and it comes incorrectly (see my rants about people sending lego sets without a box). But we have to understand that we are not buying from Robots. Ebay makes it seem that way sometimes, but there are humans who make human errors on the other side of the internet we are buying from. It is really easy to make a mistake.

As a buyer, it is important to contact the seller respectfully and treat the seller with respect. They aren't the McDonalds worker that just put onions on your cheeseburger. If you treat them with respect, they will take care of you. I take care of all my customers, but I definitely go farther for the people who contact me respectfully and just say "no big deal, it happens".

This is not to say that you shouldn't stick up for yourself when the situation calls for it. But it is important for all of us to put ourselves in the shoes of the other person before we write to them (except for TRU because they are pretty awful).

Leaving feedback is a responsibility to a seller and to the Ebay community

We have had discussions about this. There are tons of reasons that you should leave feedback. But there is one major one that should really stand out : you are directly affecting a seller's bue seller.siness with the feedback you leave or don't.

A good example can be read through a few of my positives. I have had several people leave "got item, poor packaging" or "very slow shipping" as positives. Don't get me wrong, I like positives. But the first was packaged like the other 300 minifigures I have sold and the second was purchased on a Friday night. I sent Monday and it got there Wednesday. As someone who advertises fast shipping and good packaging, this affects my selling (and yes I know no one reads positives, but you do see the points).

More importantly when you leave a negative think about what you are doing. Negatives are the most damaging piece of feedback you can leave. Can you justify your feedback fully? Has the seller not tried to help you in every way possible? Was the problem in the sellers control? I am actually a feedback reader - I like to just randomly read people's feedback. Negatives like "slow shipping" or "item damaged in shipping" just make me wonder if the user ever even contacted the seller.

Obviously you need to leave it. Not many, but definitely some people feel more comfortable buying fro sellers with a higher feedback rating. It literally takes 5 seconds to leave feedback and can make a big difference for a seller.

Make sure you understand Ebay policy before accusing a seller of anything

I like helping people that have a problem (I don't like creating the problem). I work in a support role - I live for making things better for people. So it is very disheartening when someone comes to me with a problem and tells me how I should resolve it, or how Ebay feels about it when they are completely wrong. It happens where buyers feel they are entitled to something they aren't, or will speak for Ebay on a situation without actually researching the policy before hand. It takes a very short amount of time to confirm Ebay's policy on something so make sure you know it before you tell a seller what they should and shouldn't be doing.

Conclusion

This is in no way meant to be a rant or meant to vent at all. I actually am going to write a second piece to this on Selling and advice for sellers and will be putting more on them now that I understand what should and shouldn't be expected of a seller.

The real point in all of this is to put yourself in the seller's shoes in any situation. You aren't a volume seller? Maybe not, but you can think like one when you find a mistake, or decide how to leave feedback, read a description, or ask a question. Putting yourself in someone else's shoes is the only way to understand someone else completely. And understanding them will have benefits for everyone involved.