Need some EBay selling advice?

[Brickshopper]

45 minutes ago, gregpj said:

ALSO - You really should ship disassembled unless specifically requested by the buyer. Greater chance to have stuff bounce around and get scratched up. If I opened a box with a bunch of partially built sections and some loose bits, I'll likely be frustrated right from the start trying to figure out how to build the damn thing (or that I have to take it apart just to get the build enjoyment).

 

ALSO - you should be paying more and buying NEW sealed Lego if that is the case. You cant buy used lego sets off ebay and expect the seller to dissemble completely for your building enjoyment.you are paying used prices the pieces being a building toy some will be assembled if you dont want that then pay more and buy new dont hold it against the seller that their used lego is indeed used/built....

[gregpj]

2 minutes ago, Brickshopper said:

ALSO - you should be paying more and buying NEW sealed Lego if that is the case. You cant buy used lego sets off ebay and expect the seller to dissemble completely for your building enjoyment.you are paying used prices the pieces being a building toy some will be assembled if you dont want that then pay more and buy new dont hold it against the seller that their used lego is indeed used/built....

While I don't disagree with you, I am simply stating that people normally buy LEGO to BUILD. Having to disassemble or try to figure out how chunks go back together does not promote a favorable buying experience.

Don't you want your customers to be happy?

[edgecrusher]

4 minutes ago, gregpj said:

While I don't disagree with you, I am simply stating that people normally buy LEGO to BUILD. Having to disassemble or try to figure out how chunks go back together does not promote a favorable buying experience.

Don't you want your customers to be happy?

 

This. If you're just a guy selling some Lego you found in your closet, yeah, ship it however you want. If you're hoping to cultivate a good feedback score, with possible repeat buyers, never ship a used set all or partially assembled. Your call on whether to sort it or check the inventory against a parts list.

[fuzzy_bricks]

There are sellers of used sets that do disassemble and verify contents.  I tend to look at and bid on their listings more than the guys that throw chunks in a box and label them unverified.  Everyone needs to determine how they value their own time.  As a seller, is it worth it to verify contents and disassemble?  As a buyer, is it worth the risk on an unverified set?

[redghostx]

10 minutes ago, fuzzy_bricks said:

There are sellers of used sets that do disassemble and verify contents.  I tend to look at and bid on their listings more than the guys that throw chunks in a box and label them unverified.  Everyone needs to determine how they value their own time.  As a seller, is it worth it to verify contents and disassemble?  As a buyer, is it worth the risk on an unverified set?

I pack my used sets up to make it as easy to build as possible because that is the condition that I want to receive it in as a buyer, not all jumbled and having to sort through everything (I'm looking at you 10181 Eiffel Tower).

[Zelgazra]

From my experience selling over 150 used sets in the past 2 years, I can say with absolute certainty (based on the statements left in my feedback) that people really DO value a nicely broken down, sorted and easy to build used set. I've even had people message me thanking me for the good organizing etc. Some of those people have come back and bought more. 

Depends how invested into this you are. The guys just ramming chunks of sets back into original box (or bags) comes across as the yardsale online type of seller, half assed and likely not going to help you out if something goes wrong.... whereas I'm trying to treat it like a professional small retail business to the best of my abilities. That means putting more time (work) into making shiny listings, but I believe it's allowed me to sell my used sets at much higher than (BP's) recommended prices. People perceive value in a good pre-build verification and take-down sort with nice photos to back it up. That value is in my pocket now  

Edited May 25, 2017 by Zelgazra

[exracer327]

I too have received positive feedback for breaking down a set and packaging it for easy re-assembly.  The most tedious set I did this with was a UCS Yoda.  That was a royal pain as I bunched each piece with its own kind, but the buyer was grateful.

On the other hand, if you prefer not to take he time to verify parts then you end up with less bang for your buck.  Case in point; I bought a "used" x-wing 9493 which was in chunks but basically looked like a pile of pieces for around $40, including shipping.  I could see all four minifigures so I felt fairly confident I could find any replacement pieces.  I received it, took a couple of hours to disassembled and reassemble it only to find it was 100% complete.  I found an instruction manual via bricklink and the following Christmas sold the set for $120.  So you chose how you want to buy/sell sets.  As for me; I do unto others as I hope they would do unto me.  

However, I have become more aware to ask questions before I place bids too.  If I don't get the answer I like, it doesn't matter how much I want it, I'll let the item go.

[glostik]

For those that sell on ebay,

Do you find that selling with free shipping is better? or charging shipping seperately?

I have always been a free shipping guy, but lately when i look at completed sales, alot of charged shipping auctions seem to be sold.

[LegoMan1212]

For those that sell on ebay,
Do you find that selling with free shipping is better? or charging shipping seperately?
I have always been a free shipping guy, but lately when i look at completed sales, alot of charged shipping auctions seem to be sold.

Depends what I'm selling and also how desperate i am on moving it. Usually Free shipping if I can first rate package it, buyer pays shipping if I can't. For me, shipping to California a 4+ lb package is much higher than shipping it to Chicago and a good percentage of my sales go westbound.

[Salimr]

So I sold our Lego 70751 Temple of Airjitzu on eBay, my item description read:
This item is Used & 100% Authentic Lego
Built by myself, it was 100% complete at the time of construction. I can not guarantee that it is still 100% complete. I kept it on display for one year, took it down, put it in a box in my closet.  The roof section came apart but should all be in the box. I will have to take a few sections apart to fit it in a box to ship, so it will not arrive completely together or apart. Instruction book will be included. 
here is their initial claim from the buyer:
Reason for return: Missing parts or pieces   Comments: The LEGO set had several missing pieces (not just from the top like the description suggested), and many of the pieces provided had grime or were chipped at or slightly damaged, which wasn t mentioned in the description. I had a hard time communicating with the seller because they would not reply to my messages (I sent 3) and I did not get what I was hoping for, sadly.   Here is my response to the buyer: 1. you said "The LEGO set had several missing pieces (not just from the top like the description suggested)" that is NOT true, first off the roof top section was taken off when I put it into storage, so it would be able to fit in my closet on the shelf. it was there in the box. I never suggested it was missing. I'm a Adult Lego builder & collector, as stated in my description: "Built by myself, it was 100% complete at the time of construction. I can not guarantee that it is still 100% complete" Me saying that I could not guarantee that it is still 100% complete was to cover my end just encase any piece or pieces came up missing when I stored it in my closet, and during the taking apart & shipping process. We are talking about tiny little Lego bricks it is not far fetched to think a set this large in size, in used condition might not be 100% I had an asking price of $170.00 you sent me an offer of $150.00 with the message of "Would you consider selling it at a lower price after removing the minifigures? I'm only interested in the set/building itself" so I accepted your offer since you didn't want the minifigures." I the accepted your offer. 2. you said "many of the pieces provided had grime or were chipped at or slightly damaged" Also NOT true, I stated in my description " I will have to take a few sections apart to fit it in a box to ship, so it will not arrive completely together or apart" while taking this apart there were NOTHING damaged or chipped like you are trying to falsely claim, as far as grime? well some dust yet as you can even see in the picture, there was some dust, I did say in my description " I kept it on display for one year" 3. you said " I had a hard time communicating with the seller because they would not reply to my messages (I sent 3)" You sent me an offer on 5-16, I accepted on 5-17 and you sent me a message saying about you wanted to know 2 things before you paid, I did not respond that day, and you paid anyway. so you id contradict yourself there by not waiting for my reply as you stated you wanted before you paid. The next day on 5-18 you sent another message you claimed it was 5-19 but it was not I saved the messages it was 5-18 the next day after you paid saying " I m slightly worried since I didn t get a shipping notification after my purchase on the night of 5/17" In my description it said: "Delivery: Estimated within 4-8 business days" You sent an offer on 5-16, I accepted on 5-17, you paid on 5-17, I shipped on 5-20, it was delivered on 5-22 so there is the timeline. You then sent a 3rd message on 5-20 about changing your shipping address, I already shipped the item at that time. I sent it to your verified paypal address. Overall, I felt uncomfortable with you for this whole transaction. in short you said you were not going to pay until I answered 2 questions, and then you paid anyway, you then you expected a shipping confirmation the day after paying (I need shipping and handling time) You then left neutral feedback right away before I could respond or even ship the item, heck before you even received the item (I do work at a real job not always on ebay sorry I didn't respond right away) so that rubbed me the wrong way. in your 3 message you wanted to change you shipping address, I started to feel like this was some sort of scam, as I was glad I already shipped the item to your verified address so my end is covered. Conclusion: My auction & description was100% true & accurate. You are falsifying documentation by saying it was not as described and or damaged, this is not true at all. and I feel you are trying to scam me and I will be reporting you to eBay. I stand by my auction of this Used Lego set that I could not guarantee was 100% complete and I do not accept returns or exchanges.   sorry for the length but this is the case, experienced sellers please let me know what you all think, thanks in advance....

I can assure you that I want to leave a message like yours often, but am always glad the next day when I write 1 or two sentences short and simple basically stating I could send missing pieces, issue partial refund for the cost of parts, or accept the return. This lets them decide and have all ended up happy with great feedback this way.
I accept returns anyway and have only had people use it 2 times out of hundreds of transactions.
One time I was super mad at what the person claimed, i gave a full refund and apology. I got the return and it turns out his complaint was valid. I had made an embarrassing mistake as my kids stupid cat must have went pee near the bag after I washed the pieces and it totally smelled like the dumb cat pee. I would have been mad to receive that item. I also would have felt bad had I argued and been wrong.

[carini26]

Any standard practices for shipping to buyer with zero feedback?  Buyer has paid but can tell it's not residential address (Beaverton, OR).  Should I just cancel or go through any pre-verifications?

This is for a used complete Indiana Jones 7199 set sold for $180.

[KShine]

13 minutes ago, carini26 said:

Any standard practices for shipping to buyer with zero feedback?  Buyer has paid but can tell it's not residential address (Beaverton, OR).  Should I just cancel or go through any pre-verifications?

This is for a used complete Indiana Jones 7199 set sold for $180.

It should be fine.

There is no such thing as a guarantee, but you don't appear to be an easy target, and I wouldn't expect that this listing would be high up on a scammers radar.

Make sure to get tracking, etc. (signature if you feel better, but I wouldn't bother).

[mizeur]

I made a $275 sale. Buyer has good recent feedback, ebay and PayPal addresses match but didn't provide a valid phone number so I can't verify the purchase that way.

Ship, wait, or cancel?

[cladner]

15 minutes ago, mizeur said:

I made a $275 sale. Buyer has good recent feedback, ebay and PayPal addresses match but didn't provide a valid phone number so I can't verify the purchase that way.

Ship, wait, or cancel?

personally, i would cancel and use nondeliverable address as the reason.  then i would send the buyer a message and tell them you can't complete the sale because of the address discrepancy and ask them if they want to re-do the transaction with the 2 addresses matching.  others may disagree - i am very cautious and ok with losing a sale to avoid potentially be scammed where everything doesn't jibe and line up normally (like 99% of the rest of the time) from the get go.  there will always be another buyer (hopefully not a scammer).

obviously this situation got your defensive instincts going.  trust them.

[mizeur]

Just now, cladner said:

personally, i would cancel and use nondeliverable address as the reason.  then i would send the buyer a message and tell them you can't complete the sale because of the address discrepancy and ask them if they want to re-do the transaction with the 2 addresses matching.  others may disagree - i am very cautious and ok with losing a sale to avoid potentially be scammed where everything doesn't jibe and line up normally (like 99% of the rest of the time) from the get go.  there will always be another buyer (hopefully not a scammer).

obviously this situation got your defensive instincts going.  trust them.

The addresses are the same. It's just that there isn't a valid phone number.

[cladner]

Just now, mizeur said:

The addresses are the same. It's just that there isn't a valid phone number.

oh - sorry i thought you were saying the ebay and paypal mailing address were different.  if they are the same then i don't see that there is a problem with the phone number not being there.

[LegoMan1212]

On 5/26/2017 at 8:50 PM, Salimr said:

One time I was super mad at what the person claimed, i gave a full refund and apology. I got the return and it turns out his complaint was valid. I had made an embarrassing mistake as my kids stupid cat must have went pee near the bag after I washed the pieces and it totally smelled like the dumb cat pee. I would have been mad to receive that item. I also would have felt bad had I argued and been wrong.

A recent Bricklink transaction that I purchased had cat hair all over the place in it.  My wife is partially allergic to cat hair.  I know it's not done on purpose but the amount of hairs littered within the bricks just made me think that the storage that the seller has is not nearly as sealed and contained like how I do it and I'm sure many others.  I let it slide but sometimes the more you buy, the more tactics you learn on things NOT to do or make sure you don't let happen if we do someday get a pet also.

[Phil B]

What's your best strategy for dealing with a short absence (5 days) when it comes to your EBay listings? I don't have a store, and know of the following:

- Pull all listings

- Set all sell prices to some insane number in the hope that nobody buys

- Leave everything up, and incur the ding for late shipping should there be any sales (I've sold through most of my fast selling stuff so sales have been pretty slow the last few weeks, maybe 1 sale per week)

I'm likely going to just pull all my listings (even though that means missing out on the 10% EBay Bucks promo which is still active during my upcoming absence), but if there are better options I'd like to know ....

[fuzzy_bricks]

You should be able to use the bulk listing tool to change the handling time on all your listings to 5 days.

[Zelgazra]

Very apt timing, this same question was going to surface for me early next week. I'll be gone a little longer, but if I list as 5 business days shipping, that should cover it. 

[boliramirez]

I received the 10% ebay bucks offer, both for buying and selling, do you know if the promotion will apply if I relist an item???  Or do I need to make a new listing???

BR

[donbee]

What's your best strategy for dealing with a short absence (5 days) when it comes to your EBay listings? I don't have a store, and know of the following:

- Pull all listings

- Set all sell prices to some insane number in the hope that nobody buys

- Leave everything up, and incur the ding for late shipping should there be any sales (I've sold through most of my fast selling stuff so sales have been pretty slow the last few weeks, maybe 1 sale per week)

I'm likely going to just pull all my listings (even though that means missing out on the 10% EBay Bucks promo which is still active during my upcoming absence), but if there are better options I'd like to know ....

Lol

I've done the boost. With the 10% back, not a terrible time to do it.

It all depends what is listed.

 

Last Christmas took some super girls and small Priority boxes with me. Mailed one from St Augustine.

[trstnkn]

Killing me - my account has yet to receive an eBay Bucks promo for selling.

I would just switch the ship time.  I do have a store and even though I activate a vacation setting, people never notice them.  Every time I reach out to buyers to make sure they still want the item because I am away, they are grateful for the heads up because they had not noticed.  Has yet to be an issue.

As a courtesy, you might want to remind the buyer that you have an extended ship time due to being away.  And that you will mail it first thing "__" morning.

[ravenb99]

ahh miss the old days.  Last vacation I took more than a weekend was back in 2005.  Went to Poconos for about 5 days.  Came back to about 300 orders to ship.   Back then didn't matter.  No one cared.   Now I'm tied to my metrics.  

[redghostx]

I have a question:

Is SmartPost still a terrible way to ship something across the country?  I haven't used smart post in a long time but it's a $14 shipping discount and that's money in my pocket but it is also an extra 2 business day wait for my buyer.  I'm leaning towards good ole USPS but any suggestions from SmartPost users (or haters) is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.