Are fruitcakes running rampant on eBay lately? Selling, buying, listing, feedback, etc...

[Phil B]

3 minutes ago, trstnkn said:

I know there has been ample discussion on Amazon accounts on eBay, but this one is puzzling.

I bought a 71043 Hogwart's Castle - open, damaged box but complete - $320.  In a matter of seconds, I saw listing pop up, looked at seller feedback (100% with 400+ transactions), hit buy now.  My son wants it for Christmas as his one gift.

Tried communicating with seller multiple times that I needed it before 12/25 and I would pay for priority shipping.  It supposedly was coming from TX.  

Four days pass, seller finally says "I shipped it."  I'm fretting that it won't get here in time since it said parcel select.  Well lo and behold, seller drops it at USPS in my city (not in TX) at 8:30pm Wednesday, arrives at my door before noon today in an Amazon box.  Of course Amazon return address says Hebron, KY warehouse.

Set is brand new with no damage whatsoever and is perfectly sealed in original Lego brown outer box..  Looked at sellers "sold listings", they've sold about 10+ of these - one each day in December.

Thoughts?  

 

 

My only thought is ... DANG, I just bought a used 71043 on EBay for $300, which seems to be fairly complete but misses at least the microfigs (minifigs are all there). Spent $20 to replace the microfigs already (still missing the Dementors). Your deal sounds better

What won me over on my purchase is that the set also includes 40389 Diagon Alley, complete with minifig, so I can sell my personal copy (unopened - $100 FBA going rate). I also received $30 in EBay Bucks. 

...

Now your question: Several scenarios:

1) He somehow miscalculated and ran out of damaged copies, and to make you happy ordered one from AMZ.

2) There is some sort of a scheme going on where he can dropship these from Amazon (list price $399.95) and somehow still make money when selling for $320 (unlikely)

3) He uses stolen CC's to place Amazon orders

 

[Jackson]

Maybe the seller has inventory at Amazon's warehouse and is using Amazon's multi-channel fulfillment.

[Mark Twain]

I know there has been ample discussion on Amazon accounts on eBay, but this one is puzzling.
I bought a 71043 Hogwart's Castle - open, damaged box but complete - $320.  In a matter of seconds, I saw listing pop up, looked at seller feedback (100% with 400+ transactions), hit buy now.  My son wants it for Christmas as his one gift.
Tried communicating with seller multiple times that I needed it before 12/25 and I would pay for priority shipping.  It supposedly was coming from TX.  
Four days pass, seller finally says "I shipped it."  I'm fretting that it won't get here in time since it said parcel select.  Well lo and behold, seller drops it at USPS in my city (not in TX) at 8:30pm Wednesday, arrives at my door before noon today in an Amazon box.  Of course Amazon return address says Hebron, KY warehouse.
Set is brand new with no damage whatsoever and is perfectly sealed in original Lego brown outer box..  Looked at sellers "sold listings", they've sold about 10+ of these - one each day in December.
Thoughts?  
 
 

Good God, eBay fees + Amazon fees + shipping + $79 off a current set? Seller either found a pallet on the side of the road or is taking a bath.

[LegoWalker4]

For the past two weeks I have an Old Fishing Store posted on Craigslist and FB MarketPlace for $225.  I paid $158.95 and sold the Harry Potter promo I got with it from Barnes and Noble for $30, bringing my cost  down to $128.95 in theory.  I have gotten two offers for $200 and the potential buyers will not budge.

Am I being selfish really wanting $210?  I point out in my listing the asking price consistent is with eBay and BrickLink recent sales, before the added shipping cost, and even sent one person a link with the recent BrickLink sales.

What would you do and is this worth holding one more Christmas selling season?  Thanks for any advice you can give me.
 

[Bold-Arrow]

5 minutes ago, LegoWalker4 said:

For the past two weeks I have an Old Fishing Store posted on Craigslist and FB MarketPlace for $225.  I paid $158.95 and sold the Harry Potter promo I got with it from Barnes and Noble for $30, bringing my cost  down to $128.95 in theory.  I have gotten two offers for $200 and the potential buyers will not budge.

Am I being selfish really wanting $210?  I point out in my listing the asking price consistent is with eBay and BrickLink recent sales, before the added shipping cost, and even sent one person a link with the recent BrickLink sales.

What would you do and is this worth holding one more Christmas selling season?  Thanks for any advice you can give me.
 

as a buyer , i am always put off my folks stating how much an item cost on other sites especially when the prices are almost the same. My expectation is that the local marketplaces should be cheaper by default. Saving on taxes, and shipping was never an incentive for me to buy from FB/CL.

Having said that there is no right answer to your question. So you really want to sell ? do you have to sell? Is that extra $10 worth it to you ? what will you do with the extra $10 ? only you can answer these questions .. I personally wait for the market to catch up with my price , but don't take my advice , I am still sitting on 4 digit sets ( smh ) .

[LegoWalker4]

Just now, Bold-Arrow said:

as a buyer , i am always put off my folks stating how much an item cost on other sites. My expectation is that the local marketplaces should be cheaper by default. Saving on taxes, and shipping was never an incentive for me to buy from FB/CL.

Having said that there is no right answer to your question. So you really want to sell ? do you have to sell? Is that extra $10 worth it to you ? what will you do with the extra $10 ? only you can answer these questions .. I personally wait for the market to catch up with my price , but don't take my advice , I am still sitting on 4 digit sets ( smh ) .

Thanks for your advice.  I totally agree with what you said, "as a buyer , i am always put off my folks stating how much an item cost on other sites. My expectation is that the local marketplaces should be cheaper by default. Saving on taxes, and shipping was never an incentive for me to buy from FB/CL." 

I do not like that either, but have noticed sadly those listings work where I live and I decided to try it myself.   

In the words of Ryan Adams, "I feel empty, I feel tired, I feel worn" after this Christmas selling season.  I keep coming back I do not need to sell this set right now and I think I am testing the waters.

[Brystheguy]

2 hours ago, LegoWalker4 said:

For the past two weeks I have an Old Fishing Store posted on Craigslist and FB MarketPlace for $225.  I paid $158.95 and sold the Harry Potter promo I got with it from Barnes and Noble for $30, bringing my cost  down to $128.95 in theory.  I have gotten two offers for $200 and the potential buyers will not budge.

Am I being selfish really wanting $210?  I point out in my listing the asking price consistent is with eBay and BrickLink recent sales, before the added shipping cost, and even sent one person a link with the recent BrickLink sales.

What would you do and is this worth holding one more Christmas selling season?  Thanks for any advice you can give me.
 

I would hold. If they are local and want it, they will come back to you. I price my items so they are cheaper than EBay prices. When they look around and try to get it for the price they want to pay it's almost impossible and they will come back and buy from me. It's a great set and worth the hold as it will continue to  be desired.

 

[Secret Squirrel]

6 hours ago, Brystheguy said:

I would hold. If they are local and want it, they will come back to you. I price my items so they are cheaper than EBay prices. When they look around and try to get it for the price they want to pay it's almost impossible and they will come back and buy from me. It's a great set and worth the hold as it will continue to  be desired.

 

Depends if you need to free up the funds like paying a credit card etc. You still have made a healthy profit.

[Mark Twain]

Not all doom and gloom. Had a nice post Xmas buying bump that helped push up my sales numbers. Just finished tallying up for the year and my sales are actually higher than 2018, but profits for 2019 are -$125.88 less after fees and buy-in costs than 2018. 

Few observations:

• For me, bulk polybag sales remain the highest percentage of profit with the lowest buy-in cost and hold times between 1-3 months on the low end and 8-12 months on the high end. 
• In 2018 I had four months with basically no sales. In 2019 I had even sale numbers throughout most months. 
• Fees are going up. Not a huge bump but it is significant.
• Buyers are more aggressive with the "best offer" feature. Many want and demand free shipping along with a discount. I tried to curb this by automatically declining offers less than 10% of list. Still, tons of messages asking for free shipping and a deal.  
• Buy-in costs are going up for me. I used to be all about that 75% or bust, but more pickers and less stock made buying stock during clearance difficult. I picked up a large amount of stock at 50% and it really dragged down my numbers for 2019. 

 

[zaphoid]

5 minutes ago, Mark Twain said:

Not all doom and gloom. Had a nice post Xmas buying bump that helped push up my sales numbers. Just finished tallying up for the year and my sales are actually higher than 2018, but profits for 2019 are -$125.88 less after fees and buy-in costs than 2018. 

Few observations:

• For me, bulk polybag sales remain the highest percentage of profit with the lowest buy-in cost and hold times between 1-3 months on the low end and 8-12 months on the high end. 
• In 2018 I had four months with basically no sales. In 2019 I had even sale numbers throughout most months. 
• Fees are going up. Not a huge bump but it is significant.
• Buyers are more aggressive with the "best offer" feature. Many want and demand free shipping along with a discount. I tried to curb this by automatically declining offers less than 10% of list. Still, tons of messages asking for free shipping and a deal.  
• Buy-in costs are going up for me. I used to be all about that 75% or bust, but more pickers and less stock made buying stock during clearance difficult. I picked up a large amount of stock at 50% and it really dragged down my numbers for 2019. 

 

for your bulk polybags, are you moving multiples of the same set in a single listing or a single listing of several different sets?  I'm still trying to figure out this market segment.

[Mark Twain]

for your bulk polybags, are you moving multiples of the same set in a single listing or a single listing of several different sets?  I'm still trying to figure out this market segment.

 

It depends. Mostly the same set per listing. I can generally get up to 20-25 bags into a single priority mail flat rate padded mailer. So I tend to list in increments of up to 20 for large polybag hauls on eBay but have had lots of luck positing on BrickLink and folks buying 80-100 bags at once. No harm in cross posting if you can manage your inventory well.

 

My polybag buyers are Amazon resellers, soccer moms wanting Bday party favors, collectors, and even corporate folks wanting to give them as themed gifts for events.

[Grynn]

Here's one (any advice appreciated as I'm absolutely fuming)

 

Toycentric has been my best customer for the past 1-2 years. Only issue I've had is since I changed my handling time to 3 days, I get a message 2 days after the sale consisting of "Tracking number?"  Which I learned to ignore after realizing they never respond.

 

Nov 30 they open a case for a Rebels Assault Carrier, stating that the box had been filled with random bags and pieces of other sets - they didn't know where I sourced my sets, but the item sent was not correct. Now, 99% of what I sell on eBay is bought directly from a store or ordered online, and I inspect seals and overall condition. I checked my records and all of those sets came from the same Walmart on the same day. The box condition was quite good, there's virtually no chance someone bought this set, opened it and shoved junk back in, and returned it to Walmart for me to buy. So I replied to Toycentric stating as much, telling them I know they dropship, and that the third party buyer must be running a scam, for which I am not responsible. To no one's surprise, I got no response.

 

So about a week later I call eBay. To shorten the story, I called eBay 4 times over the next two weeks, as the automated system emails poured in, telling me to provide a return label since the return was automatically approved, etc etc. Every time but one I had to fight with the robotic idiot who first answers the phone in order to get to the escalation team who has actual brain cells to handle the situation. Each time I was told not to worry about it, that the buyer was not eligible for buyer protection through eBay anymore anyway, and that I would not be held responsible for the return amount despite the automated system being allowed to run it's course like the unstoppable AI juggernaut it apparently is. I spend 3-4 hours on this to make sure I didn't get screwed. I was given multiple reference numbers, notes made on the case, etc. etc.

 

End of December rolls around and I get an email from Paypal telling me the claim has been decided in the buyer's favor. I go and check and see I have a negative account balance equal to the original (minus fees) amount for this item. I'm pissed. I call eBay and after talking to a total jerk in the buying department (voice recognition was failing so I got routed to the default place I guess) I was made to call back. Got to the escalation team once again, and had to (as usual) get to the supervisor level to find out that toycentric had failed a chargeback through Paypal directly, there's nothing eBay can do about it, yada yada yada. At least he was nice.

 

So I just got off the phone with Paypal who basically told me to get f'd - because they sent me a notice on Dec 18 demanding a response by Dec 28 and I ignored that email (somewhat unintentionally, being assured by eBay this would all work out in my favor, though I didn't even recognize at the time it wasn't from eBay themselves).  I explained the whole situation in detail and this asshat said nothing I said was valid and my 8 years of essentially flawless business didn't matter because I simply didn't respond in their time frame and they already refunded the buyer. He constantly pointed out I only responded to eBay and not to Paypal and I constantly argued that there was no way I could know the claims were separate, having come from the same return case. He said he could appeal it for me but wouldn't because it would be rejected anyway due to the failure to respond. I told him that was completely unacceptable, and either something would be done about the amount or something would be done about the jacked up system that allows this crap to happen. He said I would have to WRITE to corporate, gave me the address, and I demanded his name and supervisor number.

 

2211 North First Street

San Jose, CA  95131

Attn Paypal Corporate

 

 

 

 

And yes, I blocked toycentric as a buyer a few days after this whole debacle started. I am always patient with customer service reps until they A: Fail to listen to my words more than once, B: Show obvious failure to comprehend the situation AND resist my requests to be transferred or C : Repeat the canned drivel they are given after I point out that their canned drivel does not address the issue I am calling about. Unfortunately, I have learned that the way these people are trained it is almost impossible to get past them without being an *******.

 

And for what it's worth, the "return" showed up in my original (more beat up) box, with only the odd numbered Arctic Base Camp bags (curious), plus what appears to be some Minecraft (mostly very basic) bricks.

 

I wish I didn't have another couple of years to get rid of what's left I want to sell. I'm so over eBay and their buyer buttlicking, plus the eBay / Paypal conspiracy. Between that and Lego trying hard to ruin the collectible value of their product, what started as an amazingly fun and profitable hobby / side business over 8 years ago had turned into mostly just a headache these days.

 

/rant off

[Sandwraith]

8 minutes ago, Grynn said:

Here's one (any advice appreciated as I'm absolutely fuming)

Yikes, I've never had any serious return/fraud issues like this as a seller so i can't really be of help there, but i do have a recent resealing "experience".

I bought a Minecraft Skeleton Attack set from a reputable retailer that had been peeled open and re-glued shut with random bags inside, looked %100 sealed to me. This was one of those punch tab boxes though, so i guess a little easier to pop open/reseal without punching the tab. This was a set for personal build, if i had kept it to sell i'd have been screwed because it looked %100 legit. Also I think it was here on these forums recently i read someone saying they bought something from a Lego store(?) and the item looked sealed, but had different stuff inside resealed or something.

Anyways not saying that's the case for your situation, but these types of scams are getting more and more common. And its a small possibility the end buyer wasn't the scammer, but does seem like the more likely scenario.

[KShine]

There's nothing like being reminded that we are pretty much inconsequential to the powers that be.

Watch your back (because you can't count on ebay/paypal to always protect you - even when they assure you that all is well), and always be careful to follow the policy guidelines (or just accept that sometimes you will get burned).

If you are a buyer, and a seller on ebay - you can at least expect that things will usually balance out over time.

[gmpirate]

It's a cost of doing business and the time you put into it probably cost you more than the set.  Not always fun, but this is a business we chose ?

[boliramirez]

Well I need help ... 

 

This guy contacts me by eBay message and asks if I can give I’m a better price for two 4002019 , I do not budge and after about 5 messages he agrees to pay full price ... and pays for them .. He has 34 positive feedbacks as a buyer , 2 of them in December so I ship the sets..

Everything seemed fine after a couple of days after I shipped the sets ( Last Friday) I get an email from PayPal. This guy files a claim that he did not made that purchase and that it was done without his consent .... sets are still in transit ...

I send PayPal screenshots for the messages when he was asking for a better price and PayPal decides on my favor ....

 

what should I do ??  Stop the package ?? Can I let EBay know about this ??

Any Help will be greatly appreciated !

[iahawks550]

Stop the package. You should get a refund and if lucky, get the sets back. 

[zaphoid]

let eBay know as well since he can still file a claim there.

[Brickshopper]

Got an order for a rather Large Lego Set to a freight forwarder in OR. (350$) I have shipped to these addresses before with some success. I just have a bad feeling about this order. The buyer has been an ebay member since 2018 has 1 feedback ever and was in the last month from a novelty China Seller most items 1-2.00$ free Shipping. This buyer is located in China and I am almost sure about going with my gut and cancelling most likely would be about 30-40 to ship to OR with USPS I am trying to dodge a potential scammer, hijacked account,  empty box scam, stolen credit info etc and probably will have to just eat the 15.00 in paypal fees. Any thoughts?

Edited February 25, 2020 by Brickshopper

[gmpirate]

When I sold on Ebay I shipped to many of these buyers.  Established a relationship with some.  

[HappyHawkeye]

new one for me: buyer makes an offer, I accept said offer (netting him a $10 discount on the listed price). Buyer emails me saying he doesn't want to pay sales tax, and since I didn't mention sales tax in the listing that I need to deduct the amount from the invoice. I couldn't find anything specific about this in Ebay's policies about having to indicate that sales tax will be applied when applicable (seems like that would be a ridiculous requirement anyway), but my thought is that if he lives in a state that requires the collection of sales tax, then he pays the tax & if you don't like it send your complaints to Ron Paul.

Any recommendations? My inclination is to tell this guy to pound sand (politely). 🙂 But of course then I worry that I'll be setting myself up for some BS complaint further down the line about missing pieces or getting a box of rocks or something. Ugh, why do people suck.

Edited February 25, 2020 by HappyHawkeye

[Darth_Raichu]

Taxes are calculated automatically by eBay per law of your state.  Sellers do not have any control over those.  Please direct any complaints related to internet sales tax to your state representatives  

[iahawks550]

Tell them sales tax is not a choice of yours and it's taken by Ebay, not you. 

[Sandwraith]

I've had numerous complaints about the new sales tax rules. Pretty sure it's a big reason why my ebay traffic has been slowing down recently.

Buyers have contacted me asking to have it removed, claimed i hid this charge from them, and even accused me of doing something illegal and just collecting the tax myself, lol. I think this is just for selling to US buyers though, haven't seen it for Canadian buyers yet i don't think.

I would just explain the situation, if he doesn't like it he can cancel the transaction (if you haven't shipped).

[tasiatunes]

9 hours ago, Brickshopper said:

Got an order for a rather Large Lego Set to a freight forwarder in OR. (350$) I have shipped to these addresses before with some success. I just have a bad feeling about this order. The buyer has been an ebay member since 2018 has 1 feedback ever and was in the last month from a novelty China Seller most items 1-2.00$ free Shipping. This buyer is located in China and I am almost sure about going with my gut and cancelling most likely would be about 30-40 to ship to OR with USPS I am trying to dodge a potential scammer, hijacked account,  empty box scam, stolen credit info etc and probably will have to just eat the 15.00 in paypal fees. Any thoughts?

I had the same instance several times.The buyer was overseas one in China.I called Ebay and there response was once it reaches the freight forward delivery your responsibility is done.

It depends on who you talk to .I sent a large set to that freight forwarding place in Oregon going to China.No problem its been over 2 months.

I just sent a pirate ship to a freight forwarding in New York going to England.This is done by the buyer since I do not ship overseas.