eBayers That Suck / eBayers That Suck Forum / Making Money

Its me again with ebay misspells :D

Quack — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 14:49:24 GMT

Hi i had written here a little while aggo about my ebay misspell search engine and i had gotten some positive response so i tought i would let you know about the new one i made , its got a nicer interface and should work a little better. the url is http://www.yourtypos.com .

Again any comments, suggestions or bug report are would be of great help.

Also some people were wondering last time if it actualy worked , well some guy found a bottle of beer that was misspelled on ebay for 16$ . It was a collectors bottle of beer , and he sold it back for 500 000$ . Probably won't find a deal like that but you can definately find some good deals (i find some mountain bikes for dirty cheap all the time)

Thanks , Joe

Protecting Sellers against Bad Bidders

repxchange — Mon, 19 May 2008 03:20:54 GMT

As may know, eBay has announced that they will no longer allow sellers to leave negative feedback on buyers.

To protect sellers like you and us against bad bidders, we created RepXchange.com – a free service where you can download a custom blocked bidder list, aka black lists, to prevent bad bidders from participating in your actions.

With RepXchange, you can weed out bad buyers, and by extension, avoid spending needless time on re-listing and filing dispute claims.
The service just launched in beta, and the more sellers that sign up, the more useful it will be. Try it out today and tell your fellow sellers!
http://repxchange.com

How much is too much for shipping?

soc — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:00:23 GMT

What many buyers (and some sellers) don't seem to realize is that there is cost to do shipping above what actual postage is.

I know that some find this a red herring, and will viably argue; "well, the shipping costs should be up front so it's a buyer's choice whether or not to accept those charges". Be that as it may, some buyers begrudgingly accept the charges, and then if they are unhappy about them later, use it as the reason to complain.

I'm not talking about fee circumvention here where a $200 item is sold for .99c with $200 in shipping charges. I'm referring to a slightly elevated shipping charge.

For example, someone might be glad to have an item shipped to them via priority mail for $6.00, but after the sale, they do a bit of research and find that the flat rate envelope costs only $4.60 in postage. Now they feel cheated.

But what many fail to realize is that there are other costs aside from just postage. For example, while some buyers might be savy enough to point out that ebay does not charge fees based on shipping, paypal does take a percentage of your bottom line, shipping fees included. Then there is the cost of delivery confirmation (absolutely mandatory in all of my transactions, this benefits buyer and seller alike), although that can be free on priority mail if postage is printed online, there is a charge incurred for most sellers.

Let's not forget packing materials, tape, and the time it takes to process the order. What if I had to drive to the post office? Fuel is expensive these days. Sure, one could make the argument that the postman can pick up my package, but you see, I ship the same day as payment is received. Therefore, if you submit payment towards one of my products at 9 p.m. that means I'm going to drive to the post office [i]that night[/i] and put your package in the drop box with prepaid postage attached.

Considering this, the star system isn't fair, especially when rating shipping and handling charges. Is it correct to say that a person that charges only actual postage, doesn't wrap your package or protect it in any way, never gives you a confirmation number, and then lets your package sit over the weekend on his dirty pile of clothes is actually more cost effective than someone that does the things mentioned earlier for only around $1 more?

Nevertheless, it's important to consider one's total cost for the item, and it hardly matters if too much was spent on shipping or too much was spent on the item itself. As a buyer, the total amount that you are out of pocket is what is important, right? Believe it or not, there are a LOT of buyers that overlook or flat out ignore shipping charges listed in auctions, looking only at the item's sell price. This narrow oversight provides enough room for people to exploit the shipping on ebay. This exploitation results in many buyers in turn being skeptical as to shipping charges.

But here are the brass tacks; shipping costs more than actual postage, and while I do not believe in making a profit on shipping, I don't think I should take a loss either. Remember to evaluate the entire auction before you bid, and I thank anyone in advance for considering that $6.00 for a flat rate priority envelope, securely packed with delivery confirmation, and even shipped same day is a great deal!

eBay Seller Strike!

Angel — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 21:19:13 GMT

eBay sellers are [url=http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/07/smbusiness/ebay_boycott.fsb/index.htm?cnn=yes]planning to strike[/url]!

Are you planning to join the cause?

Check out the [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23TomS5--nQ]YouTube Vid[/url]

Ebay Misspells save yourself some money!

Quack — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 11:05:33 GMT

I made an ebay misspell tool located at [url]http://www.typobay.com[/url] .Typo Bay offers you a service, completely free to use, which allows you to find misspelled auctions. This tool allows you to broaden your auction search by including typos in your query in such a way as to provide you with so called "hidden auctions". The result of this is that you bid against fewer people allowing you to obtain the winning bid with a fair amount of ease and at a much lower cost than usual. This tool was the result of alot hours and hours of work . So if you guys had any more ideas or suggestions to help improve it would be very helpfull . Thanks in advance

eCrater?

KimCrow — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 10:33:45 GMT

Hey, anyone familiar with [url=http://www.ecrater.com]eCrater[/url]? Looks interesting....

how to sell and not suck

jcomeau_ictx — Tue, 08 May 2007 17:59:48 GMT

eBay provides ways to be less than forthright, but my opinion is that sellers who use them belong on this website. Some of these are:

[b]reserve prices[/b] if you have a minimum bid in mind, by all means set your minimum. don't hide it in a reserve price, so bidders have to guess. it's enough bidding against other people, without having some invisible line to cross as well

[b]handling charges[/b] or any inflated shipping charges. if you want to get paid for your work in packing and shlepping, by all means include the cost of your valuable time in your minimum bid.

and of course, inaccurate descriptions and photos are reprehensible. if you can't get a photo of the real object, and have to post some public-domain photo you found, at least state that clearly in the description. i had to do that a few times because my digital camera can't take closeups and the items were small.

honest sellers can afford to give full refunds including shipping charges, because there are so few refunds to give in comparison to successful sales. and honest sellers can give positive feedback as soon as they get paid, because there are few enough feedback scammers out there that withholding feedback is unnecessary. sellers who don't give feedback until they get it are already suspect in my book.

that's all for now. i'll rant more later.

Niche business ideas

Mr. Jiggs — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 10:54:20 GMT

I'm wondering what folks think is a good approach toward selling on eBay. Many people just try and sell their household junk but I understand the way to really build a business is to focus on a niche and build a solid reputation.

What are some of the best niche ideas out there, and is the market saturated? How do you come up with a niche? :cool:

Thanks! Mr. J.

eBay not the best place to sell top-of-the-line stuff

KimCrow — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 09:40:38 GMT

Interesting Q&A on why eBay isn't always the best place to sell high-end items. EBay buyers are usually looking for bargains.
http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/180258