[Coco] [Color Computer] Re: eBay seller gustavus1

[Roger Taylor]

At 09:45 PM 11/10/2007, you wrote:
>See, THIS kind of drivel is what drives me insane about eBay buyers....
>If you do NOT sell continuously on eBay, then you have NO CLUE whatsoever.
>
>WHY would you even ASK a question like that! If you don't like the 
>shipping amount, move along to the next item.
>
>And...let's be real....and THIS comes from EXPERIENCE.
>It does NOT cost $1.97, I don't care WHAT it is.
>What about the packing materials?Peanuts cost $65 for a bag, 8.5x11 
>mailers cost like $12/per 10, and boxes - those aren't free either
>Packing tape isn't free, last time I checked..
>What about the time packing?

Well, ya can't charge hourly rates for packing and so forth.  That's 
in the Ebay policy.  If employee or wife spent 1 hour at (say, 
minimum wage) packing a box, that is to be recovered only in the 
start price, not the shipping.  :)



>Buying labels to print out the payPal shipping label? Those are like 
>$40 for 200 labels.
>Of course, printing those labels requires using ink or toner, and 
>that is not free as well.

To be recovered in the start price.  Shipping is for the actual rate 
plus the basic materials, and maybe a small reasonable pad amount 
(perhaps a few bucks just to be safe).  Anything tacked on extra to 
make up for things not listed as legal shipping fees is considered 
bad according to Ebay, but we all know how that works. ;)


>What about the time to drive to actually ship it?

Nope, can't include that in the shipping (per Ebay), but guess how 
many sellers don't read the rules.


>Ever waited in line at a PO in a metro area? When I ship, I know I'm 
>I for at least 1.5-2 hours

That is one of the clear no-no's in the Ebay policy.  :)  The 
"standing in line at the post office" thing is mentioned in the first 
one or two paragraphs, I believe.  Sucks, I know, but stamps.com has 
a good deal on printing your own labels from home for USPS and FedEx, 
plus you can go to the USPS or UPS websites and do the same, and if 
you're selling a lot of items as you mentioned, this would be the 
only ideal way I can think of over standing in line at the post 
office for all those items every day.  :)


>So, bottom line, you want an item for $1, and $1.97 shipping?
>That won;t happen - costs less to throw the stuff away. In the 
>meantime, all the good stuff will be chased away to landfills,
>because someone was too cheap to throw a $7 bone to a guy, so it's 
>not a total waste of time to sell it.
>Remember those 3 CoCo1's I sold, that went for $0.99? After eBay, 
>paypal, and shipping fees, I lost about $10 on that deal.

Since it was an auction, any loss is considered acceptable from the 
start.  At least that's how I see it.


>And then you have to deal with 100 STUPID questions - I just got a 
>good one 3 days ago:

Also, if a seller (I'm not aiming this at you, btw) receives 100 
outrage questions, it uuuuuuuuusually means that the buyers are 
right, and if 100 people are interested in the item, perhaps he 
should start selling a bunch of them at the price they are expecting 
to pay for shipping.  :)

My 2 cents, but ofcourse I've only sold ~150 items or so and am not 
an expert or powerseller artist, etc.  I just look for deals and try 
to unload my own stuff so as I'm not posing as a profit-raking store 
or scam artist.  Considering what profit I *could* have made compared 
to some other seller's ending price, I guess I've lost on almost 
everything I've sold, but considering that I actually sold the item 
and didn't throw it away, I'm quite happy that somebody else got a 
use out of the item and I might have made some of my money back from 
the original price I paid.

The truth is that Ebay has gone from an online rummage sale from the 
start to an evil profit-scamming empire, and now the original use has 
almost died.  It's in direct competition with Amazon.com and 
therefore they must support e-stores and the right to kill the buyer 
and seller if desired.  This has drifted right down into the normal 
auction listings and you can't tell who's running a store or who's 
running a fair auction.