You HAVE to try this!! EBAY your way to DISNEY!!

[DMRick]

that I really had no other, better way to ship it and that it will be insured for the full retail value (less than paid) just in case.

UPS has certain rules for packing to be able to collect on their insurance. Not meaning to worry you more, but you might want to check that out for future. They like 2 inches between the item and the box..and if there is a claim, that is their first question..did you have that 2 inches.

It's different when items get shipped to stores. Then they often come on pallets, and are connected to each other, so the items don't slip and slide.

 

[jcemom]

Well, DH found another box for me and I am in the process of re-packing it. I had a really, really, REALLY bad day and after getting home late, just wasn't happy to get that email.

But, we do what we have to do right? lol

On the bright side, the final price was a good deal higher than I expected, so if I lose a few dollars on shipping then it's really not a big deal. I'm just tired and didn't want to have to re-pack it tonight.

Once I took a minute to breathe, thought about it, and put it all into perspective....well, I'm okay now. LOL (as "okay" as I get, anyway)

UPS has certain rules for packing to be able to collect on their insurance. Not meaning to worry you more, but you might want to check that out for future. They like 2 inches between the item and the box..and if there is a claim, that is their first question..did you have that 2 inches.

I honestly didn't think about the possibility of damage! I usually sell my kids' clothing and that sort of thing. Now I know! Thanks!

 

[cpl100]

Any thoughts about the best time of night for auctions to end (East Coast time)? I would love to see an ending auction bidding war on an item I am selling rather than buying!

 

[DMRick]

Once I took a minute to breathe, thought about it, and put it all into perspective....well, I'm okay now. LOL

Believe me, I know just how you feel today . I'm there myself!

My vent is our buyers who can't read! I sell a personalized item. I ask for the personalization. Do you think they give it to me? Nope. I have five items all paid for waiting for the return mail giving me the personalization (I had 9, until I realized Paypal changed our defaults and because it was now html, we weren't getting the messages sent with payment). One finally after sitting for a week today responded. They had changed their email and moved, so I couldn't get them on phone or email.

To continue my rant..do you have any idea, how many times someone says to me..just put on it whatever looks good. I personalize with names..well jeez, I guess I'll just put Sue on it..think they'll complain because they have no Sue in their house LOL?

Another who I wrote for the third time asking for the personalization, said I should have gotten it. I wrote (and not so nice)..well, if I had, do you think I would have spent my time writing you for it? Wouldn't it have been easier for her to put it in that email?

Now here I am..writing a third time, letting her know I didn't have it (and many hours later, I still don't!).

 

[cpl100]

I feel for you! I am constantly amazed at the idiocy of some people.

 

[Susie Bee]

cpl100,

In the book "eBay for Dummies" they state that to get the most exposure you should always start your auctions on Sunday night (Monday AM) AFTER 12 Midnight this way West Coasters have their kids to bed and are sitting down to eBay--9 PM their time. Turbo Lister has an option to make auctions start at your desired time but you are charged for that. What I usually do is make sure I go to bed a little bit earlier on Sunday night and set my alarm to get up at 12 M--usually have to go to the bathroom anyways--and just start Turbo Lister uploading and then go back to bed. I have satellite internet therefore it's not a problem leaving it on all night. If you have dial-up just set your computer to log off for like an hour after you start... I find a lot of my customers are not East Coast based--mostly mid-West/West Coast...

Good Luck!

 

[Susie Bee]

dg39

As for shipping costs, put both items in one package and weigh them--bathroom scale if it's large and just go to www.usps.com and click on their Rate Calculator link--Domestic--and select the package type, zip-from zip, zip-to zip and then the estimated weight--always round up on the weight therefore you're not paying out of your profit. Then submit the information and it will give you the shipping rates. If you over quote just put the refund in the box or Paypal it back. That's whay I do and buyers are SO appreciative of my honestest and usually buy from me again!!

Good Luck!

 

[jcemom]

To continue my rant..do you have any idea, how many times someone says to me..just put on it whatever looks good. I personalize with names..well jeez, I guess I'll just put Sue on it..think they'll complain because they have no Sue in their house LOL?

That's just plain silly. It would be different if you were asking them to choose a color. Why would they want whatever NAME you think "looks good" on display?!?

Another who I wrote for the third time asking for the personalization, said I should have gotten it. I wrote (and not so nice)..well, if I had, do you think I would have spent my time writing you for it? Wouldn't it have been easier for her to put it in that email?

She couldn't have wrote "You should have gotten it...it's Sue" because that would have been too easy, and it just wouldn't be right to make anything easy...LOL

 

[DMRick]

(Monday AM) AFTER 12 Midnight this way West Coasters have their kids to bed and are sitting down to eBay--9 PM their time.

With all the problems eBay has on Sunday, I'd be afraid no one would see my auctions LOL.

I've found 6-7 o'clock west coast time works good for me (9-10 east coast). I get a lot of west coasters too..but it's about 50/50, and I would lose my East coasters if I waited too much longer to list.

The good thing is, the auctions post much faster than they used to, and my bids start right away...so I know the auctions are out there.

I think you have to test the waters for yourself. It may depend on what you are selling. If you sell to people who go to bed at 9, they won't be looking at your auctions.

 

[cpl100]

I have been trying to start listing at around 9:30 or ten East coast and it takes about an hour and a half for me to list them. (Okay, I'm new and slow!)

I wish my bids started right away! This week I'm doing a little test. I started a bunch on Sunday and some more last night, then I'm going to try one each on Tuesday and Wednesday and a bunch on Thursday to test the waters.



I do have another question, this time regarding Paypal. (I am sorry I have so many questions!) What happens to the items you 'file'? Where do you access them after they are filed? LOL, I filed some and now they don't appear in the list even when I search the history. Now I am afraid to do my filing again.

 

[dg39]

cpl100, I just came from the paypal page, If you click on history and choose "all activity-advanced view" all your transactions come up. Hope this helps....

I have a question. When I sell clothing I always put it in a box, whether priority or parcel post, depending how I'm sending it. I sold 1 item and I'm wondering if I can send it in one of those tyvek envelopes,(priority mail). I don't have any extra pieces of cardboard around the house to place in the envelope with the item. Do you think if I put it in one of those zip lock bags, take all the air out and put that in the tyvek envelope it will be safe and not get wet or damaged if it rains or something. I think I read that their better and stronger than some boxes, but I'm not sure..
TIA

Denise

 

[lalapodip]

When I sell clothing I always put it in a box, whether priority or parcel post, depending how I'm sending it. I sold 1 item and I'm wondering if I can send it in one of those tyvek envelopes,(priority mail). I don't have any extra pieces of cardboard around the house to place in the envelope with the item. Do you think if I put it in one of those zip lock bags, take all the air out and put that in the tyvek envelope it will be safe and not get wet or damaged if it rains or something. I think I read that their better and stronger than some boxes, but I'm not sure..
TIA

Denise [/B]

Denise - I have shipped clothing in the Tyvek envelope and no one has complained.... You should be fine, especially if you use the ziploc bag, too!

 

[jcemom]

That's how I send my clothing. Folded nicely with a piece of tissue in between, in a ziploc, then inside a tyvek envelope. I've never had any complaints, and quite a few "nicely packaged" comments in my feedback.

Then again, after the boxing/packaging issue I just had (just look back a few posts) I may not be the best person to be giving out advice!

 

[maggiew]

I had an auction end on Sunday that did not get a bid. A lady emails me today that she had been watching the auction but didn't get around to bidding before it ended. Now she wants to know if I am still interested in selling it.

What would you do? Should I relist it with a Buy it Now and have her purchase it? Would you just make a deal? What if the deal goes bad? (sounds like a drug deal ...)

Maggie

 

[r2boys&buzz]

HI!

I just joined this board, but wanted to post right away because I love handing out any helpful hints I find and LOVE getting some in return!

As far as Ebay goes I have been selling on Ebay since 1999. My husband and I were going to have a small wedding and wanted a wonderful honeymoon so we sold things that were just collecting dust around our house. We started in Jan and by June we had enough to book a week stay at an all inclusive private island in Fiji (including air & spending money).

My little bit of advise it to put together a binder for record keeping. I keep three types of sheets in it. One for the auctions that end, another for deadbeat bidders (we all get them) and the third for Paypal payment (if you are going to accept paypal).

On the first sheet, the end of auction sheet. I have it laid out in landscape mode. It has columns titled, EOA (end of auction), Item, #, $ (the amount the auction ended at), Ship (for shipping rate), total, OC (out of country), PD (paid) and FB (feedback) -- then about 10 rows per page. At the end of the auction I fill in the first 6 columns for that auction, as they pay, I put a check mark in the PD column and when I leave feedback I put a check in the FB box. This page helps me, in glance, keep track of what is going on. I also make my rows a little bit wide just in case a buyer wins more than one auction.

The second sheet, deadbeat buyers I have in the column titles, Item #, EOA, ID (of the buyer), Email, Warn (for warning), NPBA (non paying bidder alert), Credit, Ban. When a buyer has not paid within 14 days I transfer the information to the first four columns. I then send a warning to the buyer through the Ebay reminder system and put the date I did this in the Warn block. After 4 business days without contact or payment from the buyer I send a non-paying bidder alert via Ebay and put that date in the NPBA column. If the buyer doesn't resond from there after a few more business days I file for credit through ebay and ban them from my future auctions and put those dates in the boxes. If the buyer does ante up and pay I write Paid through the rest of the boxes that I didn't take action in. If you don't keep track of this information carefully you will end of paying for the listing and ending fees for an item that someone didn't pay for!

The last sheet is for Paypal. This just makes it easier for me to gather up my information when I go to ship 2-3 times a week. I have the paper in the traditional paper orientation and have columns named, Date, Name, Item, #, S.M., Ship, FB. For the date, I put the date payment was recieved, Name -- last name of the buyer, Item - short description, S.M. - I offer three types of shipping methods (Priority, Regular with confirmation and regular) I put the initial for the method in that block (P, C or R), Ship - check this when it has been shipped, and FB to make sure I leave feedback or transfer the information of it being paid for on the end of auction sheet.

I know this is detailed (long) but I have learned that if you have a system in the start it will save you tons and tons of headaches. Sorry about the length... if anyone wants shipping, supplies or other advise I will certainly try to help.

Best luck on Ebay.

Jen H.

 

[dg39]

Maggie the same thing happened to me a few times,. 3 times to be exact. Being they were relisted items and I didn't get a bid on any of them I was more then happy to make the deal. All 3 buyers paid me thru paypal and then I sent the package. I haven't had any problems with any of these deals. I didn't do a buy it now or anything like that. It was end of auction or a few days after that and I got the emails. I emailed them back, telling them my paypal address, they paid, I shipped and everyone was happy. I sold all the items for what they were listed for plus the listed shipping fee.

Denise

 

[disneychrista]

I have sent many clothing items in the priority bag/envelopes. I have also used another company's pastick bag envelope turned inside out to ship them in. JcPenny ships there items this way, at least what I have ordered from them has been shipped this way.

 

[Mermaid 3]

Welcome!

Thank you sooo much for all the helpful information. I have just started selling on e-bay and I love it!. I do not have any kind of system yet for keeping records, but I knew I would have to if I keep doing this. I have about 500 items to list! I'm not sure if I am doing the listing right or not. Seems I owe e-bay alot more than I thought. How do the charges work, the higher your starting bid, the more you pay? And what about if the item doesn't sell, do you still pay for listing? And how about relisting? I would love to clean out my house and have enough money to pay for my Disney trip, but I don't want to owe e-bay a fortune. Any advise is truly appreciated.

 

[DMRick]

Mermaid 3


Did you take eBay's tutorial? I would really suggest it. You should also take a look at their fee page, so you know what you wil be paying.
Yes, the more you start an item at, the more the listing fees..they have it broken down on the fee page. If you use gallery, buy it now, more than one picture, or 10 day listing, the fees mount up! You owe those fees, if the item sells or not. If you do relist, you pay again, but you will get back the first listing fee (not the extras) if it sells the second time. You also pay end of auction fees, if the item sells, as well as in some cases, Paypal fees. The idea is to sell the item for enough that the fees don't matter. The best way to do that, is to research the item and find out what it has been sellign for.

Good luck!

 

[jgates]

Review the ebay fee page very carefully. Yes - you may want to start that listing at 9.95 instead of $10. Everything you are adding on increases the cost of that auction. I just started using SpareDollar the other day and I think this will work out really great. It is $4.95 per month after the first 30 days and they have a ton of templates that you can use. In those templates of course you can add extra pictures and you are not paying for the extra photo fees that ebay charges you, because basically their template is one 'big photo'. Get it? My ebay user name is the same as my disboard one - I have a few auctions going right now and I think several of them have a slightly different template (although you will see that I got stuck on the Pink Roses variations for my DD's stuff). You can choose ones where your other items for sale display etc. My auctions only have a photo or two each because I was still getting used to the service, but you could put ten in if you wanted!!!

I have started the horrible use of a small handling fee - not much of anything but I figure it will at least help with my time and the fees. Ex: $3.95 for Priority is set at $4.25 or $4.50.