Beware where you sell your items now....

[steven_moseley1]

Hi,

 

There are many PN'ers recommending evilbay as a venue to sell, but you should

be aware that as of this last month there have been huge changes at ebay towers

to try and stamp out the bad sellers, only the cahnges have been very badly

thought out and even excellent sellers are being thrown off ebay....

 

Ebay has now become since this last month, a nightmare for small time hobby

sellers. Sellers can no longer leave any negative or neutral feedback for

buyers...even ones who never pay you! Also, the feedback stars on the system

(DSR's) ..detailed seller ratings, which are given by buyers are now being used by

ebay to suspend any sellers with a mere 5% of unsatisfied buyers in any 30 day

period.

 

This means, if you sell 20 items in one month and get just one negative f/b...you

will get suspended by ebay...and it only takes one idiot buyer (or non payer) to do

this. Also, bad buyers are now getting wise to these changes and realise they now

have far more power than before, as just a couple of negs or neuts can get sellers

suspended ...some buyers are starting to blackmail sellers. ie, saying 'lower the

post cost or I will neg you' ...ebay is now very dodgy for sellers and many have

already been suspended (even good ones) and many are leaving ebay...sell there

at you own risk...

 

cheers Steve.M.

[shambrick007]

W/these dumb ass new rules, and ever increasing fess, ebay is really starting to @#$%&*-it-up! Hopefully these moves will spur some competition.

[steven_moseley1]

Sheldon...apparently ebid are getting many new sellers...

[frank_skomial]

5 % negative comment is far from "excellent" in my book.

 

This rerminds me a TV advert in LA area by Ralph Smith selling cars in La Crescenta and looking for "good people with bad credit" - really.

 

Finally eBay is trying to do the right things, but there is room for improvement, and no ideal solution.

 

"Sellers can no longer leave any negative or neutral feedback for buyers...even ones who never pay you!" - I agree with this - if they never pay - seller never sends the merchandise, it is that simple. Far more wrong is seller accepting payment and not sending the merchanside at all.

 

This will enforce more honesty on all sellers, by eliminating retaliatory comments.

 

I think there will be less risk from now on than it was before - contrary to what you think.

 

Sellers have all cards in their hands and need to play them right, while buyers were left unprotected and largely ignored by eBay until now.

 

This is the move in right direction on part of eBay.

[JDMvW]

Historically, the eBay setup was so biased toward the seller at the expense of the buyer that at least some of the changes are long overdue. In the past, no matter how bad a vendor was, they could still hold the buyer's rating hostage to any negative feedback. eBay may not have got it right, but at least they're trying. In the past, with the old system, 5% negative feedback would have been a very poor rating indeed.

[sagephotoworld.com]

I found ebay wanted me to use paypal and would not allow me to accept any other form of payment. As most of the people Ive sold stuff to before paid via a cheque, that kills off any potential for selling stuff. I advertised and had no buyers so now I refuse to deal with ebay. From craigslist at least I had some enquiries!

[jerry thirsty]

I would have to agree though that the changes do seem to be designed to be hard on low volume sellers, without unduly affecting the powersellers. As far as buyers being able to hold sellers hostage on feedback; as long as the seller only accepts correspondence through the My Messages, anything the buyer threatens will be captured on-site. If a buyer tries to blackmail you outside the official channels, and you ignore them, and they leave you a negative for not completing the transaction, can you appeal to have the negative removed?

[emmajanefalconer]

My friend runs a business selling vintage clothes adapted to modern fit, and custom made clothes. She used to use ebay as a main selling place, and had thousands of successful sales, but since the new rules has had loads of repeated time-wasting buyers she can't block/people threatening her to lower prices or include freebies, and she can't wait until her current batch of auctions is sold so that she can leave the site altogether.

[sagephotoworld.com]

Is there a decent alternative?

 

I used to use FS Auctions but they closed. They were great as you could list and didn't pay a percentage - just a listing fee and that only if the item actually sold!

[dennis_ecklund]

Unfortunately, ebay is using a sledgehammer to swat a fly. The feedback system as it was, though not perfect, made the system work. Now, as far as I'm concerned it's completely broken.

 

I have a 660-transaction record with 100% positive feedback, posting new transactions every week. But I haven't posted anything since they changed the rules. Don't plan on doing any bidding, either.

 

It would appear the result of the incessant fee increases and now this latest rules change, will be to run off the smaller dealers. Too bad. It's that diversity which made ebay the success it is.

 

Multiply me by 10-20 thousand others like me and you're going to see most of the interesting antiques and collectibles, and many of the bargains, dry up as ebay management turns it into a third-world bazaar of high-volume sellers pushing fake ivory netsukes and overpriced gray market camera gear.

 

One oher thing, someone wote: "...if they never pay - seller never sends the merchandise, it is that simple ..."

 

No, it isn't that simple. When some jerkwad fails to pay it ties up someone's time, money and merchandise.

 

It takes time (a minimum of two months) and effort for the seller to jumping through the necessary hoops to kill the transaction and get their listing fee and final value fee refunded. The merchandise is tied up during that time and the ethical seller can do nothing with it until the matter is settled.

[steve torelli]

AFA photo gear, Fred Miranda's Buy and Sell forum is the way to go. I've never sold any where else and with a decent, not cheap, just reasonable price, I've sold stuff literally within minutes. I've never failed to sell my gear in less than a day. It's a highly active forum. You pay an annual fee for use, to tell the truth, I forget how much. But if you sell gear more than once a year, it's worth it. I just never have trusted E-bay, too many scams and scammers. Good luck.

[spritestress]

What are peoples' experiences selling / buying using the Classified Ads on photo.net?

[steven_moseley1]

"5 % negative comment is far from "excellent" in my book"

 

You have not thought this out very long have you? A superb seller, but who just sells a few items each month, can get ONE bad feedback from a nutty buyer (they do exist in ever larger numbers)...and they can get suspended..tell me how that is reasonable?

 

I would agree with you about 5% of bad f/b from a large seller, but percentages do not work anywhere near fairly for low volume hobby sellers. They only work fairly (and properly) with large numbers involved...

[steven_moseley1]

""Sellers can no longer leave any negative or neutral feedback for buyers...even ones who never pay you!" - I agree with this - if they never pay - seller never sends the merchandise, it is that simple"

 

NO...it is not that simple. When you win an item on ebay, you have then entered into a CONTRACT TO PAY. If you fail to pay, you have broken the contract..you have also made the seller lose fees. It is not acceptable for any buyer to not pay (unless really outstandingly good reasons apply) and not letting sellers give appropriate feedback is simply stupid, not transparent and not fair or reasonable.

[jtk]

I'm currently fighting my first bad rating as a buyer...Ebay says I'll probably win after they confirm.

 

I'd paid instantly (Paypal thankfully) but the product was not as described and could not have been according to the manufacturer (2G was advertised, 256mb was sent, seller became abusive). Easy win for me.

 

However, BECAUSE Paypal ruled for me and returned my money ($237), the seller trashed my rating. There's evidence in seller's history suggesting he's done this before, talking people out of bad ratings for ripoffs (he offered to send me $50 for a good rating).

 

Anyhow, I'm feeling good about Ebay and Paypal.

[lex_jenkins]

My experience with photo.net classifieds as a buyer and seller has been very good. A couple of times I've not received e-mail from folks responding to ads because my Netscape mail account filtered it out, so I'm reworking those filters to eliminate that problem.

 

I've had only one problem on ebay when I never received an item and the vendor claimed he never received payment. The check was never cashed so it's safe to assume it was actually lost. It was resolved amicably without any feedback one way or another.