New Ebay Fees

I spent about 45 minutes on the phone with the powersellers customer support about this issue. Here is what I got out of it:

It sounds to me after speaking to the representative that ebay thru this out with plenty of warning, to cause outrage to get ebay sellers brainstorming on a better solution. After the rep got thru all of her canned responses, thats how the conversation headed.

Turns out the ebay rep thinks its a bad idea also.

If you are against this, ebay is urging everyone to submit ideas on how to "fix" feedback.

Here was my solution.

An ebay seller can't leave negative feedback for a buyer, if a payment was made by the buyer to the seller via pay pal. The buyer met their obligation, and a retalitory feedback won't be possible. And the seller will get the neg they diserve.

The rep said it was the best solution so far she had heard. If you like it, or have your own solution, pass your ideas along to ebay.

Good for you, and thanks for doing the legwork!
I have only one question re: your solution. You say "retalitory feedback won't be possible". So, if the buyer leaves a seller neg feedback, are you saying the seller can't respond to the negative? Or are you talking about leaving neg feedback from the git-go after receiving neg feedback?

In my situation, I had given the "nun" positive feedback upon rcpt of her MO. Mailed the item. She said she received it broken (braids broken off the indian chief, which was impossible because they were painted on... couldn't be separated from body). I had highly recommended insurance, which she had refused. (My auction clearly states that I will not be responsible if insurance is not purchased.) I asked for pictures of the damage. She refused. I would not send her money back, so she left a nasty negative. I was able to retaliate by noting her refusal to purchase insurance. I wouldn't want to lose the option to get my $.02 in.

I have become one of those sellers that won't leave feedback until I know for certain that the buyer is satisfied with the item received.

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Before you marry someone, ask yourself, "Will they be a good killing partner during the zombie apocalypse?"
-someecards.com

in my senerio, the seller could respond to the negative, with a comment and even report it to the"feedback review board" that they are creating (thats a whole nother thread )

However the neg for a neg would not be possible.

The part that bothers me most is the 8.75% fee now (was 3.5%) - on top of the listing fee - which goes up to some 12% if the final value is between $25 and $1000.........

By the time PayPal hits you for the payment fee, you don't see nearly as much of your profit as in the past .

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~Falcon

Spreading lanolin love one fleece at a time.
It's a wooly job, but someone's got to do it.

Essentially you need to up your buy-it-now or store prices to account for the increased eBay fees OR use a handling charge.

I charge $1.00 handling fee on each shipment (regardless of the number of purchases consolidated into a shiping). Helps to cover supplies and part of the PayPal costs.

To me, PayPal is worth the cost as noted above. Probably 95% of my payments come through PayPal.

On non-paying buyers I'll send a payment reminder after about four days. After 7-10 days I'll have eBay send a formal notice to them about payment not having been received. At the end of the seven day wait period I'll generally request a refund of the commission, but won't leave negative feedback until about 3-4 weeks have passed without payment. By then the buyer should have received an e-mail from eBay about their receiving a non-paying buyer strike. (And some have actually paid up at that point. When they do, there is a procedure for you to ask eBay to remove the non-paying buyer strike.)

Bear in mind it isn't negative feedback which gets a buyer kicked off eBay. It takes three unique sellers to go through the non-paying buyer procedure (on the site map, bottom of the middle column). It is only after it is cost eBay money in lost commissions they take action.

My philosophy is if you are only selling with a 100% market up you aren't going to make much money after the transaction expenses. A 200% markup is certainly better, but a 300% pretty well guarantees you a profit - although you might not make some sales.

On bidding auctions, unless you start with an acceptable minimum you are taking your chances on what it will eventually sell for as far as return is concerned.

I'd have to double check but I believe I've now had over 9,000 eBay transactions and over 2,000 PayPal transactions. In general, very pleased with both.

I have about 40 user ids on my blocked bidder list. Most are non-payers, but on some I just didn't like their attitude and didn't want to deal with them further.

Like everything else that has been affected by the slowdown in the economy, Ebay is responding to their decline in revenue at the expense of the sellers.

I sold alot from 2002-2005 and, after that, noticed a huge slowdown in page views and in final sales price.

I stopped listing 2 years ago when half of my items would not sell at 7 day auction- and when something did sell, it was to an overseas or west coast customer- nothing local.

Do those of you with stores find similar trends?

And as for feedback, i always waited for the buyer to leave feedback before i would- as stated by other sellers here, you know the transaction is finished , with no unresolved issues, when you receive that feedback- and as a seller, you would have no reason to leave negative feedback for a paying customer.
But it isn't over until they you know, thru freedback, that all is well.

I have 181 positive feedback - sold probably 4x that amount of items- with 1 neutral FB that came out of the blue from a new ebayer- never found out why.

Like every other situation i can think of, good communication skills benefit everybody.

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Wherever you go, there you are. Buckaroo Banzai

It is difficult to compare sales against different items and potential markets. My first full year on eBay I did $20K in gross sales. In 05 I expanded my inventory and went up to $41.3K. In 06 that went up to $52.7K. In 07 it dropped to $41.4K. Last month was the best out of five years by far.

I sell into a hobby market mostly so it is somewhat discretionary spending.

this is why we are seeing many more items selling for say a penny and the shipping at 10or20 dollars... then ebay only gets listing fees forthe penny and the low final value instead of a much higher final vallue