Well I've been selling on eBay steadily since the start of September now. Old stuff, mainly vintage toys and collectables I don't need anymore or things I bought in.
The experience, as it used to be, has been largely pleasant and exciting, with lots of winning bids - mostly small potatoes - and the occasional decent sale. It's a good way to sell off excess from the big collection, together with new finds from boot sales and charities to sell on. I adore the finding the most!
I stick to UK selling, purely for simplicity's sake, but I have posted one expensive item to Canada. It hasn't arrived yet, so I'm on pins. The international tracking ended at the UK border! Huh? There's still hope though.
A few curveballs have, as always, come my way as a seller on eBay.
Unwittingly I'd sent items which were incomplete ( such as a page missing from an old toy catalogue) and a damaged item ( a car door had been glued shut). I just hadn't seen these faults. These were small sales so I simply refunded the buyers and gave them the goods gratis to prevent a drawn-out and stressful claims process on eBay in which I'd no doubt lose anyway.
Less easy are the postage issues.
A tracked item I sent via Royal Mail was successfully delivered but to the wrong house! The postie's photograph was of a doorway unknown to the buyer! Both the buyer and myself attempted to contact Royal Mail and eBay - seeking a fellow human - to no avail. Royal Mail's telephone waiting time is 40 minutes and eBay's simplistic virtual assistant is all you get. Both quite useless. The buyer had no choice but to file a missing item claim with eBay, one of their many automatic processes. I'm unsure how this would have ended, as amazingly, the item did indeed turn up a few days later at the buyer's home with a neighbour from several streets away! Phew!
Another postal glitch happened this week with Evri. Somehow an item I hadn't sent yet was registered with Evri and eBay as dispatched and given a reference! I still had it at home! I can only assume that it had gone near the shop's scanner when I'd had it in my bag. I didn't send it because the scanner was offline and an engineer had been called! It must have scanned it anyway! Anyhow, the scanner fixed the next day, I returned to the shop and fortunately eBay provide a 'Print Another Label' option on the sale site for just such a circumstance! Yay! I guess though my item now has two Evri reference numbers and two tracking histories! Yikes! Schrodinger's Tracking! Welcome to the multiverse!
Still, despite the odd gremlin like these showing up, I do enjoy still selling old toys and stuff on eBay. Do you?
I still generally enjoy using ebay as a buyer, although I find selling is a challenge these days, Woodsy. Very much because of the issues you've mentioned. Faceless technology and occasionally careless delivery drivers don't inspire confidence, at least not for me. I've had a couple of bad costly experiences, even though I've sent items through a track/sign service.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear of your bad experiences Tone. I suppose all massive systems will have glitches. It's just a pain when it involves us!
DeleteYou are a better man than I am, Woodsy! Haven't sold on ebay for many years, for some of the reasons you mention. But buying on ebay is a treat, now that the economy is in a shambles and folks are selling stuff for pennies on the dollar! Its a buyer's market there now, for sure - a good time to pick up anything you've ever wanted. SFZ
ReplyDeleteYes, the UK economy is full of woe too so there's lots of family car boot sales. Luckily for me I love stalls to rummage through SF!
DeleteWoodsy, in the past four years I sold ONE item on fleaBay. I ended up deleting the rest of my listings a month or so ago. I just said to heck with it - Bettina can have an estate sale when I kick the bucket!
ReplyDeleteI tend to buy, rather than sell. Long ago, we tried selling an art print of my Missus' work, but no one was interested.
ReplyDeleteAs far as buying goes, I don't even look at stuff from America nowadays. Almost everything has a Postal charge of at least Au$40 slapped on top.
That tends to lessen the bargain!
If I see something I REALLY want then I’ll fess up the shipping costs and have bought things from Australia to India. However, there are a couple of countries I tend to avoid like Italy or Argentina- their shipping costs must have been set by gangsters!
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