02-12-2014, 05:48 AM
(02-12-2014 04:52 AM)Extor Wrote: [ -> ]Thanks for the quick, thorough and thoughtful response, Q. (hope you don't mind the nickname - loved John de Lancie in Trek)Yeah, I kind of got the Q thing - it's a big compliment.
My concern with price is that I am a brand new seller and I gathered that it was best to start with cheaper goods until I had some rep. I was waiting for your response - I'll post today, maybe for a higher price. I'll also list lots of consumables too, I just couldn't resist this product.
As for pictures, yes, I have been going back to the manufacturer's site. I also figured that if others are using their pictures I should be pretty safe. It just means more sales of their products, after all. I think if you are respectful, they'll give you a pass. Sellers see you as competition and I remember your warning that some will secretly mark their pictures so they can crush you.
I live in the tiny town of Vulcan (really) - pop. 2000 - with a big Home Hardware. I know the owner and staff, who I'm sure would let me camp out all day setting up displays and taking pictures. I have also seen his huge basement storage space. He must get stuck with some stock so I am going to offer to be his clearing house. Maybe I can convince him to let me have the stuff at cost to resell. He gets his money back without the hassle of returning inventory.
I can only give one rep a day and I just gave it to ducane. I love the fact that he takes the time to report back here to help the rest of the new-bays.
That's the kind of thing that makes the forum go 'round!
Rep ya later, Q!
He was the most powerful figure in any Star Trek - ever. If things had played out as they logically should have, Q would have owned and controlled everything - everywhere - forever.
I am going to say this for the feedback-obsessed - and you too.
It used to be a w-a-a-y bigger deal than it is now. Do a little role reversal.
Some of you have already worked this out - others haven't.
If I am a buyer and I really want something you have listed - and it is at an awesome price, how much do I consider feedback?
A couple of years ago, I would have checked you out pretty well.
Now, unless you are sub-ninety feedback, I really don't worry about it too much as a buyer.
Why?
Ebay changed all the rules with the "Get what you ordered or get 100% of your money back" tag line and policy.
They stand behind it too. I know because I buy and sell on Ebay. In a few hundred buying transactions, I have gotten screwed just one-time - and it was worth getting screwed too.
It was only a $15 item, but I learned a (guaranteed) way to bypass this policy from a very clever seller that stiffed me. I don't use it because I do not sell crap and won't screw anyone, but I know how to do it now if I wanted to - which I don't.
So - with that said - whether you have feedback of 100k or 2, I don't care.
If you don't send me what I wanted or ordered, Ebay will extract my money back from you - whether you want to give it back to me or not.
So the high feedback thing is not much of an issue at all - not anymore - at least, not for most buyers. They know they are covered if a deal goes sideways.
I see zero and single-digit feedback sellers with thousand dollar and higher items listed all the time.
What you don't know is whether those sellers have other selling accounts. If Ebay is letting them list high value items like that with minimal feedback, you can almost bet they are an established seller with other accounts and listings or a history and record of success.
Ebay pretty much had to implement this policy to keep up with their biggest arch-nemesis - Amazon.
If you sell in either venue, one of the first big pills you have to swallow is that problems will almost always be resolved in favor of the buyer. This is one more reason you always want to give people two-weeks to buy it and keep it or bail.
Both of these venues are heavily buyer-centric e-commerce sites. This is also why I don't like to sell complicated or easily broken products. The more complicated an item is, the more likely it is someone will send it back because they don't understand it, cannot make it work, or break it trying to make it do something it wasn't ever intended to do.
