My Vision for Ebay Heaven for small Vintage /Antique and even small entrepreneurial sellers

[tomuchstuff5]

Image you hit the home page of Ebay and its working, you see this inviting door that offers you the Ebay Original or Classic experience. You click on it and low and behold opens this new world unseen by many of todays buyers, but a fond memory for some that are still here. Many would like to share this experience, but's not here anymore. ;(

There's a search box at the top. You enter you search term a like old pottery mixing bowl and there they are 800 of them, so we add blue and narrow it down. No bike, clothes, dolls, cd came up, so it went pretty fast finding our mixing bowl. 😉 You message the seller and they assure you they can have to you at your location in a week to 10 days, properly packed. You let them know you are looking for the pitcher too. They add it to their list for you and will let you know if they come across one or they see one on here through another seller. I know this seller will work with me if there is something wrong with my bowl when it arrives because we have a relationship and they are my go to for items I want to find and I trust them. I recommend my friends because my experiences have been good. 

That was easy. Now lets pop over to discussions where collectors are comparing collections and discussing whats up for auction. Sellers are discussing finds and not technical glitches , fraud and false INAD returns. 

Somewhere someone starts a conversation of whats the rarest varation of glaze on a particular pottery. A place to educate others about history, what a great home with a community feel. A new buyer just popped in, they are welcomed. A new seller lists and they have mistakenly placed a reproduction up as new , so we educate and encourage research before posting. 

Time to order those couple of items I need for the house that I know a small seller I have dealt with before offers from her home. I know its a little more, butI like knowing she is going to put a little note in thanking me for my business and wishing me well for the holidays. I like to help her in her business too. She refers her friends to our site when they are trying to locate something. 

There is a market for virtually anything, if the person in need can find it. Used to be Ebay was the one place you could count on. 

Dam, I don't mind those fees now, Well maybe the ones for shipping,,,, really hate the FVF shipping fees.

  Ok, I know. I just woke up 😞  

[coolections]

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@gramophone-georg wrote:

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There's no reason for that other than search manipulation by ebay. sorry.

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@gramophone-georg

Correction: You mean it is search manipulation by the seller. If it bothers you so bad that the seller is scamming you can always report them.

[gramophone-georg]

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@coolections wrote:

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@gramophone-georg wrote:

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There's no reason for that other than search manipulation by ebay. sorry.

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@gramophone-georg

Correction: You mean it is search manipulation by the seller. If it bothers you so bad that the seller is scamming you can always report them.

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No, that absolutely is NOT what I meant. The seller didn't put it at the TOP of best match.

[retrose1]

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@tomuchstuff5 wrote:

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@18704d wrote:

"In other words...you want the ability to find what YOU want, not what ebay wants you to want.

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But if you took a few Marketing courses, you'd understand,

That buyers don't always (rarely) know, why they are buying something...

what real Need they are fulfilling by that purchase.

You don't buy a sports car at age 40, because you want to drive fast,

you buy it because you want everyone to Think, you "Live Life Fast"

There's a hundred other examples.

So when you put in a search criteria here for a specific item you want...

Of Course eBay knows what you Really Want

Right?

Lynn

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Starting to sound like some form of cyber subliminal advertising 🙂

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Sort of.

But what has been happening with lousy search is that ebay is trying to create an internet version of impulse purchases that happens in B&M stores while shoppers stroll down the aisles.  All those magazines and candy in the created aisle by the checkout are there to get an extra few bucks out of you.  The related merchandise hanging from an attachment in the center of shelf is there to lure you to buy just a little more.

ebay as it was could not do that, the best ebay could hope for was that a sellers listings were so fun and interesting that a buyer would check out the sellers store to see what else they have they might buy.  Or to browse the entire category to see what is new.  And it worked back in the day. 

But the bigger ebay got,  the more ebay wanted to streamline the site, and to make it easier for sellers to list in bulk and buyers to buy faster, the time it would take for all that to might happen was not worth it to ebay, so they are trying to make it happen through other means.  So now instead of buyers getting the few results they ask for, they get the entire shelf of what ebay thinks they would like to see them buy.

More and more ebay has subliminally taken free will out of selling and buying on their marketplace.

[retrose1]

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@coolections wrote:

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@the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth wrote:

While I would love to have a simplified back to basics search for vintage collectibles, I would never give up buyer protection. I remember the days of sending a check and getting nothing back. If the buyer negged the seller the seller would neg them back.

I always wonder when I see these "visions" of two Ebays. Is that what they are visioning; one with buyer beware no returns, and the other is with returns ? I see no reason for the two separate Ebays. When a buyer searches they can narrow the search to new or used. The vintage items are obviously used and I have never had a problem searching used items.

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As long as the payment processer can handle disputes, it doesn't matter if seller takes returns or not. 

ebay places way too much emphases on returns to keep the fear alive in an attempt to keep the buyers dependent on ebay.

If ebay would back off, maybe buyers would start taking responsibility for their actions - like reading a description, looking over the pics, checking out where a seller is or what their feedback says and making an informed decision rather than just buying the first thing ebay threw at them and then becoming disallusioned with ebay because it's wrong.

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

I seldom sell here any more because I sell elsewhere and have for nearly 20 years. I get very few returns. I sell vintage collectibles and I think I've had five returns over the last 20 years.

My policy is easy returns. If I make a mistake the buyer is out nothing. If the buyer changes their mind then they pay return shipping. I think selecting no returns makes SNADs more likely.

[zzydny]

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@nawlinsron2 wrote:
Apparently, my abbreviation for Bachelor of Science got BLEEPED
This belongs in the Hall of Shame for Overreach

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This reminds me of a joke made by one of my professors at Ole Miss:

We all know what a B S means.

So an MS is just More of the Same.

And when you get a PhD, you're just Piling it Higher and Deeper.

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

I guess I should be happy that my business degree is a Bachelor of Commerce then. 

For what it's worth I use what I learned in college every single day in my business and personal life. I don't regret it for a second.

[zzydny]

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@the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth wrote:

I guess I should be happy that my business degree is a Bachelor of Commerce then. 

For what it's worth I use what I learned in college every single day in my business and personal life. I don't regret it for a second.

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I remember lots of things from college and university, not that I use them.  But I will always remember what another college professor said because it changed my understanding of why we study:

The purpose of an education is Not to teach us What to think but How to think.

Too many people believe that the purpose is the former so they get stuck on details.  But once you realize that learning and thinking are specific skills that can apply to any other area, you realize that they can take you anywhere no matter what your specific field of endeavor might be. 

[tomuchstuff5]

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@the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth wrote:

I seldom sell here any more because I sell elsewhere and have for nearly 20 years. I get very few returns. I sell vintage collectibles and I think I've had five returns over the last 20 years.

My policy is easy returns. If I make a mistake the buyer is out nothing. If the buyer changes their mind then they pay return shipping. I think selecting no returns makes SNADs more likely.

I am very careful with my listings to avoid any issues. If I don't think I can accurately describe and photograph anything that would be in question, I simply don't list it. I check everything twice before listing and once more before shipment.  If I somehow miss something or even re-read a statement I have made and realize it could be taken in a different context than meant,  I am 100 percent on it. Buyer is out nothing also. 

I have tried returns policies in the past and have had just a few returns where the buyer did pay return shipping as they changed their mind. No problem. The new mentality seems to be pass the buck when it comes to return shipping. While I still have a very low request for return rate, buyer will state in message BEFORE return request opened, whatever the problem that is requesting them to return. It is never the product or service. It falls under changed mind or found for less. A lot of the times with a request for a partial refund to keep (this is a different issue entirely) I will give them instructions for opening return , select found for less or changed mind. When return is opened says SNAD. This is to avoid return shipping like their is some giant pot that shipping fees come from that Ebay pays for. Ebay doesn't back you up on this. They see the message with the real reason for return and you are STILL forced to pay return shipping. I have never, ever refused a customer a return on no returns. 

Point being, I am already absorbing shipping to just by accepting the return. That's not as hard of a hit. But shipping back too? Hurts. If I were able to deal with my customers myself without an OVERRIDE from Ebay by allowing this. If you fight them on it, you get to pay return shipping, lose FVF fees and a defect. It's just not right. 

After 18 years of problem free selling with customers I think I deserve to handle my own returns policy. This is why I discourage returns , you have no control over enforcement of rules. 

[activtrade1]

To the wind: Have you seen eBay anywhere in your travels or are they all dead?

[castlemagicmemories]

A lovely dream, OP, it sounds SO good!

[luckythewinner]

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wrote:

There's a search box at the top. You enter you search term a like old pottery mixing bowl and there they are 800 of them, so we add blue and narrow it down. No bike, clothes, dolls, cd came up, so it went pretty fast finding our mixing bowl.

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I'm confused. I typed in "old pottery mixing bowl" and got 78 results.  All of them were old pottery mixing bowls. 

For your search example, eBay already does what you want it to.  What do you suppose it is about your search that is causing bikes, clothes, dolls, ad CDs to come up? Or did you not actually do that search and are just specualting about what the results would be?

[castlemagicmemories]

With all due respect, I think the OP is just making a generalization there as the search can sometimes bring up dissimiliar products.

I searched once for santa figure and got Victoria's Secret.  Have had some other strange experiences with unrelated items but that is all that stuck in my mind, although there is another one, but it is inappropriate to even mention it.

[luckythewinner]

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wrote:

With all due respect, I think the OP is just making a generalization there as the search can sometimes bring up dissimiliar products.

I searched once for santa figure and got Victoria's Secret.  Have had some other strange experiences with unrelated items but that is all that stuck in my mind, although there is another one, but it is inappropriate to even mention it.

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I'm sure there are people who search for "chargers" who are upset when they see cell phone accessories instead of football memorabilia. 

And people who search for "chargers" who are upset when they see football memorabilia instead of  cell phone accessories . 

And people who search for "chargers" who are upset when they see football memorabilia and cell phone accessories instead of 1970s muscle cars.  

If search is so bad, why do people always resort to hypothetical or anecdotal examples?

[ted_200]

I always wonder when I see these "visions" of two Ebays. Is that what they are visioning; one with buyer beware no returns, and the other is with returns ? I see no reason for the two separate Ebays. When a buyer searches they can narrow the search to new or used. The vintage items are obviously used and I have never had a problem searching used items.

It's pretty straightforward.  One vision looks like eBay 2002, the other vision looks like Amazon today.   It has little to do with returns or MBG, it's about what's in the store (on the site).   It's also about how the search works, about how the category structure looks and is utilized...  On the B&M version of this vision, one is walking into a very large swap meet / garage sale / antique mall / collectibles show with a multitude of sellers with different price ideas, different personalities, and unique inventories... while the other is walking into the local shopping mall and/or Walmart. 

There's nothing necessarily "wrong" with either, they're just different.  I use one to get cheap 8 pks. of Fruit of the Looms, I use the other to browse / collect / or hunt for the unique. 

Walmart doesn't sell antique record players, and the local antique mall doesn't stock Fruit of the Loom.  There is a good reason for both. 

eBay gutted all the specialty category discussion boards and hid them under Groups (coins, jewelry, stamps, trading cards, etc.) pretty much for the same reason - to make this more like WalMart.  No one wants to discuss Fruit of the Looms in a community discussion board setup.