eBay

slideshopper · ‎04-19-2018

Serious question. What do I truly loose for giving up TRS status other than a few percentage points in fee reductions? I sell mostly low cost and near non-existent fraud items. I am adding another two lines of merchandise that also are low sell price low fraud items. For example many items sell for $5.99 and I charge $2.50 (yes I know actual cost is $2.66) shipping, combining shipping to $2.50 for as many as you purchase. I feel the combined shipping has generated more sale for me, but at what cost?

Of course my Items that end much higher will still go tracked and I will happily eat that cost.

Thoughts? Comments?

nowthatsjustducky · ‎04-19-2018

TR Plus is a totally separate thing from TRS (other than requiring TRS first). TR Plus applies to individual listings. TRS is about the seller himself. When I have had TRS, I purposely did not jump through the hoops for TR Plus, but was able to still hold TRS status.

If it works, sell it. If it works well, sell it for more. If it doesn't work, quadruple the price and sell it as an antique.

-- Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #80

d-k_treasures · ‎04-19-2018

@slippinjimmy wrote:
You lose NOTHING other than a badge on your feedback page that hardly anyone looks at and doesn't really mean anything to anyone.

You lose slightly lower USPS rates, and and extra 50.00 in insurance.

Basically just the savings that some other sites give out to everyone.

_____________________________
"Nothing is obvious to the oblivious"

nobody*s_perfect · ‎04-19-2018

And since the OP apparently usually ships via First Class rather than Priority, they won't miss the little 3% discount and extra insurance coverage that TRS get for Priority Mail.

berserkerplanet · ‎04-19-2018

►I hope to remain a TRS for the shipping discount

Commercial Plus prices are only for Priority Mail and are pretty small - approx 3% less than Commercial prices.
20¢ less on a PFRE
40¢ less on a MFRB
$1.10 less on $36.71 cost for 10lbs to zone 8
PM Regional A & B get no Comm+ discount

Every penny helps, but unless one ships a lot of PM, the TRS shipping discounts are mostly negligible.

Hypothetically, if I had to make a single extra trip to the office to print a shipping label within my handling time to protect the 95% Tracking Uploaded on Time metric, I'd be out $3.00 in gas and 40-60 minutes of travel time. Would take the TRS 20¢ shipping discount on 15 PFRE's shipped out to break even on that gallon of gas. (unlikely, and would require a perfect storm of circumstance to create that situation, but the numbers are the point).

yuzuha · ‎04-19-2018

@nowthatsjustducky wrote:
Actually, that badge has nothing to do with shipping speed. I switched to 3 business days handling (still usually ship within a day or sooner unless a situation comes up that requires me to take longer), and have held TRS off and on with no changes in my preferences.

Yep, I have three-day handling (always have) and I'm TRS.

nobody*s_perfect · ‎04-19-2018

@yuzuha wrote:
@nowthatsjustducky wrote:
Actually, that badge has nothing to do with shipping speed. I switched to 3 business days handling (still usually ship within a day or sooner unless a situation comes up that requires me to take longer), and have held TRS off and on with no changes in my preferences.
Yep, I have three-day handling (always have) and I'm TRS.

And like @nowthatsjustducky, your listings also don't show the TR-Plus badge due to having a longer handling time. The badge requires 1-day handling even though TRS status per se does not. The badge will only show up on a TRS seller's listings that offer 1-day handling.

yuzuha · ‎04-19-2018

@nobody*s_perfect wrote:
@yuzuha wrote:
@nowthatsjustducky wrote:
Actually, that badge has nothing to do with shipping speed. I switched to 3 business days handling (still usually ship within a day or sooner unless a situation comes up that requires me to take longer), and have held TRS off and on with no changes in my preferences.
Yep, I have three-day handling (always have) and I'm TRS.
And like @nowthatsjustducky, your listings also don't show the TR-Plus badge due to having a longer handling time. The badge requires 1-day handling even though TRS status per se does not. The badge will only show up on a TRS seller's listings that offer 1-day handling.

It seems like people are getting their wires crossed in this thread-- I assumed that ducky was talking about TRS and the little badge you get on your My Ebay/Feedback page for that status rather than TRS Plus, since that was what she said.

It would really help if people would stop conflating TRS with TRS Plus since the two things aren't the same at all. 😕

nobody*s_perfect · ‎04-19-2018

@yuzuha wrote: ... I assumed that ducky was talking about TRS and the little badge you get on your My Ebay/Feedback page for that status rather than TRS Plus, since that was what she said.

That does seem to be the source of the confusion. The yellow notice on your feedback page isn't a "badge." I've only ever heard the term "badge" in reference to the TR-Plus logo that shows up on eligible listings (and the original TRS badge that predated it).

Also, ducky was replying to divwido who said, "That badge is not why I ship in 24 hours." And divwido has 1-day handling so shows the TR-Plus badge on his listings.

max39666 · ‎04-19-2018

i would think one less hoop as well as less stress for a seller that has jumped enough already trying to please the Bay Gods --as a buyer i look at the product and feedback--that badge that says top seller never has swayed my thinking of buying or not buying.

nawlinsron2 · ‎04-19-2018

It's not unlike having a BBB sticker on a B&M store front...if the guy next door doesn't have the sticker, but is 20% cheaper, where ya gonna buy?

yuzuha · ‎04-19-2018

@nobody*s_perfect wrote:
@yuzuha wrote: ... I assumed that ducky was talking about TRS and the little badge you get on your My Ebay/Feedback page for that status rather than TRS Plus, since that was what she said.
That does seem to be the source of the confusion. The yellow notice on your feedback page isn't a "badge." I've only ever heard the term "badge" in reference to the TR-Plus logo that shows up on eligible listings (and the original TRS badge that predated it).

Also, ducky was replying to divwido who said, "That badge is not why I ship in 24 hours." And divwido has 1-day handling so shows the TR-Plus badge on his listings.

Actually, if you go to My eBay --> Summary, you do have a little badge next to your feedback number on the page!

coolections · ‎04-19-2018

You loose about $2 for every hundred you make.

ymeagainlord · ‎04-20-2018

@fern*wood wrote:
I hope to remain a TRS for the shipping discount, but may change my handling time and definitely won't go to free returns, so I will lose the TRSplus badge on my listings.

Yep, same here. I have one non store that's TRS with 2 day handling and 14 day returns and it's one of my better selling IDs.

I figure I may as well change the rest to that as well come May (may actually do it on April 30 so they don't get slung into the opted in whether you want it or not GD.

Crusader Cat is watching

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. - L Tolstoy

"You are entitled to your own opinion, you are not however, entitled to your own facts."

tunicaslot · ‎04-20-2018

@nobody*s_perfect wrote:
@nowthatsjustducky wrote:
... that badge has nothing to do with shipping speed. I switched to 3 business days handling ....
The TR-Plus badge has everything to do with shipping speed. It requires 1-day handling. That's why your listings don't show it.

Bull - I put my listings on 2 day handling last month due to surgery I had and had better sales than I have in months. Obviously my items were seen - I've since gone back to 1 day handling and things dried up.

ted_200 · ‎04-20-2018

@slideshopper wrote:
Serious question. What do I truly loose for giving up TRS status other than a few percentage points in fee reductions? I sell mostly low cost and near non-existent fraud items. I am adding another two lines of merchandise that also are low sell price low fraud items. For example many items sell for $5.99 and I charge $2.50 (yes I know actual cost is $2.66) shipping, combining shipping to $2.50 for as many as you purchase. I feel the combined shipping has generated more sale for me, but at what cost?

Of course my Items that end much higher will still go tracked and I will happily eat that cost.

Thoughts? Comments?

I'm not 100% sure what exactly you're contemplating.

You can ship a slide in an envelope for 50¢, but the slide mount may be subject to bending from letter handling machines. If the slides will not be damaged this way, I would have never been shipping them with tracking to begin with. If you need to provide reinforcing to keep it from bending, then it's a "rigid object" and still subject to First Class Parcel rates.

Since I see you offer international shipping for $2.50 as well, I assume you're already sending those via envelope without incident.

TRS supposedely gives you a boost in search ranking too. If you're selling phone covers or some other over-saturated market item, that may make some difference, but I seriously doubt it would affect your search visibility or sales one bit when it comes to selling slides.

@coolections wrote:

You loose about $2 for every hundred you make.

If you're paying for tracking numbers you don't need just to maintain it, and you sell $5.00 items, you'll save about $40 for every $2 you lose.

The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves.