How to list and delivery 'digital goods' on eBay?

[tkmops]

How to list and delivery 'digital goods' on eBay?

I found this page https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/prohibited-restricted-items/digitally-delivered-goods-policy?id=4...

'Sellers not approved by eBay to list electronically delivered items need to list their items in the Everything Else > Information Products category in the classified ad format.'.....where is 'Everything Else'?

What types of files can I list? Can I list and sell CSV files? Is there a size limit? How do I deliver files? Through eBay's internal 'messages' system?

Is there a eBay page that explains all this?
Thanks!

[shipscript]

@tkmops 

You can sell digital files on the core site when you deliver the file on a CD or thumb drive. List the item in the category that best describes the item and provide a valid shipping method.

If you want to deliver the item digitally, then eBay requires that you list in Classified Ad format, which removes eBay (and eBay guarantees) from the transaction. eBay acts only as a lead generator, and the sale and delivery are negotiated between you and the buyer directly. You would probably agree to direct email delivery unless you use DropBox or some other download site.

To find the "everthing else" category on the business listing form, start a listing and browse categories.

[ducks2k]

@shipscript-- As usual, you seem to know everything about everything about eBay.  I sell collector stamps, primarily on eBay.  I have created a stamp catalog (not a retail catalog - more of a reference/identification guide).  I would like to make it available via pdf for a token price - say 99 cents (or even 1 cent).  The goal is to help collectors so that they can buy more of my stamps on eBay.    Rationally, this should appear in the same category as the stamps themselves.

I have read the policy link, and I can't see any philosophical/TOS reasons why this can't be done - it encourages item sales on eBay and should not violate any basic seller policies.   I cannot find any reference links on how to "get approved".

When I view the "Everything Else/Information Products" items, it appears that most of them are selling physical CD-ROMs or USB Sticks.  That is "So 20th Century".  28 years ago I created a commercial (sort of) CD-ROM - somebody is actually listing one - https://www.ebay.com/itm/161589506122  but this is not rational any more.

As far as I can determine, I cannot even give the catalog away when a customer buys one of my stamps.  The messaging system will let me send JPGs, but not PDFs.  Theoretically, I can append one or more page images to the stamp image in an eBay item, but this is nowhere near as useful as a pdf to the customer.  I am not dead certain that this is acceptable TOS anyway.

Any thoughts?

[dryophelia]

Really old thread. 

@ducks2k 

eBay requires a physical item to be delivered to the buyer. You could sell the information on a cd. 

Here is the eBay policy. 

[shipscript]

@ducks2k 

I would recommend that you list the item in the Everything Else > Information Products category using the Classified Ad format. Then, in your stamp listings, provide a link to that information listing and encourage buyers to visit that link to receive the PDF brochure. You may ask a prospect for an email to send the PDF file. The listing fee is $10 per month.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/listing-tips/selling-classified-ads?id=4167

You may not want to spend that much if the traffic doesn't pan out.

In order to list in another category, you'll need a shipping method, and that alone is going to get the price up.

[ducks2k]

@dryophelia  OK..... makes weird sense, or at least, made some sense a few decades ago.  Further searching/research finds sellers delivering on USB sticks, which I would never place in my computer.  I think I have CD-ROM secured well enough, but I really don' like that either.  A pdf file is about the safest delivery method I can think of.

I also recognize the "classified ad" approach as somehow allowing eBay to disclaim any responsibility if the transaction goes bad.

Most of my deliveries of stamps that this guide helps with are sent in a first-class letter envelope.  I can't really add 10-20 printed pages.   I realize I can use the messaging system to send a bunch of jpg page images, but this would be miserable on the receiving end to save or get printed out.

Lulu has great print-on-demand capabilities, but my desk is already littered with little stamp catalogs, and I suspect my customers are in the same situation.

I am really looking for clues here.  Thanks for your comment.

[ducks2k]

@shipscript  - Yeah....  I sort-of looked at that a bit ago, but the direction is just "wrong".  (I'm the guy who was (and still is) complaining that eBay store categories don't allow any kind of sorting).

The $10/month defeats the "free" aspect of selling via eBay items, and worse,  turns the whole thing into a manual delivery operation.  It winds up being separated from the stamp item listings by several layers of clicks.  In examining stamp collector/eBay buyer psychology, there is a real immediacy aspect to buy-it-now versus even a 7-day auction. 

They want to click and buy.  But, then, they want to click again and buy related things.  The trouble with eBays advertisement/promotion/related (AI?) logic is that it is TERRIBLE at figuring out what is "related" to what the customer just purchased.  Look at one of my items https://www.ebay.com/itm/125582716618 and I have added a block of what I consider related items for the customer to click on.  Ebay COULD do this, but they make it extremely difficult for me to do so.  I am probably the only eBay seller trying this, because it is so nearly impossible to do non-manually.

[shipscript]

@ducks2k 

eBay's Community Messages allow attaching a PDF to a member message.

Do you have a website where a PDF could be uploaded?

If so, a link could be provided with your packaging, or your packaging could invite the recipient to contact you via direct email to receive the PDF back to their email.

As you may know, it is okay to share contact information for a short period after the sale, so you could even suggest within eBay Messages that the buyer contact your direct email to receive the free PDF catalog.

[ducks2k]

@shipscript   (aside - In replying to almost anyone else on the community platform, I do the "@" and either the first option is the message I'm replying to, or, a letter or two has it in the dropdown box and I can click on it.  With yours, I can never get to click on it before it drops down all forts of "sh" ids.....)

Yes, there can be awkward work-arounds, and, yes, I could violate the TOS in fact, even if my heart is pure.  I keep old delivery information because eBay obfuscates, hides or deletes buyer information on its own schedule and leaves me unable to respond to reasonable customer requests.

I just want to figure out a convenient way (convenient to me, convenient to customers).  I have great difficulty decoding what I can and can't do within the TOS.  I know some things are enforced within the item creation process.  Some things are enforced by AI within the messaging system.  I don't want to spend lots of trial and error time trying to figure out a work-around that may disappear on an AI whim.

In the spirit of trial and error,  I will attach the pdf to this post and then see if it can be retrieved by non-community members or via an item link.  Who knows what might work.

1. attach as photo -- response: "The file Fire Prevention Week Catalog 2023 - eBay version 1.00.pdf is not one of the supported image types: .jpg,.JPG,.jpeg,.JPEG,.gif,.GIF,.png,.PNG."

2. external http://ducks2k.com/FPWCAT.pdf link -- guess I won't know until I post

[ducks2k]

well, #2 works(-ish).  The link is valid and works, but Norton does not want to download the pdf because it is "unsafe".  Not the message I want my customers to see.  If I override security, it seems to download OK.

[shipscript]

@ducks2k 

eBay does allow sharing contact info between buyer and seller after the sale, as there are often issues to discuss prior to shipping.

Your FTP link is blocked by browsers as "not secure", meaning it is from an http site, rather than an https site. When I changed your link to https, it downloaded.  Of course, you won't be able to put that link in your listing, but you should be able to provide it within eBay messages. I've sent links through messages all the time, although I usually send those from my regular email (in response to an eBay message), rather than composing within eBay Messages because I don't know how eBay's editor will bungle the content.

[ducks2k]

@shipscript- thanks - I should have tried that, but the 6 year old granddaughter descended on me and all rationality was lost for an hour or so. The ten commandments say that "though shall not obtain thy customer's email address", but the messaging system is so awkward.  There are ways to get around the AI (guess they haven't moved to ChatGPT yet), but generally it is not worth the hassle.  It seems odd that they provide my and the customer's phone numbers, but mask the email address.

I'm going to stick the https in here and see what works or doesn't work with that: https://ducks2k.com/FPWCAT.pdf 

[ducks2k]

@shipscript    OK - the https link in the previous post seems to work fine.  I need to peruse the Community TOS and see if this is actually a proper thing to link to in a post.  It is not on ebay.com, so there is no implied virus-checking by eBay.  It is my understanding (computer professional, but not internet guru) that pdf files are pretty much hack-resistant, but anything downloaded from a relatively unknown source might be infected. My guess is an aspect of the eBay policy on digital items, is that all that eBay could deliver would be what the seller had uploaded.  They could run their own virus checks, but it would be an expensive risk for a few FVF dollars.

An aspect of "digital goods" is that they can be easily duplicated for essentially zero cost.  I'm not sure why that would be a concern of eBay - they would get their fees for each copy sold.  Requiring a mailed CD-ROM or USB stick doesn't address that aspect, but does add a large layer of inconvenience to the delivery process.

So, to summarize:
1.  I want to sell Fire Prevention Week stamps on eBay. 
2. I want to give away a pdf guide (I think "guide" has less TOS baggage than "catalog") to help eBay buyers understand their purchases. 
3. I want to retain information on who downloads the catalog for marketing purposes (to sell more eBay items) and to make social contact with other interested collectors. 
4. A relatively dead-end direction seems to be the guide pdf as a eBay retail item -- for delivery awkwardness.  I don't want to spend $5-10 to create/mail a CD-ROM or USB stick.  I'm not eve sure that modern computers have CD drives - my 5 year old one does, but not family tablets or laptops.

5. I'm perfectly happy selling on eBay and don't wish to have my 20 year selling account terminated for TOS violations.  I'm willing to risk having to justify my actions, but my intent is to stay within bounds.

-- I'm having trouble testing what can and can't be sent via the messaging system, since, apparently, I can't send messages to myself.  I am just guessing that I could send a buyer a link to this thread (or its equivalent) which can contain the pdf link.  It probably would not be an actual link, but the message censor AI (probably?) would not refuse the post or edit it out since it would link to ebay.com.  Whether any of this is TOS compliant is unclear.

-- I'm not wild about including a printed URL with the delivery of purchased stamps - besides being a possible TOS violation, I would doubt that most of the buyers would either read the note or hand-type in a URL.  I probably wouldn't.

[kh-vince]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.