eBay

odditiesandantiquities1 · ‎08-13-2017

I honestly don't know how you do it. I finally caved and my husband and I bought two Samsung Galaxy7's. Before we each had a simple pay as you go for emergency's i.e. power outages or travel issues. I am not a fan of the be be available 24 hours a day. I spent much of my working life being on call and didn't want to slide into retirement the same way.

Just the same, with an eBay business, for communication it is invaluable. But, how many of you are completely able to run your business strictly through your cell phone? I find it an absolute pain to use. I can't figure out how to relist on it. I click the relist button and where it takes me there is no option. I have done searches and it brings back the strangest results.

Is it always like is, or is it like I think that it's just me.

chung-lee-2 · ‎08-13-2017

And now you know part of the problem with buyers and sellers alike that use cellphones , I personaly use a desktop pc with a 26 inch monitor and I still have a hard time on some listings , in my opinion using a cellphone to browse and buy is just bad .

odditiesandantiquities1 · ‎08-13-2017

@chung-lee-2 wrote:
And now you know part of the problem with buyers and sellers alike that use cellphones , I personaly use a desktop pc with a 26 inch monitor and I still have a hard time on some listings , in my opinion using a cellphone to browse and buy is just bad .

Any work I do, I also do on my computer. A lot easier especially with the glitches here and there. I'm just amazed that someone could actually do everything by a phone.

Anonymous · ‎08-13-2017

I'm glued to my cell phone both day and night. Still I would never try to run my business on a cell phone, heck I won't even buy anything via my cell phone. I see how much eBay hides via mobile and I would never chance missing something important to a listing.

chung-lee-2 · ‎08-13-2017

That is what I was saying , but this does not stop or even slow down buyers who just make purchases cause they just see pretty pictures .

victorjunkman55 · ‎08-13-2017

eBay claims over 25% of sales on their site is done by phone. I don't have one, don't want one, and do my business on a laptop. I still can't program my VCR to record at a certain time or hour. Item Descriptions are being condensed to fit on a phone screen, which in my opinion lead to returns. There are more old folks alive today then ever before, and most have no Iphone. I take offense to anyone assuming I have one just because everyone else does. Good Luck to you.

ersatz_sobriquet · ‎08-13-2017

I do just about everything except new listings. Those I like to write on my desktop so that I can scrutinize pictures up close, crop easily, and just plain have a big screen when I'm doing the important first listing.

Relists aren't hard, not every link which you need to go to is as clear as they could be, but just look for words in blue. Sometimes you have to hit "done" at odd moments, the program is meant to be written so that "done" means done with this part of the revision, not the entire listing. It can be confusing but once you get it, it will be easy.

I like the cha-ching feature the best. I'm sure everyone does! (That said, if you're someplace that you don't want others around you to know, turn the volume down or turn the feature off.)

pikabo-icu · ‎08-13-2017

Have had a dumb phone for a long time, years.. Been using the annoying leashes for more than 20, when they were bricks.

I don't do Facebook and I don't buy or sell with it.

All my eBaying etc is done on my laptop or in an emergency, my tablet..

I don't know how people do it either- I want to SEE what I'm buying/listing. The "cha-ching" is cool but aside from that; it's just another layer for a potential problem IMHO.

~Pika~
People in life that are the happiest don't have the most,, they make the most of what they have...

odditiesandantiquities1 · ‎08-13-2017

@victorjunkman55 wrote:
eBay claims over 25% of sales on their site is done by phone. I don't have one, don't want one, and do my business on a laptop. I still can't program my VCR to record at a certain time or hour. Item Descriptions are being condensed to fit on a phone screen, which in my opinion lead to returns. There are more old folks alive today then ever before, and most have no Iphone. I take offense to anyone assuming I have one just because everyone else does. Good Luck to you.

I hear you Victor. My son and daughter in law have been bugging us for years and I kept saying no. When we went on holiday I would take my laptop...no big deal.

oleander1993 · ‎08-13-2017

I love my smart phone. But I don't try to list, relist or buy with it. At my age I appreciate and need a larger screen.

a_c_green · ‎08-13-2017

@odditiesandantiquities1 wrote:
Is it always like is, or is it like I think that it's just me.

Speaking as another owner of that very same smartphone (as they're called; cellphones, generally speaking, don't have the same Internet access browsing capability as they're not making use of a data stream in their connection; smartphones do), I would say that it will be very helpful for giving you a buyer's perspective of your listings (in either Mobile mode or "Classic" desktop view; your S7 can do both). That can be very helpful for showing you possible details that are getting lost, titles that are getting truncated, photos that aren't legible in small format, etc.

However, I think it would be somewhere between risky and foolish to try to conduct an entire selling business using only a smartphone. You're trying to deal with listings on a small scale and a touchscreen, trying to print Shipping labels wirelessly, trying to accurately hit the link for Contact Buyer and not the one just below it for Cancel Transaction , and that kind of thing. It's a little like trying to do housekeeping by reaching in through the mail slot on the front door.

I think the one area that suffers the most in listings created by smartphone is that no one has the patience to peck in a decently detailed description. All you get are short declarative sentences and nothing of substance.

Definitely use the S7 for its strengths, such as giving you the ability to monitor your listings and correspondence at all times, but don't risk your whole business dependency on a device that can be accidentally left in a cab or dropped in the toilet. Keep your home business at home.

(On a barely-related note: When I got my first smartphone many years ago, one of the first things I missed about my old clamshell phone was the much better ergonomics of the old folding handset against your face, not to mention being able to hang up at the end of your call by loudly slapping it shut, like Captain Kirk's communicator. In comparison, using a smartphone for a phone call is like trying to hold a piece of bathroom tile against the side of your head and pretending it's a handset, then having to fumble for the Hang Up icon on-screen afterwards. I think as far as phone calls are concerned, we've devolved, slightly backwards.)

ersatz_sobriquet · ‎08-13-2017

Very good points! Do miss that flip phone star trek thing too! But I do love my over-sized phone just for the picture/video size benefit. Do hate how clunky it is up against my ear, but that's the trade-off.

*eponymous* · ‎08-13-2017

I feel bad for sellers whose only option is a mobile device (phones/tablets/ipads), though tablets show a lot more without scrolling than does a phone. Buyers can't use ebay bucks on the mobile app, and advice on the boards when issues arise with the mobile app is to use a desktop. Not everyone has acccess to a desktop, though; and the app would, in a perfect world, be fully functional.

I only use the iphone to text - and talk if I'm in the mood - because my grands are too lazy to write thank-you/how are you grammy letters by hand!

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage. ~ Anais Nin

odditiesandantiquities1 · ‎08-13-2017

@a_c_green wrote:
@odditiesandantiquities1 wrote:
Is it always like is, or is it like I think that it's just me.
Speaking as another owner of that very same smartphone (as they're called; cellphones, generally speaking, don't have the same Internet access browsing capability as they're not making use of a data stream in their connection; smartphones do), I would say that it will be very helpful for giving you a buyer's perspective of your listings (in either Mobile mode or "Classic" desktop view; your S7 can do both). That can be very helpful for showing you possible details that are getting lost, titles that are getting truncated, photos that aren't legible in small format, etc.

However, I think it would be somewhere between risky and foolish to try to conduct an entire selling business using only a smartphone. You're trying to deal with listings on a small scale and a touchscreen, trying to print Shipping labels wirelessly, trying to accurately hit the link for Contact Buyer and not the one just below it for Cancel Transaction , and that kind of thing. It's a little like trying to do housekeeping by reaching in through the mail slot on the front door.

I think the one area that suffers the most in listings created by smartphone is that no one has the patience to peck in a decently detailed description. All you get are short declarative sentences and nothing of substance.

Definitely use the S7 for its strengths, such as giving you the ability to monitor your listings and correspondence at all times, but don't risk your whole business dependency on a device that can be accidentally left in a cab or dropped in the toilet. Keep your home business at home.

(On a barly-related note: When I got my first smartphone many years ago, one of the first things I missed about my old clamshell phone was the much better ergonomics of the old folding handset against your face, not to mention being able to hang up at the end of your call by loudly slapping it shut, like Captain Kirk's communicator. In comparison, using a smartphone for a phone call is like trying to hold a piece of bathroom tile against the side of your head and pretending it's a handset, then having to fumble for the Hang Up icon on-screen afterwards. I think as far as phone calls are concerned, we've devolved, slightly backwards.)

My very firstcell phone was the Motorola in the carrying case. I was running a Cell phone and Paging Company at the time. Oh Lord, they were huge....but I did love the old ear piece. Hahaha.