mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
@gone.c-33 wrote:
@mam98031 wrote:You talk as if these issues are unique to older sellers and it absolutely isn't, you have just chosen to call out senior sellers. You might need to "reframe" your approach to the conversation.
Let me reframe that in a way that is more accurate than @youn2240 ’s statement:
Why do resellers think their stuff is worth so much money?
I’ll preface this by still mentioning that I’m an older millennial for context because it may have an impact on my and my contemporary collectors’ habits but it very well might not be an older vs younger people as much as a reseller vs collector paradigm.
I collect old glass, vintage clothing from the 50s/60s/70s, vintage linen and my home is furnished in furniture varying from Victorian to the 60s.
But my fellow collectors and I absolutely REFUSE to pay reseller prices. We even often refuse to pay inflated Goodwill “thrift prices.”
When eBay was just coming up, collectors were happy to pay a little more to complete their collections, something that used to take a lifetime before online selling. At one point there were more collectors than resellers which created bidding wars and inflated the prices, enabling some resellers to make a living out of this.
Now the pool of potential collectors is growing smaller while more and more people try their hand at reselling and think they can get bidding war prices for everything.
Dont get me wrong, we understand the work and time involved in picking and cleaning but we’d often rather do it ourselves either a) because we believe the listed prices are way too inflated or b) we’re simply priced out with today’s cost of living (someone’s gotta pay for all that avocado toast and Starbucks).
Two of the most often heard phrases on this board: The market dictates prices and My items aren’t selling anymore! Maybe when it comes to vintage collectibles, one has a lot to do with the other.
Meanwhile, here’s my carnival glass haul from Saturday (which will go to my collection, not for resale), all acquired at church basement sales, for a under $20:
I can remember being at in person auctions 40 years ago where carnival glass was sold.
I can remember the auctioneer complaining (many auctioneers) that no one wants carnival glass any more. The prices were as low as what you are paying or even lower. And they had been much higher.
I would not even bother to see what Ebay sellers are asking for it, I would not consider buying or selling anything which requires the effort to pack that it does. But when I notice some in an antique shop, flea market or yard sale, the prices feed my belief that there is too little profit in them. If they give you pleasure, buy them. If you are looking for an investment, even NFTs might be a better one.
You've asked me to not respond to your posts, so why are you responding to one of mine. Is this just a one way street????
I made a statement, nothing more. It doesn't require you to agree with me or not.
How much do you think costs have gone up in the last 20 years? Look at minimum wage alone. In some areas of the USA it has more than doubled in this time period. On top of those additional wages are the costs of employee benefits. Sadly the Federal minimum wage hasn't changed since about 2009, so many states have stepped up to try and fix this problem. Ebay employs people all over the US.
I'm don't agree with included OPTIONAL fees like Promoted listings as no one has to use them. It is a Choice.
As to penalty fees. Ebay has the Seller Performance rules well published and they help to protect the site and the buyers. So while I respect it can be a real hardship on some that end up in trouble on Ebay, there is usually a good reason for it. I do however understand that some get caught up in this that likely just need a helping hand to get some stats cleaned up as the defects were outside their control. So really for me, I look at them on a case by case basis. I don't have a singular opinion of all that end up with penalty fees.
International sale fees has been around since the time we started using PayPal as our money processor. When we moved to having Ebay do that function, it moved to Ebay charging it.
No one has to have a Store. It is an optional fee, but unlike other things, having a store has benefits and depending on the Store level you have, one of the benefits is it lowers your FVFs. Stores used correctly more than pay for themselves with the benefits of the store.
Don't want to pay for listing upgrades, don't use them. It really is that simple. I've never used them and I know many sellers don't.
You seem to want to make Ebay look bad for having optional tools for sellers. Sellers should be perfectly capable for figuring out if using a tool that cost extra is beneficial for them or isn't. For those that use them and it increases their sales, that is great, but you don't seem to want to acknowledge that. It is all about big bad Ebay and the fees they charge.
Your OPINION is that CS has degraded. That doesn't make it true. And it is your opinion that many many many things on Ebay simply don't work for you. Which is likely why you decided to stop selling on Ebay a long time ago. You did what was best for YOU. That doesn't mean it is best for everyone else. But you have every right to do what is best for you.
Ebay though you made this decision you still feel compelled to post on the Community. I know you feel it is to inform others. It seems more to be to share your experiences and opinions in order to see who else you can get mad or upset with Ebay.
Ebay did recently do a very small Fee increase on the FVFs. Which in most categories had not happened since PRE- summer of 2020. You however don't seem to see the difference between fixed fees and optional fees. That is fine, but there is a big difference and sellers can decide for themselves what is useful for them.
@antiquesnemethdi13 wrote:Thank you for defining the details of what I wanted to say. 😢 Diane
I didn't mean to upset you, you just seem to want to blame Ebay for the cost of shipping when the vast majority of that cost is because of the carrier, NOT Ebay.
Referring to one of my posts is still the same thing as responding to my post. Again I asked why, you asked me long ago not to respond to your posts, what has changed?
I don't mind that you don't agree with me. What I said is true. You don't have to agree to make it true. It simply is true.
Absolutely Ebay gets paid for their services. I never said they didn't. Ebay should get a percentage off what is charged for shipping by the carriers because Ebay is offering a service to those carriers within their shipping program.
Why should that be a surprise. How do you think places that only sell shipping labels on the internet make money. Or did you think they were all non profits. Such as Pirateship and stamps.com. They should be paid for their services rendered. I'm unsure as to why you would think otherwise. And for those sites that only sell shipping, if they didn't get a fee from the carriers, they couldn't stay in business.
While Ebay charges the seller for the shipping labels and the cost of shipping, the majority of that money goes to the Carrier NOT Ebay.
"...ebay is charging you $10 for the shipping label, they are likely paying $8 for that label." Where did you come up with that number. Members have tried for years to find the amount Ebay gets paid from the carriers. Where did you find that it is a 20%, which seems extremely high. But please share, we would all be very grateful for the assist.
"And the statement about other venues doing the same thing? - In large part, that is also an inaccurate statement..." Name them please. Note that my statement was ebay is NOT unique with this fee, other similar sites charge it too, even when you can print labels on their sites. So what sites do not do this, remembering I said "similar sites". Amazon charges it and so does Etsy. Are you talking about sites smaller than those in this type of industry that Ebay, Amazon and Etsy are in?
I know you want to spin this in a way that supports your personal agenda against Ebay. But twisting what I've said is not the way.
No I didn't. I did post to one of your posts because you were responding to one of my posts. That is different. I did make a general post, maybe you thought that was in response to you. It wasn't, but I get it.
@insaneshanedotnet wrote:"Ebay doesn't get to keep that money when you print a label on the site, it goes to the carrier. "
If I print out a $100 shipping label on ebay, ebay takes $113.25 from me. $100 goes to the carrier for the shipping label. (I actually bet it is less than that.) Where does this extra $13.25 go they took from me then?
Yes, how is that different than what I said. You are just including FVFs, I didn't address those in my statement because my post that you took that statement from was NOT regarding FVFs. So don't make it seem as if I was talking about something I wasn't.
