albertabrightalberta
@Anonymous,
First you need to know, that the community is not an ebay support team. We are buyers and sellers who volunteer to help other members who have issues.
"Recently, I listed a basic watch on eBay for $2,700. To my surprise, the item sold for a mere $720".
You listed the watch with a $116 starting price as an auction. When you do that you run the risk of not getting the price you hope to get. That happens with any auction. If you did that because ebay would not let you as a new seller, list the watch for more, it was because they place limits on New seller's listings for how much they can sell items for at first.
"As a trial, I used eBay to assess its viability for my business, and this experience has been eye-opening. I am thankful that I chose to test with a less valuable item first. I shudder to think of the financial losses I might have incurred had I listed more expensive items from my inventory... As a US-born world citizen with an extensive background in the luxury watch and jewelry business, operating in major cities like New York, Los Angeles, Dubai, Istanbul, and Hong Kong, I have decided to move my business to Amazon, where I hope to find a more transparent and supportive environment".
When you started your business, did you just jump in, or did you go through the process any successful business person would go through. Investigating business overhead, financing, location selection, customer demographics... ad infinitum?
When you want to start selling on any site, you have to go through the same process, somewhat modified, to be successful on ebay or any other 3rd party online listing site. It can take hours to read through all of the Start Selling information, but it is necessary. There is information about ebay's fee schedules by category, setting reserve prices, how payments will be made and when you will receive payments and a lot of other things you need to know. Did it occur to you to test the ebay waters with an even lower cost item at first?
To you a $2,700 watch may be "less valuable item" but to many, that would be considered a high value item. You may be disappointed with the price you received for the watch, but you are asking people/potential customers to TRUST a new seller that has no reputation or feedback as it is known on this site, for them to look at to see if you have experience with high end watches.
I do not know what you expected from ebay other than providing you with a site that has a very broad buyer base, and a great auction feature, and that is not Free, and is much less expensive than an auction house will be.
However, considering the number of scams there are with online shopping, you have to expect experienced buyers to be wary of bidding on an auction, with a low starting price, from a seller with (1) feedback for a purchase not for selling. That is how many scams start out. If you think you will do better listing high end items for a fixed price on Amazon, you may have a surprise in store. Again you will be a seller with no reputation for buyers to see.
Rather than give up on ebay, why not do a little more research.
On most ebay pages to the right of the main Search button, you will see Advanced. When you click on that you will be taken to a page where you can search for similar items that you are considering selling, that have sold on ebay in the last 90 days. On the search results page you can filter the item results, for the item(s) you have, that have sold as Auctions or as Buy It Now open the listings to see which option returned the best prices. Screen shots below
Opening the listings and looking at how the sellers who got the best prices, constructed their listings can give you an idea of how to set up yours.
One thing that is a must for a used item, no matter how well cared for, is an actual description mentioning if there are any even minute flaws. You get 12 photos to use, and if there is even a minor flaw it should be photographed. There is an unwritten rule for being a successful ebay seller and it is:
Describe all items as if there are no photos, and photograph them as if there is no description.
Giving up on ebay after only one try, is foolish. Why not try listing lower cost items at first, to build a reputation? You could start with custom bands, or other watch accessories, to build a seller reputation, which includes leaving feedback for your buyers. How and when you do that is up to you, but since ebay's money back guarantee (MBG) only protects buyers for up to 30 days, you can wait until that day passes and leave feedback unless the buyer leaves a positive first, then you should respond in kind immediately. Work your way up and when you become a Top Rated seller there are discounts and other perks you will receive, including a better search position.
Another thing you can do is to take advantage of this community. There are many long time sellers who can and will help you, on the Selling board or for more help in the watch category mouse over the Item Categories tab and select Watches to post on that board.
"Recently, I listed a basic watch on eBay for $2,700. To my surprise, the item sold for a mere $720."
You may have listed your item with a BIN (buy it now) price of $2700, but having listed as an auction, you risk selling (and being obligated to follow through) on whatever the highest bid is should a buyer not do the BIN.
"After eBay’s fees, I was left with only $410 in my account."
If you didn't do your homework by reading and knowing what the fees would be, that's on you.
"This significant disparity has led me to question the integrity of your platform"
Question the integrity? Ebay is totally transparent! Again, not knowing how auctions work and what the fees would be was your mistake in not reading the TOS.
"My attempts to delist the item were unsuccessful, and reaching your customer support for assistance proved futile due to unhelpful pre-recorded messages. This lack of support and transparency is unacceptable."
Had you tried to end your auction early, you certainly could have done that but again, had you read ebay's fees policy, you would have known that ending the auction (with bids) early would still have cost you the same fees you paid for ending with a winning bidder. (Sellers who end listings early when the bidding isn't high enough are penalized because ebay assumes that you either chose to save fees by taking the sale off-site or that you weren't willing to pay a reserve fee and instead chose to end it early. Either way, it's a no-no per ebay and it costs you.)
But again, there's no lack of transparency; it's in the TOS.
"I come from an esteemed background, being the nephew of a Northeastern University business school professor, and we plan to collaborate on this incident as a case study for future students. I will be sharing this experience openly with my colleagues and the public as an example of modern-day theft and the challenges of using eBay for high-value transactions."
Although NU is a great college, it's not Harvard Business School and before embarrassing yourself among your colleagues, you might want to speak to your uncle/aunt before using this "incident as a case study."
No one pulled the wool over your eyes, nothing you found out after the fact wasn't disclosed and any mistakes made were on you.
I'm sensing danger and am sure you will take the right action.
