Episode 155 || eBay School Update & Conversation with eBay Seller Lynn Dralle

[podcast_team]

We get an update on eBay School with Content Manager Sandy Matos and we check in with Lynn Dralle (TheQueenOfAuctions) to get a business update. Brian and Griff tackle three thorny seller questions on additional bidding formats, GSP shipments gone astray, and using capitals and apostrophes in listing titles (with a side trip through the Google Editorial and Professional Requirement for inclusion in Shopping).

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Show Links:
Links: Hurricane Ida Updates for Sellers
Authenticity Guarantee for Handbags and Fee Increase
eBay Seller School
Lynn Dralle’s eBay Store
Lynn’s website
Lynn’s eZine Cash for Coffee Mugs
Google Merchant Support
Google Editorial and Professional Requirements (for Shopping Inclusion)

Brian: This week on the eBay for Business Podcast:

Sandy: "We actually have three learning paths that we've created on Seller School. So we have one for beginner sellers, one for intermediate sellers, and one for advanced. For the intermediate sellers who want to learn a little bit more about how to grow their business, it really focuses on marketing strategies, inventory, business operations, and even reaching customers globally.”

Lynn: "We're up to about 16,300 items now, and they're all on Costco shelves. Those big wire metal shelves back there and we're running out of room because you know, with the new fee structure and everything, it doesn't make sense to take off old inventory because it doesn't cost you anything anymore. The goal is just to load it up and let it ride because there's no inventory carrying cost anymore."

I'm Brian.

Griff: I'm Griff. And this is the eBay for Business Podcast, your weekly source for the information and inspiration to start, run and grow a business on the world's most powerful marketplace. And this is episode 155 and joining us for his turn at the desk this week our good friend, Brian Burke.

Brian: Hi Griff. How are you?

Griff: I was going to say I was busy, but I think...

Brian: I think we've bantered about busy before.

Griff: Yeah. I think we have enough busy. End of summer, picking the last tomato. Well, not, not in California yet. They'll keep going until October, but I'm in the garden picking tomatoes when I'm not doing the podcast.

Brian: I bet you have a lot of tomatoes.

Griff: Oh boy. Do I have a lot of tomatoes? I don't know what I was thinking when I started all these plants, but I figured out what I'm going to do with them.

Brian: You can't sell them on eBay?

Griff: No, no, no. They'll never make the journey, but they're huge ginormous Italian heirloom. And I'm going to make, I have peppers too that I grew. So I am gonna make gazpacho and then freeze it.

Brian: That's a good idea. Do you like warm gazpacho or cold?

Griff: Cold. Yeah cold but I would eat it warm. Anyway, enough of that.

Brian: Now I'm getting hungry.

Griff: That takes care of our bantering for this week. Now it's time to do the show.

Brian: So who our guests this week, first up Griff?

Griff: First up we have an eBay School update with Sandy Matos and after that, I'll check in with one of our esteemed regular contributors on the podcast, eBay seller Lynn Dralle and then we have three rather thorny questions to address. But first what's in the eBay news this week, Brian?

Brian: We do have some news items this week.

Griff: Good.

Brian: First off, severe weather in the south.

Griff: Not good.

Brian: Along Louisiana, Mississippi, and in places. An update on handbag authentication and a fee increase.

Griff: Not so exciting.

Brian: Hurricane Ida is disrupting transportation lines across parts of the U S Southwest region. We are closely monitoring the situation. As a seller you do not need to worry about your seller performance. If your business is impacted eBay will automatically protect your seller performance, including your late shipment, rate, your valid tracking upload rate, item not received cases due to late delivery. As long as you uploaded, tracking and have a physical scan from the carrier before a case was opened, we will also remove any associated negative and neutral feedback and these cases will not impact your service metrics rating. You do not need to contact customer support at this time.

Griff: Thank you.

Brian: t's always a benefit, one less thing for sellers to do. And they've got enough to do if they're in those regions. Also in the news Authenticity Guarantee, eBay's post-sale authentication service is now available for all eligible luxury handbag listings of $500 or more in the U S. In addition eBay is increasing final value fees in the women's bags and handbags category. You can read more on this topic and view the details of the final value fee changes for the women's bags and handbags category on the announcement page, in the community at www.ebay.com forward slash announcement. So that's it for the news for this week. I'll be back later to assist with the three thorny questions.

Griff: Oh, they are thorny. Thanks Brian. But for now it's back to school time. eBay School that is…

Griff: September has begun. Kids are back in school. Well, most kids are back in school. Some kids are still learning from home, but whatever the school season has started and sellers, you don't get left out because it's time for back to school for you too. With eBay School, we started talking about eBay School I think back in January with Alexis Gallavan and since then a lot has happened with the eBay School curriculum and the platform. And we're going to get updated. Joining us now is the eBay Seller School Content Manager, Sandy Matos, Sandy.

Sandy: Hey Griff. How are you?

Griff: Doing fine. Glad to have you here. Tell us what's new with Seller School?

Sandy: Oh wow. So many things are happening on Seller School right now more importantly is we kind of looked at all of the top categories that have been going on on eBay and the which courses we can target and create category specific courses for sellers who are selling in those categories. So we created 10 courses that feature luxury handbags, watches, sneakers, fashion, and accessories, sporting goods, electronics, business, and industrial musical instruments, trading cards, and even motor parts and accessories. Each of these categories has its own dedicated course. Sellers can start selling at a basic level in terms of how to get started, or even if they want to transition into selling into these categories.

Griff: So the curriculum for each of these courses is tailor made for the particular category?

Sandy: It's tailor made in each category, specifically as an example for handbags, sneakers and luxury watches. One of the lessons is authenticity guarantee. So we walk the seller through how to go through that process. Step-by-step give them key strategies on being successful and answer any questions that they may have. We also link out of course, to our Seller Center for further information, but these courses really are targeting, you know, how you list, how do you ship, how to be successful in selling in these categories? And that really is the focus is to make sure that any seller that's selling in whatever category it is that they meet their success goals.

Griff: Are these beginner or advanced courses?

Sandy: These are targeted for beginners, but I would say even some of our experienced sellers take these courses because if they're selling in a particular category and they want to pivot to something new, then they can do that quite easily. And then these courses sort of tell them and show them how to do that. And giving them tips and strategies and focusing on a new category that they may not be familiar with.

Griff: Whenever I've taken a course, I'm in the middle of taking a course. Now I like to know how it's going to unfold. How much time do I have to put into it? Is there anything that I need to do on my end? Do I have to go get note books? Do I get homework? How are these courses structured in eBay's School?

Sandy: For eBay sellers on seller school you can actually take the courses at your own time. So you don't have to sit and dedicate an hour or two hours. You can take it in small intervals. So it really depends on sort of what your schedule is. And we really want you to be focused on your goals so you can pivot through or navigate through rather the courses quite easily from lessons. So if you want to learn a little bit more about listings, you can read about listings. If your focus is going to be on how to optimize your business, you can focus on courses that are related to optimizing your business. And in each course, they're all segmented into different lessons. So you can take a couple of lessons a day. You can come back to it and we'll remember how far you've gotten. And then once you complete a course, then you can move on to the next course. So other categories are specified.

Griff: Do you get badges or some sort of reward for completing courses, a certificate?

Sandy: Yes. So that's actually quite a popular thing for our learners on Seller School. They love getting their badges so they can get a badge in listings. They can get a badge in every other category. So they collect points. That's how you get your badges. So for every course you complete, you get a set of points and the more courses you complete, the more badges you earn. So it's just a fun thing to sort of add to the school.

Griff: In every curriculum there are some courses that tend to be more popular than others. Is that true with eBay School?

Sandy: Oh, definitely. So actually our top three courses are actually Listing Essentials is the number one course. I think more than 11,000 people have taken that course multiple times. It gives you the basics of what it takes to create a listing, walks you through the process. There's a video, there's interactive exercises which are really helpful. Seller School is targeted to all kinds of sellers, advanced beginner, but one of the courses that is also popular is called Getting Started Selling on eBay. So this is actually our second most viewed course. And oftentimes this is targeted toward the beginner seller, but advanced sellers can take it as well, just as a refresher to kind of go through the basics of how to start listing again, what to know in terms of shipping more strategies and more tips. And we're always updating the courses along the way when new information and new tools are available on eBay. And then our third course that's the most popular is more for an advanced seller and it's Maintaining High Seller Standards. And in this course, it really helps the seller understand performance metrics and service metrics and really helping them target themselves as top sellers. So it gives you really great strategies and how to do that on eBay.

Griff: How does the content for intermediate and advanced differ from the content for beginners? Is it basically the same format or is it a different approach altogether? Sandy: We actually have three learning paths that we've created on Seller School. So the learning path is specific courses that are targeted for a specific type of seller. So we have one for beginner sellers, one for intermediate sellers, and one for advanced. For the intermediate sellers who want to learn a little bit more about how to grow their business it really focuses on marketing strategies, inventory, business operations, and even reaching customers globally.

Griff: These sellers already know how to take photos and know how to list. So it's more business oriented than?

Sandy: Definitely more business oriented. It also gives you strategies in terms of marketing on social media, which platforms to go on. It depends on what your comfort level is. If you're not on Instagram, if you're not on Facebook, it gives you all the different platforms and channels that you can use and what you should know to sort of target on those channels. And you don't have to go through all of the lessons, but they're all there in case you want to promote your store on any of these channels. And then we have our advanced courses, of course, and these are more strategic marketing for our sellers who want to learn. As I said before, the performance metrics and the service metrics and all the reporting that is available. We also teach and walk through how to go through all of the tools that are available on eBay. For example, like Terapeak. So if they want to learn a little bit more about that, how it works, there's a step-by-step guide on Seller School.

Griff: One of the most important things about any school is knowing how to get there. How do I get to Seller School?

Sandy: Great question. Easy to access Seller School on sellerschool.ebay.com. You just register to be a learner. You can see what kind of courses we have offered. There are different types of categories. You can go through courses for listings, for marketing, shipping, and returns, learning more about your account and how to set yourself up to be successful on eBay. And then also the tools and the programs that are offered on eBay, such as Seller Hub, going more in-depth into Seller Hub, learning about all of different tabs and reporting, things like that that you want to learn. We also, as I said, have the learning paths, those sort of start out Seller School. For any seller you can come onto Seller School, learn a little bit about strategic business planning, or you can do all of the courses, earn all those amazing badges if you like. And there's all kinds of things to learn and we're updating all the time.

Griff: That's good to know. So a lot's happened in the last almost a year now since Seller School has been around and we want you to check it out. You're never too old and you're never too smart to learn something new at eBay Seller School. Sandy, thank you so much for stopping by and talking with us.

Sandy: Thank you so much Griff. It is always great seeing you.

Griff: Sandy Matos is the eBay School Content Manager. Again, you can get there at sellerschool.ebay.com. We'll put that link in the transcript for this episode.

Griff: All this past month and into this month of September, we've been asking sellers to share with us their plans for the upcoming Holiday selling season. What you ask, it's not even October yet Griff? Why would you ask about the Holiday? Well, because it's time. And in fact, it's way past time. Most sellers who know their stuff started prepping their business for the Holidays before summer actually starts. But not to worry if you're a procrastinator, if you're a little late with the preparations for your business for this Holiday season, because we have with us back now, The Queen of Auctions, Lynn Dralle. Lynn, save us!

Lynn: I'm here to save you. That's for sure.

Griff: Well it's been a while. How have you been?

Lynn: We've been great. Great, great. Just so much going on with the store and eBay and just keeping super busy and you're right, Christmas. We did start placing orders for the store back in January and February.

Griff: Yeah. Way back then.

Lynn: Way back. And so all that merchandise is coming in now. And what I'm hearing from a lot of my vendors is that due to COVID and the pandemic and everything, a lot of the containers aren't coming over from overseas, a lot of them are getting held up and there's been delay almost every single one of my vendors are having huge delays. So we are just trying to be really proactive and I'm ordering extra right now and loading the store, both my eBay store and my real store.

Griff: I want to remind everyone that Lynn does kind of a duplex business, right?

Lynn: I like that.

Griff: You have the eBay store, TheQueenOfAuctions, which you've had for years now. And you now have a consignment shop in Ventura, California. The last time we talked, you were operating consignment into the business, under the constraints of pandemic, lockdowns and mandates. How's that going right now?

Lynn: Because of all the new strains and stuff. It's tough. Again, it's just, you know, and now masks are required in Ventura county. So you know what? It's been a struggle, thank God for eBay, which everyone can just stay at home and shop very safely.

Griff: I'm running out of places to put the stuff though.

Lynn: Yeah. You know, cause I do, I use the back, there's a back kind of a little warehouse in my store. And that's where all the eBay stuff is. And we're up to about 16,300 items now Griff. And I know, and they're all on Costco shelves those big wire metal shelves back there. We're running out of room because with the new fee structure and everything, it doesn't pay you. It doesn't make sense to take off old inventory cause it doesn't cost you anything anymore, which is wonderful. The goal is just to load it up and let it ride. And I mean, I'm selling stuff that was listed in 2015 because there's no inventory carrying costs anymore.

Griff: You know, it kind of reminds me of the old days. A lot of our audience may not know this, but years and years ago, backward where you were younger, there used to be something called the Store Format Listing. It was a special format where the items only showed up in your store, but you got them for free. We have kind of gone back to that now.

Lynn: But it's wonderful. It really is. Cause you know, my grandma had an antique store for 52 years and I said, grandma, how often do you turn your inventory? And she goes, maybe once every 50 years. But now with eBay set up the way it is, we can carry inventory for 50 years. It doesn't cost you anything. All it does is cost space. And you know, I really am focusing on smaller things, flatware, coffee mugs, dinnerware. I don't do really big things on eBay.

Griff: At your consignment shop you do.

Lynn: Because my store is a furniture store. And what was I thinking Griff opening a furniture store. I actually have to move furniture. I didn't know that was going to happen.

Griff: Well you hire people.

Lynn: I do. I have a guy there three days a week, but those other days I am moving stuff.

Griff: That explains the biceps. Good work.

Lynn: It is, it's a workout 5,000 square feet. And we pound that pavement and it's hard. You know, it's concrete floors.

Griff: The last time we talked, I looked at Zillow and I was looking at the market. This was about a year ago about housing prices in Ventura. They've had a big rise.

Lynn: Oh Griff. I, that just kills me that you brought that up. Cause I finally have a down payment, I'm ready to buy a house. And I was hoping to buy the one I've been renting for the last four years. And we thought it was about 800,000. I just checked Zillow today or Zillow. However you say it, 950. Ugh.

Griff: The reason why I brought it up is because there's a lot of real estate activity going on in the whole county overall, but in Ventura and I would assume these are people looking for furnishings for their homes. How is that impacting your business?

Lynn: Very good. That's very good. I'll take that. I just still want to buy a house, but it's, I mean, they go up on the market and there's multiple offers and they're gone. So yeah, these people are looking for furniture. They're bringing me their furniture that doesn't fit anymore. So it's been, it's been a good, good thing.

Griff: When we started talking just a few minutes ago about getting ready for the Holiday season. You said you started ordering from your vendors in January and February. What other preparations do you have to keep in mind during the year before those 12 months before the Holiday shopping season?

Lynn: You got to think about what that front window is going to look like. And you know, like when do I put up my trees? What kind of ornaments are coming in? What kind of gifts are people looking for this year? And it is, it's a long-term kind of strategy. Last year I put up my, I have beautiful Christmas trees, Griff. I put them up last year in September because I was so over COVID and I was just like, I want to just fast forward through everything and put Christmas up. I'm not going to do that this year. That's just a little too much, but I'm going to have a four month Christmas season.

Griff: There's a whole Greek alphabet of variants that we have to get through.

Lynn: Oh, you're so right. You're so right. It's funny though. We're planning our front window right now. We're going to redo it. We're going to do a whole beachy theme. Because Ventura, we go to the beach through October. I can't wait to do it tomorrow. We have a huge surf poster from Lou Crush. It's a surfing movie.

Griff: I remember the movie very well.

Lynn: Nice. We're going to put that in the front window and we got a whole bunch of beachy stuff. It's gonna be neat.

Griff: Can I get a photo of it when it's done?

Lynn: Absolutely. I'd love to share that.

Griff: Yeah, we'll put it on one of our transcripts or we'll belatedly put it in this transcript. When it comes to operations, you know from past years, what kind of business to expect on eBay. Now you have the consignment shop as well. I know there's some overlap and eBay operations in the consignment shop itself. What do you have to prepare for in the next few months when it comes to well, you know, supplies, help?

Lynn: Oh yeah. The help is the big, big issue this year. It's literally impossible to find anyone that wants to work. And I, and I'm seeing that with restaurants and all sorts of businesses. I have ads out right now. I'm trying to hire someone to do my Instagram. I'm trying to hire more salespeople going into these next few months and I'm not getting any resumes, nothing.

Griff: When it comes to some of these jobs like doing your Instagram or any social media, do they have to be in your area or can they be in another area?

Lynn: Well, you know, I've, I've considered hiring someone in another area. The problem is Griffith if I have to take the pictures, I might as well list it myself. But you know how it is. I mean, you can only do so much as one person. I'm trying to list a hundred things a week on eBay. I'm running a store, I'm the buyer for the store. I have 50 vendors I need to place reorders on. I mean, I can't possibly do that.

Griff: What's the solution? You're going to be crazy if you can't get somebody in there to assist you this season.

Lynn: I'm going to be crazy. And you know, if you look at Lynn's Consignments, my Instagram account, I haven't posted since Christmas. It is really bad.

Griff: Well, if I wasn't so busy with the Podcast, I'd offered to do the job for you.

Lynn: No seriously. And so I did just post something the other day. But before that hadn't done anything since Christmas and that's a huge, huge free, free marketing tool that I'm really missing out on. You did have people working there. Are they gone?

Lynn: No, no, no. I still, I have a great team. I still have like six, seven people that work for me. But you know, a lot of them are retired, older women that are just doing this for fun. And honestly, my team is women in their fifties. And I said to everybody, I go, I need some women or men in their twenties, their thirties and their forties. I can't run a furniture store with women in their fifties. And some of them are in their sixties and seventies.

Griff: The image in my mind, just a lot of potential like OSHA issues with broken hips.

Lynn: Totally. Except they're all pretty young hip fifties. Do you know what I mean?

Griff: Don't we all?

Lynn: My daughter, Indiana was going to work for me a couple of days a week while she goes on auditions cause she graduated from Pepperdine. But Pepperdine called her and offered her a full-time temporary position to run their box office. So she couldn't pass that up. They're paying her like really good money.

Griff: Oh darn kids who think they can just go and leave their mothers high and dry.

Lynn: They can't do that. So I was counting on her. She's gone. So I really need to look for some, some younger help. If you have any ideas, let me know.

Griff: Well, you've got a forum right now. If you want to put a little message out on the podcast where people can go and maybe apply or show up and say, Hey, I can do some work for you. It's Lynn's Consignment in Ventura, California.

Lynn: 1975 east main street. Everyone wins when they shop at....

Griff: Lynn's.

Lynn: Ah, you did it Griff. Nice.

Griff: I know the rhyme.

Lynn: My nine year old nephew came up with that one. It's nice to have nephews. What about post-Holiday what's your business like after Holidays? And is this something you have to prepare for?

Lynn: The business on eBay is so good. September, October, November, December, January, you know, eBay is still so strong through January and my store slows down in January. So what I like to do is really focus on the eBay business. Once you've got that momentum going in the store and you're kind of cruising that November, December cruising, I am pounding it and I am putting a ton of stuff on eBay. I just got back from Palm desert with a car full and I go out there once a month and hit all those great thrift stores. I went to some estate sales and Mo my eBay assistant lives out there still. So I buy all the stuff. She writes it up, takes the pictures. I bring all the merchandise back here and it's been working really well. We do this like once a month and she gets about 200, 300 things. She'll list for me this month.

Griff: Just from Palm desert?

Lynn: Oh yeah. Griff. I'm looking for flatware sets. I'm looking for dinnerware sets. I'm looking for crystal sets and I go deep on coffee mugs and t-shirts. I was going to bring this up. It's interesting. Coffee mugs. You know, they used to be 25 cents 50 cents. Now you go into a thrift store. They're two bucks.

Griff: Yeah what is up with that?

Lynn: Well, that kind of makes me mad, but I got over it because you know what? I sell coffee mugs for $20, $30, $40, $50. There's actually one I want to share with you because it blew my mind.

Griff: Do you have it with you?

Lynn: I have an item number. Is that okay? I would love to hold it up, but I can't.

Griff: Your inventory is not that close by.

Lynn: It's not. Okay. Here's the item number 4 0 2 7 4 8 8 0 1 3 9 9. You know how long it's been since we've done an item number over the air on a show?

Lynn: I love that. That's my favorite thing.

Griff: Is this a sold item?

Lynn: It is a sold item. It's an Anthropology. Which for those of you that don't know, it's a little bird signature. It doesn't say anthropology. It's just a little birdie on the bottom. I probably paid a buck for this. I put it on an asking price of $49.99. And someone bought it yesterday for $42.49 because I run a 10% off sale all the time.

Griff: Look at that. That's unbelievable. And there was a, for me, it would cost 13, about 12.95 to ship too.

Lynn: Yeah. So somebody paid 60 bucks for this coffee mug.

Griff: I am in the wrong business.

Lynn: You are, but this is just, I just want to point out that these things that you don't think will sell for a lot of money, it's all perceived value. The higher you price it the better the value is and coffee mugs. I am buying them now two, $3. I don't care. I go in and I clean out a thrift store or clean out an estate sale.

Griff: But not just any coffee mug?

Lynn: No, you've gotta be super picky. And I wrote an ebook on coffee mugs and it's still really a good tool.

Griff: I didn't know this.

Lynn: You didn't know that ? Cash For Coffee Mugs.

Griff: I'm going to get the link from you. We'll put it in the transcript because I want people to know this.

Lynn: it's a very, very good tool. I go through all the genres of what you should look for and what you shouldn't look for. Like golf coffee mugs, do not sell. Don't even bother with the golf coffee mug, Teacher coffee mugs, the worst. Oh my God. Do you know how many teacher coffee mugs teachers get? And Christmas mugs are really a tough sell to. So like the worst mug ever you could try to sell is a golfing teacher's Christmas mug.

Griff: I would buy it just because it was the worst.

Lynn: It's the worst. So you want to stay away from golfing mugs. You want to stay away from teachers mugs. And then some of the mugs you want to look for, anything really unusual military, places. You know, The Muppets, Disney. Disney. I mean, you can get like 20 bucks for those, but you know, and Starbucks is completely overrated. But what you're really looking for is something super unique and unusual. And that person that had that coffee mug, and they break it, oh, they'll pay 50 bucks to replace it. It's their favorite mug. It's a huge, huge part of my business. I think I have about 2000 coffee mugs listed on eBay right now.

Griff: They're easy to store. They're easy to pack and ship.

Lynn: They're easy to find.

Griff: Apparently, but not after this podcast. Watch. They will suddenly disappear off of the shelves.

Lynn: There's always coffee mugs out there.

Griff: There's always people drinking coffee and then dying and yet the mugs show up.

Lynn: Would you stop! Know, what's funny Griff is back in my, my grandma's day with her antique store, it was tea cups and saucers.

Griff: I remember that.

Lynn: That was huge. And we had a whole wall in our store, just tea cups and saucers. And they don't want those anymore. You know, when you, when you buy a dinner, set the tea cups and saucers don't sell. But if you get a coffee mug and a popular dinner set, big bucks.

Griff: Yeah. I remember back in the seventies and eighties, the Victorian, they used to call it bone China. It used to freak me out as a kid. What do you grind up bones?

Lynn: It is odd. Isn't it?

Griff: And now it's, it's, it's too fussy, I think for most people don't you think.

Lynn: Yeah. But you know, another coffee mug to look for are the fine bone china ones. You Know they're very beautiful. And those sell quite well.

Griff: And they say, bone china .

Lynn: Sometimes they have a picture of a bone on it.

Lynn: Do you think it is really bone?

Griff: I have no idea. I should go look it up. You think I would know this right? Bone china. Well Lynn, I hope that the season is going to be okay for you. I hope you find enough help. Again, if you're looking for a job and you're in the Ventura area, just walk into the shop and say, I'm eager and willing. What are you going to do? What do you want me to do ?

Lynn: Exactly. I would love that.

Griff: Lynn, It's always a pleasure to talk to you. And we'll check in with you again after the Holiday season and see how it went. How's that?

Lynn: Sounds great.

Griff: Now anything that is a link to any of the endeavors that Lynn does and she's got, you've got so much, you've got your newsletter and you have the ebook on coffee mugs and the link to her eBay store. We'll put all that in a transcript for episode 155. Lynn. Thanks again. And we'll talk to you soon.

Lynn: Always good to see you Griff.

Brian: You got questions.

Griff: We got answers.

Brian: And we have three great thorny questions to address this week. Can I read the first one,?

Griff: Knock yourself out, Brian.

Brian: Our first question comes from a post on the eBay for Business Podcast group on Facebook. William posted, I was notified by eBay that an item shipped to their Kentucky facility for international shipping had not arrived to the purchaser, sent out July 12th. I checked the tracking eBay automatically puts on the item and saw no information besides the tracking number entered. I gave you permission to refund the purchaser. I then found out from the post office that the item had indeed arrived in Kentucky. I wish to get my money back because eBay is responsible for the refund. Can you tell me how to go about this? Did you answer William's questions on the Facebook group Griff?

Griff: I did. Basically. I told him to go to the eBay for Business Facebook page and post a message to them. They'll handle this. This is an unusual situation, but you know, afterwards, I thought William's post would present an opportunity for us to talk about this particular topic, which is global shipping items, not getting to their destination. It doesn't happen all the time, but it can happen. These are items that go missing in transit like Williams.

Brian: Which was a temporary situation.

Griff: Well, in his case, it was, and most shipping delays are. In fact, if you like William, sell an item that you have shipped through the eBay Global Shipping Program, we offer for two it by its acronym, GSP, and your buyer contacts you to complain or inquire about the shipments whereabouts the first thing to do is to check the tracking for that shipment, which I believe is what William did.

Brian: And if tracking shows that the item was received at the GSP warehouse address in Kentucky, then inform the buyer that the item is still in transit. And it may be delayed ask the buyer to check the tracking for the shipment every day. And if it doesn't show up within a week or so of its scheduled delivery to contact eBay by opening a case for that item.

Griff: Yeah, that's what you let the buyer know. And this is important because for global shipping items where tracking shows a delivery to the Kentucky warehouse, you as a seller are officially off the hook for that item. You're not responsible. If the buyer opens an item, not received case eBay will reimburse the buyer from eBays coffers, not yours.

Brian: That's an important thing for sellers to know. But if tracking does not show delivery to Kentucky, then you, as the seller may be responsible for refunding the buyer. But, and there's always a, but there is about do not make that call on your own. First and form the buyer that the item seems to be delayed in transit to the shipping center in Kentucky, and that you are monitoring this situation.

Griff: Exactly. Communicating back with the buyer is really important. You thank the buyer for their patients and you assure them that they're covered. If the item goes missing in transit. So they're not, you know, thinking I'm going to be out the item and the money just reassure them. That's important.

Brian: And if the item tracking never shows delivery to Kentucky after a suitable amount of time.

Griff: What would that be?

Brian: A suitable amount of time?

Griff: How many days is that?

Brian: You know, a suitable amount of time. I want to be noncommittal.

Griff: Okay. Okay. So for example, let's just say two weeks then. Okay?

Brian: You can say that. Yeah. I say let the buyer and seller determine that.

Griff: That's a good idea. Okay. So after a suitable amount of time passes and tracking still shows no delivery to Kentucky, Brian, then what does the seller tell the buyer?

Brian: The same thing that the seller would have told the buyer for instances where the shipment does show delivery to Kentucky.

Griff: Okay. And then that means tell the buyer to open an item, not received case.

Brian: Yes, that will start the process. But in either case, the seller should never immediately refund the buyer. Let the process play out that way. If the item arrives in Kentucky during the time that the case is in process, the seller isn't out the refund for the item.

Griff: And in cases where the seller is required to refund a Global Shipping Program, GSP buyer, the refund process will only charge the seller, the amount of the total purchase price that includes the item price in any charge for shipping to Kentucky, that the seller may have charged the buyer.

Brian: Exactly. Any amount over that to cover shipping to the buyer's location from Kentucky, as well as any import VAT custom or duty fees will be paid by eBay since those fees are never provided to the seller.

Griff: You never paid for those. But when the buyer sees the item where they are, they see a price that includes all those, but that money is never part of the payment to you. It goes to eBay where then it's dispersed for VAT and covers the shipping portion from Kentucky to their location. So that's how it's done. Let's summarize. First and always, you should reassure your buyer that they're not going to lose out. You're monitoring the situation. Then ask them to wait a little longer, a suitable amount of time and tell them that you're checking on it too. And meanwhile, do monitor the tracking, keep on top of it. And finally, after again, a "suitable" amount of time has passed with no update to the shipments tracking, just instruct the buyer to open an item not receive case. How's that?

Brian: That sounds good. Okay. And one thing that should be emphasized, I think is like beginning part of that is reassuring the buyer should happen anytime there's communication or an issue with transit, whether it's GSP or not.

Griff: Yeah. I think a lot of buyers need that sort of reassurance that, Hey, you're okay. Don't worry. I apologize for the bad situation, but we'll make it work. Not to worry. That's all it takes sometimes just a little communication. Our next question was emailed to podcast@ebay.com by eBay seller, martyred86. He didn't leave a name. So we'll just use his user ID and martyred86 writes, Hey guys, I'm really enjoying the podcast. I've been selling on eBay since February this year. And I'm really having a lot of fun sourcing and selling things. I do a lot of sourcing from online estate auctions. Most of them have a soft close auction. This is where if there's a bit in the last minutes of the auction, it will restart the time usually to three minutes left so the buyers that got out bid have a chance to bid again before it's sold. Is this something that eBay might someday implement for hot items that might have a lot of bidders? It could end up meaning better prices for sellers. Thanks so much. My eBay ID is martyred86. Hmm.. Ring. Any bells Brian?

Brian: Martyred86?

Griff: No, that topic, the subject at hand. Extended bidding Brian. That's the subject on hand.

Brian: Popcorn bidding or how many other names are there for it?

Griff: Not going to happen at eBay is one of those names, but we'll talk about why in a minute.

Brian: And this is actually something that's come up. I mean, I've been at the company, not as long as you, but a long time. And every year that I've been at the company, I think I've heard this suggestion from at least one seller. The only time I ever hear it from a buyer is when they recently lost an item. And they said, gosh, if I had another chance, but that is very rare on the buy side. Traditionally, we hear this from sellers.

Griff: And so this question about popcorn bidding. It was actually considered martyred86 in the past. And in testing, remember we test everything. It was determined that it actually doesn't really result in significant increases in average sold prices.

Brian: And also in testing, we discovered that buyers unanimously are almost unanimously hated it.

Griff: Oh did they!

Brian: They found it confusing and unfair and said that its adoption would result in a decrease in their use of eBay.

Griff: The upshot of this is that there are no plans to implement this type of popcorn bidding process on eBay.

Brian: And also keep in mind that the end time of any auction is clearly stated for all potential buyers to see. We encourage all bidders in an auction format listing to bid their absolute maximum, that they are willing to pay to the penny. If a bidder bids, their absolute maximum and he or she has subsequently outbid and they complained that they would have submitted one more bid. Then by definition that buyer, I won't say lied, but they lied to themselves because their absolute maximum was not actually their absolute max.

Griff: Now this is the case is everyone has, you know, these plans that they're gonna, I mean, I'm only going to pay a hundred dollars and I'll say not a penny more? Not a penny, more, it sells for 105 and they didn't win it. And they say, well, I would have paid 110. And I say, well, that's not what you told me earlier. So were you lying to yourself? And the answer is yes. So yeah, everyone has the same opportunity to submit their bid before the listing closed. And you should always consider your absolute maximum. I do this and sometimes I don't win.

Brian: Remember that sometimes you can submit that at any time. You can submit it the minute the auction was listed or with one second to go until the auction ends.

Griff: There's no way to talk about this without talking about the elephant in the room.

Brian: Tools?

Griff: Yes.

Brian: You use tools though. I do not.

Griff: I do. I use, and I'm not ashamed because they're perfectly legal to use. I use eSnipe because, you can put your maximum bid in and set it to go in the last 10 to five seconds. And that way I don't have to be around. Sometimes that results in me winning the auction. Hey, all's fair in love and auctions. And a lot of times I don't. I'll put in a bid and find out that I was way overbid by several other buyers. So, you know, you win some, you lose some, I still think it's fun if I lose something and I go, oh gosh, darn. It's like, I need anything else in this house. I have so much stuff I'm trying to get rid of. So yeah, it happens.

Brian: You and me both. I'm looking at a whole pile of shirts that I have to list at some point.

Griff: Oh brother. The hardest thing in the world to list they are so time consuming. Somebody needs to invent a machine where you put the shirt in and it does everything. It measures it, it irons. it photographs, it, it wraps it. And then it spits it out with a data sheet right on the shirt. This is piece of cake, individual pieces of clothing are really, really time consuming.

Brian: They are. So that's why the pile sits there until you bring it all into the thrift store and someone else buys it.

Griff: You know, how many of these items of apparel must go from death pile to death pile that death pile. It's like, it's a tour. It's the death pile tour.

Brian: These are the shirts that I kept. Like I did bring some to Goodwill because I thought, okay, I know I'm not going to list those. And there were probably like a dozen shirts that I dropped off at Goodwill over the weekend. But then I thought, okay, this week I'll do some stuff, but it'll be after Labor Day weekend that I start to list this. But my goal by the middle of September, you will see 12 shirts minimum up on my listing. So you can hold me to that Griff.

Griff: Our next question comes from eBay seller Nicole who sent the following the podcast@ebay.com, hello, Griff and company. My question is regarding keywords. Most of us know the basics, like don't repeat words in the title, but maybe you can have a discussion with more advanced keyword strategies. For example, is it wrong to use capitals? I know, not the whole title, but is it okay to use capitals just to highlight the brand name? Should you use punctuation like commas, the ampersand, et cetera, all that other stuff? And I'm often curious about apostrophe says Nicole, I was listing a puzzle called Santas with an apostrophe S here. If I wrote it just like that, and someone typed Santa or Santa's without the apostrophe, then here, would that listing show up or should I put all the variations in the title? Thanks again, Nicole. And I believe are user ideas, south_florida-Nicole.

Brian: Thanks Nicole. We haven't had a good keyword question in quite a while.

Griff: No we haven't.

Brian: So let's break this down in order to address all three of your sub questions starting with using all caps in an eBay title. Using initial capital letters. The first letter of each word is capitalized is okay, but all caps, well eBay allows them and they don't change how your item is returned in an eBay search. However, what about Google Shopping?

Griff: What about Google Shopping? In fact, eBay listings with all caps and their titles, even if it's just one word that are sent into the daily feed to Google shopping by eBay are very likely to be flagged and thus omitted or pulled from Google Shopping. eBay will send them, of course, but Google Shopping will probably blocked them.

Brian: What I liked so much about Nicole's question is it gives us an opportunity to talk a little bit about the Google rules for Google Shopping.

Griff: And these are Google rules, not eBay rules.

Brian: But sellers should know them. We have best practice recommendations, of course. And some of them match Google's editorial and professional requirements for inclusion in Google Shopping, but not all of them. For example, using all caps.

Griff: So where there's no rule at eBay that says don't use all caps, but Google Shopping hates those. So exactly. How does a seller on eBay learn? What is, and isn't acceptable for shopping according to Google Brian?

Brian: Well, there are pages on Google's Merchant Site that outline what is, and isn't acceptable when it comes to many facets of a submitted product, including all the nearly 1 billion of fixed price listings, eBay sends to Google Shopping. Every day, you can read about their editorial and professional requirements on their Google Merchant Center help pages, which you can visit at http://support.google.com/merchants. And that's with an S.

Griff: And if you didn't jot that down, don't worry. Because guess where we put all of these links in the transcript for episode 155, we'll also put the very specific link to the Google page that deals with this particular topic.

Brian: As for extraneous punctuation, the above caution also holds true. Google Shopping does not like it. And it actually serves no purpose and it looks really unprofessional.

Griff: And it certainly doesn't help in Search and it can actually hurt. And I still see people doing this. Long bits of punctuation. So it's kind of like ASCII art in place of characters that should be actual keyword. And it just looks so amateurish. And I know people say, I think it looks pretty! Well are you on eBay to sell? Or are you on eBay to make pretty pictures? Because sometimes you can't do both. And when it comes to titles, making pretty pictures out of your title is probably the worst thing you can do for getting sales. And the advice for titles has always been and it remains since I started at eBay. It has not changed keyword space, keyword space, keyword space, keyword space, no punctuation, no hyphens, no commas, no colons keyword space. That's how you do it.

Brian: And kind of start from the position of your buyer. What are the words that buyers are going to use to find that item, right?

Griff: And I can guarantee you, they're not going to be editorial words like rare, wonderful, beautiful, the old Chestnut favorite , look with the two at signs, no one searches on those words. It really is unprofessional. And it is going to get you kicked out of Google Shopping.

Brian: Yes. But I'm shocked Griff. You don't search on L@@K!

Griff: Well, it's been a while since I've actually searched on that. And I'm wondering if I go right now to ay right. And I just go into the search box, let's see if people are still, unfortunately, using that term. There's currently 15,000 people that have L@@K in their listings. How sad. I mean, I actually think we should ban this, butt clenching embarrassing to see sellers on eBay actually using that. You can disagree with me. Please send all email to podcast@ebay.com. Probably not going to say much about it after this.

Brian: And finally Griff, what about apostrophes? They are not considered extraneous, but in specific searches they can be important.

Griff: Yeah. And, uh, Nicole, I tested your own examples for Santas here, both with and without apostrophes and Santa's here with an apostrophe S and the results are revealing. The first thing to know about eBay search results is that for the lion's share of return results of search on a single or a plural noun will usually include both the plural and the singular in the results. So I searched using the phrase. Santa is here with no apostrophe and the results included listings for Santa's here. And also Santas here. No apostrophe, but when I searched on Santa's here with the apostrophe S the return listings did not include any with Santas here, plural, without the apostrophe. I thought that was interesting. I've never tried. It is interesting. And this holds vice versa by the way. So when I searched on Santas here without the apostrophe, the return listings did not include any of them that were Santas, apostrophe S here. What are you going to do with your title, Nicole? Well, if I was listing an item like this, I would include both spellings, both Santas here, no apostrophe and Santa's here with apostrophe. And you don't need to repeat the word here, as you mentioned, but if you include both of the versions of Santas with, and without the apostrophe you'll catch buyers who search on either Santa's here with the apostrophe or Santa is here without the apostrophe. And you're also going to catch just people that are searching on Santas and Santa's with the apostrophe and not even the word. Maybe not even the word here. Yeah. Use both.

Brian: Some good advice and good research there, Griff. And if you're unsure which keywords to use in your listing title in situations where there may be more than one way to spell a keyword, try what Griff did, search using both and compare the results. Test and learn.

Griff: Test and learn. We should print podcast t-shirts with that on them. Test and learn, test and learn. Those were the results by the way of my search test for your terms, Nicole. Now, if anyone does a different search trying to repeat the same results and they discover it, it actually worked differently for another keyword example, please let us know, send it to podcast@ebay.com. This could result in a, we could have a serial discussion about this for the next few episodes. I want to thank again, Nicole for that question. And we'll be sending you in all the other previous two sellers, a beautiful, rare, wonderful podcast mug that you can L@@k at every morning.

Brian: And if you have a question you'd like addressed on an upcoming episode, why not call us at (888) 723-4630.

Griff: That's (888) 723-4630. Leave a question or a comment and Hey, we might just put it on the air and you might just get a mug.

Brian: And if you're not a call on the phone person, you can always email us@podcastatebay.com. That's podcast at eBay.com.

Griff: Include your shipping address just in case we do use it. So we don't have to contact you. We can send you a mug by surprise. Now, guess what time it is, it's time for your Daily Podcast To Do list.

Brian: Check the Announcement Board for up-to-date Seller News.

Griff: Test and Learn. For example, keywords that you should put in your title, or you could test a thermal printer you just bought and learn how delightfully easy and productive they are.

Brian: I was going to say something, but I just decided not to check out the transcript for this and all episodes for follow up on what you've heard and to see the links we referenced during the episodes.

Griff: And you can find any episode transcripts at www.ebay.com/podcast. Just click on any of the episodes and then select the transcript tab. The links mentioned in that episode will be at the top of the transcript, and you can actually read through the entire transcript of an episode underneath that. Just click see more.

Brian: We'd like to, again, thank our guests this week. eBay seller Lynn Dralle, TheQueenOfAuctions and from eBay Sandy Matos. The eBay for Business Podcast is produced and distributed by Libsyn and podCast411.

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