Ep 207 || In Studio with Power Selling Mom, Danna Crawford

[podcast_team]

Power Selling Mom Danna Crawford stops by the studio and talks about working with seller fulfillment business eBliss, the state of her business and the world of Glassybabies. Then, Brian and Griff answer questions about the Blocked Buyer List and shipping magazines through USPS.

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Brian: I'm Brian.

Griff: I'm Griff. And this is the eBay for Business Podcast, your source for the information and the inspiration to help you start, manage and grow a business on the world's most powerful marketplace. And this is episode 207. Oh, Brian.

Brian: Busy week!

Griff: It has been a busy week.

Brian: I don't think I've used that phrase in a little while.

Griff: No, you use it every week. Are you kidding? You're in the office every day. I'm not, I was this week though.

Brian: Yes, you were.

Griff: It was a lot of fun.

Brian: It was a lot of fun. We saw a lot of sellers.

Griff: Yeah. A lot of sellers were, uh, they brought them in for meeting different teams and sharing feedback. And it was a good week. What we did do is we recorded a lot of sellers. So we have content for the next six weeks.

Brian: And I hope everybody had a nice Labor Day weekend.

Griff: Oh yeah. That's right. You'll be hearing this after the Labor Day weekend has ended. Yeah.

Brian: So hopefully everyone enjoyed their three day weekend and is ready for the fall.

Griff: Yeah. Cuz it all starts now. Today it all starts.

Brian: Yes. Summer is done.

Griff: Summer is done. And if you aren't planning for the holiday season, the holiday shopping season...

Brian: You're behind.

Griff: Well, I mean, it's never too late, but it's a little late.

Brian: It's a little late.

Griff: Yeah. At the very least you should be. And we talk about this every year and we'll probably talk about it this year. You should be taking inventory if at the very least of things like supplies.

Brian: Yes. That's a really good point.

Griff: Right? Because if you're aspiring to increasing your volume and you haven't been watching things like packaging, boxing, tape, all that other stuff. The last thing you're gonna wanna do in a holiday rush is be waiting to get a bunch of eBay boxes or a bunch of tissue paper or bubble wrap.

Brian: Or tape or any of that stuff. And the other thing is it just, it's not just getting it from eBay through like, if you have a store and you can get your supplies that way, if you need to get supplies elsewhere, they also run out in December.

Griff: And you pay a lot more in December, November and December. You'll pay more.

Brian: Because you will be able to get them on this site called eBay. But someone will probably wanna make a little profit on it.

Griff: I'm gonna ask this question, but I know there's no news this week. Brian, is there any news this week?

Brian: Well, Griff there is no news this week. There's no way I, but there is a reminder.

Griff: What's the reminder?

Brian: eBay Open starts in just two weeks, Wednesday, September 21st through September 23rd and registration is still open at www.ebay.com/open. And I think it's too late for them to register for the preview.

Griff: Yeah. The sneak peek registration would have been last Friday, September 2nd.

Brian: Yeah, and the eighth, I think it goes.

Griff: Told you if you snooze, you lose.

Brian: Yes.

Griff: If you didn't get in for the sneak peek.

Brian: Well, if you didn't get in for the sneak peek, then show up for Open on the September 21st through the 23rd. And you'll be surprised by everything.

Griff: Yeah. So this week we got two questions to answer. I'll tease one. It's gonna be about shipping magazines through media mail. And we have a question about the infamous blocked buyer list and what can a buyer do or not do when it comes to payment. If you put 'em on your blocked buyer list, those are our two questions. But, but, but the gist, the main story of this week's podcast is gonna be our next guest. So shall we meet her?

Brian: Yes. Okay. Let's meet her.

Griff: We love to check in with sellers who are somewhat popular, well known in the community and who've been on the podcast and our next guest who just happens to be in San Jose this week, took time out of her busy week. This week to join us on the podcast you haven't been on. Since last November 30th, I looked it up. It was episode 151. Welcome back to the show. Danna Crawford.

Danna: Hi Griff. Thanks for having me.

Griff: It's a pleasure and it's nice to have you right here in the studio.

Brian: It is. Welcome Danna.

Danna: Thank you. And it's nice to see you too.

Brian: Likewise. Danna, what do you think about our new like banner?

Danna: I love it. I, in fact I have a t-shirt that looks like that.

Griff: I have a t-shirt that's almost as big as that. Brian has been harping on that banner for the last four years and we finally hung it, four... It was well, three years. Okay. I exaggerated, but we finally hung it. We talked about it on the last podcast. I think our listener is probably rolling his eyes or her eyes right now. Like why are they harping on, on that? When they have such a fascinating person that they're talking to this week. I hear it's been a busy year for you business wise.

Danna: Yes, absolutely. Well, I sold my house in Ocala, Florida and moved to Punta Gorda Florida. And to make them move a little bit easier, I decided to turn to a fulfillment center, which is in Inglewood, Colorado. It's called eBLISS, Reseller Solutions. And it makes life so much easier for me because also I'm traveling a lot. I have a part-time where I work also for WorthPoint and I still manage my eBay business. So now I list my items. I ship them all to eBLISS in Colorado and then they make them go live. And as I make sales, they ship them for me one day shipping one day handling in the past, cuz I travel so much. I had five day handling, which really is not good.

Griff: Yeah, no that's uh, whew.

Danna: It's not good. So sales had dropped because I had all my listings at five days cause I was traveling so much with WorthPoint and thanks to eBLISSand their solution for me. In fact, they just contacted me yesterday while I was here in San Jose, they just listed 30 of my items, went live while I'm here in San Jose,

Brian: Oh that's wonderful. And I've been out to their facility. Dave and Lori are wonderful. And I think they're probably one of our largest multi-user account access sellers because they do the fulfillment service. So you've obviously had to give them multi-user account access to your account so they could list and ship, a great option.

Danna: It is.

Griff: Wow. I hadn't thought about that. So they, as they get more customers like you, they become a multi account access user for more and more sellers.

Danna: That's right. That's right. And they've got it down pat.

Brian: They do.

Griff: So you did this as a temporary thing and then decided to keep doing it that way?

Danna: Oh no. I, I was all in. I definitely wanted to continue my business that way. I'm a consignment seller people ship items to me from all over the world actually. And I had made it clear to my clients that their items are gonna be sent to Denver. And that that's how my business works. Now I do charge them a fee so that it all works out in the end and they were fine with it. They were just happy to have their items listed with me cuz I have a good reputation. And luckily they wanted to do business with me.

Brian: Well, and in some ways, if eBLISS is pushing 'em out in one day and you, because of your travel schedule was five days, your customers might actually have been happier with that aspect of it as well.

Danna: Absolutely. And the sales did go up. My sales did go up because you know, no one wants to wait for their item to come.

Griff: That is a really big issue with a lot. I know that I mentioned on the previous recent podcast that I've been experimenting with sourcing from other marketplaces and I gotta tell you the experience is mixed to be nice. One of the things I notice is there, sellers just don't ship. The marketplace will say, Hey, we reminded the seller to ship. I said, yeah, it's been a week ago. You send a message. You don't hear anything back.

Danna: It's ridiculous.

Griff: It is. It's it's pretty ridiculous people, they , I don't expect it overnight, but it's nice to know that they got it in the mail and they're shipping it.

Danna: Well, I have to say Griff, you have really good shipping yourself.

Griff: How do you know this Danna? How do you know about this?

Danna: I actually, I have a podcast called flip it or skip it.

Brian: I love that name. Flip it or skip it. That's great.

Danna: Thank you. And we were on our podcast talking about casino items to flip on eBay during the show I'm scrolling. And I saw a case of poker chips that were from eBay Live in Vegas. And I thought I have never seen those before I am gonna buy them. And I bought them during the podcast and then later found out it was Griff.

Brian: Were these the ones that were in the silver case?

Danna: Yes.

Griff: We sold them in the shop at eBay Live Las Vegas in 2006. And I bought one thinking that I might use it someday. I might learn how to play poker. That never happened. and they sat in the garage and I was going through the garage recently and I thought, what is this? It's got an eBay logo. Oh, it's really heavy too. It was the chips. I thought, well, I'm not gonna keep these.

Danna: Yeah. And they're sealed.

Brian: And those chips are like real casino chips. They were really heavy.

Griff: They are good quality. It's back when eBay had a lot of money to spend on swag and we just went all out. So I packed them well enough for you?

Danna: You did. And you packed them so well that now I'm just blessed with extra bubble wrap.

Brian: wait, Wait, time out. Griff is always saying don't over pack.

Griff: It wasn't over packed. Okay. It was just packed safely.

Danna: It was packed very safely.

Griff: Okay. I didn't want the, the aluminum in a place had been dented just from having it stored. I didn't want it to be ruined when it got there.

Danna: It was perfect.

Griff: And I knew who bought it. I printed out the slip and I went, oh, I better really pack these well or she's gonna go on her podcast, which is Flip It Or Skip It. You can find that at anywhere where you look for fine podcasts, anywheres again, that's Flip It Or Skip It. And she's gonna tell everyone that I didn't pack this well and I'm gonna feel like a fool. But I did. I tried.

Danna: Very proud of you.

Griff: Thank you. Can you talk a little bit about eBLISS?

Danna: Yes. They have a brilliant business and I had the opportunity also to tour their warehouse and they actually became an affinity partner with WorthPoint. And they have a fantastic system where you list your item and put it in a scheduled listing. So you schedule it for the longest amount of time and then once you have your box, cuz they provide you with the box and they provide you with the tape and the bags and the stickers. They provide you with everything you need.

Griff: What about shipping label?

Danna: No, you ship everything through UPS and they pick it up and they provide you with that as well.

Griff: wait. So who pays for the shipping?

Danna: They pay for the shipping and the label. You just print it out. And then I set it right on my porch and UPS comes and picks it up.

Griff: I mean, is this like an expensive service?

Danna: It's not, it's very reasonable. And I'm just thrilled with the whole setup and the operation because time is money. And I spend about, I think my tab with eBLISS is about maybe $250 a month. But think about a storage unit.

Griff: You're gonna pay, you’re easily gonna pay that.

Danna: You know, think about a storage unit. Think about your time and people don't realize that your time is precious. So you have to spend your time wisely and spend it listing and doing other things and sourcing.

Griff: I don't know if you remember Brian, we had a question a couple weeks ago from somebody who wanted to go on the road, but was questioning what they should use for an address. And should they, what if they get a return and we were coming up with all these kind of Rube Goldberg solutions for them, they could just call eBLISS . And that was why I asked if it was temporary. How long is your commitment with eBLISS?

Danna: They have no contract. You can cancel at any time.

Griff: So, If you wanted to use it for a month?

Danna: Every customer is unique. Yeah. So you have to talk to Lori and Dave and work out whatever your needs are. They won't take fragile items and they won't take large items like snowboards or large items.

Griff: Swimming pools.

Brian: Refrigerators,

Danna: Rare antiques that break, you know, glassware.

Brian: They're managing their risk that way.

Griff: We will ask Dave and Laurie, if they'll come on.

Brian: I'm sure they will.

Griff: I can't see why they wouldn't. It's good advertising.

Brian: Can we pivot onto a different topic?

Griff: We can do whatever you like Brian. Knock yourself out.

Brian: Danna mentioned, WorthPoint. And I think there probably, especially, many of our newer listeners who may not know about WorthPoint and they actually have also another unique service that sellers should be aware of.

Griff: You wanna talk a little bit about that? You work for them.

Danna: Yes, I, actually, I've been with them five years now and they are the world's largest online resource tool for identifying and valuing collectables art antiques, vintage memorabilia. And I actually have the honor to lead up their treasure hunts around the country. I'm off to Brimfield next week.

Griff: What are these treasure hunts? What is this?

Danna: So people just, if you go to WorthPoint.com/treasurehunt, you can see where the next one and there's ones coming up also at Scott's in Atlanta and every month, sometimes we're at Long Beach. We go all over the United States and people sign up and then they come and I help them use the eBay app and the WorthPoint app and learn how to research before they purchase. Some people are collectors. Some people are resellers so they can learn what to flip.

Griff: Did they bring their items to the treasure hunt?

Danna: No, we're at the location. So we're at antique shows or extravaganza big, big shows. And then WorthPoint just recently partnered with Salvation Army. And it's just such a wonderful relationship because now we do our treasure hunts at Salvation Armies as well. And I do eBay workshops at the Salvation Army facilities and we just packed the place with people, learning how to do eBay. We have a workshop on how to do eBay. And then from there we go treasure hunting in the Salvation Army.

Danna: When we last spoke, it was still, it was the end sort of the end of 2021 last year. But it was, we were still kind of in the middle of the pandemic. Things were easing up and ending out how's business. Been since we last spoke?

Danna: Well on my high end clothing during the pandemic and when things got crazy, people were just, weren't buying the high end clothing, the Chanel and the Jimmy Choo shoes and stuff like that. Wasn't selling very well. But then again, I had five day handling time so I actually took a step back and reevaluated and I love change. I know a lot of people don't, but I embrace change. And like when eBay changes things and I always try to pay attention on what's happening and take a look at my business. And I think that everybody should do that. At some point they tend to just turn and say, oh, it's eBay's fault that I'm not making any sales. And sometimes it's, it's not eBays fault.

Griff: Well, I always wonder what sellers who use that as a explanation for slow sales, what they actually think, how that benefits eBay. So if you're not selling, how does that benefit us? Right. It doesn't really.

Brian: Not at all.

Griff: Can't collect final value fees on items that haven't sold.

Brian: So Danna , I have a question for you. You mentioned like the Jimmy Choo kind of inventory and such, did you just kind of think about that, that it'll come back or did you liquidate to kind of pivot and buy different types of inventory?

Danna: Well, I did drop prices. I started there. I dropped prices and then of course I always, um, when things slow down, I always reevaluate what kind of keywords I have in my title. And sometimes it's the category, you know, I put something in the wrong category. So it's sometimes you just have to take a look at that. Also promoted, you know, have, am I need to up my percentage on promotions. And I did up my percentage on a lot of my promotions and it did help. I will admit, you know, you have to kinda look at all of the angles, where can I increase my odds for sales? That's pretty much what I did. And then of course I decided to go the eBLISS route and then send stuff there.

Brian: Which kind of gives you a little bit more time to think about how do you wanna merchandise or market your inventory as opposed to spending that time on fulfillment.

Griff: Packing and shipping and taping and wrapping.

Brian: Sounds like you love it Griff.

Griff: oh, I actually do. I love it but I don't sell at the volume. You do. So I think if I was at a higher volume, it would probably drive me crazy.

Danna: Just the advantage of having it. I know we keep going back to that, but it really helped pivot my business. Big time.

Griff: I wanna mention that this segment has been brought to you by eBLISS. No. They don't even know about this.

Brian: I know, I know I can't wait to tell them.

Griff: Guess who got promoted to death on the podcast this week? I'm going on vacation and I don't know what to do with my inventory. Well, I think you might interested in a little service we have for you.

Danna: Yeah. So, well that's when people can stop putting it on vacation. Or so many people I've talked to recently that have just made it 10 day handling time.

Brian: Oh, wow.

Danna: That's not good.

Brian: That's gonna impact sales,

Griff: Even if you try to make it clear in your listing description, a lot of buyers aren't gonna see that description and then they're gonna go, wait a minute, where's this item, right? And then they're going to email you while you're sitting there on the beach at Portofino, wherever you are. And you're gonna look into your little device and go, oh, it's an unhappy buyer. There goes my vacation ruined. When you have to alert them and say, what's this 10 day handling. They say, I wouldn't have bought it, I want to cancel.

Brian: Danna. I have a question for you. You're out seeing a lot of different sellers and in different locations. Did have you seen any trends lately as we are? We kind of coming out of COVID anything that sellers are thinking about or types of inventory that they're looking at compared to prior?

Danna: I think that they're definitely are out hitting the thrift stores more. They're also shopping for themselves because you know, money's tight and everybody's looking to save, save a few bucks, but also I don't shop without, I'm always thinking of, you know, reselling always. So I'm always looking at things that I can flip and, and it seemed like I just did this on my podcast recently that the big thing that everybody's looking for when they hit the thrift stores is the Glassy Baby.

Brian: What's the Glassy Baby?

Danna: It's like the hottest thing.

Griff: What is this?

Danna: I learned this from a fellow eBay seller at treasure hunt in Alexandria, Virginia recently. And she told me about it. It's like a candle holder and it's stamped glassy baby on the bottom and look it up.

Griff: What does it look? What does it look like?

Danna: Just a glass candle holder.

Griff: That's it? Is it got a shape? Has it got something...

Danna: It's just a little round little like maybe four, four inches tall? Just you would pass by it.

Griff: Clear glass?

Danna: Some are clear, some are smoked, some are painted with a design, some are rare. Some are common, but they're stamped on the bottom Glassy Baby.

Griff: And what do they sell for?

Danna: Anywhere from well, $25. Say to couple hundred dollars. I know it's insane. It's insane.

Griff: What is wrong with the world?

Danna: It's insane. But it's a big trend right now.

Griff: Glassy Baby?

Danna: Yes.

Griff: I'll put up a search on eBay.

Danna: Do that. Oh, Griff you have to do completed listings.

Griff: Of course. Why, why, why do you say that?

Danna: I'm just messing with you.

Brian: Advanced Search Griff.

Griff: Oh, I see. Tell me, what is this Advanced Search Feature you speak of ?

Danna: Sold listings.

Griff: Sold listings. Yeah. We had an interesting question that I was gonna ask but um, it, it just goes to show you how, I don't wanna say complex, but multilayered, eBays become. Somebody had asked on the Facebook Group, they were confused because they said, look, I have an item and it has one watcher, no one viewer, but it has two Watchers. How is that possible?

Danna: One viewer?

Griff: One viewer. Two Watchers.

Griff: So his question was how is it possible to watch an item without viewing it? Well, either on your search results on the app or, oh, there's that little heart. And I think a lot, lot of sellers don't probably know that when you click that heart, now you're watching that item. But you've never opened it. Because it's just in the search results.

Danna: Yes. I've actually, I've researched things that had people make me offers. I'm like, why is this guy making me an offer? Cause I clicked that by mistake.

Griff: Right. And then now you're open cuz you're a watcher. Someone will send you an offer on that.

Danna: What'd you find?

Brian: I did because we do have dropdown searches for Glassy Baby. And I clicked on the Glassy Baby votives and there they are dozens and dozens of 'em.

Griff: Why are they so special? They're just glass.

Brian: $82. $150.

Griff: The world's gone mad.

Brian: 299 for three inch home run blue vote of candle holder rare, sold out. Oh, there's only 11 minutes left.

Danna: Oh you better get it.

Brian: No, there are zero bids. So that means we'll see if it sells. They might have to re-list it at a lower price.

Griff: So Glassy Babies. There's it's a fever. You catch it. And just like people have, well, I don't wanna get left out. It's that fear of getting left out and they jump on it.

Brian: Some of these have a lot of bids. 15 bids.

Danna: It's crazy. And after I did my podcast and talked about it, people started emailing me. One lady said, I found one at Goodwill for a 1.99. So now we're all looking because they're out there. They're on the shelves at the thrift stores because people don't know about 'em yet.

Brian: 17 bids sitting at 150 with three days to go.

Griff: Get outta here.

Brian: why would I lie to you? It's crazy. I might have to buy one just to see what they're like. Nancy will hit me over the head with it.

Griff: Rob has a deep fear of candles in the house. So I've always liked candles, but he is sure that I'm gonna burn the house down. So I have no more candles. I get sent them all off and I have those little fake LED things with the flickering thing on top. And even those he gets a little, he says, you know, they'll overheat so the last thing I'm gonna get into is votive candles at this point.

Brian: I think i know what to get you for Christmas.

Griff: No. It will upset Rob. No. no. I understand, I mean, houses do burn down and would it be kind of sad. Although it would be a great way to collect on the insurance. Well Danna, It's been really great speaking with you. I know that we could talk for another hour. Do you wanna talk for another hour?

Danna: Sure. na

Griff: Again, I wanna remind people that you can find Danna on eBay who search the user ID. Danna and that's two N's. D A N N A and it's Danna, not the other pronunciation, which I know drive to crazy. And her store name is Power Selling Mom. Yes. What about the website? It's Power Selling Mom too?

Danna: Yeah. powerselling mom.com. It's my website. And it's actually become a directory for helping consignment sellers that are doing consignment business and they can add their information to my directory so that other people can find them it's free and also information on how to become a consignment seller.

Brian: I have one last question for Danna.

Griff: Yes please.

Brian: So Danna, I know you've been selling on eBay for 25 years almost and you love it but if you had to put eBay selling compared to your new grandkids?

Danna: Guess what? My grandkids, they can just walk in my house and go eBay. And they're just, they're three. The oldest are three and they eBay, they, they pointed everything in my house, eBay.

Brian: So you're training another generation.

Danna: Yeah. My daughters are just like, oh no. But at the last live eBay event that we had, they had bibs for babies and toys and I bought them all cuz I was a new grandma. So I bought them all. So I just couldn't wait till they started playing with these toys and I have so many pictures of them wearing their eBay bibs.

Griff: We'll call them to tot-entrepreneurs.

Danna: Yes. I can't wait till they can help with things.

Griff: It's one of the reasons to have kids and then grandkids is it's a never ending workforce. Which we assume you give them something, in this case love.

Danna: Well, they're gonna be fun to take sourcing.

Griff: Oh yes. they'll be telling you what to buy!

Danna: That's true.

Griff: Also we should not fail to mention that you do have a podcast and it's called Flip It Or Skip It and you can find it where?

Danna: All major podcast players.

Griff: Right? If you search on Google for Flip It Or Skip It, it shows right up.

Danna: It does.

Griff: Everyone has different. They have different ways. They like to listen. Some listen from Apple Podcasts. So from Google, some Spotify, there's a whole bunch of options. So wherever you have your podcast app, when you have it open, just search for Flip It Or Skip It.

Danna: Yes. Every Wednesday it goes live every week.

Griff: When do you have time to do anything?

Danna: I love it. I do it very early in the morning. And it's Wayne Jordan. He's a retired auctioneer and myself and we talk about all the things to flip on eBay.

Griff: I should be listening to this. Obviously I'm not listing the right stuff in the last couple weeks, but I'm not blaming eBay. I blame myself like I do for everything.

Danna: It's not like the old days you could put it on and it will sell.

Griff: It was pretty much the case for the first two or 3, 4, 5 years. Wasn't it? It was a real way of getting spoiled. And then I think that's why a lot of those people think, you know, and in the old days I could just, anything would sell and now I blame eBay.

Danna: No, nobody wants it!

Griff: That's a hard lesson to learn. There's no real diplomatic way of I've learned over the years that you just can't come out and say that, it's soul destroying, right? So you have to find kind of nice ways to get around this. Well, you know, maybe right now there's not a lot of buyers looking to add that to their collection and the subtext is here. No one wants this stuff. Get rid of it. Well, Danna, I want to thank you for stopping by.

Brian: Thanks Danna.

Danna: Thank you. Bye bye.

Griff: Danna Crawford sells on eBay under the user ID Danna and the eBay store Power Selling Mom we will put all of the links to her different sites in the summary overview on the community page. For this in episode 207 show notes.

Brian: You got questions?

Griff: We've got answers. And this week, Brian, we have only two questions cause I really cleaned out the queue for last week's show.

Brian: You did.

Griff: So hopefully our listener will decide there's a lot of questions they have to ask and they will call the line or they'll send them in. But for now we got two that are left over and we'll use we'll do them today. Our first one is from the Facebook group and then we have one that was called in on our voice line at 888-723-4630. And we'll start with the Facebook question, which was posted by eBay seller, The Kitty Shop. Why don't you read it?

Brian: The Kitty Shop says hi everyone. I was wondering if I have an unpaid item and I add the buyer to my band list. If it would keep them from paying if by chance they do pay last minute? Personally, I expect buyers to pay immediately because if they have the time to accept my offer, they have the time to complete the payment. The one currently should close out soon as it has been several days, I would love to just go ahead and add those so-called buyers to my band list after 24 hours in the future. So I don't forget. Also I'm still waiting on my mug, a really kind of crazy smiley face. Jen also known as The Kitty Shop.

Griff: Yeah, Jen. So I, I read your post on Facebook and then there were a few answers and they were pretty good. The gist of your question though, wondering if somebody hasn't paid for an offer that you sent or they sent to you and if you then put them on your what's called blocked buyer list, will they be unable to pay? And that's not true. The block buyer list, doesn't block somebody who has purchased an item from paying for it. What will close them out is if you've started the unpaid item process, which it sounds like you have once that closes out, then they can't pay for it.

Brian: Right? So, and this is kind of a unique situation. She wants that buyer to pay quickly.

Griff: And then she wants to block. Which doesn't make any sense to me.

Brian: OK. It doesn't make any sense to me either. Why block a buyer? Maybe the buyer just needs a quick reminder.

Griff: They might have forgot. And that's a buyer who then paid for something, they're a paying buyer. I wouldn't block them, but you're free to do what you like. I think if anyone goes back and listens to my previous rans over the last 15 years about the blocked buyer list.

Brian: Yeah. And, and my rants would probably be very similar to your rants.

Griff: What would they sound like? Brian?

Brian: So to me it's, unless someone is really egregious as a buyer, why would you potentially limit your sales? Sometimes people just have bad days. Sometimes people honestly forget. And in this case, you know, oftentimes there's an extra step here they're saying accept, sometimes a buyer might just not understand the process of an offer of the offer process. So why make the assumption that just because they didn't pay within what you perceive as the right or the appropriate amount of time, not only are you not gonna ship them the item, but you're gonna prevent them from ever buying another item from you. The other thing I'll tell our users once when we first started looking at unpaid items and I remember this was way back in early two thousands, we all were looking at it and we'd get complaints from sellers that would say, you just gotta just get rid of these people. If they don't buy, they don't in back then it was all auctions. And I remember the very first time we did the analysis, what we found was the vast majority of buyers who had committed an unpaid item paid for like the vast majority of items they had bid on and won. And so it all of a sudden became very clear that we didn't back. Then remember we used to call them non-paying bidders. And what we learned very quickly and we changed the name because of it. We learned we didn't have non-paying bidder problem. It was an items issue. It was on occasion they didn't pay for that item. And then we started looking, putting in place the, the reminder mechanism. So that works really well at getting the buyer to go, oh, eBay's telling me I better pay. A lot of 'em pay on that reminder. And then the other piece is, you know, obviously if they do it too many times in a row or too many times compared to how many purchases, then we'll take action against those buyers. We don't want those buyers who are abusive on the marketplace.

Griff: And the, the solution that we've been talking about for years, which is now slowly being put in place is eliminating the ability for any buyer to purchase something without paying for it. eBay has turned into the only marketplace in the world where you can buy something and it's marked as sold and it's taken off the shelf and put in a bag and you haven't paid for it. So I don't know where we are with that. I know with offers, we were making it so that ..

Brian: So auctions are almost done or will be this year.

Griff: What about Best Offers?

Brian: And then Best Offer. I know they were working on it. Maybe there's more news coming at open. I haven't seen everything for Open, but I don't know. I don't want any of our listeners to quote me on that because I don't know where we're at with the offers, but I know that it's, as you can imagine, it's one of the biggest requests we get from sellers.

Griff: Yeah. And I know that some people, for years there were these sites where you could go and sellers were sharing what they called bad buyers. You know, buyers who were testy or buyers who they think were out to defraud them. What they would do is they would take the list and they say, well, I'm gonna ban all these before something can happen. You're in business. You want to make sales.

Brian: And why would you put your trust in another seller unless you really know that seller well, on their judgment of who a bad buyer is. And if I was a seller, I would be very judicious in when I use the block bidder list or buyer list. There was a good reason for us to put that in place two decades ago. I'm not convinced it's needed now, given how much we manage the marketplace, the reminders, and like even just the unpaid item, the percentage of unpaid items today is a fraction of what it was 20 years ago. And hopefully will be eliminated all together.

Griff: But in the meantime, if you feel you must use one, knock yourself out. There's no one saying you, you know, you can't.

Brian: Well, and not only does Jen have a potential, you know, nonpaying buyer on, on this offer. Hopefully the buyer's paid by the time she's listening to this is she also has a, a non delivered eBay for Business Podcast mug.

Griff: I reached out to her cuz I couldn't remember using her question. And the thing is we, I don't, we, we never used it. She sent a question in and it was mostly a comment. And I thought I'd save it for another one. But now that I've used this, she gets a mug. So she was making a comment about thermal printers and basically supporting what you said. And she got a Rollie and she's very happy.

Brian: Oh, we should have sent her a mug for that. Anyone who supports me should get a mug.

Griff: Oh, is that how it works? Well, okay. Dually noted. Brian, let me write this down. Brian says now, so Jen, we'll send you mug. Of course we will. I wish we had one right here, but we wanted to give mugs to some of our sellers who were in the studio and they're all gone!

Brian: You shipped the last box off to Mark.

Griff: I sent all of them to mark and I didn't keep any out. There's like one over here. That's I use for a pencil holder.

Brian: In the studio. We've got a few dozen left, I think elsewhere.

Griff: I know we gotta start thinking about swag.

Brian: Yes. We should have our listeners write us in.

Griff: We're gonna do that thing. Right. We're gonna do that. We're gonna it's that thing of when you create like a contest and oh yeah. And people. Yes, yes, yes.

Brian: You will have to do that on the Facebook page.

Griff: The podcast hottest contest is what do you want for swag?

Brian: Microphones.

Griff: We can't give away microphones. Can we? Are there microphones that are affordable? I don't think so. Everyone's a podcaster today. Yes. Yes. Anyway, Jen. Yeah. Thanks. And I hope the buyer pays.

Brian: Yes. Me too.

Griff: Now our second question comes from Mike seller. Mike, I think Mike's in Midwest. Let's let's listen to this.

Brian: Hi Griff and crew. This is Mike from Minneapolis store name All Accessories. Hey, I got an issue to bring up. As you know, magazines technically have never qualified for media mail. However, I've been selling magazines on eBay for more than a decade with media mail because when I started selling them, I could see that all my competitors were using media mail and I wasn't. So I called and basically the, the Help Source at eBay said that if you're using eBay labels, you're gonna be fine. And that was correct until recently. Now the option for media mail on my magazine sales does not come up First Class if they qualify otherwise it's Priority Mail. And that pretty much wipes out the viability of a lot of my magazines. I pulled a ton and I have to put aside hundreds that I had ready to go because the ones that qualify for First Class are closing in on $6 and the other ones are Priority Mail. And a lot of those magazines are, you know, less than 10 dollars. Some of 'em are hovering around $5. I don't think anyone's gonna pay that much more to ship them than they're for the magazine. So I have to reevaluate this whole end of my business. And I imagine that it was not affecting only me. In fact, you had a guy on a few months back that, his whole thing was about magazines. And I could tell from his comments that he knew that the key was to use media mail as long as we got by with, but that was fine.

Griff: He got cut off a little bit into the so I just, uh, I figured we would there. Full disclosure. I actually called Mike and talked to him on the phone and I understand how this probably was not the outcome that he was hoping to see. But my comment would be what you're asking us is to facilitate sellers, to be non-compliant with a USPS regulation regarding how that service is used. And you're correct, for media mail, any pamphlet or periodical or anything that has an advertisement in it doesn't qualify. And magazines by their nature have advertisements. They've never qualified for the service. And what we've done recently is the Shipping Team has figured this out and has made it for eBay labels. If your item was listed in the magazine category, when you go to print, media mail will not be an option that's available to you. I think what Mike was hoping is that we were gonna turn it back on. And no, we won't.

Brian: Yeah. The time that we would turn it back on is if Mike and others convinced the United States Postal Service to make it eligible for Media Mail, because then our, you know, we would make that category eligible for media mail. But since it's not an eligible category, like many other categories that cannot use Media Mail, it's not an option.

Griff: What they never took into account was the fact that magazines would become collectible. These are beyond their shelf life.

Brian: Yeah. The 1958 Vogue magazine. Yeah.

Griff: There's all those ads in there. And you know, those companies, they don't exist and none of the ads make any sense.

Brian: You mean I can't buy a $3,000 Ford, whatever from 19?

Griff: Chevy Nomad station wagon. Sorry. No, I have a whole stack at home. I've had them for years of Fortune magazines from the twenties and early thirties. And what's nice about them is the graphic work. They're thick, heavy magazines, they're big folio. And they have these beautiful graphic covers and I should sell them. I mean, I've literally have had them for 30 years, but if I sell them, I'm gonna have to sell them with non-media mail postage.

Brian: You know, who might get though pick those kinds of things up is like TV and movie people because they need props.

Griff: They need it for props. When I talked to Mike on the phone, I said, look, there's really no eBay solution here. We have seen over the years, I'm sure you have remembered this Brian, where sellers would get freaked out by a postage rate increase or a service change. And think that that's two assumptions. They make, it's gonna make them uncompetitive and it's gonna, buyers are not gonna purchase. And that's never happened at eBay buyers adapt. If they're looking for something they're willing to pay for it. And when something like this happens, it affects every seller using the product.

Brian: So the nice thing about a marketplace is everybody who's in the marketplace is equally impacted. Therefore it's not like everyone else still gets a lower rate. And Mike here has to pay a higher rate. And he is at a disadvantage, everyone's in the same boat.

Griff: And there may be ways of getting around the, not the Media Mail thing, but maybe it's packaging magazines to make them more, you know, instead of selling them, buy singles, you sell them by a group. And then you use something like Parcel Select or Priority to ship them if they're over a pound.

Brian: More economically.

Griff: Exactly. I have no idea if this is the case, but do consider the fact that eBay was able to negotiate its own specific service level for what we call eBay Standard Envelope. And you know, who knows in the future, how that might be expanded to cover things like collectibles, which basically these all are. So Mike's stock is all, people sell magazines on eBay. I'm 99% of them are collectible, right? The advertising in it is moot. No one's gonna buy like a Phillips stereo out of this ad from 1966.

Brian: And I will say this, I mean, this issue came up, for me separately via our eBay community, there was a discussion with one of our mentors around pattern books, like quilting pattern books. Those for a long time also fell outside the Media Mail. I remember yes requirements. And recently actually within the last six months, the USPS had a clarification where they actually comply and that had eBay change our software so that you can now when you ship, that's an option when you're shipping those items, Media Mail, but it was not early part of this year. And last year it was not an option to ship with media mail.

Griff: And I remember that was a discussion 20 years ago. Yeah. When people would sell you patterns have always been a big deal on eBay. It's a huge market and buying and selling them. You can use Media Mail.You people are saying, why not? Why we should there, you know, it's media in a sense, but see things can change. So Mike, maybe what you want do, well, I don't want you to waste a lot of time doing it if you, if you're busy selling on eBay, but maybe you want to talk to government relations or you want to talk to the USPS.

Brian: I know some of the other sellers did ping USPS and looked asked for clarifications. And then our Shipping Team went out and asked for them on the patterns and got a new clarification on how it should apply.

Griff: Yeah. So fight for magazines.

Brian: Yeah. Especially collectible magazines. If it's obviously something that's new. I mean, it, there's a reason there's like you said, the media mail policy exists.

Griff: It exists for the magazine publisher and distributor. It wasn't for the subscribers. That was never part of their mind set. that this is a different world now.

Brian: Yeah. It's almost like collectible or magazines greater than 30 days old can be used. They can come up with, to me a relatively simple policy.

Griff: Years ago, I remember 30, 40 years ago, life magazines. They were very hot collectible. And the reason why is people wanted the life magazine that matched a certain point in their life, you know, some milestone, whether it was wedding birth or something. So they've always been collectible in that sense, but we've moved on. It's a big market and yeah, there's a solution out there. It's just that we're not in the position today to say, and the solution is... Break the law. No. I don't know if it's a law, but you know, defy the USPS class of service.

Brian: We will not say that.

Griff: Anyway. That's all the questions we

Brian: Had. I think those were a couple good ones. As I said earlier, summer vacation is over and we just know you have an eBay question. You put aside, well, you are out there on the beach. So now's the time to call in to us here at eBay for business podcast. How easy just call us on (888)723-4630.

Griff: That's (888)723-4630. We love it. When you call that hotline any time of the day, any day of the week, you can leave your question, your comment, your gripe. And we just might put it on the air. And if we do, you get a mug.

Brian: And if you're not a call on the phone person...

Griff: Or you can't call us because your phone stop working when you dropped it in the surf and it's still drying out in a bowl of uncooked rice.

Brian: Does that actually work?

Griff: Yeah, it does. Yeah. You never did that trick? It works like a charm.

Brian: Well, anyway, while your phone's drying out in the rice, you can always email us at podcast@ebay.com. That's podcast@ebay.com.

Griff: I know it sounds like it, but we are not reading from a script. And now your three point podcast checklist.

Brian: Check out the Announcement Board at community.ebay.com, ebay.com/announcements for up to date seller news every day.

Griff: It's only 105 days to the end of the holiday shipping season. That's all, a hundred and five days. That's one third of the year. So it's time for you to take stock of your shipping supplies and packing supplies now. Do it today and make sure you order ahead of time, what you need before the start of the rush, which this year looks like it's gonna start earlier than ever.

Brian: I think it's already started for some.

Griff: I think it has.

Brian: Yeah. I heard that earlier this week.

Griff: Yeah, I did too. Apparel sellers are saying people are telling them they're buying in bulk. So they have all of their holiday stuff ready.

Brian: Right? Need to review anything in this episode? It's easy. Check the transcript for this and all episodes for follow up on what you've heard and to find the links we referenced during the episode.

Griff: In our next episode, we're gonna speak with another seller and it's somebody we've never met or had on the podcast. I'm very excited. Sarah Are has a great selling story to talk about. So she's gonna join us next week.

Brian: We'd like to, again, thank eBay seller Power Selling Mom, Danna Crawford for checking in with us.

Griff: The eBay for Business Podcast is produced and distributed by Libsyn and podCast411.