Episode 103 || Hot Holiday Categories

[podcast_team]

This week, eBay General Manager for Hard Goods, North America, Eddie Chen shares his team’s insights on what types of items will be highly sought by buyers on eBay this Holiday season. Kristi Diemoz has news of eBay’s new seller rate card for free insertion fees. Allison Engles from the eBay Events team announces the online eBay 25th Anniversary event. And eBay Seller Story selectee, eBay Seller Joe Davis (User ID gotbaseballcards) talks with Griff about how his passion for collecting baseball trading cards led to a successful business on eBay.

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Episode 103 Links
Holiday Kickoff Month
New Seller Rate Card Insertion Fee Update Announcement
New Rate Card Insertion Fee Update Page
eBay 25th Anniversary Event Registration
Joe Davis's eBay Store
eBay Resolution Case Consequences (Seller Performance)
eBay Codeless Coupon (Promotions Managers)

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eBay Seller Center
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Hosts:
Griff, Rebecca Michals

Guests:
Eddie Chen (eBay General Manager for Hard Goods, North America), Kristi Diemoz (eBay Staff), Allison Engles (eBay Staff), Joe Davis (eBay Seller)

Transcript:

This week on the eBay For Business Podcast:

"This happens to be a year where the hottest consoles are in its seven year transition cycle. Meaning that this year, generally, what we predict is that by mid to late November, Sony will announce PlayStation 5 and possibly slightly earlier, Microsoft will also announce their next generation console, which is Microsoft series X console. "

"We got together and we thought, what can we do to help sellers? And we just felt like giving them more zero insertion fees could help them and help them get more inventory on the site to test, and learn and list more while they were at home."

"Well, I'd always hoped and prayed it would be a possibility one day. Just never dreamed I would get to do it right out of college, but things fell into place for us to be able to do that. And it only took us about seven years to break even. So just happened to be the year we got on eBay."

I'm Rebecca Michaels.

And I'm Griff. And this is the eBay For Business Podcast, your weekly source for the information and the inspiration you need to start, run and grow a business on the world's most powerful marketplace. And this, by the way is episode 103. Welcome back, Rebecca.

Thanks Griff. How are you doing today?

I'm doing just great. How are you doing?

I am doing really well. And you know, even though it's really just the beginning of August, I'm starting to think about Fall and Holiday and things like that, which actually kind of matches in with what we'll be talking about later. I already have Halloween on my mind, even though it's yeah, early to mid August right now.

Yeah. This should be an interesting Halloween, but you're right. August is our new month and with a new month comes a new theme and the theme of course is Prepping For The Holidays. And to that end, we have lots of great guests already lined up on the eBay side for the entire month of August.

So should we tell them who's on deck for this week?

Yes, absolutely. First up on today's show, we're going to hear from Eddie Chen from eBay's verticals team. Now Eddie's going to share insights on what they've learned about what's going to happen in the different categories this Holiday season and what they predict to be hot for this year's Holiday shopping season.

And then we'll talk to Kristi Diemoz from eBay's Go To Market Team. And she has news about a new seller rate card.

Yes, it's very exciting. Also this week, our Seller Story comes from seller Joe Davis. Who's made a successful business on eBay in the highly competitive trading card market.

And we have a seller question to answer, don't we?

Actually, we have three. One of them is about item specifics, and we're going to answer that question at the end of the episode, along with two others.

I can't wait to hear that. But first up, Holiday by the category.

In keeping with our August theme, which is preparing for this Holiday season for 2020, we're joined right now by General Manager for Hard Goods North America, Eddie Chen, Eddie. Welcome.

Thank you, Griff.

I know it's impossible for us to make exact predictions, but based on the research that your team does when it comes to verticals, can you give us a little insight into what you folks are expecting on the Hard Goods Team?

For sure. I'll start off by saying that yes, indeed. This is a very unique year with COVID, but with COVID the transition to online shopping has accelerated and we're seeing offshoots on a lot of behavior that's caused by Covid with relevancy for this Holiday. Number one, at least to the top of my mind is that in addition to shelter in place, this happens to be the year where the hottest consoles are in a seven year transition cycle. Meaning that this year generally what we predict is that by mid to late November, Sony will announce PlayStation 5 and possibly slightly earlier, Microsoft will also announce their next generation console, which is Microsoft series X console. All the literature and all the research that we have done indicates that the product will be extremely, extremely scarce at the onset, but will be highly, highly valuable to the U S consumer. And there are so many keywords and search terms from our study inquiring about those products already. So that's number one. In addition to that, Apple is announcing iPhone 12 this year. These are the types of products that traditionally have done extremely, extremely well at launch on eBay. Our strength is in addition to N minus one non-New we also have a huge customer base looking for new in season iPhone 12, and iPhones when they are released on our site. Indication this year is that Apple will likely introduce a new form factor, which means that accessory side would have a jump on GME as well. And in addition to that this year's iPhone is suspect to have 5G capability. So we expect the market to boom throughout Holiday into next year. Within the Hard Goods and the Electronics side, these are the name products that's top of our mind. Moving a little bit long further into other categories that I look after, I'm sure most of you guys have noticed that with shelter in place, there is a huge surge in cycling and cycling products, especially e-bikes. I actually purchased an e-bike onsite.

Oh you did? What brand did you purchase?

It's an emerging brand. It's called the Euro bike that I bought on eBay. It's a fantastic bicycle that I sourced from a local seller. We believe with the trend that started in late April, going through the summer and into the fall. The amount of interest for this product actually has accelerated, not decelerated. This is one of the top giftable items that we fundamentally believe and are betting on to have a huge demand for Holiday. In addition to the traditional eBikes, the right area where eBay has a luxury of and has the ability to cater for our consumer needs are the vast amount of accessories associated with e-bikes. So those are, those are the hot items for us.

And those could be anything from headlights to specialty, brake lights, they could be pannier bags, they could be bells. So if you're a seller, you may not be able to source e-bikes, but you can certainly have a shot at sourcing the accessories that are going to be necessary for these.

Sure, sure. Griff. And I think people don't often think about e-bikes right, that the tires are very specific to those products and the tires, the brakes, the seats, right? We are looking for those products and there's a huge demand that has continued since they launched. And we foresee that will continue.

What other categories should we be looking at during the Holiday season that are directly affected by the pandemic?

A category that we've seen a huge search increase, happens to live in another category that I look after Home and Garden. Home and Garden right now, what we're seeing is that with people staying at home, there is a huge search of SKA, SKA means small kitchen appliances. Because people are staying home they're cooking more, they're preparing meals and they're becoming a stay at home chef almost. I happen to be one of them. So we're seeing a huge surge in demand and search and sell through, for example, air fryers, bread makers and even small cabinetry. These are the areas that traditionally have done well on eBay. But since Covid happened, we're seeing triple digit growth in GMV search and listing for us, hasn't quite caught up to the demand. And this is another area that we fundamentally believe will have a huge, huge demand in Search for us.

This move back towards self-sufficiency. When it comes to Home and Garden, kitchen items, actually garden items. These are the areas that sellers should be thinking about when it comes to the Holidays, of course, but maybe beyond if you're looking to make a bigger market for your business.

For sure, Home and Garden and Sporting Goods are the categories that has enjoyed tremendous tailwind during lockdown, right? And we're starting to explore and double down on those categories specifically. The areas that we are looking after for Home and Garden, not just on the traditional plugin, meaning electric small kitchen appliances, but for example, spaghetti makers. People never thought that we're the nation for it, but we are. Kitchenware and we're seeing huge Search there, right? So these are the areas that we're seeing huge Search.

What about Home Recreation?

With Home Recreation, two folds. There is an Entertainment area aspect of it, and there's a Health and Fitness aspect of it. I'll start with Health and Fitness, which falls into the Sporting Goods category. I'm sure that most of our members are aware of that with the stay at home order, there is a huge demand in a home gym equipments, right? We never seen dumbbells sell as fast and as much on our side.

Or as for much money as they're selling. I know I bought three sets of them so far.

Yeah, for sure. So testers, I thought that demand would subside over the course of Summer. It hasn't yet. This is an area that we know that the demand, we are short on supply. So dumbbells, yoga mats, even a home gym tread mill machine, all of these things are enjoying tremendous growth. So this is stay at home, shelter in place, fitness type equipment. Now as an adjacency product that we're also seeing are some solidarity type of sporting activities. Cycling products where cycling components, cycling equipment, right? There's a surge in demand as well. Traditionally eBay does well in golfing and outdoor products, but this year we're seeing a surge in tennis. People don't usually think tennis is a solitary sports, but with the season and COVID, it's still a distance sport. We're seeing a huge search in tennis.

That's true. Tennis is not an up-close face to face sport at all.

Correct.

When we started off talking, we talked about the gaming consoles for both Sony and for Microsoft and also the Apple iPhone. We always see with the release of an iPhone, huge demand in the past version of iPhone, isn't this the case?

Yes. We fundamentally one hundred percent believe that will be the case, especially with the search and demand and the need for home communication. So we're seeing tablets picking up and minus one. This has been a very weird transition year. We do see a lot of M-1, minus one accessories, even phone supply being converted. And the challenge that we're facing right now is that we believe it's only a temporary challenge that we're facing. Due to Covid, a lot of the M-1 and non new product. There's a backlog of supply. We are hoping that throughout the month of August and September that will loosen up. Demand is still there, definitely there. It is the supply side, we see a huge constraint.

Well, this has been great. Eddie, thank you so much for this guidance. Again, keep in mind if you're a seller it's never too late. It's a little late, but it's never too late to start sourcing product for the Holiday season. We're going to spend the rest of the month of August talking about the special situation that we have with the pandemic when it comes to prepping for the Holidays, whether that's in product sourcing or in shipping and service, all of these things are going to matter if you want to stay successful for the Holiday season this year. Eddie, I want to thank you so much for stopping by and talking to us.

Thanks so much Griff.

Eddie Chen is the General Manager for Hard Goods at North America. And we'll check in with the Hards Goods Team as the season moves along.

There's been a recent change. Some of you may have already noticed to the Selling Rate Card and in order to learn more about this, we're bringing back an old friend of the podcast, Kristi Diemoz, the Senior Manager of Go to Market and Operations. Hi Kristi.

Hey Griff. Thanks so much for having me. I always love being on and I'm just so glad to be back with good news. How fun is that?

Well, tell us what is the good news?

The good news is we have permanently increased our monthly zero insertion fee listings for most sellers.

So you'll remember back, you know, when quarantine started and we were all kind of locked down in our homes and you know, many of us still are, but we got together and we thought, what can we do to help sellers? And we just felt like giving them more zero insertion fees could help them and help them get more inventory on the site to test, and learn and list more while they were at home. And we launched that back in March and we kind of kept that promotion going throughout the Summer. And then we just got such great feedback on it. We saw sellers having so much success with it. We ultimately decided to make a permanent change to also add zero insertion fee listings. It's not the exact same as the promotion, but really close.

Can you go over what the permanent change is?

Yeah. You bet. For all sellers, if you do not have a store and you're just, you know, a regular seller, which is great. Before August 1st, which is when these changes went into effect, you got 50 auction or fixed price listings, zero insertion fees every month. Now you get 200, quite a bump there. And then if you have a starter store, you were getting a hundred auction or fixed price listings before August 1st. Now you're getting 250. And then if you have a basic store, you were getting 250 fixed price listings. And now you're getting 350 fixed price listings. And those are all your zero insertion fee listings. Again, the idea is just to get more of that inventory up there to test and learn and give you an opportunity to get more sales. So there's even additional benefits for sellers who have registered for Managed Payments. And if you're registered for Managed Payments, you don't have to actually be on Managed Payments yet. But if you've at least registered and like put in all of your information and you're just waiting to be put into the system, there are additional benefits for basic, premium, anchor and enterprise store subscribers. They go up even more and quite a significant jump in select categories,

What if I haven't been selected or invited to be in Managed Payments? Will I get these benefits when I eventually am invited?

Yes, of course, we're excited to start getting more and more people on Manage Payments all the time. And you can always go to ebay.com/managedpayments to learn more. But definitely like I said, you only have to be registered to payments to get these benefits. So even if you're not actually taking payments from the eBay system, you'll still get these benefits. And if you haven't yet been invited, just hang tight, we're inviting more sellers all the time. And you can always indicate your interest by visiting that ebay.com/payments link.

I got invited over a month ago. I registered and I've been waiting. So I'm all set.

Exactly. And now you'll have all these additional free zero insertion fees. You better get out all of your dead stock inventory or whatever you don't have up and start listing.

Kristi, where can sellers go if they want to learn more?

We announced this in our Seller News about two or three weeks ago. There's a post in the eBay Seller News. That post will give you all the details, but then also links off to a Seller Center Page where you can see all of those details for the premium and anchor store and all of that. And you can get any FAQs answered that you have. As always check that eBay Seller News Page and that'll give you all the scoop.

And I'll put the link to the new Rate Card in our episode transcript, as we always do.

Perfect.

Well Kristi, I want to thank you so much for stopping by and telling us a little bit about this great news. I think more free listings is always good news.

Right? Thanks so much for having me and everybody. Hopefully you're hanging in there during all of this, and hopefully you can take this time and get listing even more.

We will. Thank you. We got our marching orders. Thanks, Kristi.

Thanks Griff. See ya.

We've been speaking with Kristi Diemoz.. She's the Senior Manager of Go To Market and Operations here at eBay.

Every week on the podcast, we feature another seller from our seller mini series 25 Stories For 25 Years Of eBay, 25 sellers were selected from all of the hundreds, if not thousands of submissions that were sent in. And our next seller, Joe Davis sells on eBay under the user ID, gotbaseballcards and he joins us today from Georgia. Welcome Joe.

Thanks Griff. Great to be with you today.

When did you start selling on eBay?

Started in December of 1998. I had a retail store for about seven years at that point and had dabbled a little bit in online selling mainly just business to business. And I had a customer come in one day and tell me about all the stuff he was buying and selling on eBay. And I was like, Hmm, I'm interested. Tell me more. And so very soon we were on there selling,

How was business back in 1998 in your brick and mortar store?

It was really good. We had a really good run there in the late nineties. Of course we were in the middle of the technology boom. The stock market was great then. And of course we saw a downturn in the early, around 2001, of course, but we had a good run there at the end of the nineties, both retail and online.

Before you started your brick and mortar business, what were you doing? Were you always an entrepreneur?

I was actually a college student and yes, I had worked for my dad growing up in his paint and decorating business from the time I was 13. And then when I started college in 1987, I really got passionate about the sports card hobby again. Started attending sports card trade shows and then did that throughout college, both setting up shows and promoting shows. And then in 1991 got the opportunity literally the week I was graduating from college, I got the opportunity to open a business with a college friend. That was how I got into it. I never had a full time career that I didn't own myself.

What did you go to college for? What was your major?

Business major and minor in economics.

Well, you were kind of primed for business!

Exactly. Yeah. I always knew it was, well I'd always hoped and prayed it would be a possibility one day. Just never dreamed I would get to do it right out of college, but things fell into place for us to be able to do that. And it only took us about seven years to break even. So it just happened to be the year we got on eBay. We struggled for a long time, but really enjoy and were very passionate about the hobby. So very thankful that I've stayed in it.

When did you first get interested in baseball cards?

I mean, I started collecting from the time I remember my first packs I think were, I was eight years old, 1976. First packs I remember opening as a kid, always enjoyed it. And to this day, it's a thrill, it's fun opening packs of cards and never know what will be inside there. They don't have the gum in there anymore. So I miss that, but my dentist misses it too, I guess.

Exactly. You got to keep those teeth healthy. Do you still have cards that you collected when you were a child?

I do. I do. Yep. And I have not all of them, but I do have certain ones that I've held on to over the years and still continue to build my own personal collection to this day. I still often buy cards on eBay that I don't sell.

Hmm. How big is that personal collection?

It's a pretty good size. Not as big as most people would think. I mean, I joke with customers who come into my brick and mortar and they say, how big is your collection? I just say, well, look around, you know, if I haven't sold it yet, then that's part of my collection.

If you had to pick out something from your collection, what would be your favorite and what would be the most expensive or the most valuable card in your collection?

I don't know that it's the most expensive. Probably the most prized card I have is a 1954 Topps, Hank Aaron autographed rookie card. I got it a few years ago in a collection. And I was like, yep, that one's going in the safety deposit box. It's a really, really neat piece. And I actually got to have dinner with Mr. Aaron about three years ago, a group of sellers had a special event with him and a very, very humble man. Very, very sweet man. So it was a pleasure to get to meet him.

So I have to ask you because you've actually met a legend, Hank Aaron is definitely a legend.

What do you mean? I'm speaking to a legend today! What do you mean?

No, no, no. There's no comparison. Trust me. When you went to this dinner, did you bring things to ask him to autograph?

We had actually already been told not to do that ahead of time, but we did receive, it was, it was a promotion. It was a dinner that Topps had hosted for him. So we did get an autograph from him and we also got our own card made with Hank Aaron there. So that's really cool too. I have that at home yet. So it's a, one of a kind card of me and Hammering Hank.

It's a memory in that it's also probably a rare card now too as well.

That's true. Not that it will ever be sold, but yeah. So that's probably my favorite card. Now I buy a lot of other collectibles on eBay that are in my collection outside of trading cards.

Oh Really?

I'm a huge Peanuts collector. And so I often support other eBay sellers by buying up Peanuts comic books and Peanuts collectible figures, things like that. So I have a lot of them decorating my office at our business.

You know that the museum is right here in California? It's just North of San Francisco in Santa Rosa. Have you ever been to the museum?

Oh yes. It was a wonderful experience. Yeah. I went there probably three, four years ago and spent an entire day there. It was a great, great place.

They recently had a fire, I don't know how much was damaged and I don't know what the plans are for reopening the museum, but it would definitely be a trip for anyone who's coming to the San Francisco area. It's a really interesting museum.

Yes it is.

So you collect Peanuts, you obviously collect sports cards. What else do you collect? I'm curious, I'm trying to get a picture of your collection now. It's pretty interesting.

I want to tell you one of the most iconic items. I'm actually in Christian ministry and so I highly respect Billy Graham and I have an autographed book that I bought last year. Peace With God, an autograph book from Billy Graham. So that's a really cool piece of my collection.

Were you ever able to meet him?

I was not, but I actually have a pastor friend who did meet him and got autographs from him. And he actually is a big card collector and I've actually hosted trading card shows at his church. So we have an interesting connection there. Sports cards and ministry.

Okay. So you've got, you've got some ministry collectibles, you have Peanuts, you have Sports Cards. Is there something else that you would like to talk about that you collect?

Yeah, that's probably, I mean, I have a lot of toys. I have a lot of Flintstones collectibles as well. Just childhood memories. And I think that's part of a lot of what eBay does. It helps people relive their childhood with artifacts and toys and collectibles and things they can go back and buy. And so I have a lot of stuff. I have a lot of comic books in my collection. I grew up reading comics and I have a, I don't really care for new stuff necessarily, but I have a lot old Archie and you know, a lot of the old, funny animal books of Looney Tunes, stuff like that.

I even had a collection I'm a little bit older than you, but I actually had collected things of similar nature, but unfortunately they all got thrown away one day when I wasn't home.

I've heard that story a few times.

Yeah, It' was the sixties. These things were not considered valuable. So your parents would tend to say, well, I think it's time to clean out that room. And they would throw everything away. And you'd say, "where is everything? It's all gone ." You were lucky, you came a little bit afterwards because if I remember correctly and correct me if I'm wrong, but the trading card hobby, which was always a hobby on a very personal level with kids who were into, into baseball or into sports. But that really started to take off in the early eighties. If I remember? I can recall back in Vermont, there was the interest in trading cards started to take off during the eighties. Was that your experience as well?

Yes, I was very young. I was a teenager then, but the, the boom, I think really took off around 84. There was this huge craze for Don Mattingly rookie cards and his rookie card was 1984. And that continued to build into the late eighties to where really got out of control at the time because the production numbers got out of control by the late eighties and early nineties, which we opened the business in 1991. Then it started to scale back in the mid nineties. We had the baseball strike in 94 and suddenly there was a big drop in interest and so production levels dropped. Stabilized more by the late nineties. Today, I tell customers that the production levels on average today are infinitely smaller than they were 20 and 30 years ago and the demand is right up there though.

I seem to recall this? I remember somebody was it the child of a friend of ours who actually got a little burnt in this process by over investing in things that lost their value because of those high production numbers.

Yeah. We're one of the largest buyers of sports cards in the country. And I get calls regularly. People say, Hey, I've got a warehouse of late eighties boxes and early nineties boxes and we still buy them. But the numbers usually are not nearly what the seller hopes they will be. I go back to my economics minor in college, it's supply and demand and unfortunately there's still quite a supply of a lot of that stuff.

Yeah. It would be good, maybe a couple warehouses have to burn down to get rid of some of the supply.

Yeah. Or maybe a couple dozen.

What happened with the business after the early nineties?

Well, you know, the, the biggest change for our business by the late nineties was the growth of online selling. Once we started selling on eBay, that really opened up so many, it kind of broadened our horizon I'll say. Because we were able to connect with a global audience and instead of just seeing who might be within a 20 mile drive of us to come into our brick and mortar store, we were able to offer items globally. And also it opened up all kinds of buying opportunities for me because we still source a lot of products through eBay and meet other vendors that way and build relationships that way. So it, it really completely changed our business. We started buying collections depending on which of this can we sell on eBay, which of this is a good fit to put online and so forth. And we've continued to grow over the years with adding other means to sell online, but eBay is still the core site for us.

The business has changed obviously over the last 18 years, actually 22 years, 1998, we are in 2020. Have you kept your brick and mortar store all through that time?

Yes, we have. We'll be coming up on 30 years next year. Actually we're blessed to buy our own property. We have a 10,000 foot retail store now where we operate both retail and various mail-order divisions out of.

Well, the retail end of it, has that suffered with the pandemic?

Drastically. Yeah, currently as we record this, we're just offering curbside service and we've been closed since early March. Our retail sales have definitely taken a hit, but thankfully our eBay and online sales have actually dramatically increased during this. It's been a very interesting and unexpected because I think it started with so many people were at home and they were like, well let's find something to do and let's grow our hobby and, you know, and spend time on our hobby. And so they bought a lot of sports cards and other items that we sell.

How big a part did trade shows play in your business and how has that changed?

Well, back in the day in college, when I was really learning the ropes, I would travel all over the Southeast attending shows, sometimes three, four shows a month wherever I could find one. But nowadays we typically do like two to three shows a year. We do the National Convention, which normally would be going on right now. It was postponed of course, due to COVID. And I still try to attend some regional shows sometimes even just to shop. But back in the day, it was a much bigger thing because people could not shop online. Because the hobby is so strong right now shows are also doing well. But back in the day, that was the only, you know, you either went to your local card store or you attended a show. So in the early nineties, we set up at a lot more then because that was one of the only other avenues we had to sell.

You said earlier in our conversation that you weren't so much interested in new merchandise. We were talking about comic books, I think at the time. But does that also go for trading cards?

No, it's the complete opposite. The biggest percentage of our business in trading cards is new releases. We sell a large number of brand new products on open boxes on eBay. We buy and sell professionally graded sports cards on eBay. And that's the biggest percentage of our business. And don't get me wrong. If somebody calls me with a '52 mantle rookie, I'm happy to say, "yeah, bring it in. I'll take a look, where can we meet?" You know, but in general, the biggest demand and the biggest influx of new growth back into the industry has been those who are buying up quantities of modern young players, rookie card investing, investing in products. We have seen phenomenal growth in the investment category. Again, we're seeing a lot of, I mean, I know a lot of people taking money off the stock market, putting it into the card market. It's trending very strongly in that direction.

Joe, over the years, have you established relationships with the big companies that produce these cards?

Oh yes. Yeah. I feel like I'm on, well I am on a first name basis with a head of each of the companies, as far as the hobby division that we work with. And I've spoken at, I think every industry conference now that's been held by each different manufacturer over the years and have really good working relationships with them. They're good people, they're competitors, but our industry is, we're friendly competitors. I mean, some of my dearest friends on the planet are other sports card store owners that I speak with. I literally was on the phone with one right before we started this today. So a lot of really good people. It's a really good industry to be a part of.

Now the baseball season was delayed. It's starting up, but it looks like might be in trouble again for this, at least this year. How is this, do you think going to impact the trading card business for this year? Or will it?

I think it will, in the sense that let's operate under the assumption that the season gets called off again. A lot of rookies lets say that might've gotten an opportunity to play and therefore people would start buying up their cards may not get that opportunity. A lot of veterans towards the end of their careers who were still padding their stats, won't get that opportunity to continue to grow their numbers. If there's no season, there's no World Series. You're not going to be chasing cards of XYZ team that won the World Series. So it'll definitely hurt in that sense. On the other, the flip side is that the speculation continues because it's almost like, well, this guy didn't get to play, but boy, I bet he'll be hot next year. You know, if nobody plays, nobody struggles. So you can't say it's time to unload that player because he had a bad season. If he doesn't play, i've seen that this whole during the whole shutdown, because there's been so much speculation. We say it here with my coworkers every day. I'm like," why is this guy hot? He hasn't played anywhere for six months, but his cards have grown by 300% in the last month." And you know, you just see the trends, people start talking and looking at his stats are like, "well, you know, he may really be the next one to take off." So there's such an investment mentality in the market right now.

And possibly a lot of opportunity. If investment is a big part of your strategy.

Yes, there is my son, Josh and I often, you know, some fathers and sons look at stocks together. We look at cards together and we talk about what's a good investment in the card market and what cases should we buy up? And so he was on the phone with me earlier today, asking about a product, should he be buying? And so we have a lot of fun with that. He has his own career and a is a successful consultant. But growing up, he was involved in the business a lot and still, still attend shows with me and things like that.

Does he have his own collection?

He does actually. It's still at our house right now. He's about to be moving. And so my daughter in law's going to be attending Stanford for graduate school. And so they're gonna have a little small space and they're going to be cramming into a smaller area in their apartment there. So he's going to be leaving some things behind, but yes he does.

Welcome to the Bay area and the expensive real estate. What would you advise a seller who was coming maybe comes into your shop and maybe they're not going to get into the category that you're selling on, but based on your eBay experience, what advice would you give a new seller who is looking to start off on the site?

If that's something they really want to do, start with the dream. In the sense that don't go do it. It's like, well, this is just something I'm going to try to buy and sell and make some money on the side, whatever, you know. They've got to be passionate about it. You, if they love vintage coins in which that's not something I'm into. If they love that, you know, they'll have a passion for it. For me, I have a passion for sports cards. So it comes naturally to buy and sell them, enjoy and invest in them, and so forth. Start with a dream, not just the mentality of buying and selling. Then I also encourage them to get educated, become an expert at something. You know, if there's one area that you can, I mean, for me, it's sports cards, but if you can become an expert in one area of collectibles, you can literally, as I tell people, you know, if you've got $500, you can start with, you can literally take that $500 and if you have the education, you have the knowledge you can make wise purchase decisions on eBay, get that inventory in and then resell it at a profit back on eBay. We do that all the time. We buy things, they come in, we sometimes we'll buy large lots of sports cards from a seller. Then you know, we minimize to the maximum is what I call it. We break it down to the smallest known quantity and sell it. I mean, we have over 600,000 items on eBay and the large majority of them are 99 cent items, but we sell thousands and thousands of them.

Your biggest sellers aren't necessarily the more expensive cards, but you do a high volume in the very inexpensive cards.

Exactly. Yes. I have cards that are $3000, $4,000 on there right now, but the great majority is more affordable items. A lot of people just want to put cards in their collection. They're affordable. I mean, our average sales probably $10 to $20. We move a lot of cheaper items just for pure collectors.

And I've been active in some way, shape or form in the antique and collectible business for almost four decades now myself. And I remember that there was a Maxim that experienced collectors and dealers would tell us, which was, you would learn more about the business on your mistakes than you would from your successes. And is that the same for trading cards as well?

Yeah, I've learned over the years, I remember one card specifically. It was a Warren Moon card from 1990 and it was a cool looking card. Cause it had like the moon in the background, it was a play off his name. And I was just like, man, that's that card is going to take off and so I bought like a thousand of them. And somewhere in my warehouse, I probably still have all thousand of them cause the card never did anything, you know, so, and they were inexpensive. So it wasn't a huge loss, but I've learned more and more to go with my instincts of, "Hey, I really like this guy. There's a reason I want to buy him up." I mean, I'll take Zion Williamson as an example, he's the hottest guy in the sports card industry period right now. He's a really good character kid from everything I see, you know, he's well spoken. He's respectful from what I see, he's got a good work ethic. He's apparently lost a lot of weight during the shutdown and really worked on getting some weight off and to be more prepared. And he's just a lovable character. People just love his personality and stuff. And he's a guy who bought a lot of cards of, and I've done really well with those. So yeah, I've learned to buy things that I enjoy. It usually works well for me.

Regardless of what it is you're selling but especially if you're in the collectibles industry, which is such an emotionally based industry to begin with. You really do have to love what it is that you're selling.

If you're going to do it, I mean, for me, if you're going to do it 80 hours a week, you better learn to love it. So because I come here working my brick and mortar and then I go home and I'm still online buying or selling or listing or whatever.

I think that's what keeps the Collectibles Category so fascinating and robust for so many people is these are purchases and decisions that are made more on emotion than anything else.

That's where you see sometimes when we're selling something, we say, "how in the world did this card, you know, on auctions, how did this bring that?" But as I say, it only takes two, it takes two people who really want that card and they're both determined to get it. And you know, then the bidding just keeps going and going. And so sometimes we're shocked sometimes. And it's a great thing to see, you know, as a seller, but it only takes two who have enough money to run that item up.

Well, I want to thank you so much, Joe, for talking to us about both your hobby and your passion and your business. And congratulations again on having your story selected as one of 25 out of thousands that were submitted for the mini series.

Thank you so much. It was joy to be with you today.

We've been speaking with Joe Davis. Joe sells on eBay under the user ID, gotbaseballcards.

This is the 25th year of eBay. Yes, eBay is 25 years old officially on Labor Day of this year, 2020. And unfortunately, because of the pandemic, all of our plans for a live event this year were cut short, but that's not going to stop us. And to tell us exactly what we're going to do we're going to speak now with Allison Engles. She works here at eBay as the Senior Manager of Seller Events. Welcome back to the podcast. Allison.

Thank you Griff.

I know we're all working from home, but everyone's busy working on lots of projects. And one of them is the 25th Anniversary Celebration, which will take place online. Can you tell us a little bit about it?

The event is a celebration of our 25 years and specifically a celebration with our sellers who make it all happen.

Is it going to be an all day event? Is there a specific time and day?

September 25th. The event is going to start with a pre event at noon. The Main Event is going to be from one to two o'clock and we'll have a post event kind of celebration from two to three.

And all I have to do is just be in front of a laptop computer or my iPad and I can take part?

That's correct.

Is there a pre-register

Yeah, we are encouraging everyone to register now at ebay25.com.

Is the registration site open?

Yep. Open live as of yesterday.

www.ebay25.com. I know in the past, when we've had events, we have to limit attendance based on the capacity that the room or the hotel or the conference center can hold. Is that the same for the online event?

The beauty of virtual, we can allow as many as possible and we have gotten a great response thus far and encouraging more and more to get registered.

So are people already registering?

Yep. They sure are.

So you got to get to ebay25.com and register now. What can we expect to see during the Main Event?

We'll have a host of our executives speaking, some fun video content, interactions seller to seller and fun games for people to participate in.

Sounds like fun. And will I be able to interact with anyone or is it just me watching?

You will be able to chat with other sellers and eBay employees, answer trivia and take part in sharing socially.

So again, this is the 25th Anniversary celebration of eBay. We are 25 years old, this, wow! If we were a child, we beginning out of college and moving into the world. Hard to believe, It's 25 years. I've been here for a long time and it just seems like a quarter of a century spent on eBay and I've got a house full of stuff to show for it too, as well. So go to ebay25.com today and register for the event. Even if you are unable to travel right now, this is an event that you can watch on the 25th of September. Pre Event is at noon Pacific time and the Main Event starts at one. And there's an after event happening after two o'clock. Allison, thank you so much for taking the time and talking to us about the event. And if I don't see you beforehand, I'll see online at eBays 25th Anniversary. You know I'll be there.

Thanks Griff.

We've been speaking with Allison Engles. She's the Senior Manager of eBay Events. And again, we'll put it in the transcript, but it's an easy URL to remember. Register for the 25th Anniversary celebration for eBay on September 25th. You register now at ebay25.com.

You've got questions. We got answers. Every week In fact.

How many questions do we have this week, Griff?

Well Rebecca, we have three questions. Would you like to read the first one?

I would love to. It's from Leslie who writes, "My husband got 10,000 free listings this month and I have 999 plus. Are these for this month only or forever? What are the rules? Thank you. Hi, Leslie. On July 19th, we announced an increase in the number of free listings for store subscribers starting this month. And I mean, August when I say that, and yes, these are permanent increases.

You can read more on the Announcement Board and we will put links to the announcement and the page with details on this increase into this episode's transcript, which you can find on the eBay Community.

You know, that's why one of the three items in our weekly podcast to do list is read the Seller News Announcements every day!

Every day. There's so much great information there. Griff I'm reading ahead and I see that the next question is a doozy. It's a great question, but pretty long I am going to let you tackle it.

Well, thanks Rebecca. I hope I'm up to the task. It's from eBay seller, George and George writes, "Hey Griff. I listened to eBay podcast 102 and was surprised when you advised the seller to never give a partial refund to a buyer for a late delivery. In the past, you've always advocated exceeding buyer expectations. If you've changed your position on pleasing the buyer, I'd very much like to hear your reasons, because I recently had a similar case in which a USPS priority package took about three weeks to get delivered. The buyer asked for a partial refund as compensation for the delay. I offered a $10 refund and the buyer accepted. My reasons for giving the refund are purely for business purposes. Here's my analysis. So if I refuse the buyer, he could have taken the following actions, return the order for full refund. So I would have been out anyway plus the cost of return shipping. The buyer could have left negative feedback and or low DSRs and I'm not confident eBay will remove the feedback in these situations. Or the buyer might not buy from me again and maybe leave eBay altogether. And by the way, he says these delays in USPS deliveries right now are ongoing, but they're probably about less than 10% of my orders." George then writes, "am I overlooking something in my analysis of giving partial refunds? When a buyer request one, if the delay is only a few days, I wouldn't give a refund. But if the delay is three weeks, I think my reasons are valid. What is eBay's policy on removing feedback and DSRs for late delivery? And what is eBays policies on giving a seller, a defect when a buyer escalates an item, not received case and eBay rules in the favor of buyer. How quickly will eBay rule a case when it gets ex-co escalated and will eBay remove a defect if eBay messages show i'm willing to issue a refund as soon as the buyer asks?" Well, thanks George. eBay user ID georgek809. Okay.

Wow. That's a, you know, that's a long question, but there's going to be a lot of great information, but before we go on and hear your advice, can you tell us, cause I have to confess I'm still pretty new to eBay. What does DSR stand for?

Oh, good question. That means Detailed Seller Ratings and they were instituted over 10 years ago, as a way for buyers to rate sellers on four different areas of their service. Item condition, shipping price, shipping time and communication with the seller. Now they used to have an impact on a seller status. They don't anymore. They're strictly FYI for buyers. They have no impact on a seller status.

So they're just informational?

Yes.

That's great to know. Anyway, moving on. So George disagrees with your advice on this issue. What do you have to say based on his question?

Well, I would say "hi George, thanks for the questions." And of course, sellers are free to offer a partial refund if they choose, but I'm going to stand by my original advice. The only time I would offer a refund would be a total refund for a package that has definitely gone missing, that is the carrier can't locate it. I've done that a handful of times in my 24 years of selling on eBay, but I would never offer a partial refund for an item in transit that is delayed. I would not grant the request for one. I might offer something else that I'll talk about that in a minute. Many deliveries are late right now because of the pandemic. This is a fact of life. If a seller starts agreeing to requests for partial refunds, because an item that is clearly in transit is late in delivery. That seller is kind of training that buyer to ask for partial refunds for all late deliveries in the future. Don't want to do that, not a very good business practice. And to answer some of your concerns about what a buyer could do If a partial refund is denied, you were concerned that they would return the order for a real full refund. And then you'd be out all the money. Well, our own data and my own selling experience shows that's highly unlikely, but in a case where you do end up having to provide a full refund and get the item back, at least you have the item back. You also say the buyer could have left negative feedback and are low DSRs and the, you are not confident. eBay would remove them well. eBay would definitely remove any negative feedback left for late delivery due to carrier delays and remember neither feedback or DSRs have any impact on a seller's performance metric.

None, zero personally, I don't care about feedback and I don't base my business decisions on the possibility of receiving a negative feedback. However, if a buyer leaves it after being denied a partial refund, that seller has grounds for feedback removal, and then you ask, the buyer might not buy from me again and maybe leave eBay altogether. Again, our own data shows that this outcome is extremely unlikely. However, a buyer that makes a habit of requesting partial refunds may indeed be asked by eBay to stop and could result in that buyer suspension if they don't. So you don't want it. That's again, that whole idea about training a buyer that this is an okay, buying practice. I think that answers all of your questions except the defect question. Now you should read up on the case consequences on our Seller Performance Page. I'm going to put the link to that in the episode transcript so that you can read them. But in the meantime, I'll read this much from that page. Any case where the case is escalated to eBay and eBay finds in the buyer's favor, the seller receives a defect, just how it works. There are cases where the decision is no fault and those result in no consequences for the seller. eBay's Trust Team will always try to rule on a case in a timely manner. If tracking shows an item is in transit, but delayed eBay will not usually rule the case as an item not received. And especially during the pandemic eBay's is actually protecting sellers in these cases. As long as the package was scanned as received by the carrier. Now, if a seller is concerned that a buyer might not come back to buy, a partial refund won't guarantee their return, however, a discount codeless coupon could since it can only be redeemed on a seller's listed items. I offer 25% codeless coupons to almost all of the buyers who are either dissatisfied with delivery times or with an item that they have to return. I've had quite a few buyers come back to purchase from me because of that 25% codeless coupon. You can learn more about codeless coupons and the Promotions section of Seller Hub. I will put the transcript in today's episode. So the upshot George is that I still advise not providing partial refunds for late deliveries. There are other remedies, including a full refund if the item truly goes missing or a codeless coupon that you can provide that buyer.

That was a long answer Griff but well done.

What do you think? I mean, that's my answer, but, uh, what is your take? What would you give advice?

Be honest.

My honest reaction is that I can see the seller's side of wanting to make the buyer happy and a refund or a partial refund might make the buyer happy. But I did not know about codeless coupons and that idea seems like the perfect solution. It encourages a returning buyer. It's a great way to nurture that relationship that the seller has with the buyer and it's really kind of forward looking instead of being retroactive. So for me, that's the advice that I would take. I would go with the codeless coupon.

Cool. Well, there you go.

All right, done and done. Let's go to our third question.

Sure. Now this one was called into our voice line at 888-723-4630. Let's give a listen.

Hi Griff. My store is azaleasbooksandboutiqueshop. My question today is about Item Specifics. When I am filling out Item Specifics and I start with brand and in the dropdown box, my brand that I'm trying to list, does not appear. I've just been typing in the name of my brand. Does that do any good? Is that helping my listing? Thanks. I appreciate it.

I think I know the answer to this one

Really. Okay. Be my guest.

If the brand of your item is not in the dropdown list then you definitely should and I think must in fact, put it into the text box that's provided. Make sure that you type it correctly, check the spelling, things like that. The reasoning behind this is because the brand specific is mandatory and super high important as a search component, the adding of a custom brand will both meet that requirement, but it's also going to help better guarantee that your item will come up in searches for that particular brand. Yes, definitely type it in check the spelling and it really will make a difference.

That is spot on Rebecca. I couldn't have said it better myself.

Great. Thanks.

Well, that's it for questions this week. We want to thank everyone who sent in their questions, so please keep them coming.

And it is so easy to do it. Just call in your question or comment to (888) 723-4630.

That's 888-723-4630 and of course the best part as I say every week and I never get tired of saying it. You can call that hotline anytime of the day, any day of the week, leave a question or comment and we just might put it on the air.

And if you're not a phone person, you can always just email us at podcast@ebay.com. That's podcast@ebay.com. Griff. I have an idea!

What's that?

I wonder will that number accept text messages? Lots of people like to text nowadays something to look into maybe?

Alas, it won't.

Oh darn. Oh well.

It was a nice try. I'd have to give them my personal phone number for that.

Let's not do that.

Yes, let's not. And also don't forget your daily podcast to do list.

First check the Announcement Board for up to date Seller News.

And always check out past episodes of the podcast that you might've missed.

And of course, check out the transcript for this and for all episodes to follow up on what you've heard and to see the links we referenced during the episode.

On our next episode, we'll hear from another eBay seller. This time from a seller who overcame a life changing accident to build a successful business on eBay.

And we will welcome eBay Senior Vice President Jordan Sweetnam who will provide insights on buyer Holiday shopping behavior during this year of the pandemic.

And we will also have Senior Director of Shipping, Stuart Reichenbach. He's back with tips on staying on top of shipping during the upcoming unusual Holiday shopping season.

Unusual indeed. And we'd like to, again, thank our guests this week. That's eBay seller Joe Davis, and from here at eBay, Eddie Chen and Allison Engles and Kristi Diemonz.

The eBay For Business Podcast is produced and distributed by Libsyn and podCast411.