TOPRATEDSELLERTIPS.COM

Now you can buy postage from Amazon

2010-07-22T20:18:00Z

You can now buy postage to ship your amazon.com orders directly from Seller Central.

This has been available through PayPal for a long time but has not been available directly from Amazon.

The service is being provided through stamps.com. The only downside I can see is there is a 7¢ charge per transaction. This can easily be made up by the amount you save on Delivery Confirmation.

Click Here for all the details

eBay, the gang that can't shoot straight

2010-07-16T23:17:00Z

eBay is using a seller that has not had a sale in over a year in one of their promotions.

This would be hilarious if I didn't depend on eBay for my livelihood.
Below is a screen shot of a screen I see when I list an item for sale

In the lower corner is a blurb titled "A Shared Dream" It says ""eBay is our entire online source of revenue for our business and willbe our #1 source for the foreseeable future."-periodpaper

Below is a closeup of the blurb:

I found that compelling so I went to look up the periodpaper account. I could not believe what I found. Here is a screen shot:

As you an see periodpaper is "Not a registered user". As a matter of fact they received their last feedback in May 09, over a year ago.

I will have to assume the shared dream turned out to be a shared nightmare as it has for many eBay sellers in the past 2 years.

eBay, Please Remove my Top-rated Seller Status

2010-07-15T00:18:00Z

I lost my TRS status on March 20. The 1st month I could not tell much difference in my sales.

Beginning about April 20 my sales started increasing. My average daily sales were up 15% in April and over 20% in May. June started off pretty good until the 20th when I got my TRS status returned. Sales dropped almost immediately and have continued to do so. Below is a graph showing my weekly sales for the last 4 weeks.

Where do I go to get my TRS status removed? I can't afford it.

Check your eBay item conditions, NOW

2010-07-09T19:41:00Z

If you sell used items on eBay you should check your item conditions immediately.

About a week ago I received an e-mail from a dissatisfied buyer complainng that the shirt she had bought from me was used when the listing said it was New. When I checked the lisitng did say "New" at the top of the lisitng even though in the description I had it listed as good-very good.

I checked about 30 of my other used listings(I have over 2500 used listings) and found only one other one that had the condition wrong. Yesterday I started getting offers on and selling used items and almost all of them had been changed to "New".

Almost all of my used items now say "new". It is going to be a long weekend for me, changing all of these back, as they should be, to used.

Maybe we should take a closer look at craigslist

2010-07-08T22:06:00Z

BusinessInsider.com is reporting that craigslist had the same number of unique visitors in May as eBay did.

Click Here for the story

My eBay Sales are UP! Join me in a beta test of a new system

2010-05-28T23:54:00Z

My sales in my eBay store at http://stores.ebay.com/Got-The-Shirt are UP!

They were up 15% in April and so far this month are up a little over 5%. Today(a Friday before a holiday weekend and the last weekend of the month) my sales are almost double my average. My average sale price is also up a little. This is very unusual because I have added very few new items to my store since April 1. I have always raised sales by adding new product. The past 2 months my sales are up with very few new products added..

Are your sales up? If not and you have at least 500 items in your eBay store I will share with you what I have been doing different the past 2 months.

All I ask in return is your assurance you will try this system for at least 30 days, will not share this system with any other person. and at the end of the 30 days you will give me a report on how well you did and allow me to use your name and store in future promotions for my system.

If you agree to these terms send me an e-mail to gary@garyoverton.com with a link to your eBay store. I will contact you with further details. Remember, you must have t least 500 items in your store. I feel this is the only fair way to test the system.

Hey Jeff! I thought your goal was for Amazon.com to be customer-centric

2010-05-28T21:22:00Z

I have been a 3rd party seller on Amazon.com for almost 10 years and have been one of their biggest cheerleaders until recently.

I have been to the Amazon.com headquarters in Seattle and heard Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos speak on both trips. One of the things he said at both talks and in almost every interview I have ever heard with him is how he wants Amazon.com to be the wold's most customer-centric web site.

I admire him for this and think, for the most part he has been successful.

My complaint comes from an experience I have had with Amazon.com over the past few days.

Amazon.com has a service called Web Stores. It is a service where 3rd party sellers, like myself, can set up their own e-commerce web site. I am very interested in doing this and the last couple of years have tried out a bunch of them. After spending a lot of time on each I found that those I tried did not meet my needs and have dropped them.

I had considered the earlier version of amazon.com Web Stores and found it lacking in several ways so I never actually signed up to try it. I was excited to find out that they had a new version and was hoping it might meet my needs.

When I visited the site at http://webstore.amazon.com/ I found it very interesting and set out to find if it offered what I was looking for in an e-commerce web site. I looked at all of their store samples and think I might be very interested BUT I still had a couple of questions to ask before I make a commitment.

I clicked on the FAQ link and found very few in-depth questions. I then clicked on the Contact Us link and found that was just to contact Amazon.com about getting a developer to help you with your store. I could find no other way to contact Amazon.com about their new offering. I posted about this on Facebook and some helpful soul posted a link to the Amazon.com forums for their new Web Stores.
When I visited the forums I found very little helpful information. What I did find was a lot of previous Web Store owners that were dissatisfied with the changeover.

Getting very frustrated I went back to the Web Store home page and clicked on the Contact Us link. I filled it out and in the comments section stated I was not interested in a developer but was only interested in getting a couple of questions answered.
That was yesterday afternoon. Today I received an answer to my request. Here is what it said:

"Hi Gary,

Thank you for your interest in Amazon Services. Welcome to the new version of Amazon WebStore. Here you can take advantage of world-class ecommerce capabilities to design, build and manage your ecommerce business not just on the web, but multi-channel selling across your stores and call centers. Whether you're ready to take your business online for the first time or upgrade your current site, the Amazon WebStore is your solution for creating a top-of-the line professional ecommerce site.

You can review more information about the Webstore pricing tiers here:
webstore.amazon.com/WebStore-Beta/Pricing?ld=EMIn

You can also review the FAQ page:
webstore.amazon.com/WebStore-Beta/Faq?ld=EMIn

If you have additional questions not listed on the FAQ page, please register for the free 30 day trial and then contact our technical support team for assistance using the link below (please note you must be a registered merchant using Seller Central to view this page):
sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/contact-us/contact-amazon-form.html/ref=ag_contactus_foot_home?ie=UTF8&urlStr=%2Fgp%2Fhomepage.html />
Sincerely,

Mary
Amazon Services LLC - An Amazon Company
Amazonservices.com

Note: This e-mail message was sent from a notification-only address that cannot accept incoming e-mail. Please do not reply to this message."

I have several complaints with this response. 1) Mary didn't even have the courtesy to give me her full name(If you were going to send me what is obviously a form letter why did it take 24 hours?) 2) I have already viewed their pricing page(several times) 3) I have visited the FAQ page(several times) 3) I do not have the time to waste signing up just to get a couple of questions answered.

I will just have to assume Amazon Web Stores are not interested in my business.

In closing, I would like to state I know what Jeff means when he states he wants Amazon to be the world's most customer-centric web site. He means the the end-user of Amazon.com products.

#57 Top Rated Seller Tip-Do NOT depend on the eBay notification system

2010-05-21T19:52:00Z

Do NOT depend on the eBay notification system.

I have found that the eBay messaging system leaves a lot to be desired. Just today, I have not received e-mail notifications of 4 sales and 2 offers(and it is only 1 pm on the west coast)

eBay would probably blame my e-mail provider but I do not having any other problems receiving e-mails except with eBay.

When I go to My Messages in eBay some of the missed communications are there but many are not.

The messages I fail to receive most are offers. I usually get several offers a day so if a few hours pass without an offer I go check on my own. As you can see from the screen shot below I have tabs on my toolbar set so I can easily check. I have one tab for SOLD, another for UNSOLD, another for OFFERS and one for Selling Manager(SM)

How to respond to "I didn't receive my order"

2010-05-20T02:09:00Z

Since April 12, 2000 I have mailed thousands of packages via the USPS. I only know of 3 that have truly been lost during that time.

This does not keep buyers from claiming they never received their order. I have had 2 such claims just this week.

I use a standard response to every one of these claims that has worked well for me. Since I started usind delivery confirmation on every order and using this response I have NEVER heard from the buyer again.

The response I use is:

That order was mailed on xx/xx/xxxx via 1st Class Mail to:

xxxxxx xxxxxxx
xxxx xxxxx xx
xxxxxxxxx, xx xxxxx-xxxx
The delivery confirmation number is: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The USPS says this item was delivered on xxxxxx xxxxx. If you do not agree you should contact your postmaster IMMEDIATELY.
If you do not receive satisfaction from the postmaster you should file a report of stolen mail with your local police department and report it to the US Postal Inspectors at postalinspectors.uspis.gov/ /> If you had rather I file the report with the postal inspectors I will be glad to do so. All I will need is a copy of your local police report.
Thanks

Try it. It works!

My results after 1 month of "Store to Core"

2010-05-05T02:25:00Z

After the 1st month of eBay moving store items to core my results are in.

The good news is my sales in April were up 15% from March.

The bad news is my eBay fees were up 13% during the same time period.

I think eBay is "cycling"(I use this word because of the lack of a better word) the listings in and out. I would go several days at a time and sell almost all former fixed-price items. Then I would go several days and sell almost all former store items. Then I would go for several days and sell a good mix of both.

The days I sold a good mix of both my sales were usually about double the other days. The last couple of weeks of the month the number of days both former fixed-price items and former store items sold increased causing most of my increase in sales month over month.

The 1st 4 days of this month my sales are way down. I am selling almost all former fixed-price items.

How were you're results April over March?

Has eBay bought the New York Times?

2010-03-29T22:29:00Z

Or maybe the New York times has bought eBay.
Every evening while I am eating dinner I visit the New York Times web site. Today I visited and much to my surprise here is what I saw:

3 eBay ads on the top fold. Wow! That must have cost a fortune. Now I know where my fees are going.
Too bad they don't seem to be doing much good.

To see this screen shot full size click here

The eBay top-rated seller program is a pile of crap

2010-03-16T21:34:00Z

I have qualified as a top-rated seller every month, except one, since the program started.

All of this time I have had a feedback rating of 99.8%. I have never worried about feedback. I have always been pretty happy as long as it was 98% or above. I learned long ago that you can't please everyone. I just try to do the best I can do at all times. I have NEVER asked for anyone to leave feedback or asked anyone to change feedback. I have always considered it a necessary evil. BTW, I do have over 26,000 feedback on eBay and the last time I checked I had over 7000 on amazon.com. I seldom check my feedback. I realize it is there but it is no big deal for me.

The top-rated seller program has been about the same for me as feedback. I know it is there but I do not obsess over it. I cannot tell it has helped my sales any and the month I did not have it I could not tell a marked difference in my sales. The 20% discounts are nice but they do not really add up to much each month.

Late last week I was surprised to receive a TRS certificate in the mail from eBay. This got me to wondering what my numbers looked like. When I went to my feedback page this is what I discovered

WOW! My feedback score is at 99.9%. I do not ever remember it being that high. I must be good. I must be damn good!

My head is growing by the minute. I think if I am this good my TRS status is surely assured, right?

I go to Selling Manager to help massage my ego a little more. I am enjoying this.

Surprise! This is what I see when I check my TRS status

My TRS status is at risk. How could this be? My feedback percentage is the highest it has ever been but I am at risk for losing my TRS. Upon further examination I find that I am not only at risk of losing the TRS but am pretty much assured of it since I have double the allowed low ratings in the Item as described category and am at the limit in the Communication and Shipping & Handling categories.

Only at eBay could you be a saint and a sinner at the same time :> Either the feedback system which eBay has touted forever is a pile of crap or the new, improved TRS program is. since I am doing great in the feedback department, today I will have to label the TRS program a pile of crap

Someone please explain this eBay insanity to me!

2010-03-11T05:19:00Z

Tonight I received 2 exact orders from the same buyer.

Buyer e-mailed me almost immediately and told me one of the orders was a mistake and would I please cancel it.

I went and filed for a transaction cancellation as I have done many times in the past. I don't guess I have ever read what happens after you file one of these because I was totally blown away by what I read on the Your case is now open screen as shown below:

Skip down to the bullet points.

The first one reads " If the buyer agrees to cancel the transaction, this case will be automatically closed and you will receive a Final Value Fee credit." Fair enough. That is what I expect to happen.

The second one reads " If the buyer declines to cancel the transaction, this case will be automatically closed and you will not receive a Final Value Fee credit." This is insane. The buyer makes a mistake. Asks me to cancel.. If the buyer does not agree after I file for the cancellation, I do not receive a Final Value Fee credit.

Can someone please explain to me eBay's reasoning on this?

At least one eBay seller is allowed to offer coupons

2010-03-07T16:36:00Z

I run another blog at onlinebuyertips.com While researching good buys on the internet I ran across a coupon offer from an eBay seller.
You can see this offer here. As you can see this offer is on the eBay site.

Upon further investigation I found eBay has a page of FAQ's concerning coupons. You can access this page here. If you scroll down the page you find at the bottom a section called Seller Questions. One of the questions is "As a seller, what do I have to do to accept coupons?"
Their answer is " Sellers simply need to accept PayPal as a payment method. Coupons are automatically converted to regular currency at the time of redemption, so sellers will not be aware that a coupon has been used to fund the payment."

Have I missed something? Are all sellers now allowed to accept coupons? Is this a trial? Does anyone have any insight into this?

My eBay sales up 34% January over February

2010-03-02T00:38:00Z

Even though February had 3 days less than January my eBay sales were up 34% in February as compared to January.

Even better news is that my eBay fees were up only 10% in February over January.

The reason for this was the reduced cost of FP30 during the month of February. At the old rate of 35¢ per listing I could not list all the items I would like to list. With eBay running a special of 10¢ per listing I was able to list with reckless abandon.

Next month when my rate falls to 5¢(I have a Premium store subscription) per listing my sales should look even better.

How were your sales on eBay for February compared to January?

Has the internet gone to hell in a handbasket...

2010-02-10T03:48:00Z

or just the sites I use most often?
The 2 sites I use most often are eBay and Facebook. Today on eBay I have received duplicate orders twice. eBay charges me two FVF's but I only sell one product. I have to apply to have the transactions cancelled to get my FVF's back and the buyer has to agree. Is eBay so hard up for cash they have to double bill? Also, I went to pay my eBay bill tonight. Guess what? They won't accept my payment. I tried to pay with PayPal. They told me that since I had a credit card on file I might be paying twice if I paid through PayPal. Since the credit card I had on file is expired I tried to pay with PayPal anyway. Pay button was disabled and would not work. Went to change my credit card info and it said if I changed it I couldn't not pay my current bill with the new credit card. They are double billing me and won't accept my money?

I use Facebook a tremendous amount. I have almost 600 friends and read every post by every friend. Since Facebook has made changes recently this is impossible. Are they trying to end my addiction? I don't have these friends to show how popular I am. I am interested in everything every one of my friends says. Maybe Facebook is just a popularity contest as some have said over the years.

Your thoughts, please

eBay having a 2-day 50% off Sale

2010-02-09T04:06:00Z

Click Here for all the details

eBay announces fixed price sale for store owners until new rates take over

2010-02-01T22:58:00Z

eBay announced a sale on fixed-price format for store owners today starting tomorrow, February 2 and ending March 29.

Store owners will be able to list items in fixed price format for just 10¢. The new rates taking effect on March 30 will have fixed price rates of 3¢ to 20¢ depending on what store subscription you have.

This is a great time to try out the fixed-price format, especially if you are not planning on upgrading your store to a Premium or Anchor store.

Click here to see today's announcement at eBay.com

eBay Spring 2010 Changes good for me

2010-01-28T01:15:00Z

The eBay Spring 2010 changes are good for me. They don't seem to be for the majority of sellers.

They are good for me for several reasons.

1) I have in the last year added more 30FP multi-variable listings. I have been able to list 24 shirts in one listing for 35 cents a month. That will now drop to 5 cents a month. The ability to list 24 different items(8 different sizes, 2 different colors) for only a nickel a month is great for me. I had plans to double the number of such listings soon. I will probably have approximately 500 FP30 listings soon. With the savings of 30 cents per listing that will be an automatic savings of $150 per month with the $49.95 store. Since all of my FP30 listings will be in the clothing category and sell for less than $25 there will be no increase in FVF's for me there.

2) I also have almost 3000 unique items in my store. My fee on those items will increase 2 cents each for a net increase of $60 per month. That $60 should easily be offset by the increase in sales I should see from these items being included in search. I have recently been raising the prices on those items and sales have been good. I have been raising the prices with the intention of keeping them high for a few months and then heavily discounting them to try to clear my stock out. With the listings showing in search I will probably wait longer to try to liquidate these items. I also have several hundred unique items that I have not listed. I will now begin to list those items again.

As I said at the first these changes will benefit me. A lot because of dumb luck. I see a lot of smaller sellers leaving eBay with the new changes. I think eBay's new motto to sellers should be "Grow or Go" because it seems that if you don't things are only going to get worse.

How are the changes going to affect you?

eBay Releases 2010 Spring Seller Update

2010-01-26T15:27:00Z

This is quite a change in the fee structure.
Click Here to read about it at eBay.com