Marketing Online Review

Question:

The article today about iSoldIt, a leading national eBay drop-off chain, announced its year-to-date 2005 gross sales exceeded $20 million. Interesting. I wonder how they are doing…really doing? 140 stores doing $150,000 in sales would put them at $21,000,000 for the year. $150K is not very much and tens of thousands of ebay sellers do more than that out of their house. After the franchise fees per sale (not to mention the huge startup fees), paying overhead, paying employees, paying ebay, paying the customer, advertising…there is not much left. No one ever talks about profitability. Even the commercials on TV offering an eBay Selling program by Dave Whatever, they always state "This guy made $6000 a month in sales" or "This lady made "20,000 a month in sales". OK fine…but how much did you make? PROFIT, please. It reminds me of Peg Bundy in the TV Show Married With Children…she became a cosmetic salesperson from home and she bought all her own cosmetics, so she would make commission. Al had to pay. One thing I have learned is to be wary of press releases. Most are camouflaged advertisements. You will find little press about AuctionDrop as they have all but fallen of the map. They were never able to make the concept profitable. I am pretty sure none of the QuikDrop founders were ever powersellers. Instead the were franchise experts. iSoldIT bring the Wetzel Pretzel franchise power and money to sell their franchises. If these franchises are making money then it must not be much, and that is alot of work for that low of a sales number. If the franchises are not profitable, how long can they last before it all implodes? If they are not profitable, how long can these franchises continue to be sold to inexperienced sellers (any good ebay seller would not need a franchisor), before they start claiming they were sold something that did not exist. Time will tell. I just kind of shook my head in disbelief when I read what that one person paid for a franchise. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/244947_ebay18.html The words "A fool and his money are soon parted" came to mind. These franchise entities may not be making a penny by selling other peoples stuff but they are making a fortune in selling "blue sky". If anyone wants to do this for a living they have but to sit down and start the process from their home. If it works for them, great! If not, it did not take 20 years to pay off the loan they assumed by becoming a franchise of this silly company. Notice the franchise companies feedback is AWFUL http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=isoldit and thus the company does not get as many bids on consignors items. This means final selling price will not go as high as it would if these drop off stores acted with some integrity. This in turn affects the consignors check by (I suspect) at least 20%. Additionally the franchise charges a HUGE shipping fee which again impacts the amount people will bid on something. The amount the drop off store is charging the consignor is a huge percentage of the final selling price but the consignor also pays all of the ebay fees. http://www.i-soldit.com/fees.asp If Isoldit treated their customers better (meaning both consignors and those who purchased consigned goods) I might have a higher opinion of this company. As you can see though I don’t (and for very good reason). I am also amazed at how little they often get for QUALITY items because of all of these "stunts". I just feel so bad for the consignors in general as they more than any other are being materially damaged by these outrageous actions of the drop off stores. It is no wonder state governments want to start poking their noses into these types of business entities. The government will succeed in doing so if for only consumer (consignor) protection. For those who want to learn how to be in the business you can do so without spending hundreds of thousands of dollars. Simply spend a month or two on this forum reading posts by me and other dealers and you will learn far more for free than what you would ever get in education and customer support of a franchise that obviously can’t take care of a significant percentage of their customers. The meaning behind my Peg Bundy analogy was…"Great Sales, though no profits". John…thanks for your comments. I went back and looked at the fee, both franchise and fees charged. How do they do it? We had many eBay Drop-Off stores in our state. All "stand-alone" ebay Drop-Off stores have closed their doors. And these were experienced ebay sellers who had great traffic and still could not make it work. Are these franchisors selling "blue sky" as John mentioned? Why are all experienced ebay sellers that opened drop-off stores a year or two ago shutting down and at the same time franchisors keep selling franchises? Many of the eBay sellers that shut down their drop-off stores are educated, experienced, and even have access to inventory. How is a novice going to do it? Please explain it to me. If anyone there is anyone that has a franchise, we would love to hear from you. I would bet money that they (franchisors) would ever show you the P&L’s (profit and loss statements) from their individual franchisee’s stores before another franchise was bought. Also, are the franchise fees paid, just to become a "franchisee" part of sales? If that is so, then WOW…that would even lower the average store sales number. Is the Emperor wearing clothes? Personally I think they are "in the buff". Here are the biggest problems with drop off stores as I see them. 1. Getting people to give you their inventory. If a local drop off store (not a franchise) opened near me and had the same or similar terms and conditions as isoldit AND feedback to match (and yes I would be checking) I can assure you they would not be getting my prized possessions. 2. High cost of doing business on ebay. Ebay fees are outrageous and even if you start the bidding at $9.99 on a $100.00 item you are looking at 70 cents for listing and picture or $1.10 if you run it for 10 days. That is a HUGE chunk of change and a real gamble. 3. With a low starting price bargains abound for the ebay community but if I was to give a company a $100.00 item and it sells for $15.00 how often do you think I would come back with more of my treasures, especially if I know they padded shipping by 200% for THEIR profit (and not mine)? The BIGGEST failure of most of these drop off stores is their lack of effort in protecting the consignor. 4. Time consuming. Every item I list online represents a half hour of my life so it BETTER pay for itself. Even if a drop off store picks and chooses what it wants to accept (items over $50.00 in value is a normal starting point) there is no guarantee it will even sell for half of that. Employees are very expensive to hire and if you do it yourself you will spend all of your time listing and no time going out and getting more merchandise. If I was a drop off store I would not use ebay auctions but would instead use other options that would keep the fees down. It would take longer to sell the items but at least I could sleep with a clear conscience knowing I was protecting a consignors goods and trying to get them a fair price for their items. The PROBLEM with this plan is you need to have A LOT of space available for storage and have several employees doing nothing but listing all day. In short, done right it can be a real cash cow. Done wrong (which is how 99.9% of these drop off stores do it) the writing is already on the wall. Your business has failed before you even opened the doors or listed your first item. I completely stopped selling on eBay a while ago, at first it was worth it even if the item didn’t sell because you could use the listing to drive traffic to an existing site. But as eBay’s fees increased and profits dropped I started seeking alternatives. With all the associated costs of maintaing a storefront and the costs associated with the eBay listings themselves I don’t see how any such arrangement would benefit anyone (besides eBay!). I could perhaps see this working for existing offline consignment based shops as an "addon" feature for consignors but as a stand-alone enterprise…I have my doubts John, your estimate of 3000 items being sold a month at $50, will achieve a revenue of $150,000. That would mean 100 people would have to bring something in each day worth $50. What if only 1 of 2 actually had something worth $50? That would be 200 people a day and that is conservative. What eBay drop-off store gets 200 people each day? Please let me know, and I will contact the news stations as that would be big news. Even a 100. It is not a realistic forecast, and if a franchisor sold them on that, then that in my opinion is dishonest. sun818 says he know of someone selling returns for a local Costco. I believe that. It is still labor intensive, though that can work. Overstock.com is proof of it. Anyone with that type of connection will find it most cost effective not allowing "walk-in" traffic, that is, if they have enough inventory. Having an exclusive with a manufacturer, distributor, retailer, etc is the only way to succeed that I have seen thus far. And it does not have to be completely exclusive, just limited on who your source sells to or consigns to. In my opinion, the ebay drop-off stores are a house of cards, and the ones selling the franchises are the ones making all the money, and the ones buying the franchises will not be the one making money, if any at all. Any i-soldit.com or Quikdrop franchisees out there that can reflect some light? Other … read more »

Response:

It’s sooo much better than quoting his whole damn letter. ef

Response:

Give us all something to be thankful for! A

Response:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – The article today about iSoldIt, a leading national eBay drop-off chain, announced its year-to-date 2005 gross sales exceeded $20 million. Interesting. I wonder how they are doing…really doing? 140 stores doing $150,000 in sales would put them at $21,000,000 for the year. $150K is not very much and tens of thousands of ebay sellers do more than that out of their house. After the franchise fees per sale (not to mention the huge startup fees), paying overhead, paying employees, paying ebay, paying the customer, advertising…there is not much left. No one ever talks about profitability. Even the commercials on TV offering an eBay Selling program by Dave Whatever, they always state "This guy made $6000 a month in sales" or "This lady made "20,000 a month in sales". OK fine…but how much did you make? PROFIT, please. It reminds me of Peg Bundy in the TV Show Married With Children…she became a cosmetic salesperson from home and she bought all her own cosmetics, so she would make commission. Al had to pay. One thing I have learned is to be wary of press releases. Most are camouflaged advertisements. You will find little press about AuctionDrop as they have all but fallen of the map. They were never able to make the concept profitable. I am pretty sure none of the QuikDrop founders were ever powersellers. Instead the were franchise experts. iSoldIT bring the Wetzel Pretzel franchise power and money to sell their franchises. If these franchises are making money then it must not be much, and that is alot of work for that low of a sales number. If the franchises are not profitable, how long can they last before it all implodes? If they are not profitable, how long can these franchises continue to be sold to inexperienced sellers (any good ebay seller would not need a franchisor), before they start claiming they were sold something that did not exist. Time will tell. I just kind of shook my head in disbelief when I read what that one person paid for a franchise. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/244947_ebay18.html The words "A fool and his money are soon parted" came to mind. These franchise entities may not be making a penny by selling other peoples stuff but they are making a fortune in selling "blue sky". If anyone wants to do this for a living they have but to sit down and start the process from their home. If it works for them, great! If not, it did not take 20 years to pay off the loan they assumed by becoming a franchise of this silly company. Notice the franchise companies feedback is AWFUL http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=isoldit and thus the company does not get as many bids on consignors items. This means final selling price will not go as high as it would if these drop off stores acted with some integrity. This in turn affects the consignors check by (I suspect) at least 20%. Additionally the franchise charges a HUGE shipping fee which again impacts the amount people will bid on something. The amount the drop off store is charging the consignor is a huge percentage of the final selling price but the consignor also pays all of the ebay fees. http://www.i-soldit.com/fees.asp If Isoldit treated their customers better (meaning both consignors and those who purchased consigned goods) I might have a higher opinion of this company. As you can see though I don’t (and for very good reason). I am also amazed at how little they often get for QUALITY items because of all of these "stunts". I just feel so bad for the consignors in general as they more than any other are being materially damaged by these outrageous actions of the drop off stores. It is no wonder state governments want to start poking their noses into these types of business entities. The government will succeed in doing so if for only consumer (consignor) protection. For those who want to learn how to be in the business you can do so without spending hundreds of thousands of dollars. Simply spend a month or two on this forum reading posts by me and other dealers and you will learn far more for free than what you would ever get in education and customer support of a franchise that obviously can’t take care of a significant percentage of their customers. The meaning behind my Peg Bundy analogy was…"Great Sales, though no profits". John…thanks for your comments. I went back and looked at the fee, both franchise and fees charged. How do they do it? We had many eBay Drop-Off stores in our state. All "stand-alone" ebay Drop-Off stores have closed their doors. And these were experienced ebay sellers who had great traffic and still could not make it work. Are these franchisors selling "blue sky" as John mentioned? Why are all experienced ebay sellers that opened drop-off stores a year or two ago shutting down and at the same time franchisors keep selling franchises? Many of the eBay sellers that shut down their drop-off stores are educated, experienced, and even have access to inventory. How is a novice going to do it? Please explain it to me. If anyone there is anyone that has a franchise, we would love to hear from you. I would bet money that they (franchisors) would ever show you the P&L’s (profit and loss statements) from their individual franchisee’s stores before another franchise was bought. Also, are the franchise fees paid, just to become a "franchisee" part of sales? If that is so, then WOW…that would even lower the average store sales number. Is the Emperor wearing clothes? Personally I think they are "in the buff". Here are the biggest problems with drop off stores as I see them. 1. Getting people to give you their inventory. If a local drop off store (not a franchise) opened near me and had the same or similar terms and conditions as isoldit AND feedback to match (and yes I would be checking) I can assure you they would not be getting my prized possessions. 2. High cost of doing business on ebay. Ebay fees are outrageous and even if you start the bidding at $9.99 on a $100.00 item you are looking at 70 cents for listing and picture or $1.10 if you run it for 10 days. That is a HUGE chunk of change and a real gamble. 3. With a low starting price bargains abound for the ebay community but if I was to give a company a $100.00 item and it sells for $15.00 how often do you think I would come back with more of my treasures, especially if I know they padded shipping by 200% for THEIR profit (and not mine)? The BIGGEST failure of most of these drop off stores is their lack of effort in protecting the consignor. 4. Time consuming. Every item I list online represents a half hour of my life so it BETTER pay for itself. Even if a drop off store picks and chooses what it wants to accept (items over $50.00 in value is a normal starting point) there is no guarantee it will even sell for half of that. Employees are very expensive to hire and if you do it yourself you will spend all of your time listing and no time going out and getting more merchandise. If I was a drop off store I would not use ebay auctions but would instead use other options that would keep the fees down. It would take longer to sell the items but at least I could sleep with a clear conscience knowing I was protecting a consignors goods and trying to get them a fair price for their items. The PROBLEM with this plan is you need to have A LOT of space available for storage and have several employees doing nothing but listing all day. In short, done right it can be a real cash cow. Done wrong (which is how 99.9% of these drop off stores do it) the writing is already on the wall. Your business has failed before you even opened the doors or listed your first item. I completely stopped selling on eBay a while ago, at first it was worth it even if the item didn’t sell because you could use the listing to drive traffic to an existing site. But as eBay’s fees increased and profits dropped I started seeking alternatives. With all the associated costs of maintaing a storefront and the costs associated with the eBay listings themselves I don’t see how any such arrangement would benefit anyone (besides eBay!). I could perhaps see this working for existing offline consignment based shops as an "addon" feature for consignors but as a stand-alone enterprise…I have my doubts John, your estimate of 3000 items being sold a month at $50, will achieve a revenue of $150,000. That would mean 100 people would have to bring something in each day worth $50. What if only 1 of 2 actually had something worth $50? That would be 200 people a day and that is conservative. What eBay drop-off store gets 200 people each day? Please let me know, and I will contact the news stations as that would be big news. Even a 100. It is not a realistic forecast, and if a franchisor sold them on that, then that in my opinion is dishonest. sun818 says he know of someone selling returns for a local Costco. I believe that. It is still labor intensive, though that can work. Overstock.com is proof of it. Anyone with that type of connection will find it most cost effective not allowing "walk-in" traffic, that is, if they have enough inventory. Having an exclusive with a manufacturer, distributor, retailer, etc is the only way to succeed that I have seen thus far. And it does not have to be completely exclusive, just limited on

… read more »

Response:

Question:

Your employees represent you. You are guilty.

Which is why the userids of employees, family members, relatives, and any random users with "shillishly" similar IDs need to be in a seller’s BBL, particularly for sellers with SAEP competitors. SAEP: Self-Appointed eBay Police — http://www.access-one.com/rjn           email4rjn AT yahoo DOT com NOT speaking for any employer, client or Internet Service Provider.

Response:

Get a US court order

Getting a life would be vastly more appropriate. — Many thanks, Don Lancaster                          voice phone: (928)428-4073 Synergetics   3860 West First Street   Box 809 Thatcher, AZ 85552 Please visit my GURU’s LAIR web site at http://www.tinaja.com

Response:

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Get a US court order — Many Thanks,  :) "Justin Vegas",  Don Strevel, Las Vegas, NV. I’m emailing this letter to every departmetn of ebay and posting this EVERY WHERE I can. This is my letter to ebay Dear Kenji and Ebay Staff, I had to take a week to "cool down" after reading your response to my appeal on ebay. As you can imagine, I’m extremely upset. I needed to get my head together and send you a letter that would make sense and that came from a place of logic and calm. For one, the manner in which you "suspend" someone is, well quite frankly unprofessional, unsympathetic and downright rude. There are some who use ebay as a recreation and for fun.Then there are others who use eBay as a main business generator. You see, I spent quite some time and money building up my business that quite honestly, revolves around eBay.

Maybe your first mistake is that your business model revolves around eBay …

Response:

I clipped 2 posts, one heresay rant from Poco and one top-posted by Klaatu. Anyway – the point was that people are getting suspended from eBay for shill bidding, and admitting that their employees had indeed been shill bidding. One was "My wife didn’t know better" and the other was "I did not know my employees were doing that!" Thanks to these posts, I now have a plan in pocket, in case I ever get hired by an eBay store then become disgruntled. HA HAHAHAHAHAHA! A

Response:

I clipped 2 posts, one heresay rant from Poco and one top-posted by Klaatu. Anyway – the point was that people are getting suspended from eBay for shill bidding, and admitting that their employees had indeed been shill bidding. One was "My wife didn’t know better" and the other was "I did not know my employees were doing that!" Thanks to these posts, I now have a plan in pocket, in case I ever get hired by an eBay store then become disgruntled. HA HAHAHAHAHAHA! A

If you ever get hired by an "eBay store" ? Ummmmm O.K. Glad you have a plan. Whatever it is.

Response:

Get a US court order — Many Thanks,  :) "Justin Vegas",  Don Strevel, Las Vegas, NV.

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I’m emailing this letter to every departmetn of ebay and posting this EVERY WHERE I can. This is my letter to ebay Dear Kenji and Ebay Staff, I had to take a week to "cool down" after reading your response to my appeal on ebay. As you can imagine, I’m extremely upset. I needed to get my head together and send you a letter that would make sense and that came from a place of logic and calm. For one, the manner in which you "suspend" someone is, well quite frankly unprofessional, unsympathetic and downright rude. There are some who use ebay as a recreation and for fun.Then there are others who use eBay as a main business generator. You see, I spent quite some time and money building up my business that quite honestly, revolves around eBay. I do not have a physical brick and mortar store. I simply go out in the world and spend time purchasing and researching items to sell on eBay. Particularly Antiques and hard to find items. At the time of our suspension we were on our way up and every week was getting better and better. We had reached Platinum level status, had a list of very satisfied and repeat customers and had built a reputation on eBay as being an honest and honorable seller with good product. Our descriptions and photos were on point. Our feedback was over 99%. We were proud and we were doing well. We have large office space with 6 computers, 6 employees and a packing station. The other half of our warehouse is stock full of items we were going to put up on ebay. Then, one day out of the blue, I get a phone call from someone in your "safe harbor" department telling me I was suspended for "shill bidding" . I was given the names of three accounts that were "associated" with this "accusation". Then, with a click of a mouse, my world came tumbling down. All the items I had up were pulled down . I was having one of the best sales days I’ve ever had, having had over $4000 in bids coming off that night and it was still the middle of the day. I immediately looked to find out who these people were and why my account was being associated with violating ebay policy. I found out and immediately contacted your company. The first one, galleryusa, is a legitimate person we purchase from. I stand behind that statement, and still don’t understand why you have accused us of shill bidding with this person. They have a store in Westbury where they have computers and items that they sell both on eBay and in their brick and mortar store. Usually we check out the jewelry we are going to bid on before we bid on it to verify the quality, etc. We regularly take jewelry we purchase from him, down to our business contacts in Maryland to sell, as they love the pieces that we get here (antique and vintage pieces hard to find in everyday stores). We don’t like to purchase directly from him in the brick and mortar store because he usually tries to charge us more than what we would pay for it. So we put our bids in on ebay up to the amount we’re willing to go leaving us a profit margin and if we get it great, if not, oh well. Then, the other two names, I looked into and discovered that it was two of our employees. Mind you, I have no idea what "evidence" you have against me, but I did immediately upon my findings, write to you an explain, honestly, what had occurred without my knowledge. And that was that these employees were indeed bidding on our items and they shouldn’t have. Had I been aware I would have immediately had them retract the bids and had them fired,or atleast reprimand them in some way. Something. After all, they could ruin my business with their actions. Now, you speak of "evidence" against me about this, but refuse to tell me what that evidence is or how you came across it, etc. I’m sorry, but I as an American Citizen and you as an American Company are bound by the laws of the United States and the Constitution. I have rights, and one of those rights is to hear the evidence against me either in front of a jury of my piers or a judge. No one can take away my right to Life, Liberty or the Pursuit of Happiness without that. At the same time, there is such a thing as mitigating circumstances. Do I not have the right to be heard. Do I not have a right to make amends somehow. Ebay says that they are on the "cutting edge" opening up a whole new world of trading and they encourage people to build their business on ebay, to make a living. Ironically I had just recently come from a lecture from Ebay down in DC and they were so gung ho about making your living on eBay. Along the way, I’m sure there have been some road bumps or mistakes Ebay has made that they have adjusted or corrected, being pioneers in this arena. Do not the people who now put that trust in ebay and build their businesses on ebay have the same right to have the same mistakes happen. Has this ever happened before to someone, that an employee of an ebay member, with a large staff, had their ebay members do this without their knowledge? Why wouldn’t ebay want to work with someone like myself, a powerseller who has built their business around eBay, to figure out how we can prevent that from happening. Do I deserve to have my business, that I’ve worked so hard to build and have invested so much money in, shut down because of a rogue employee. In addition, do I not at the very least deserve to speak to a human being at Ebay, rather than be answered coldly via e-mail that "sorry you’re not going to be reinstated" with crude reference to "evidence in our files". Once again.. are you above the law of the land. If this were a hobby for me, perhaps I wouldn’t care. This is not a hobby, this is a livelihood. I rely on this business to pay my mortgage for my house and to support my family Do I not have a right to be heard. Why in god’s green earth would I purposely and knowingly jeopardize something that is so obviously important and vital to my life. I’m seriously considering taking legal action against eBay for the manner in which a situation like this is handled. Maybe nothing will be or can be done for me, but no one deserves to be treated in the way I have been treated. No one deserves to have their life cut off via e-mail and told about "evidence" against them and never hear what it is or have the right to defend themselves against. EBay may think they are above it all because they currently have no competition, but they are a U.S based company and must follow the laws of the land, especially ones so basic. I do hope that we can work this out. I do not have "12 months" to wait for this to happen. I do await your response and hope that you do give me the courtesy of a phone call and a conversation. Perhaps there is some way we can work together so that this doesn’t happen to me again or to any other eBayer. We can both learn from this incident. Sincerely, Tara Kubas Ebaybiteme, you take responsibility for anything that happens with your account regardless of whether or not it’s actually you doing it. the reason they wouldn’t want to work with someone like you is because you’re a cheat. you whine and complain about having rights to do business fairly and about people having trust in ebay…its because they have trust in ebay that you were kicked off the site. when you do something as cheap and stupid as shill bidding, you’re not only hurting the site’s buyers but yourself. ebay works very hard at keeping the site safe for buyers and sellers and when people like you do stupid stuff like that it just ruins the whole experience for everyone. if you were so conserned about your business and having to live off of what you made, then you would never have broken the rules or allowed anyone else to. its your own fault you were kicked off, and if i worked for ebay i definatly would have liked to be the one to catch you and kick you off the site. you’re right, ebay must follow the rules and laws, but so must YOU! <Nicole, You obviously didn’t read my letter NICOLE… BEcause I DIDN’T SHILL BID, NOR WAS I AWARE THAT SHILL BIDDING WAS OCCURRING ON MY ACCOUNT!!!! I had two rogue employees who were doing it WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE! Yes, I am responsible because it’s my account and my busines.. but how about a fine, how about a restitution of some sort. WHY COMPLETELY SHUT ME DOWN!!!!! It wasn’t intentional at all and EBAY CAN’T PROVE THAT IT WAS. They didn’t even care to listen to me. Everything is not so black and white, and ebay needs to learn that. They talk about BUILDING A BUSINESS on Ebay, etc.. but then they don’t treat the people who do and who did fairly at all. We do not deserve to get shut down completely when we’re dealing with multiple employees. There are many companies that have employees that break the rules without their knowledge, and once they do they are fired (which we did) and the company recovers..but they don’t get shut down! Ebaybiteme, I completely understand your cry… all of these groups have certain people that automatically assume you are guilty… probably paid employees of escam, uh, i mean ebay. I too was shut down for the same reason. My suspention only 7 days, but still lost all 87 of my current auctions, not too mention the ones I was bidding on from other users and winning. I tried til I was blue

… read more »

Response:

Your employees represent you.  You are guilty. Perhaps if you offered to give a full refund to every winner of auctions that were shilled, they would consider reinstatement.

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I’m emailing this letter to every departmetn of ebay and posting this EVERY WHERE I can. This is my letter to ebay Dear Kenji and Ebay Staff, I had to take a week to "cool down" after reading your response to my appeal on ebay. As you can imagine, I’m extremely upset. I needed to get my head together and send you a letter that would make sense and that came from a place of logic and calm. For one, the manner in which you "suspend" someone is, well quite frankly unprofessional, unsympathetic and downright rude. There are some who use ebay as a recreation and for fun.Then there are others who use eBay as a main business generator. You see, I spent quite some time and money building up my business that quite honestly, revolves around eBay. I do not have a physical brick and mortar store. I simply go out in the world and spend time purchasing and researching items to sell on eBay. Particularly Antiques and hard to find items. At the time of our suspension we were on our way up and every week was getting better and better. We had reached Platinum level status, had a list of very satisfied and repeat customers and had built a reputation on eBay as being an honest and honorable seller with good product. Our descriptions and photos were on point. Our feedback was over 99%. We were proud and we were doing well. We have large office space with 6 computers, 6 employees and a packing station. The other half of our warehouse is stock full of items we were going to put up on ebay. Then, one day out of the blue, I get a phone call from someone in your "safe harbor" department telling me I was suspended for "shill bidding" . I was given the names of three accounts that were "associated" with this "accusation". Then, with a click of a mouse, my world came tumbling down. All the items I had up were pulled down . I was having one of the best sales days I’ve ever had, having had over $4000 in bids coming off that night and it was still the middle of the day. I immediately looked to find out who these people were and why my account was being associated with violating ebay policy. I found out and immediately contacted your company. The first one, galleryusa, is a legitimate person we purchase from. I stand behind that statement, and still don’t understand why you have accused us of shill bidding with this person. They have a store in Westbury where they have computers and items that they sell both on eBay and in their brick and mortar store. Usually we check out the jewelry we are going to bid on before we bid on it to verify the quality, etc. We regularly take jewelry we purchase from him, down to our business contacts in Maryland to sell, as they love the pieces that we get here (antique and vintage pieces hard to find in everyday stores). We don’t like to purchase directly from him in the brick and mortar store because he usually tries to charge us more than what we would pay for it. So we put our bids in on ebay up to the amount we’re willing to go leaving us a profit margin and if we get it great, if not, oh well. Then, the other two names, I looked into and discovered that it was two of our employees. Mind you, I have no idea what "evidence" you have against me, but I did immediately upon my findings, write to you an explain, honestly, what had occurred without my knowledge. And that was that these employees were indeed bidding on our items and they shouldn’t have. Had I been aware I would have immediately had them retract the bids and had them fired,or atleast reprimand them in some way. Something. After all, they could ruin my business with their actions. Now, you speak of "evidence" against me about this, but refuse to tell me what that evidence is or how you came across it, etc. I’m sorry, but I as an American Citizen and you as an American Company are bound by the laws of the United States and the Constitution. I have rights, and one of those rights is to hear the evidence against me either in front of a jury of my piers or a judge. No one can take away my right to Life, Liberty or the Pursuit of Happiness without that. At the same time, there is such a thing as mitigating circumstances. Do I not have the right to be heard. Do I not have a right to make amends somehow. Ebay says that they are on the "cutting edge" opening up a whole new world of trading and they encourage people to build their business on ebay, to make a living. Ironically I had just recently come from a lecture from Ebay down in DC and they were so gung ho about making your living on eBay. Along the way, I’m sure there have been some road bumps or mistakes Ebay has made that they have adjusted or corrected, being pioneers in this arena. Do not the people who now put that trust in ebay and build their businesses on ebay have the same right to have the same mistakes happen. Has this ever happened before to someone, that an employee of an ebay member, with a large staff, had their ebay members do this without their knowledge? Why wouldn’t ebay want to work with someone like myself, a powerseller who has built their business around eBay, to figure out how we can prevent that from happening. Do I deserve to have my business, that I’ve worked so hard to build and have invested so much money in, shut down because of a rogue employee. In addition, do I not at the very least deserve to speak to a human being at Ebay, rather than be answered coldly via e-mail that "sorry you’re not going to be reinstated" with crude reference to "evidence in our files". Once again.. are you above the law of the land. If this were a hobby for me, perhaps I wouldn’t care. This is not a hobby, this is a livelihood. I rely on this business to pay my mortgage for my house and to support my family Do I not have a right to be heard. Why in god’s green earth would I purposely and knowingly jeopardize something that is so obviously important and vital to my life. I’m seriously considering taking legal action against eBay for the manner in which a situation like this is handled. Maybe nothing will be or can be done for me, but no one deserves to be treated in the way I have been treated. No one deserves to have their life cut off via e-mail and told about "evidence" against them and never hear what it is or have the right to defend themselves against. EBay may think they are above it all because they currently have no competition, but they are a U.S based company and must follow the laws of the land, especially ones so basic. I do hope that we can work this out. I do not have "12 months" to wait for this to happen. I do await your response and hope that you do give me the courtesy of a phone call and a conversation. Perhaps there is some way we can work together so that this doesn’t happen to me again or to any other eBayer. We can both learn from this incident. Sincerely, Tara Kubas Ebaybiteme, you take responsibility for anything that happens with your account regardless of whether or not it’s actually you doing it. the reason they wouldn’t want to work with someone like you is because you’re a cheat. you whine and complain about having rights to do business fairly and about people having trust in ebay…its because they have trust in ebay that you were kicked off the site. when you do something as cheap and stupid as shill bidding, you’re not only hurting the site’s buyers but yourself. ebay works very hard at keeping the site safe for buyers and sellers and when people like you do stupid stuff like that it just ruins the whole experience for everyone. if you were so conserned about your business and having to live off of what you made, then you would never have broken the rules or allowed anyone else to. its your own fault you were kicked off, and if i worked for ebay i definatly would have liked to be the one to catch you and kick you off the site. you’re right, ebay must follow the rules and laws, but so must YOU! <Nicole, You obviously didn’t read my letter NICOLE… BEcause I DIDN’T SHILL BID, NOR WAS I AWARE THAT SHILL BIDDING WAS OCCURRING ON MY ACCOUNT!!!! I had two rogue employees who were doing it WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE! Yes, I am responsible because it’s my account and my busines.. but how about a fine, how about a restitution of some sort. WHY COMPLETELY SHUT ME DOWN!!!!! It wasn’t intentional at all and EBAY CAN’T PROVE THAT IT WAS. They didn’t even care to listen to me. Everything is not so black and white, and ebay needs to learn that. They talk about BUILDING A BUSINESS on Ebay, etc.. but then they don’t treat the people who do and who did fairly at all. We do not deserve to get shut down completely when we’re dealing with multiple employees. There are many companies that have employees that break the rules without their knowledge, and once they do they are fired (which we did) and the company recovers..but they don’t get shut down! Ebaybiteme, I completely understand your cry… all of these groups have certain people that automatically assume you are guilty… probably paid employees of escam, uh, i mean ebay. I too was shut down for the same reason. My suspention only 7 days, but still lost all 87 of my current auctions, not too mention the ones I was bidding on from other users

… read more »

Response:

I’m emailing this letter to every departmetn of ebay and posting this EVERY WHERE I can. This is my letter to ebay Dear Kenji and Ebay Staff, I had to take a week to "cool down" after reading your response to my appeal on ebay. As you can imagine, I’m extremely upset. I needed to get my head together and send you a letter that would make sense and that came from a place of logic and calm. For one, the manner in which you "suspend" someone is, well quite frankly unprofessional, unsympathetic and downright rude. There are some who use ebay as a recreation and for fun.Then there are others who use eBay as a main business generator. You see, I spent quite some time and money building up my business that quite honestly, revolves around eBay. I do not have a physical brick and mortar store. I simply go out in the world and spend time purchasing and researching items to sell on eBay. Particularly Antiques and hard to find items. At the time of our suspension we were on our way up and every week was getting better and better. We had reached Platinum level status, had a list of very satisfied and repeat customers and had built a reputation on eBay as being an honest and honorable seller with good product. Our descriptions and photos were on point. Our feedback was over 99%. We were proud and we were doing well. We have large office space with 6 computers, 6 employees and a packing station. The other half of our warehouse is stock full of items we were going to put up on ebay. Then, one day out of the blue, I get a phone call from someone in your "safe harbor" department telling me I was suspended for "shill bidding" . I was given the names of three accounts that were "associated" with this "accusation". Then, with a click of a mouse, my world came tumbling down. All the items I had up were pulled down . I was having one of the best sales days I’ve ever had, having had over $4000 in bids coming off that night and it was still the middle of the day. I immediately looked to find out who these people were and why my account was being associated with violating ebay policy. I found out and immediately contacted your company. The first one, galleryusa, is a legitimate person we purchase from. I stand behind that statement, and still don’t understand why you have accused us of shill bidding with this person. They have a store in Westbury where they have computers and items that they sell both on eBay and in their brick and mortar store. Usually we check out the jewelry we are going to bid on before we bid on it to verify the quality, etc. We regularly take jewelry we purchase from him, down to our business contacts in Maryland to sell, as they love the pieces that we get here (antique and vintage pieces hard to find in everyday stores). We don’t like to purchase directly from him in the brick and mortar store because he usually tries to charge us more than what we would pay for it. So we put our bids in on ebay up to the amount we’re willing to go leaving us a profit margin and if we get it great, if not, oh well. Then, the other two names, I looked into and discovered that it was two of our employees. Mind you, I have no idea what "evidence" you have against me, but I did immediately upon my findings, write to you an explain, honestly, what had occurred without my knowledge. And that was that these employees were indeed bidding on our items and they shouldn’t have. Had I been aware I would have immediately had them retract the bids and had them fired,or atleast reprimand them in some way. Something. After all, they could ruin my business with their actions. Now, you speak of "evidence" against me about this, but refuse to tell me what that evidence is or how you came across it, etc. I’m sorry, but I as an American Citizen and you as an American Company are bound by the laws of the United States and the Constitution. I have rights, and one of those rights is to hear the evidence against me either in front of a jury of my piers or a judge. No one can take away my right to Life, Liberty or the Pursuit of Happiness without that. At the same time, there is such a thing as mitigating circumstances. Do I not have the right to be heard. Do I not have a right to make amends somehow. Ebay says that they are on the "cutting edge" opening up a whole new world of trading and they encourage people to build their business on ebay, to make a living. Ironically I had just recently come from a lecture from Ebay down in DC and they were so gung ho about making your living on eBay. Along the way, I’m sure there have been some road bumps or mistakes Ebay has made that they have adjusted or corrected, being pioneers in this arena. Do not the people who now put that trust in ebay and build their businesses on ebay have the same right to have the same mistakes happen. Has this ever happened before to someone, that an employee of an ebay member, with a large staff, had their ebay members do this without their knowledge? Why wouldn’t ebay want to work with someone like myself, a powerseller who has built their business around eBay, to figure out how we can prevent that from happening. Do I deserve to have my business, that I’ve worked so hard to build and have invested so much money in, shut down because of a rogue employee. In addition, do I not at the very least deserve to speak to a human being at Ebay, rather than be answered coldly via e-mail that "sorry you’re not going to be reinstated" with crude reference to "evidence in our files". Once again.. are you above the law of the land. If this were a hobby for me, perhaps I wouldn’t care. This is not a hobby, this is a livelihood. I rely on this business to pay my mortgage for my house and to support my family Do I not have a right to be heard. Why in god’s green earth would I purposely and knowingly jeopardize something that is so obviously important and vital to my life. I’m seriously considering taking legal action against eBay for the manner in which a situation like this is handled. Maybe nothing will be or can be done for me, but no one deserves to be treated in the way I have been treated. No one deserves to have their life cut off via e-mail and told about "evidence" against them and never hear what it is or have the right to defend themselves against. EBay may think they are above it all because they currently have no competition, but they are a U.S based company and must follow the laws of the land, especially ones so basic. I do hope that we can work this out. I do not have "12 months" to wait for this to happen. I do await your response and hope that you do give me the courtesy of a phone call and a conversation. Perhaps there is some way we can work together so that this doesn’t happen to me again or to any other eBayer. We can both learn from this incident. Sincerely, Tara Kubas Ebaybiteme, you take responsibility for anything that happens with your account regardless of whether or not it’s actually you doing it. the reason they wouldn’t want to work with someone like you is because you’re a cheat. you whine and complain about having rights to do business fairly and about people having trust in ebay…its because they have trust in ebay that you were kicked off the site. when you do something as cheap and stupid as shill bidding, you’re not only hurting the site’s buyers but yourself. ebay works very hard at keeping the site safe for buyers and sellers and when people like you do stupid stuff like that it just ruins the whole experience for everyone. if you were so conserned about your business and having to live off of what you made, then you would never have broken the rules or allowed anyone else to. its your own fault you were kicked off, and if i worked for ebay i definatly would have liked to be the one to catch you and kick you off the site. you’re right, ebay must follow the rules and laws, but so must YOU! <Nicole, You obviously didn’t read my letter NICOLE… BEcause I DIDN’T SHILL BID, NOR WAS I AWARE THAT SHILL BIDDING WAS OCCURRING ON MY ACCOUNT!!!! I had two rogue employees who were doing it WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE! Yes, I am responsible because it’s my account and my busines.. but how about a fine, how about a restitution of some sort. WHY COMPLETELY SHUT ME DOWN!!!!! It wasn’t intentional at all and EBAY CAN’T PROVE THAT IT WAS. They didn’t even care to listen to me. Everything is not so black and white, and ebay needs to learn that. They talk about BUILDING A BUSINESS on Ebay, etc.. but then they don’t treat the people who do and who did fairly at all. We do not deserve to get shut down completely when we’re dealing with multiple employees. There are many companies that have employees that break the rules without their knowledge, and once they do they are fired (which we did) and the company recovers..but they don’t get shut down! Ebaybiteme, I completely understand your cry… all of these groups have certain people that automatically assume you are guilty… probably paid employees of escam, uh, i mean ebay. I too was shut down for the same reason. My suspention only 7 days, but still lost all 87 of my current auctions, not too mention the ones I was bidding on from other users and winning. I tried til I was blue to talk to the powersellers customer service and all I got was some bull crap drone tell me it was policy and it didnt matter what the circumstances were… there was no recource. My wife actaully bid on, with her userid, some of the items our store was auctioning on consignment as a surprise to me. She thought that if she contacted the seller and offered to buy she would be violating ebay policy… so she bid, and bid high, making sure that her bids were high enough noone would win over her, and she did win… all of the items she bid on. The seller … read more »

Response:

Question:

"Since 1998, the existence of Ebay as a venue for buying antiques and vintage collectibles has resulted in the closing of over 30% of local antiques malls and co-ops and putting about 50% of auctioneers/auction houses out of business in my area. Flea markets locally now sell only new dollar store type items, and both local large antiques shows are no more. Now you say Ebay is going to be challenged by a hypothetical online flea market. Heh? Yeah, they are shakin’ in their boots, I’ll betcha."

Response:

"Since 1998, the existence of Ebay as a venue for buying antiques and vintage collectibles has resulted in the closing of over 30% of local antiques malls and co-ops and putting about 50% of auctioneers/auction houses out of business in my area. Flea markets locally now sell only new dollar store type items, and both local large antiques shows are no more. Now you say Ebay is going to be challenged by a hypothetical online flea market. Heh? Yeah, they are shakin’ in their boots, I’ll betcha."

"1. We would have another place to sell on. 2. We would have another place to buy on. 3. Ebay would have a REAL competitor in the marketplace which would FORCE them to rethink their yearly massive fee increases. Win, win for everyone except the greedy folks at ebay whose sole purpose in life is to own the internet. Sincerely, John Leckrone"

Response:

Sincerely, John Leckrone

Your meds have just been delivered by FedEx.   Go look at your porch.

Response:

Sincerely, John Leckrone Your meds have just been delivered by FedEx.   Go look at your porch.

UPS is bringing them this time. Have him go wait in the shed. A

Response:

Sincerely, John Leckrone Your meds have just been delivered by FedEx.   Go look at your porch. UPS is bringing them this time. Have him go wait in the shed. A

Good idea.   He can fight with Elf. Kris

Response:

Question:

"By acquiring Skype, eBay hopes to improve communications between buyers and sellers by allowing them to speak with each other, according to a statement. Buyers will gain an easy and quick way to talk to sellers and receive the information they need to buy items. Sellers, too, will benefit by being able to build relationships with customers and closing deals, it said " "On another front, the Skype acquisition could complicate eBay’s plans to expand its business in China – where rival Yahoo recently purchased a 40-percent stake in online auction site operator Alibaba.com Corp." "China Telecom Corp. Ltd., one of China’s two principal carriers, last week began cracking down on Internet users in southern China who use Skype’s SkypeOut service to make international phone calls from their computers. Under existing regulations in China, only licensed carriers are allowed to offer VOIP services that link computers and telephones."

Response:

"By acquiring Skype, eBay hopes to improve communications between buyers and sellers by allowing them to speak with each other, according to a statement. Buyers will gain an easy and quick way to talk to sellers and receive the information they need to buy items. Sellers, too, will benefit by being able to build relationships with customers and closing deals, it said "

That’s the worst idea I’ve ever heard. Ed

Response:

"By acquiring Skype, eBay hopes to improve communications between buyers and sellers by allowing them to speak with each other, according to a statement. Buyers will gain an easy and quick way to talk to sellers and receive the information they need to buy items. Sellers, too, will benefit by being able to build relationships with customers and closing deals, it said " That’s the worst idea I’ve ever heard.

I agree. We all need some idiot who has buyer remorse calling us to beg for their money back.

Response:

muttered something like: "By acquiring Skype, eBay hopes to improve communications between buyers and sellers by allowing them to speak with each other, according to a statement. Buyers will gain an easy and quick way to talk to sellers and receive the information they need to buy items. Sellers, too, will benefit by being able to build relationships with customers and closing deals, it said " That’s the worst idea I’ve ever heard. I agree. We all need some idiot who has buyer remorse calling us to beg for their money back.

I sincerely hope they never make that mandatory.  Part of the appeal of the internet is that I don’t have to talk on the friggin phone. -Bertha — Teal’c: What will happen to Dr. Carter tonight if we wait? Leader: Turgan will partake in his newest purchase. O’Neill: Oh, there’s not a chance in hell.

Response:

Question:

Ebay Suspension – Marc "I am new here and have a questions or two. I am a Power Seller on Ebay and was suspended for a copyright infringment. Apparently Verio found one of our Street Signs in violation and closed our account. I received the typical email on how to get reinstated, but after reading what looks like some horror stories, can anyone tell me whether my offense will also shelve my two year business for any length of time? In other words when eBay says that they will make a decision within five days, does this mean five days or indefinitely? I am not certain if certain infractions or violations are considered worse than others, or does it not matter? Of course like many here, I was making a good living and even supporting a Family, now I am temporarily out of work? Or should I say indefinitely or who knows? Any feedback on what I can expect would be helpful. Thanks Marc"

Response:

poco, what the hell is this all about? If we wanted to read all the posts from another forum, we’d go there.  All you are doing is clogging up this group with a bunch of crap that’s already on the net. Or do you get paid to post? jim menning

Response:

poco, what the hell is this all about? If we wanted to read all the posts from another forum, we’d go there.  All you are doing is clogging up this group with a bunch of crap that’s already on the net. Or do you get paid to post?

i killfiled it already.

Response:

poco, what the hell is this all about? If we wanted to read all the posts from another forum, we’d go there.  All you are doing is clogging up this group with a bunch of crap that’s already on the net. Or do you get paid to post? jim menning

It’s obviously trolling.  The morph told the tale. This usually happens over the holidays. Kris

Response:

Question:

A widget I sell for $9.10 plus 3.85 shipping. Q from potential buyer:   "I’ll send $24 for three, including shipping" My answer:   "To who?" I’m never really sure. Should that be "who" or "whom"? You’re fuc*ing up a serious newsgroup.

Who? Or is it Whom? I’m never really sure. Craig

Response:

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – A widget I sell for $9.10 plus 3.85 shipping. Q from potential buyer:   "I’ll send $24 for three, including shipping" My answer:   "To who?" I’m never really sure. Should that be "who" or "whom"? You’re fuc*ing up a serious newsgroup. Who? Or is it Whom? I’m never really sure.

What *I* want to know is where these idiots who can’t spell "fucking" come from.  If they’re going to use the word, the least they could do is learn to spell it properly. — Ty Who is mostly just a slightly skewed Donna Reed Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.          ~~ William Pitt, 18 Nov 1783

Response:

Charging for handling is the best way to go–the buyer then knows how much it costs to process his order, rather than have that cost rolled into a then higher price for the products. When you add-in handling to each product, the seller makes more on multi-itme sales, too… TOTAL NONSESNSE!!  Offering free shipping is the only way to eliminate all this bullshit and be highly successful on eBay.

Rita’s absolutely right. Bury s/h where no one can argue about it. The money saved on eBay fees by breaking out s/h isn’t worth the BS from lookie-lous, let alone buyers.

Response:

Realistically, is there such a thing, by definition, as SHIPPING & HANDLING (SH)? OK, I charge for shipping. I charge for materials, postage, and and whatever to get that package to you.  Using the canned invoicing program, I usually charge a little too much. But thats OK.  Today, on the radio I hear a talkshow host say that there’s no such thing as handling.  Handling means ” added profits” to the seller.  Why? Because in most businesses, the shipping staff is already being paid, so why is the buyer paying them again? Therefore, handling is bogus and is simply added profit. Do you agree with this?

Is the radio person implying that profit is evil or something? Actually, he has no way of knowing if the S&H is "more profit." It could just be "less of a loss. Pretty much, everything involved in eBay is either income or an expense. A

Response:

zipcode calculator I saw one by a VFW decal seller who wanted $1.50 to mail a sticker. He said his SH covers EBay fees too.

Did he say that in the auction? A

Response:

Charging for handling is the best way to go–the buyer then knows how much it costs to process his order, rather than have that cost rolled into a then higher price for the products. When you add-in handling to each product, the seller makes more on multi-itme sales, too… TOTAL NONSESNSE!!  Offering free shipping is the only way to eliminate all this bullshit and be highly successful on eBay. Rita’s absolutely right. Bury s/h where no one can argue about it. The money saved on eBay fees by breaking out s/h isn’t worth the BS from lookie-lous, let alone buyers.

Heh. All businesses should run on exactly the same principles. I love that. A

Response:

zipcode calculator I saw one by a VFW decal seller who wanted $1.50 to mail a sticker. He said his SH covers EBay fees too. Did he say that in the auction? A

Naw, I emailed the guy. He was using that zipcode calculator method.

Response:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Realistically, is there such a thing, by definition, as SHIPPING & HANDLING (SH)? OK, I charge for shipping. I charge for materials, postage, and and whatever to get that package to you.  Using the canned invoicing program, I usually charge a little too much. But thats OK.  Today, on the radio I hear a talkshow host say that there’s no such thing as handling.  Handling means ” added profits” to the seller.  Why? Because in most businesses, the shipping staff is already being paid, so why is the buyer paying them again? Therefore, handling is bogus and is simply added profit. Do you agree with this? Is the radio person implying that profit is evil or something? Actually, he has no way of knowing if the S&H is "more profit." It could just be "less of a loss. Pretty much, everything involved in eBay is either income or an expense. A

I think he meant that handling is a way to pad profits.  I used to buy from the Cherokee Nation Giftshop, and then they started charging a hidden Tribal Tax.  After it was all over, you end up with nearly 30% SH fees on your order. I asked them why it was so high, and they simply said….”Well, thats why the items are so cheap.”   They actually ”monkey” with the invoice to add more fees.

Response:

@individual.net: I think a bunch of us should be able to stand around a display at Wal-Mart and bid on the stuff too. A widget I sell for $9.10 plus 3.85 shipping. Q from potential buyer:   "I’ll send $24 for three, including shipping" My answer:   "To who?" I’m never really sure. Should that be "who" or "whom"?

You’re fuc*ing up a serious newsgroup. John E. Golden

Response:

I think a bunch of us should be able to stand around a display at Wal-Mart and bid on the stuff too.

A widget I sell for $9.10 plus 3.85 shipping. Q from potential buyer:   "I’ll send $24 for three, including shipping" My answer:   "To who?" I’m never really sure. Should that be "who" or "whom"? Craigm

Response:

Realistically, is there such a thing, by definition, as SHIPPING & HANDLING (SH)? Therefore, handling is bogus and is simply added profit. Do you agree with this?

It’s not always profit. My S&H covers my expenses for postage, packaging, and PayPal fees. In the majority of transactions my S&H does not exceed my expenses. If the customer pays with money order I’m saving the PayPal fees. Yahoo Auctions – Free Listing – No Fees http://auctions.shopping.yahoo.com/

Response:

Why anyone would listen to the random rantings of the average talkshow host, whose only job is to create enough controversy so as to make people call him, is beyond me.

Their ISP is down so they can’t get trolled online.

Response:

In the majority of transactions my S&H does not exceed my expenses. If the customer pays with money order I’m saving the PayPal fees.

And the customer pays the money order fees … Shipping and handling includes reasonable costs of wrapping, securing and getting the thing to post – time is money, and few sellers work for love, these days. But it should be open and honestly listed up front – if you think it’s a ripoff, don’t bid. I just won an auction with listed S&H at 9.95 The ebay ‘official’ invoice then asked me for 19.95 That’s when things start to smell – iff I refuse to pay, I’ll get a NPB strike against me. We’ll see  ;o) — Andrew http://www.weirdity.com/ebay/

Response:

Yes there is. The S&H involves more than just manpower. It involves space needed for products, gas to deliver, computers, and all the odd & ends needed to make something get shipped. If the cost of Crown Royal ever would go down i could then lower my S&H.

Response:

Realistically, is there such a thing, by definition, as SHIPPING & HANDLING (SH)? OK, I charge for shipping. I charge for materials, postage, and and whatever to get that package to you.  Using the canned invoicing program, I usually charge a little too much. But thats OK.  Today, on the radio I hear a talkshow host say that there’s no such thing as handling.  Handling means ” added profits” to the seller.  Why? Because in most businesses, the shipping staff is already being paid, so why is the buyer paying them again? Therefore, handling is bogus and is simply added profit.

Bull tucky… Only a moron would say that, and only an idiot would believe him when he says that. Charging for handling is the best way to go–the buyer then knows how much it costs to process his order, rather than have that cost rolled into a then higher price for the products. When you add-in handling to each product, the seller makes more on multi-itme sales, too… And yes, handling is expensive. There’s the packing materials, boxes, time to pack, time to do the shipping documentation, etc.

Response:

Wasn’t it redleg who said… I think this talkshow host was being all technical about whats S and H.

I think this talkshow host was doing his job – obfuscating the truth and making his switchboard light up.   Why anyone would listen to the random rantings of the average talkshow host, whose only job is to create enough controversy so as to make people call him, is beyond me. JP

Response:

…I saw one by a VFW decal seller who wanted $1.50 to mail a sticker. He said his SH covers EBay fees too.

To me, if the guy simply charged $1.50 I would have no problem with it. When he wants to try and justify it by saying he’s covering eBay fees, then I’d laugh and maybe go elsewhere. And not just because he’s violating a rule. He’s doing the same nickel and dime, line item thing that some buyers do, only he’s doing it in reverse. Craig

Response:

I would, however, be sympathetic to the view that prices should already reflect such costs. In principle even taxes, you simply the price you see advertized. Maybe the talk-show host meant something like this.

I think a bunch of us should be able to stand around a display at Wal-Mart and bid on the stuff too.

Response:

Realistically, is there such a thing, by definition, as SHIPPING & HANDLING (SH)? OK, I charge for shipping. I charge for materials, postage, and and whatever to get that package to you.  Using the canned invoicing program, I usually charge a little too much. But thats OK.  Today, on the radio I hear a talkshow host say that there’s no such thing as handling.  Handling means ” added profits” to the seller.  Why? Because in most businesses, the shipping staff is already being paid, so why is the buyer paying them again? Therefore, handling is bogus and is simply added profit. Do you agree with this?

There is only ONE valid definition of shipping and handling. These are the TOTAL expenses undergone by the seller over and above physically handing the item to the buyer. http://www.tinaja.com/glib/ebaysell.pdf — Many thanks, Don Lancaster                          voice phone: (928)428-4073 Synergetics   3860 West First Street   Box 809 Thatcher, AZ 85552 Please visit my GURU’s LAIR web site at http://www.tinaja.com

Response:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – : Today, on the radio I hear a talkshow host say that there’s no such : thing as handling.  Handling means ” added profits” to the seller. : Why? Because in most businesses, the shipping staff is already being : paid, so why is the buyer paying them again? : Therefore, handling is bogus and is simply added profit.: : Do you agree with this? In one word, no. In many words: Sure, some sellers can act that way, and they make my blood boil, but there is nothing wrong with the concept of S&H. Your logic is of the kind that a plane is going to London anyway so I should be able to fly free; a musical group is going to perform anyway so no harm if I get in free; that building is already built, many apartments are vacant anyway, why should I have to pay rent? This way, others would be subsidizing you. In a better system all users share the costs. So, yes, you should help pay handling even if nobody was specifically hired to handle your one package. I would, however, be sympathetic to the view that prices should already reflect such costs. In principle even taxes, you simply the price you see advertized. Maybe the talk-show host meant something like this. But US retail culture is moving in the opposite direction. I was just quoted $985 for a round trip ticket to India. Actual price paid after myriad taxes and special fees? Around $1300.

How much to go just one way? And is that price different from the other way?

Response:

Realistically, is there such a thing, by definition, as SHIPPING & HANDLING (SH)? OK, I charge for shipping. I charge for materials, postage, and and whatever to get that package to you.  Using the canned invoicing program, I usually charge a little too much. But thats OK.  Today, on the radio I hear a talkshow host say that there’s no such thing as handling.  Handling means ” added profits” to the seller.  Why? Because in most businesses, the shipping staff is already being paid, so why is the buyer paying them again? Therefore, handling is bogus and is simply added profit. Do you agree with this?

Response:

Realistically, is there such a thing, by definition, as SHIPPING & HANDLING (SH)? OK, I charge for shipping. I charge for materials, postage, and and whatever to get that package to you.  Using the canned invoicing program, I usually charge a little too much. But thats OK.  Today, on the radio I hear a talkshow host say that there’s no such thing as handling.  Handling means ” added profits” to the seller.  Why? Because in most businesses, the shipping staff is already being paid, so why is the buyer paying them again? Therefore, handling is bogus and is simply added profit. Do you agree with this?

All except the "bogus" part. If the customer knows the total cost and is willing to pay it, we got a deal. What I do with his money is none of his damned business.

Response:

: Today, on the radio I hear a talkshow host say that there’s no such : thing as handling.  Handling means ” added profits” to the seller. : Why? Because in most businesses, the shipping staff is already being : paid, so why is the buyer paying them again? : Therefore, handling is bogus and is simply added profit.: : Do you agree with this? In one word, no. In many words: Sure, some sellers can act that way, and they make my blood boil, but there is nothing wrong with the concept of S&H. Your logic is of the kind that a plane is going to London anyway so I should be able to fly free; a musical group is going to perform anyway so no harm if I get in free; that building is already built, many apartments are vacant anyway, why should I have to pay rent? This way, others would be subsidizing you. In a better system all users share the costs. So, yes, you should help pay handling even if nobody was specifically hired to handle your one package. I would, however, be sympathetic to the view that prices should already reflect such costs. In principle even taxes, you simply the price you see advertized. Maybe the talk-show host meant something like this. But US retail culture is moving in the opposite direction. I was just quoted $985 for a round trip ticket to India. Actual price paid after myriad taxes and special fees? Around $1300.

Response:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Realistically, is there such a thing, by definition, as SHIPPING & HANDLING (SH)? OK, I charge for shipping. I charge for materials, postage, and and whatever to get that package to you.  Using the canned invoicing program, I usually charge a little too much. But thats OK.  Today, on the radio I hear a talkshow host say that there’s no such thing as handling.  Handling means ” added profits” to the seller.  Why? Because in most businesses, the shipping staff is already being paid, so why is the buyer paying them again? Therefore, handling is bogus and is simply added profit. Do you agree with this? All except the "bogus" part. If the customer knows the total cost and is willing to pay it, we got a deal. What I do with his money is none of his damned business.

I think this talkshow host was being all technical about whats S and H.  I see these listing by sellers who list their items at some low prices and are not upfront with SH costs. Or they use that zipcode calculator method.  I saw one by a VFW decal seller who wanted $1.50 to mail a sticker.  He said his SH covers EBay fees too.

Response:

Question:

Ahhh so nice to see any message board connected with Ebay is filled with brainless azzholes who sit online with nothing to do all day but pick fights with otherwise busy people. Nice to see 6 worthless replies in less than a day. You truly make Adam Carolla look like Albert Einstein! Thanks for nothing , and thanks for knowing nothing too.

If you had such a low opinion of people here, perhaps you shouldn’t have solicited their advice. -Bertha — Lucius: Honey, where’s my super suit? Honey: Why do you need to know?!

Response:

Ahhh so nice to see any message board connected with Ebay is filled with brainless azzholes who sit online with nothing to do all day but pick fights with otherwise busy people. Nice to see 6 worthless replies in less than a day. You truly make Adam Carolla look like Albert Einstein! Thanks for nothing , and thanks for knowing nothing too.

Aw, gee whiz.  Did you *really* think this newsgroup (it’s not a message board, sweetie) is connected in any way to eBay?  Did you for some reason think anyone here has an obligation to answer questions?  Silly boy. — Ty Who is mostly just a slightly skewed Donna Reed "I’d like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don’t turn to God; you just rejected him from your city. And don’t wonder why he hasn’t helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I’m not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that’s the case, don’t ask for his help because he might not be there." ~~ Pat Robertson  "The 700 Club"

Response:

"I would like someone to do research on college loans" ROTFLMAO. This is like shooting fish in a barrel. You do "research" on college loans?! Are there just TOO many college loan choices for you to pick from nowadays?! Subsidized stafford and regular is too hard for you to pick from , huh? Are you SURE you should be going to college and not just getting a job at Wendy’s?! Just a thought.

I think she wants to major in avian zoology. Craig

Response:

"I would like someone to do research on college loans" ROTFLMAO. This is like shooting fish in a barrel. You do "research" on college loans?! Are there just TOO many college loan choices for you to pick from nowadays?! Subsidized stafford and regular is too hard for you to pick from , huh?

There are actually more than just Stafford loans to choose from. There are Perkins, Direct, school loans, etc. Each of them offer various pros and cons like longer grace periods, higher rates, etc. It actually does take a bit of research and consideration to understand which one will best fit a person’s needs. Of course, the financial aid office can choose to offer certain school-funded loans only to specific students, so not everyone gets a choice in that. Considering you are completely uninformed about the variety of loans out there, maybe you shouldn’t pretend to be intelligent. (Especially since you missed the sarcasm in that post and didn’t quote it properly anyway.) Of course you can’t expect much from an idiot that marches into the group and expects people to give away information on their suppliers in the first place… mjoann (highly in favor of forced sterilization in cases like techshare)

Response:

"There are actually more than just Stafford loans to choose from. There are Perkins, Direct, school loans, etc. Each of them offer various pros and cons like longer grace periods, higher rates, etc. It actually does take a bit of research and consideration to understand which one will best fit a person’s needs. Of course, the financial aid office can choose to offer certain school-funded loans only to specific students, so not everyone gets a choice in that. " Honey, if you can’t figure out the loans you are gonna use to pay for college … I think you should just stay out. I figured that out BEFORE I finished the first semester let alone graduation. Ebay suppliers are another story. So, brilliant one .. why again wouldn’t someone disclose their suppliers?! Is this some sort of competition thing … like if I buy from a supplier that probably sells to thousands of vendors on Ebay it somehow makes a difference to your little business?! LOL. Do you think about this stuff before you type , or just type away?! See, sooner or later if a person like me wants to find out where/who/what about suppliers we will. Perhaps I’ll find out from people who actually know about said topic and aren’t as mentally deficient as you are. You are reminiscent of a moronic redneck with a small brain and a small bank account just waiting for someone to ask you a question so you can "put ‘em in da place". LOL What a little life you lead. Are you a single mom?

Response:

This guy can’t quote, so I snipped what he tried to quote and left only his uninformed comments… Also, techshare, you may need a dictionary because I used some multi-syllable words. Maybe mommy or daddy can help you find them in the book. Honey, if you can’t figure out the loans you are gonna use to pay for college …

Well, sugar buns, my post had nothing to do with whether or not someone could figure out which loans to use. I was pointing out that there are more than just the only two you seem to know about. I think you should just stay out. I figured that out BEFORE I finished the first semester let alone graduation.

Apparently not so well, since you made fun of a poster and claimed there wasn’t any research to be done because there were only two choices. The poster didn’t say that she had graduated. Are you one of those trolls that likes to re-write history? Also, since you still haven’t caught on, it wasn’t really a legitimate situation anyway, she was mocking you. If you did happen to go to college, I have no doubt it was an open admissions community school, and you didn’t finish. Unfortunately, liberals have it in their heads that everyone deserves a college education. When the truth is, people like you just aren’t made for scholastic achievement. Don’t worry, someone has to work the summer hot dog stand at local amusement parks; there will always be a place for you. Ebay suppliers are another story. So, brilliant one .. why again wouldn’t someone disclose their suppliers?! Is this some sort of competition thing … like if I buy from a supplier that probably sells to thousands of vendors on Ebay it somehow makes a difference to your little business?!

Truly successful e-Bayers find unique suppliers so that they don’t sell the same crap as "thousands of vendors on e-Bay." It takes time and research to find wholesalers and make connections. No one with any sense is going to give away free information to some nasty, pimple faced ass wipe on a newsgroup. Maybe you shouldn’t be so quick to degrade my "little business" or that of any other seller here, because apparently we have been a lot more successful than you. I personally started on e-Bay over seven years ago and am a long time Power Seller. I have no doubt I make more money on e-Bay in a year than you ever will. LOL. Do you think about this stuff before you type , or just type away?!

That would be a good question for you. Are you actually typing with both hands? Clearly, you have no idea what you are talking about, you have no idea how the world works, you don’t know how to quote, and you have barely any reading comprehension skills. You can’t even follow your own posts, let alone someone else’s. See, sooner or later if a person like me wants to find out where/who/what about suppliers we will.

You aren’t smart or enterprising enough to do that. You’ll be back at your gameboy in just a few days at the most. Perhaps I’ll find out from people who actually know about said topic and aren’t as mentally deficient as you are.

How in the world does correcting your ignorance make someone "mentally deficient?" Only an idiot would give you free information, especially now that you’ve revealed your imbecile personality. Do your own work kiddie. You are reminiscent of a moronic redneck with a small brain and a small bank account just waiting for someone to ask you a question so you can "put ‘em in da place".

Actually I can’t stand rednecks, or morons, which is why trolls like you are such easy bait. I am actually quite proud of my brain. I have an IQ that puts me in Mensa, I actually graduated from college (with a 4.0,) and I can follow a conversation. I play with idiots such as yourself because I have so little regard for people who are below average. I guess it would be similar to the way a cat plays with a mouse. I actually believe you are a lower life form, and I have a feeling a few other people here do as well. LOL What a little life you lead. Are you a single mom?

I am not a parent, and don’t plan to be until I’ve finished my Ph.D.. I will never be a single mom because I respect the institution of marriage. What are you, other than an ignorant, misogynist moron? Are you even old enough to purchase and consume that keg you were asking about? It figures that you are posting through Google with a Yahoo address… (How do these brats make it to the internet?)

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- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – The underlying problem is far more worrisome and damaging: buying into efforts to stereotype, stigmatize, and marginalize women on the basis of alleged sexual activity.  All too often the result is a hasty denial of any guilt by association ("I’m not one of *those* women!), as if the stereotypes were indeed true indicators of morality or class, a denial that ultimately serves to validate the accuser and reinforce the power of his accusations. What a hypocritical bitch you must be?  You can say this with authority when you are the very same person that bragged on Usenet about having an abortion when you were younger.  So sad! Rita

KIKE

Response:

I am not a parent, and don’t plan to be until I’ve finished my Ph.D.. I will never be a single mom because I respect the institution of marriage. Never say never, dahlink.  You never know what might happen to upset your perfect world and put you in the ranks of the untermenschen, the single mothers of the world.

Some of which I’m sure are single because they are widows.  Others may have respected the institution of marriage, but their former husbands did not. -Bertha — Yes, I am a minion of Satan, but my duties are largely ceremonial.

Response:

I am not a parent, and don’t plan to be until I’ve finished my Ph.D.. I will never be a single mom because I respect the institution of marriage. Never say never, dahlink.  You never know what might happen to upset your perfect world and put you in the ranks of the untermenschen, the single mothers of the world.

Since you didn’t notice, the boy was implying "single mother" as in white trash mother to illegitimate children, not single mom as in innocent widow. No, I am quite sure I will never have illegitimate children, or match the redneck lifestyle he was insinuating. What are you, other than an ignorant, misogynist moron? Pot, meet the kettle.

Says the poster who didn’t read the full post, and certainly didn’t catch the boy’s inferences. I am a woman by the way.

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- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I am not a parent, and don’t plan to be until I’ve finished my Ph.D.. I will never be a single mom because I respect the institution of marriage. Never say never, dahlink.  You never know what might happen to upset your perfect world and put you in the ranks of the untermenschen, the single mothers of the world. Some of which I’m sure are single because they are widows.  Others may have respected the institution of marriage, but their former husbands did not.

I think this is one of the reasons that women can’t seem to make any progress toward equality. Many of us have a hard time supporting the decisions that other women make. A

Response:

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I am not a parent, and don’t plan to be until I’ve finished my Ph.D.. I will never be a single mom because I respect the institution of marriage. Never say never, dahlink.  You never know what might happen to upset your perfect world and put you in the ranks of the untermenschen, the single mothers of the world. Some of which I’m sure are single because they are widows.  Others may have respected the institution of marriage, but their former husbands did not. I think this is one of the reasons that women can’t seem to make any progress toward equality. Many of us have a hard time supporting the decisions that other women make.

Uh huh.   I don’t see anything intrinsically wrong with being a single mother, whether by choice or turn of Fate; even happily married women with Ph.D’s can find themselves raising children alone.   The underlying problem is far more worrisome and damaging: buying into efforts to stereotype, stigmatize, and marginalize women on the basis of alleged sexual activity.  All too often the result is a hasty denial of any guilt by association ("I’m not one of *those* women!), as if the stereotypes were indeed true indicators of morality or class, a denial that ultimately serves to validate the accuser and reinforce the power of his accusations. In the late-1960’s a federal appeals court upheld a sex-plus standard that allowed employers to refuse to hire women (but not men) with small children; while such overt employment discrimination is no longer legal, the equally pernicious mindset that allows some to define women’s sexual conduct, motherhood, or marital status as an indicator of worthiness is alive and well. — Ty Who is mostly just a slightly skewed Donna Reed "I’d like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don’t turn to God; you just rejected him from your city. And don’t wonder why he hasn’t helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I’m not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that’s the case, don’t ask for his help because he might not be there." ~~ Pat Robertson  "The 700 Club"

Response:

"I am not a parent, and don’t plan to be until I’ve finished my Ph.D" ROTFLMAO. Would that be a Ph.D in Ebay Powerselling?

Response:

I am not a parent, and don’t plan to be until I’ve finished my Ph.D.. I will never be a single mom because I respect the institution of marriage.

Never say never, dahlink.  You never know what might happen to upset your perfect world and put you in the ranks of the untermenschen, the single mothers of the world. What are you, other than an ignorant, misogynist moron?

Pot, meet the kettle.

Response:

Ahhh so nice to see any message board connected with Ebay is filled with brainless azzholes who sit online with nothing to do all day but pick fights with otherwise busy people. Nice to see 6 worthless replies in less than a day. You truly make Adam Carolla look like Albert Einstein! Thanks for nothing , and thanks for knowing nothing too.

Response:

"and he expects an answer!" LOL! Good name for you. To answer your statement/name as Alex Trebeck might say "No, I’m sorry we weren’t looking for an answer from you" and as I would say "No, I’m sorry but you are definitely not cabable of providing intelligent or intelligible answers to most questions.

Response:

"I would like someone to do research on college loans" ROTFLMAO. This is like shooting fish in a barrel. You do "research" on college loans?! Are there just TOO many college loan choices for you to pick from nowadays?! Subsidized stafford and regular is too hard for you to pick from , huh? Are you SURE you should be going to college and not just getting a job at Wendy’s?! Just a thought.

Response:

Ahhh so nice to see any message board connected with Ebay is filled with brainless azzholes who sit online with nothing to do all day but pick fights with otherwise busy people. Nice to see 6 worthless replies in less than a day. You truly make Adam Carolla look like Albert Einstein! Thanks for nothing , and thanks for knowing nothing too.

Thank you for the OP saying that you know nothing. You should feel right at home.

Response:

Are you SURE you should be going to college and not just getting a job at Wendy’s?!

Oh boy junior. You stepped on your dick with that one.

Response:

"I would like someone to do research on college loans" ROTFLMAO. This is like shooting fish in a barrel. You do "research" on college loans?! Are there just TOO many college loan choices for you to pick from nowadays?! Subsidized stafford and regular is too hard for you to pick from , huh? Are you SURE you should be going to college and not just getting a job at Wendy’s?! Just a thought.

There goes that whoosh bird again. -Bertha — Todd: So, what are her breasts like? Elliot: Todd, I’m right here! Todd: Oh, sorry.  So, what are your breasts like?

Response:

I know this has been discussed at length … but I wanted to see if anyone would be willing to share information specific to the best ways to *acquire* DVD Movies and/or computer software to sell on Ebay. Since I’ve already been down other roads of selling from wholesalers on Ebay .. I KNOW it can be difficult if not impossible to make a profit when you simply don’t have a good and cheap enough supplier for the items you are trying to sell. I’ve seen several "ready-made" business centered around the DVD and computer software selling for sale on Ebay … some are asking thousands or 10’s of thousands … some far less … I have no idea how legit these particular items are. I guess at this point … the operation of selling DVD movies or software on Ebay doesn’t intimidate me … but like every other thing I’ve tried on Ebay … finding the SUPPLY seems quite difficult. Can you really make it buying out of the cutout bins at walmart, or does it take more?  Please note I’m only looking at this for a side business. I expect it to generate a profit … but do not have high expectations. TIA for any tips/pointers.

Response:

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -I know this has been discussed at length … but I wanted to see if anyone would be willing to share information specific to the best ways to *acquire* DVD Movies and/or computer software to sell on Ebay. Since I’ve already been down other roads of selling from wholesalers on Ebay .. I KNOW it can be difficult if not impossible to make a profit when you simply don’t have a good and cheap enough supplier for the items you are trying to sell. I’ve seen several "ready-made" business centered around the DVD and computer software selling for sale on Ebay … some are asking thousands or 10’s of thousands … some far less … I have no idea how legit these particular items are. I guess at this point … the operation of selling DVD movies or software on Ebay doesn’t intimidate me … but like every other thing I’ve tried on Ebay … finding the SUPPLY seems quite difficult. Can you really make it buying out of the cutout bins at walmart, or does it take more?  Please note I’m only looking at this for a side business. I expect it to generate a profit … but do not have high expectations. TIA for any tips/pointers.

I don’t know much about DVD suppliers, but I heard of a good deal on elipses last week.  You can probably get them at wholesale and save a bundle on your next posting. — Ty Who is mostly just a slightly skewed Donna Reed "I’d like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don’t turn to God; you just rejected him from your city. And don’t wonder why he hasn’t helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I’m not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that’s the case, don’t ask for his help because he might not be there." ~~ Pat Robertson  "The 700 Club"

Response:

I know this has been discussed at length

Then you already have your answer. … but I wanted to see if anyone would be willing to share information specific to the best ways to *acquire* DVD Movies and/or computer software to sell on Ebay.

So, you are looking for someone who is successful at buying items cheap and selling them on eBay for a profit to tell you how they do it? Man, you are one stupid dude.

Response:

… I wanted to see if anyone would be willing to share information specific to the best ways to *acquire* DVD Movies and/or computer software to sell on Ebay…

If I may piggyback your request for free information… I wanted to see if anyone would be willing to pay for my health insurance. Craig

Response:

… I wanted to see if anyone would be willing to share information specific to the best ways to *acquire* DVD Movies and/or computer software to sell on Ebay… If I may piggyback your request for free information… I wanted to see if anyone would be willing to pay for my health insurance.

Heating oil price has lapped gasoline, I could use a few hundred free gallons to help me keep warm this winter.

Response:

muttered something like: … I wanted to see if anyone would be willing to share information specific to the best ways to *acquire* DVD Movies and/or computer software to sell on Ebay… If I may piggyback your request for free information… I wanted to see if anyone would be willing to pay for my health insurance. Heating oil price has lapped gasoline, I could use a few hundred free gallons to help me keep warm this winter.

I would like someone to do research on college loans and savings plans for me.  It sounds like a lot of tedious work that I’d prefer not to have to do for myself. -Bertha — Opossums always remind me of retarded, oafish rats.  Whenever I see an opossum wandering aimlessly across a road, I always imagine its sibling rats sitting curb-side, snickering cruelly, as though they had put him up to crossing as a practical joke.          – Fuzzy Pink Bunny Slippers

Response:

Question:

Does anyone use multiple accounts?  Is it worth it?  Any downside besides shared management?  Do I need a separate Paypal account?

I keep separate accounts for buying and selling. Then I have a secret account that I can use to buy gifts and the recipients won’t see what I’m shopping for. I also have an separate account that I use when I risk   buying from difficult sellers — so they don’t wreck the feedback on my "real" accounts. etc. I have seven in all. You can have as many accounts as you like. They have to have different e-mail addresses but all other info can be the same. Your accounts must not interact with each other (e.g. bid on each other’s auctions or bid against each other). You don’t need separate PayPal accounts. You may have one PayPal account for business purposes and one for personal purposes — no more. Each PayPal account can have up to eight e-mail addresses associated with it — this effectively limits you to eight eBay selling accounts per PayPal account. You could have more but it would get complicated and confuse your customers.

Response:

something like: Does anyone use multiple accounts?  Is it worth it?  Any downside besides shared management?  Do I need a separate Paypal account?

I don’t, but I’m a small-timer on ebay.  Sold a few things, bought a few more things.  Not really worth setting up two accounts just for that. -Bertha — Real programmers don’t bring brown-bag lunches.  If the vending machine doesn’t sell it, they don’t eat it.  Vending machines don’t sell quiche.

Response:

Does anyone use multiple accounts?  Is it worth it?  Any downside besides shared management?  Do I need a separate Paypal account?

You only need a different email address. As you can tie multiple email addresses to a single PayPal account, you shouldn’t need a special PayPal account. A

Response:

Just thought I’d ask if anyone here has multiple accounts.  I’m going to be selling about 500 CDs and thought it might be easier to create a new eBay account to sell them in addition to my regular account.  That way I can use the combined shipping function and automate more of the process, plus be able to have a store with different CD categories rather than lumping them all into one CD category with my regular account.  People rarely combine the CDs with my other auction items…. Does anyone use multiple accounts?  Is it worth it?  Any downside besides shared management?  Do I need a separate Paypal account?

A lot of people have multiple accounts. Having different selling strategies for different lines of goods is one good reason. Worth what? Starting a new line with a zero-feedback ID is one downside. No, you don’t need a separate PayPal account. An additional email address linked to the PP account is a good idea.

Response:

Just thought I’d ask if anyone here has multiple accounts.  I’m going to be selling about 500 CDs and thought it might be easier to create a new eBay account to sell them in addition to my regular account.  That way I can use the combined shipping function and automate more of the process, plus be able to have a store with different CD categories rather than lumping them all into one CD category with my regular account.  People rarely combine the CDs with my other auction items. I’ve done searches on eBay to learn if it’s possible, but after searching "multiple accounts" and "new accounts" and "more than 1 account" in their Help engine I’m finding nothing except the link to merge multiple accounts into one. Does anyone use multiple accounts?  Is it worth it?  Any downside besides shared management?  Do I need a separate Paypal account? Thanks, Eric

Response:

Question:

… I have only about 33$ in my Paypal account. It sits there since about two years, and I have no idea how to get it out.

Seems like something that would have been good to know about before you ever opened a PayPal account. I don’t suppose the answer would be in the PP terms or user agreement that you read when you signed on. Craig

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– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I have 600$ on my PP account but can’t withdraw them because I don’t have a US bank acc. I need help. I’m looking for somebody that can help me transfer this funds to my bank acc in europe. I will pay any transfer fees and aprox 30$ extra for You. Wire fraud for only $30? You’re going to have to pay much more than that to get someone to participate in a scheme that may net 3 to 7 in the Federal Pen… I have the same problem as this poor gut, and I am not a scammer or any fraud. But I have only about 33$ in my Paypal account. It sits there since about two years, and I have no idea how to get it out. Paypal insists that the only way I can get out my money is to add a US bank account to my account profile in Paypal. Of course I don’t have one, and it’s not economical for me to open one just to get the 33$ out. First they (Paypal) blocked the account for 180 days and then demanded me to add a US bank account. So basically they (Paypal) stolen my money, because they know it won’t pay for me to open a US bank account for 33$. Go to an American bank in your country and open an account. Tell them what you need (that it be accessible in the US for deposits and other transactions). I have an account in Citibank in my country, but I have no idea how that can help me. It still doesn’t have an US ABA number, just an EU IBAN number.

Hey, just buy yourself some nice tchotchkes on eBay and have them shipped to wherever you are. Treat yourself *right*.. Best regards, Spehro Pefhany — "it’s the network…"                          "The Journey is the reward" Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com

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- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I have 600$ on my PP account but can’t withdraw them because I don’t have a US bank acc. I need help. I’m looking for somebody that can help me transfer this funds to my bank acc in europe. I will pay any transfer fees and aprox 30$ extra for You. Wire fraud for only $30? You’re going to have to pay much more than that to get someone to participate in a scheme that may net 3 to 7 in the Federal Pen… I have the same problem as this poor gut, and I am not a scammer or any fraud. But I have only about 33$ in my Paypal account. It sits there since about two years, and I have no idea how to get it out.

Why not just find something to buy with it, then be done with PayPal forever? A

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I have 600$ on my PP account but can’t withdraw them because I don’t have a US bank acc.

Recently I closed my Brothers PayPal account because he refused to give a checking account or credit card. During the closing process I had them send him a check to clear out the balance. Could you not request a check to clear your balance? Tha RagMan

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Cant you just open a local account – then list a cheap pen for sale on ebay with a $600 min bid – then buy it yourself using your US account to pay for it, and your local account to receive the money Seems simple to me David – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I have 600$ on my PP account but can’t withdraw them because I don’t have a US bank acc. I need help. I’m looking for somebody that can help me transfer this funds to my bank acc in europe. I will pay any transfer fees and aprox 30$ extra for You. Anybody can help me? Thanks. Richard

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First they (Paypal) blocked the account for 180 days and then demanded me to add a US bank account. So basically they (Paypal) stolen my money, because they know it won’t pay for me to open a US bank account for 33$. Hey, just buy yourself some nice tchotchkes on eBay and have them shipped to wherever you are. Treat yourself *right*..

I cannot buy anything with it, because the account is blocked. It says that I can only withdraw it to an account in the US. I cannot use it to make purchases. — Protect Europe from a legal disaster. Petition against software patents http://www.noepatents.org/index_html?LANG=en

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I’ll be glad to help but only if you promise to sell me a bunch of money orders from Nigeria for less than their face amount.

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Richard ha escrito: I have 600$ on my PP account but can’t withdraw them because I don’t have a US bank acc. I need help. I’m looking for somebody that can help me transfer this funds to my bank acc in europe. I will pay any transfer fees and aprox 30$ extra for You. Anybody can help me? Thanks. Richard

Hi to all, First, sorry about the english. I’ve been criticized for it, I guess I should practice more. Now let me told you how I did open an US Bank Account, if I may. First of all, let me say that I post this message because this place was one of the sites I searched for information when I was trying to open an account. Obviously I didn’t find anything that helps. I searched a lot on the web… and I mean A LOT, but the best I found were some places when they sold the information on $100 or more. I also found sites that offered incorporating my business and then help me to open an us bank account… they charged way over $400… no guarantees. Finally I found a guy that sold me the information for $59. I felt doubtfull but… I bought it. It was a risky move, but a good one. I opened my account without any problem. I also make transfers from my PayPal account and it works great. The fun part… open the account cost me nothing… yes, nothing (well except from the first $59 that I paid for the information). I didn’t need any SSN, US address or somthing like that. Just a plain copy of my passport. I get my check book having just $ 5USD as an initial deposit. I also get a VISA Platinum that works in any PLUS ATM and my transfers from PayPal are ready in less than 5 days. Another fun part… I don’t pay any monthly fees for the first 12 months. After that? Just $40 every 3 months… and that’s if I don’t keep the account active, otherwise no fees. So…. I made a simple website offering people the same information for a fraction of the cost that I had to pay. If you ask me, I don’t think there is anything wrong about it. After all I had to pay and take the risk for it at the first place. Plus the price is really cheap, it’s actually a bargain compared to other sites, and I give money back guarantee. I use PayPal and 2 checkout as methods of payment so if you have any problem just tell them and they will close my account…  but that is not gonna happend… because the infomation is good… and I give a great service. I’m from Ecuador… That’s why I needed an US Bank Account.  The bank I have my account is, obviously, in the US. The name of the bank and all the information in how to open the account is what you will receive. Just visit the web site. This is important, just with the name of the Bank you will not be able to open your account. You have, HAVE, to follow some guidelines for your account to be open. Any way, if you are not able to open it. I’ll return your money. Someone could consider this as spam. Spamming is faceless, I’m not. My name is Jorge Hern

Question:

1-866-304-EBAY Wait til Monday, then warm up those phone lines, it’s their dime. Be sure to ask about who leaves feedback first.

…and the question:  "After daily requests from me, the seller still hasn’t left feedback.  What should I do?" Loren

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1-866-304-EBAY Wait til Monday, then warm up those phone lines, it’s their dime. Be sure to ask about who leaves feedback first. …and the question:  "After daily requests from me, the seller still hasn’t left feedback.  What should I do?"

Send me $500 and I’ll tell you.

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1-866-304-EBAY Wait til Monday, then warm up those phone lines, it’s their dime. Be sure to ask about who leaves feedback first. …and the question:  "After daily requests from me, the seller still hasn’t left feedback.  What should I do?" Send me $500 and I’ll tell you.

I’ll have to think about that.  You’ll probably rip me off on shipping costs, then not leave positive feedback for me. Loren…would like to read "eBay for Dummies" but am not sure I’m the dummy it was written for.

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Loren…would like to read "eBay for Dummies" but am not sure I’m the dummy it was written for.

….and the ones it was written for, certainly aren’t reading it. Kris

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– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – 1-866-304-EBAY Wait til Monday, then warm up those phone lines, it’s their dime. Be sure to ask about who leaves feedback first. …and the question:  "After daily requests from me, the seller still hasn’t left feedback.  What should I do?" Send me $500 and I’ll tell you. I’ll have to think about that.  You’ll probably rip me off on shipping costs, then not leave positive feedback for me.

Of course I’ll give you good FB.  You can trust me. As long as you leave me good FB first. Loren…would like to read "eBay for Dummies" but am not sure I’m the dummy it was written for.

I was in a cheapo book discount store where they had a bunch of French or probably French Canadian "For Dummies" books, but the French title was cooler – they were all like "eBay par Nulls".

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Just down at the PO, picked up a handout pitching eBay/USPS services with this valuable coupon offer on the back: a $500 value FREE* FREE Consulting on growing your business on eBay Call our eBay Seller OnRamp Consultants free, a $500* value 1-866-304-EBAY Offer code: USPSBIZ Mon-Fri, 6am-6pm PT/9am-9pm ET *$500 value based on comparable fee-based services Wait til Monday, then warm up those phone lines, it’s their dime. Be sure to ask about who leaves feedback first.

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- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Just down at the PO, picked up a handout pitching eBay/USPS services with this valuable coupon offer on the back: a $500 value FREE* FREE Consulting on growing your business on eBay Call our eBay Seller OnRamp Consultants free, a $500* value 1-866-304-EBAY Offer code: USPSBIZ Mon-Fri, 6am-6pm PT/9am-9pm ET *$500 value based on comparable fee-based services Wait til Monday, then warm up those phone lines, it’s their dime. Be sure to ask about who leaves feedback first.

I’ll bet one could get $100 for those on eBay!

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