Automatic eBay Newsletter = FAIL.

So I tried and tried to get my eBay newsletter to go out automatically every week - and I never could get it to stick! I don't know what the problem is, but I'm officially giving up and going back to sending it out manually. If you want the scoop on the new stuff we list on eBay delivered right to your email box, this newsletter is the way to go! Click on over to sign up :)

A few new goodies at auction this week!

I had a hard time getting back into the swing of things as far as eBay goes this week, but I did manage to list a few cool things!

Mid-Century Modern Chemex Pyrex Coffee Maker

Vintage Burlap Raffia Melmac Pitcher & Tumblers Set (I listed this pitcher a few weeks ago and it didn't sell, then I found some matching tumblers so I made a set! Love it!)

Vintage West Germany Wood Toy Train Set

Vintage Green Semi-Precious Stone Bracelet

Vintage Rose Quartz Earrings

Mint In Package Vintage Plastic Days Of The Week Barrettes

eBay Exec Usher Lieberman tonight on a special episode of the AuctionWally Show!

Yep, the AuctionWally show is having a special Thursday edition this week - Walt will be interviewing Usher Lieberman from eBay! How exciting is that?

I've been lax on promoting our new shows on Talkshoe (Tuesday nights, 8pm!) but I am going to try to do better, I promise! I had to make sure you all heard about this one though - it should be great!

Here is Walt's announcement from his Examiner blog:

Love eBay? Hate eBay? Have questions about where this online giant plans to take its business model in the future?

If so, then you'll want to tune in to a special edition of the AuctionWally Show this evening at 5:30 PM EST to listen to a live interview I'll be conducting with eBay's Usher Lieberman, the Senior Manager of Corporate Communications for eBay.

As an eBay seller for 10 years, mostly of antiques and collectibles via the auction format, I've been impacted by eBay's many recent changes as much as anyone.

I've been up and down in Powerseller status and have gone from fanboy to critic and back several times. (Just see some of the back articles of this column.)

After an article I'd written in December, I was contacted by eBay and asked if I would be interested in doing an interview with Usher Lieberman. I of course stated that I was, but only if the questions were not fed to me by eBay. I indicated that I would be fair, but would have some tough questions.

I was told that was fine and in fact, they were contacting me because they wanted input from someone who had a lot of experience on the site, but was not just a cheerleader.

An interview was arranged. You can tune into the interview as it airs live, by going to http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/tscmd/tc/25106

If you miss the live show, of course you can always listen to it, and any back episodes in the archive.

If you've got some advice or issues about eBay, now is your chance to do something more than howl. Come to the show where there will be a chat room set up. My co-host Mitzi Swisher will be monitoring the room for questions.

I already have a list of my own questions, but we'll take some of yours as well.

Thanks for reading.

AW

Surviving the New eBay - Tips for Vintage Sellers

I just posted a new article over on The Vintage List blog - if you sell vintage on eBay, click on over and check it out!

Update - Not long after I posted this, Gary Hendrickson over at The Auction Rebel blog (which I forgot to include on my list of blogs to watch, but it should definitely be on there!) posted a great article titled Despite All The Changes eBay Is Still The Place For Antiques And Collectibles - it's a must read!

The Future of eBay Stores

I just did a quick post over on the Vintage List blog about the future of eBay stores - if you have one, click on over and check it out!

Playin my heart out.

See these little football players I have up at auction right now?

Usually I'm the guy in the middle, clutching my ball and running for dear life, a little banged up, but truckin along with my eyes on the prize.

But lately I've been having days where I am more like the guy on the right - I've dropped the ball, and I'm hightailing it off the field as fast as my chubby little legs will carry me.

And the guy on the left? That's eBay, holding the ball just like Lucy, telling Charlie Brown she PROMISES she won't pull it away just before he kicks it.

Somehow the look on eBay's face isn't inspiring any confidence in me that the ball will be there - what do you think?

The future of eBay...

I posted a few days ago about the newest changes that were announced by eBay, and I started out my post by saying:

"eBay has a master plan, and they are executing it in small steps. The final goal of this plan is still a mystery, but the more changes they roll out, the more I feel like my small business isn't welcome there anymore."

Today I checked in on Skip McGrath's blog, only to find a very similar post - except he actually made a list of possible outcomes:

• Will eBay eventually abandon the auction format altogether?
• Will eBay eventually abandon the sale of used goods including antiques and collectibles?
• Will eBay announce tiered listing fees for large sellers or continue to seek out and do private deals with large sellers?

Skip is one of the most knowledgeable and trusted eBay experts around, and to see him speculating about these scenarios really makes me worry...

If you have a small business selling vintage on eBay, my advice is to start branching out. The days of being an eBay only business are pretty much over - and the chance that at some point in the future being on eBay at all no longer being an option is growing every day...

eBay is at it again...

eBay has a master plan, and they are executing it in small steps. The final goal of this plan is still a mystery, but the more changes they roll out, the more I feel like my small business isn't welcome there anymore.

Yesterday they announced that starting in July you can no longer have links to outside websites on your About Me page, which was the only place on eBay where you could link to your own website or blog legally. I can't even include outside links in the eBay store newsletter I send out every week, so I have to type cumbersome instructions to people when I talk about things - "Just click over to my About Me page to get the link to my website to visit my blog/Etsy shop" - bleh!

And now I won't even be able to do that.

They also announced changes to the rules about listing multiple items, which I find completely confusing. I would take the time to research it, but I'm too busy getting set up on OnlineAuction.com.

I love eBay. I still think it is the best online marketplace in the world for finding things that you can't find anywhere else, and I love selling (and shopping!) there. The majority of buyers and sellers on the site are amazing, honest people. I'm scared that eBay is going to drive off all those good people, and in the end we will be left with only big box sellers!

I'm not leaving eBay, but I am going to give OLA a try - I'll keep you posted!

Hey eBay, you're not the boss of me!

I realize that title makes me sound like a spoiled 6 year old, but it expresses my current attitude so well I couldn't resist...

I let the new policies over at eBay throw me for a loop, I let them make me nervous, hell - I even let them scare me, for brief moments. But, I've officially broken on through to the other side, and remembered why I started my own business in the first place - to be my own boss. It's that simple.

In November of 2006 the newspaper I worked for for 10 years called us into a meeting and told us that they had decided to outsource the work of the entire department to India, effective April 1st, 2007. 10 years of work down the drain, in one 15 minute meeting given by a big wig I had never seen before.

I decided I was done. If my fate was going to be in someone's hands, I wanted it to be my own. No more depending on the whims of a corporate entity, no more having the rug pulled out from under me because it would help someone else's bottom line.

Sound familiar? It is exactly the situation that eBay has tried to put me in - and I'm not going to let it happen. I pay them for a service - I don't work for them. eBay isn't my boss!

So - I'm going to keep selling internationally. eBay's star system doesn't control my business, and I am not going to let it close an avenue for sales that I really need.

I also put this graphic into my new auction template:

I figured if eBay isn't going to educate my buyers about how the star system really affects a seller's standing, then I will. I am also working on an insert that I will include in my packages that has that graphic, as well as information about my return policy, my contact information, and links to my websites and other online shop(s).

I'm the boss! Say it with me now. :)

eBay Changes = Even More Stress!

It's been a roller coaster ride of a week in eBayland, so much so that I barely have the energy to write about it. But, I will, because I think I need to vent a little... repressing these kinds of things is bad for you, right?

Sales this week have been excellent - either the buyers didn't get the memo about the boycott, or some of my competition did... I don't know. Whatever the reason, we have a lot to be happy about on the sales front. Add to that my really fun podcast interview with Auction Wally (more on that subject later!) on Tuesday, and you have quite a happy Mitzi - for the first part of the week.

Then yesterday rolled around. I received glowing positive feedback from an international buyer, and at the same time my shipping rate star rating fell from a 4.6 to a 4.5. Doesn't seem like something that should be that big of a deal, does it?

Well, it knocked me out of getting the new 5% discount on my final value fees for having all my ratings at 4.6 or higher, and it put me just one point away from losing my Powerseller status come July when the new rules for the Powerseller program take effect. Losing my Powerseller status due to my detailed seller ratings would mean being disadvantaged in the new Best Match default search, and losing the extra PayPal protection that is now provided for Powersellers.

The really upsetting part is that this buyer probably didn't leave me a really bad rating, she just didn't leave me a 5. I heard in a webinar about the eBay changes a couple of weeks ago that on average, it has been found that international buyers leave .5 lower on shipping charge stars than US buyers do.

Why? It's expensive to ship overseas. If you want any kind of coverage you have to use Global Priority, because it has online tracking, where the cheaper 1st Class International does not. And, if the item has any kind of value at all, you need to have insurance because of the increased risk of lost packages. There are also the duty fees - those can be very high, and if it makes the buyer grumpy, they can take it out on you in your rating.

When the eBay advisors that gave the webinar I listened to suggested not selling internationally if you were worried about your shipping charge star rating, I gave it a bit of thought but decided I didn't want to lose the money international sales bring in every month.

Then we got dinged.

Will and I have both been so upset over this entire situation over the last couple of days that we have barely gotten anything done. I wasted a lot of time yesterday trying to figure out a way to find out what percentage of my sales are international without having to go through my sales one by one. I didn't find a way.

We are guessing that it is 25% or less, and we have been discussing the possibility of not offering international on our main selling ID anymore... we could list items we thought would do well overseas on a different account. The trouble is knowing what will end up doing well - some things I have an idea about, but most of the time I wouldn't really be able to tell.

What I am leaning towards right now is going ahead and revising all of my store listings to no international. If it hurts too much, we can always add it back into our listings later. What we can't afford is to lose one more point on that damn star rating!

As I go through the store listings I am going to move some things into my Etsy store, and there is a good possibility that we will be opening a bookstore on BuyItSellIt or eCrater in the near future too. I love eBay, and I'm not trying to leave eBay... but I am feeling the pinch now, I have to do what is best for my business... and my sanity!

Wow - CNN is all over the eBay insanity....

Here is another article from CNN/Fortune, this time about the controversial new policy over at PayPal where they have given themselves the right to hold payments for up to 21 days on "high risk" transactions.

Here is another article profiling 5 businesses who have ditched eBay altogether.

And finally, one about the upcoming strike - February 18-25, if you are interested. ;)

CNN Article - Part Deux

CNN published a new article about eBay today titled "eBay Rivals Circle Vulnerable Auctions Kingpin". It covers the sellers that are leaving, or trying to leave, the eBay marketplace, and where they are going. Quite interesting reading!

eBay Changes = Too Much Stress!

I've come off the high of being quoted on CNN finally, and am back to worrying over the changes eBay announced. Here is the rundown of changes, and my thoughts on them so far (warning - if you aren't an eBay seller, reading the following could be like watching paint dry):

Fees
Free Gallery, Listing Fee Reduction, Final Value Fee (FVF) Hike

This is a horribly complicated issue, that varies from seller to seller depending on how you run your business. As far as I can tell, the ones who will be hurt the most are the sellers who didn't regularly use the Gallery option and have an average selling price of under $25. Those sellers that maintain a high sell through rate are also going to feel the FVF increase more, because they were losing less money in listing fees and so the FVF increase will not be offset.

For me, I think that I might save a little money on my auction fees, or they will be around the same. I always use Gallery, and my sell through rate hovers around 35%, which means I spend a lot of money listing and not selling. Where I have been spending 75c to start an auction at $9.95, now I will be spending 35c. Not too shabby!

What is bothering me the most is the raise on FVF for store items from 10% to 12%. It was already too high, and now it is just over the top. Between the FVF and PayPal's take, I'm looking at about 15% in fees when I sell something out of my store, not including the cost of the item, all the time it takes to process the item, taxes, etc.

I'm currently thinking on how to handle this. One option is to not list anything in the store that is under $25. Once you are over the $25 mark you actually pay less of a percentage in FVF, as the amount over $25 is only hit for 8% instead of 12%.

The problem is that the majority of my items are under $25. My average selling price on store items is around $15, actually. So what do I do? Raise prices across the board, and most likely sell less? Move my lower priced inventory to my Etsy store, where the fee is only 3%, but where I have less traffic, less experience, and less of an idea about the marketplace and what it will pay?

Or, do I go ahead and make the jump to setting up a store on my dot com, where I would just pay PayPal fees? This is where I would like to be eventually, but traffic is the big issue. Would people find my store? If they did, would they feel comfortable buying from me?

Of course I could also research other selling venues that I haven't used before - Ruby Lane and Tias come to mind. I have always kind of thought of them as higher end markets though, more of an antique mall atmosphere rather than a flea market one. But maybe that is what I should be trying for anyway?

Like I said, it's all very complicated. I'll keep you posted on what I decide.

Feedback
No negative feedback for buyers, DSR ratings tied to search/Powerseller status/PayPal

The feedback issue is what has the sellers most upset, and understandably so. The "level playing field" has been obliterated, all in the name of "improving the buyer experience." Now I understand the idea behind the whole thing - weed out the bad sellers. I am actually all for that, because bad sellers drive buyers off the site altogether, which hurts everyone.

What I don't think is fair is that under the Best Match sort some sellers are going to be favored over others according to their DSR ratings and Powerseller status. We all pay eBay to list our items, we should be treated equally. Personally, I switch to either Time Ending Soonest or Price + Shipping Lowest when I do a search, and hopefully most other people will too. Best Match is trying to do a bit too much thinking for me, when I am more than capable of making decisions for myself, thankyouverymuch!

What bothers me too is that eBay is apparently underestimating the impact of bad buyers on their new feedback system. Bad buyers are out there, and removing our ability to warn other sellers about them through feedback is a scary thing!

I would say 95% of all my eBay transactions are very easy and positive, for both me and my customers. I have 100% positive feedback, with a DSR (Detailed Seller Rating, otherwise known as Star Rating) right at the average - 4.8 out of 5 for Item As Described, 4.8 out of 5 for Communication, 4.8 out of 5 for Shipping Time, and 4.6 out of 5 for Shipping Charges.

I am not super worried that the niche I am in has a large number of buyers who want to leave negatives and bad star ratings maliciously or on a whim... I guess time will tell. The 5% of transactions that have weirdness or issues I have always managed to make right, without them hurting my feedback score. I hope that this will continue!

The trouble is that eBay has tied the DSR ratings not only to Best Match but to your Powerseller status as well - you have to maintain 4.5s across the board, and if you can maintain 4.6s or higher you receive a discount on your final value fees. My 4.6 for Shipping Charges is a little too close to the line for me to feel comfortable, which means I need to figure out a way of still shipping quickly, but at a lower cost.

Right now I think that means taking on extra risk by not requiring insurance, and figuring out a way to get my shipping supplies more cheaply, so I can cut my handling fee. We ship a lot of breakables, and go through bubble wrap and packing peanuts like they are going out of style. I like having new clean packing materials, but they are expensive!

They also are going to start holding PayPal payments hostage for up to 21 days if your DSR rating falls below 4.5 across the board, or if you have more than 5% buyer dissatisfaction. Personally, I don't think it should be legal for them to hold money sent to you, no matter what. Sellers shouldn't be asked to ship products when they haven't received the money! It's ridiculous.

There are other changes, the list is a mile long! These were the ones with the most impact, and as you can tell it is going to take a long time to figure it all out, and to see the kind of true affect they will end up having on doing business on eBay. I think it is good that they are forcing everyone to take a close look at their businesses though, that is never a bad thing!

I'm quoted on CNN!

Now there's something I never thought I would be able to say!

I got an email yesterday from a really sweet reporter named Katie who was writing a story on the changes eBay dumped on us Tuesday, which I am sure most of you have heard about. She said she loved my stuff, and would I mind talking to her for her story?

So we chatted on the phone and I tried not to be too negative, since all the poor woman had heard all day was ranting from angry sellers. It was hard though, there is plenty to be negative about! (More on that in another post, I am still figuring out how the changes will affect me and my business. There are numbers to be crunched, and strategies to be devised - it will probably take me a few days!)

Anyway, here is a link to the story. She gave not only my store address but my blog address also, which was way more than I expected. Thanks again Katie, if you are reading this! :)