The OFFICIAL eBay Buy & Flip thread - Part II - No Hustle Without Rustle - Make $$$

[philosobrah]

First neutral feedback, feels bad man



Clothes sellers, buy febreeze and spray everything with it to avoid chit like this

But it wasn't even like this shirt was new, it was from the 1980's vintage.. So of course it's gonna have a "funny" smell ya kunt, it's fuking older than you most likely.

Sigh, tried contacting him to change, no response. What should I write as a feedback followup?

[briiii]

^ lmao. what a cheeky kunt

[BradInPhx]

First neutral feedback, feels bad man



Clothes sellers, buy febreeze and spray everything with it to avoid chit like this

But it wasn't even like this shirt was new, it was from the 1980's vintage.. So of course it's gonna have a "funny" smell ya kunt, it's fuking older than you most likely.

Sigh, tried contacting him to change, no response. What should I write as a feedback followup?

Lol followup with something funny.

"It came from my late grandfather's closet, are you saying my late grandfather was smelly?"

[phuture]

The last thread here got me hooked and I'm trying to really get going with this! I guess the trick is to source a really good, lightweight product. I'm still looking for that product.

I notice that ebay gives preferred seller status to those that offer free shipping, returns and 1-day turn around time. So I switched this for all my auctions. Hopefully that will make a difference.

BTW, Do any of you guys ship internationally?

[RepHeavy]

First neutral feedback, feels bad man



Clothes sellers, buy febreeze and spray everything with it to avoid chit like this

But it wasn't even like this shirt was new, it was from the 1980's vintage.. So of course it's gonna have a "funny" smell ya kunt, it's fuking older than you most likely.

Sigh, tried contacting him to change, no response. What should I write as a feedback followup?

^ lmao. what a cheeky kunt

PLEASE follow up with "ur 1 cheeky kunt m8 i swear"

BTW dont feel too bad about neutral feedback. They dont even affect your % rating.

[phuture]

Anyone use Terapeak? I'm checking out the free trial.

[briiii]

Anyone use Terapeak? I'm checking out the free trial.

I've heard good things about it and know of several people who are using/have used it. I'm about to jump in on the free trial as well.

Has it been useful for you?

[Two4OH]

PLEASE follow up with "ur 1 cheeky kunt m8 i swear"

BTW dont feel too bad about neutral feedback. They dont even affect your % rating.

They dont but buyer can get a refund after leaving neutral feedback. Ebay treats it almost as a negative.

[KawRider]

INNNNN.

Starting my eBay business as soon as my product arrives. I'm going a different route than flipping but still think I can be profitable. Ultimate goal is to get the idea to retail.

Placed 2 orders from China. One today and one about two weeks ago. The first one was a large $1300 order for equipment and supplies/inventory. Placed another $400 order last night for the rest of my needed supplies.

Any experiences on how long it takes to get chit from China? I'm expecting a wait lol.

[Yobie]

It can take a month or longer depending on your route of delivery. If it's airmail it should be here in a few weeks if it's coming on boat it may take upwards of a month+.

Also some advice to those shipping usps. Drop the flat rate boxes and order some regional A & B boxes. Also check out flat rate padded envelopes for $5.35. They do not offer these options at the post office you must order supplies online via usps and buy postage online.

For example I sell small heavy items ranging 4-9 pounds. I took it into post office and was quoted 21$. Now I usually use priority regional A boxes that typically run around 5-8 dollars. Even over the flat rate boxes I'm saving around 4 dollars an item as the medium flat rate runs 12.35$.

Moral of the story check out all options before shipping I guarantee a lot of you may be spending more then needed.

Obviously depending on what you sell this may not apply but if ur using flat rate boxes this is more likely a cheaper option.

[KawRider]

It can take a month or longer depending on your route of delivery. If it's airmail it should be here in a few weeks if it's coming on boat it may take upwards of a month+.

Also some advice to those shipping usps. Drop the flat rate boxes and order some regional A & B boxes. Also check out flat rate padded envelopes for $5.35. They do not offer these options at the post office you must order supplies online via usps and buy postage online.

For example I sell small heavy items ranging 4-9 pounds. I took it into post office and was quoted 21$. Now I usually use priority regional A boxes that typically run around 5-8 dollars. Even over the flat rate boxes I'm saving around 4 dollars an item as the medium flat rate runs 12.35$.

Moral of the story check out all options before shipping I guarantee a lot of you may be spending more then needed.

Obviously depending on what you sell this may not apply but if ur using flat rate boxes this is more likely a cheaper option.

Thanks man. Pretty sure the invoices both said Fedex and they will get me tracking numbers. One invoice has a delivery date on it about 11 days out, it's a smaller shipment so it is believable. 2 different companies.

I'm going to get as many free boxes as I can and get a labelmaker to print directly from paypal. I'm offering a lightweight product so shipping won't kill me.

[Yobie]

If you start ordering large quantities airmail will get extremely expensive. I have to bring my orders in on cargo ships. If you get to that point it gets a little confusing with customs taxes and etc. The best bet in the future is to hire a freight forwarder to take care of it all for you. You can also check estimated costs through a cargo shipping company when u get yo that point


But Ya if ur FedEx and small quantity I'm sure it will be here in a week or so. Good luck.

[phuture]

INNNNN.

Starting my eBay business as soon as my product arrives. I
Placed 2 orders from China.

Not to give away any secrets. but how do you go about finding what a good product would be? Seems like there are already guys with bigger buying power.

[KawRider]

Not to give away any secrets. but how do you go about finding what a good product would be? Seems like there are already guys with bigger buying power.

Honestly the market for my product is kinda saturated. Plenty of people already offer what I am offering. I just want a piece of the pie. It's a pretty "futureproof" idea. It hit me one day walking through a mall as something I've never seen in retail around here (the specific service combined with the product). I don't have the money to start a retail store so the first step to get there is selling online. What sold me is the fact that the startup cost will be pretty low, around $2000. I've watched other peoples sales and there is no shortage of demand.

I think I can do better by being more professional, having better listings, and stressing the US small business aspect.

**** it I'll go ahead and share. I am offering customized cell phone/tablet cases. Any image.

[caso81]

Honestly the market for my product is kinda saturated. Plenty of people already offer what I am offering. I just want a piece of the pie. It's a pretty "futureproof" idea. It hit me one day walking through a mall as something I've never seen in retail around here (the specific service combined with the product). I don't have the money to start a retail store so the first step to get there is selling online. What sold me is the fact that the startup cost will be pretty low, around $2000. I've watched other peoples sales and there is no shortage of demand.

I think I can do better by being more professional, having better listings, and stressing the US small business aspect.

**** it I'll go ahead and share. I am offering customized cell phone/tablet cases. Any image.

right on man go for it. ive been importing a few months myself, nothing major though. a lot of people are going to tell you to go another route because of the level of competition, but the fact of the matter is that there are so many people because the market for those type of products are obviously there. worst case scenario, you break around even and will have learned a ton in the process. you might even come up with some more ideas along the way.

anyway, congrats for taking action, most people dont even make it that far. you'll do great.

[avokshi2000]

right on man go for it. ive been importing a few months myself, nothing major though. a lot of people are going to tell you to go another route because of the level of competition, but the fact of the matter is that there are so many people because the market for those type of products are obviously there. worst case scenario, you break around even and will have learned a ton in the process. you might even come up with some more ideas along the way.

anyway, congrats for taking action, most people dont even make it that far. you'll do great.

this, I have yet to take action myself. just kinda feel that there are too many unknowns tbh..


anyway good idea brah, knock it out of the park cuz

[KawRider]

right on man go for it. ive been importing a few months myself, nothing major though. a lot of people are going to tell you to go another route because of the level of competition, but the fact of the matter is that there are so many people because the market for those type of products are obviously there. worst case scenario, you break around even and will have learned a ton in the process. you might even come up with some more ideas along the way.

anyway, congrats for taking action, most people dont even make it that far. you'll do great.

Thanks brahs. I don't see how it can really fail as long as I am persistent. A new phone comes out every 6 months, people need cases. The previous flagship models are now more affordable to other people, who also need cases. I'm going to offer them the ability to put any image they want on a case.

Best part is I already work from home calling people to conduct market research surveys. I can make the cases as I work and ship them out the next day. I can do 6 phone cases at a time and the machine takes 9mins to transfer the image.

I hope to be making good money in this by the time I transfer to a 4 year college next spring. My goal is 6 months to grow profits to 3K a month. Would be awesome.

[DavidVlad]

Does anyone have a 'backup' to their eBay selling page?

I mean something to seek on other platforms like amazon?

I also use gumtree, ******** and twitter and they're all relatively successful considering the relatively small followers etc that I have

In addition to this I do pay for a Shopify account too. I've made only 2 sales from it in 4 months BUT it makes you look a hell of a lot more professional!

[caso81]

opinions on a "110% refund policy"? if the buyer is not completely satisfied with the product, i would issue a refund of 110% of the total price. sure, there would be a certain amount of buyers who would return, but the majority of people would hold on to the product. might try and see if it boosts sales a bit. might be a good way to seperate yourself from other sellers and possibly might be able to tack-on a few more dollars to the price. just a thought.

[briiii]

opinions on a "110% refund policy"? if the buyer is not completely satisfied with the product, i would issue a refund of 110% of the total price. sure, there would be a certain amount of buyers who would return, but the majority of people would hold on to the product. might try and see if it boosts sales a bit. might be a good way to seperate yourself from other sellers and possibly might be able to tack-on a few more dollars to the price. just a thought.

It would probably be worse off if you provide a "110% refund policy" as opposed to simply a "100%" because now the customer actually has an incentive to return the product. I don't think an extra 10% will provide customers more reassurance than they already have either. You can always just test it though I guess.

[caso81]

It would probably be worse off if you provide a "110% refund policy" as opposed to simply a "100%" because now the customer actually has an incentive to return the product. I don't think an extra 10% will provide customers more reassurance than they already have either. You can always just test it though I guess.

yeah i hear ya. i was thinking the extra sales would heavily outweigh the people you refunded extra money to. i cant really see too many people ordering just to return for a couple of bucks, either. it could happen though. of course there would be certain stipulations as well.

[notsostrong]

got hit by a $3700 "duty fees" bill today from fedex.

- ordered something from california using fedex priority (their fastest method because it was important)
- being shipped in 3 boxes
- fedex calls and i have to pay duty/tax. ok no problem. i pay it.
- nothing comes. lose $10,000 contract with customer whom these items were for
- fedex guy comes 2 weeks later with 2 of the 3 boxes (was supposed to take 2-3 days)
- wants me to sign off so he can get paid. says that i'll never get the 3rd box if i sign
- i tell him that i'll only sign if all 3 boxes are here
- 1 week passes. no more deliveries
- call fedex and they say that 3 delivery attempts were made and that they shipped everything back
- i rage at fedex until they re-ship the items (i can still sell them on ebay)
- items get shipped to a warehouse in another city
- it has now been 3 weeks since the guaranteed delivery date
- fedex calls today. says i owe them $3700 in "duty fees"
- invoice clearly says that everything was paid for in advance
- fedex wants me to make a 4 hour round trip to pick up items that they are supposed to deliver

never going to use them again. even worse than UPS.

/deardiary

[datniche]

Does anybody use a Zebra printer with a Mac? I'm too dumb to figure this out. PM me, I will rape aggresively.

[namechange]

interdasting...

[cadetduke]

Finally bought a Zebra LP2844. Can't wait to get it. Have to take another week off from selling though. This year it's been slow, the wedding and reception probably cost me two months worth of work.

[Broseph82]

So I havent sold anything in years. My wife was going through her closet and found shoes she couldnt wear anymore (she lost a lot of weight). Some were new, some were only worn once or twice (thats women for you). Anyway, I sell some Jessica Simpson shoes for $10.50 plus $5.80 for Priority Mail shipping (2-3 day). Well, I get a large USPS Priority box (shoes and box oversized IMO) and affix the label and what not and the total is $16.85 to ship one state over. Da fuq??? So since they attached the label and all-- I chocked up the loss and shipped anyway. Ebay charged me $5 for total fees (I had another pair of shoes for sale) and Paypal charged almost $1.

I had another 7 listing going and had to cancel them all due to major loss in money. I mean brand-new or almost brand-new shoes at auction for 1.07, .99, 2.86, 10.50 all with almost 15 watchers on it. I mean what the hell? Do people not bid like crazy anymore? I thought we would get 20-75 for some shoes but it doesnt seem like thats the case. Was I smart in ending the auctions? I did have some of CraigsList too, but those weren't getting any hits/offers.

Cliffs:
Shoes: $10.50
est ship: $5.80
Fees: $6.00
Shipp: $16.85
Total: -$6.55+gas

I dun goofed!

[Yobie]

opinions on a "110% refund policy"? if the buyer is not completely satisfied with the product, i would issue a refund of 110% of the total price. sure, there would be a certain amount of buyers who would return, but the majority of people would hold on to the product. might try and see if it boosts sales a bit. might be a good way to seperate yourself from other sellers and possibly might be able to tack-on a few more dollars to the price. just a thought.

your asking for trouble doing this.

[briiii]

got hit by a $3700 "duty fees" bill today from fedex.

- ordered something from california using fedex priority (their fastest method because it was important)
- being shipped in 3 boxes
- fedex calls and i have to pay duty/tax. ok no problem. i pay it.
- nothing comes. lose $10,000 contract with customer whom these items were for
- fedex guy comes 2 weeks later with 2 of the 3 boxes (was supposed to take 2-3 days)
- wants me to sign off so he can get paid. says that i'll never get the 3rd box if i sign
- i tell him that i'll only sign if all 3 boxes are here
- 1 week passes. no more deliveries
- call fedex and they say that 3 delivery attempts were made and that they shipped everything back
- i rage at fedex until they re-ship the items (i can still sell them on ebay)
- items get shipped to a warehouse in another city
- it has now been 3 weeks since the guaranteed delivery date
- fedex calls today. says i owe them $3700 in "duty fees"
- invoice clearly says that everything was paid for in advance
- fedex wants me to make a 4 hour round trip to pick up items that they are supposed to deliver

never going to use them again. even worse than UPS.

/deardiary

are you Canadian?

Fedex and UPS is guaranteed rapage (additional ~20-30% of total for duty fees)

[Gsxr25]

So I havent sold anything in years. My wife was going through her closet and found shoes she couldnt wear anymore (she lost a lot of weight). Some were new, some were only worn once or twice (thats women for you). Anyway, I sell some Jessica Simpson shoes for $10.50 plus $5.80 for Priority Mail shipping (2-3 day). Well, I get a large USPS Priority box (shoes and box oversized IMO) and affix the label and what not and the total is $16.85 to ship one state over. Da fuq??? So since they attached the label and all-- I chocked up the loss and shipped anyway. Ebay charged me $5 for total fees (I had another pair of shoes for sale) and Paypal charged almost $1.

I had another 7 listing going and had to cancel them all due to major loss in money. I mean brand-new or almost brand-new shoes at auction for 1.07, .99, 2.86, 10.50 all with almost 15 watchers on it. I mean what the hell? Do people not bid like crazy anymore? I thought we would get 20-75 for some shoes but it doesnt seem like thats the case. Was I smart in ending the auctions? I did have some of CraigsList too, but those weren't getting any hits/offers.

Cliffs:
Shoes: $10.50
est ship: $5.80
Fees: $6.00
Shipp: $16.85
Total: -$6.55+gas

I dun goofed!

Your numbers seem a bit inflated. There is no way you paid $6 in fees for ebay/paypal on a $10.50 item. Also I find it hard to believe you paid that much on shipping, especially if only 1 state over as you said.

[The_Albatross]

probable outcome from this situation?

I ship an item, with sig confirmation and insurance.
at one point tracking says "undeliverable as addressed"
I notify buyer, ask him to check his paypal address, since that is where I got his address from (it was confirmed too).
He says it is a Paypal problem on my end...which is bull**** since its a tracking status from USPS.
I contact other sellers who he has bought from, they have same issue currently with their sent items showing as "undeliverable as addressed", so I know the label/package didn't get damaged so as to be unreadable.
I call his local post office a few days after the tracking shows "undeliverable as addressed". They say the item would have been returned to me if the tracking info read "undeliverable as addressed". I guess tracking info doesn't update if something is being returned, so they couldn't tell me where my package was at the time.
The next day tracking info says delivered, which is a week after the initial "undeliverable as addressed"
Buyer says he didn't get item.
I have copy of signature confirmation showing address it was sent to along with a signature, but it isn't his and the last name is different.
Pretty sure he is going to open up a case saying he never got the item.
Am I still going to be on the hook for this and have to issue a refund?
If that is the case can I file an insurance claim with USPS?