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"Common Problems for eBay Sellers"

Actually what I'm going to tell you about now is not about problems as such, but they had potential to be, and because I have experienced similar scenarios over several years since I joined eBay, I thought I’d share my solutions with you.

Here’s what happened to me this week and could be disastrous for less experienced eBayers, being:

*  I listed some banknotes on eBay and I’ll tell you right up front I haven’t a clue as to what makes one banknote collectable and another pretty much worthless.   These were items I picked up at auction in one of those big bundles of mixed collectibles I’m always telling you about, the kind that looks like a pile of grot but could very easily hide something valuable.   Such as an item being auctioned today by Anderson and Garland of Newcastle.  The item is a winner’s medal for West Auckland Football Club, for a game in 1909, and it was found at the bottom of a box containing football programmes.  The medal is expected to fetch several thousand pounds and the vendor apparently bought it for pennies.  But no, it isn’t mine, although I have picked up valuable items lurking alongside rubbish in boxes and bags at boot sales and flea markets. 

Anyway, back to the story of my banknotes for which I paid £10 plus buyer’s premium for a big bag filled with banknotes, coins, bits of ephemera, cigarette cards, and so on.

The banknotes looked interesting, my research showed one or two similar items have recently fetched ten pounds each on eBay, so I decided to upload a couple to test my luck.  They looked to be in very good condition, so I listed them as ‘very good condition commensurate with age’. 

That brought a torrent of abusive emails, mainly from one man who suggested I know nothing about banknotes - how right he is - and that my illustrations clearly show banknotes in what the experts consider ‘poor’ condition.  This bloke is upset with me, to the point where I’ve had to ban him from bidding on my eBay listings! 

But one thing he did say to give me a wonderful advantage in future listings for banknotes was this:

“The condition is clear from your illustrations. Some are in B@*&%”Y awful condition.  Why don’t you let the experts make their minds up and stop telling us lies?”

And there’s the answer to this common problem of exactly how to describe condition for certain items such as postcards and coins, banknotes and cigarette cards, books and prints, and others with their own industry-wide grading system. 

You see items like those have a set standard of descriptions pertaining to condition, established by experts over many years.  So items can be graded as poor, distressed, extra fine, blah-di-blah-di-blah, and most experts will agree with those assessments.

But if you are not an expert your opinion will never be shared by all of your peers, experienced or beginners alike. 

And that is why, for me, and you also if you come across collectibles with their own grading structure, or you’re just not sure what represents good or appalling condition, it’s usually best to take very clear images of whatever you’re listing, from all sides if possible, and leave potential bidders to form their own opinions.  Just as my very rude friend suggested!

Something like this in your listing will save you the nastiness I just endured:

"Please note I am not an expert in banknotes (coins, books, stamps, whatever) and I am describing this item to the very best of my ability. Please study my images carefully and ask me any questions and I will always do my best to help.”

That worked well for me because banknote number three has just hit the twenty pound mark on eBay, and still more than fifty left to list.

*  eBay has tons of money, and countless very intelligent and super-efficient members of staff, so personally I don’t think eBay makes many mistakes. 

That is the theory. 

In practice they do make mistakes, and big ones. 

So last week when I reported someone to eBay for non-payment, another long string of emails suddenly blighted my eBay account - from the recipient concerned who insisted he had paid.  “Here’s my PayPal transaction number”, he wrote, followed by an insult only marginally less rude than my banknote collector friend sent the previous day. 

Well my daughter and I sat wondering what to do next, both of us confident this man had not paid or payment would have been marked as having taken place, by means of the black £ sign in my eBay account turning blue and a little note telling me PayPal had my dosh.  None of that happened so we wondered how best to tell the man he was mistaken without prompting him to hit the red button - for negative feedback!

That’s when my husband suggested: “Just go key that transaction number into your PayPal account.  He’s either telling lies or making up his own transaction numbers, or he really has paid and the payment isn’t showing in your eBay account!”

Silly man, who on earth would expect eBay to make that kind of mistake?  “Don’t you know eBay owns PayPal, so every payment gets highlighted in PayPal and eBay immediately it’s taken place?”

Or not as the case might be because this man really had paid, and he received an apology from me within minutes.

The following day there’s a message inside all eBay sellers’ accounts saying there’d been a mix-up and PayPal transactions had been missing from …… YES, you get the drift!

Important Tip: Before striking someone for non-payment, just go check inside your eBay listing where it usually says payment has been made, even though the £ sign has not been amended to reflect the fact. 

*  Common situation: you’ve sold something, you’ve been paid, now you’re looking for the item to pack and send to your buyer.  And it’s nowhere to be found.

So you open your email account, hit the button that says ‘Contact Buyer’ and you begin your email: ‘Unfortunately I am unable to find …..’ and you send the email hoping you don’t get a negative by return post.

Instead, someone in the background shouts: “Here it is, it’s just under the table, I’ll wrap it up for you!”  But it’s too late, the email has gone, and now you’re faced with either losing the sale or contacting the buyer again and making yourself look a real idiot.

I’ve done this so many times it’s beginning to get boring and still I haven’t learned to sit back a few minutes, think of all the places the item could be, and if I don’t find it right away, I’ll sit back another day or so, before admitting defeat.  That’s because if you know the item’s somewhere in the office, you’re going to find it real soon, so there’s no need to send a hasty letter of apology to your buyer.  At most you’re going to find that item in a day or so, or worst case scenario in a couple of days.  And receiving your package a few days later than expected is no big deal to most buyers!

The moral this time is, think before you shout!  That’s what I’ll be doing in future!