i'm so nervous...any TIPS?

meluvs2shop

meluvs2shop

In Love
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Jul 15, 2007
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6,128
#1
i've only sold one item on ebay and the seller was awesome! even though i got killed with shipping to Canada (that was my fault for not doing the proper research), the rest of the transaction went smoothly and the buyer was happy with my CL shoes.

now i may be selling another item, more expensive than the last and i just feel nervous about it. the propesctive buyer is from HI and i'm in the continental US. ok, no problem except shipping is a bit more right? i want to send it insured with signature. she wants free shipping too but i said No. i want $30 for shipping. is that too much?

i just hear so many people being scammed, and not just buyers, but sellers as well. how common is the bait and switch? from a sellers standpoint?

i know my bag is 100% authentic.

i have a Buy it now option or best offer. the prospective buyer was haggling me about the price, but i was ok with that. i understand. now she wants to just send me a payment through Paypal, that way i don't have to pay fees. am i protected as a seller if something happens by doing that? i really don't know why i'm so paranoid...maybe b/c i lurk alot in this section and read about legitimate sellers going through hell with their buyers

she has great feedback so she's no stranger to ebay, which is good.

any thoughts?

sorry if i'm rambling...i just wanted to type this quickly before my baby woke up.
 
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#2
I would not do a transaction outside of ebay. You won't have seller protection nor would the buyer have any buyer protection as well.

From reading these threads, I know a lot of sellers put tags on the bags. The tags are to insure there isn't a bait and switch.

As far as shipping goes, I don't know what the cost of shipping to HI would be, but she might leave you a low score in terms of shipping rating for feedback.

I would stay, trust your gut. If you already have some hesitation as to this transaction, I would just walk away.

I've never sold anything on ebay, but have sold stuff at other sites. I had a buyer haggle me on shipping cost and price of the item. Later the buyer opened a claim on paypal. It was a nightmare. I wished I had just walked away from the transaction in the very beginning.

G'luck!
 
#3
30 seems a little high. Maybe 25 to make it more appealing? If she pays straight through paypal you are covered, but she isn't. it is up to you. I personally do not do transactions outside of ebay.
 
#4
TY both!

where can i get these "tags?"
or are they homemade? i did receive a tag once when i purchased a vintage chanel on ebay but that was a couple of years ago so i don't remember the tag exactly. i just remember thinking, "what's this?"
 
#5
Pack and weigh the bag and then put in a zip code for the west coast which is the same as Hawaii. You are shipping USPS? FedEx or UPS is much higher to HI. That way you know what the shipping is.

Just a quick ??, do you have free shipping on your ad? If so, then that is what you give her.
 
#6
You've gotten good advice in this thread. I'm new to selling on eBay, too. I sold a couple of things recently just to clean out my closet. I had someone going back and forth with me that my shipping was too high. I put $20 as my shipping charge and they said there was no way it should be more than $8. This person was in my state, and I said it's possible that may be high for shipping to them, since the other places I've shipped have been farther away, and if she wanted to do a buy it now I could discount the shipping. I didn't hear back about this (she had emailed me back and forth several times prior to this). I ended up blocking that bidder because I just had a feeling we'd end up fighting over the shipping charges in the end.

I ship UPS because there's a UPS store near my house, and that way I can generally ship the day the buyer pays. I also like how with UPS you can actually track the package the whole way. With USPS, even when it's supposed to show tracking, you can't always see it. I'm compulsive about that - maybe if I were selling hundreds of things I wouldn't care, but being new to this, I worry about things getting where they're supposed to go.

For handbags or any expensive item, I ship insured with signature required. It's not an option - that's to protect me as a seller. My feeling is, I am up-front about what the shipping charge is and I say in my listing how it will be shipped. If someone thinks it's too much or doesn't want to have to sign for the package or whatever, then they can look elsewhere, no hard feelings. But I think a lot of buyers these days just use it as another haggling point trying to bring the price down.

With my situation above, I ended up selling the bag to another buyer in a neighboring state. The shipping was $18, not the $20 I had estimated, but it was way more than the $8 the other buyer insisted it should be. It was a smooth transaction and the person who bought it was happy. They got a great deal on the price of the bag, and didn't seem to have any issues about the shipping cost. I think it's better to let some potential buyers go than waste time and energy debating it with them.
 
#7
I love out of out ebay transactions for the reasons fashionmom said. As a seller your only obligation is for the item to get there; there's no possibility of a SNAD case. Also, no ebay fees. As a buyer I would never do it because you don't have protection, but as a seller I am happy to do it.
 
#8
crazzee_shopper said:
I would not do a transaction outside of ebay. You won't have seller protection nor would the buyer have any buyer protection as well.

From reading these threads, I know a lot of sellers put tags on the bags. The tags are to insure there isn't a bait and switch.

As far as shipping goes, I don't know what the cost of shipping to HI would be, but she might leave you a low score in terms of shipping rating for feedback.

I would stay, trust your gut. If you already have some hesitation as to this transaction, I would just walk away.

I've never sold anything on ebay, but have sold stuff at other sites. I had a buyer haggle me on shipping cost and price of the item. Later the buyer opened a claim on paypal. It was a nightmare. I wished I had just walked away from the transaction in the very beginning.

G'luck!
Click to expand...


good point.. go with your gut.. why don't you find out exactly how

much this item would be to ship and forward the info to the buyer

and take it from there...
 
#9
meluvs2shop said:
i just hear so many people being scammed, and not just buyers, but sellers as well. how common is the bait and switch? from a sellers standpoint?


i have a Buy it now option or best offer. the prospective buyer was haggling me about the price, but i was ok with that. i understand. now she wants to just send me a payment through Paypal, that way i don't have to pay fees. am i protected as a seller if something happens by doing that? i really don't know why i'm so paranoid...maybe b/c i lurk alot in this section and read about legitimate sellers going through hell with their buyers
Click to expand...

Bait and switch is very rare so I wouldn't worry too much about that. For peace of mind though, the tags are a good idea.

Taking a transaction off ebay is generally riskier for the buyer because it takes away the SNAD option but it is not risk-free for the seller. You would not be protected against a chargeback. I would keep the transaction inside ebay and use all the seller protection that is available to you.

Also, it sounds like she is getting a little pushy. I don't mind a bit of good natured haggling but after awhile it gets to be a bit much and could be the foreshadowing a high maintenance buyer.
 
#10
TY everyone for your advice. My ad never said free shipping. That was just a bargaining tool that the buyer wanted from me.

I will definitely send insured with signature. I agree, I need to protect myself.

The buyer sent the money through paypal, how long should I wait to send? I like to send things right away b/c I know what it's like to spend a lot of money on a bag. The anticipation of it all can be nerve wracking, especially when buying used.

Where can I get these so called tags? It may be too late since the bag is now sold.
 
#12
TY. I'll send UPS instead of USPS.

sarahsar said:
You've gotten good advice in this thread. I'm new to selling on eBay, too. I sold a couple of things recently just to clean out my closet. I had someone going back and forth with me that my shipping was too high. I put $20 as my shipping charge and they said there was no way it should be more than $8. This person was in my state, and I said it's possible that may be high for shipping to them, since the other places I've shipped have been farther away, and if she wanted to do a buy it now I could discount the shipping. I didn't hear back about this (she had emailed me back and forth several times prior to this). I ended up blocking that bidder because I just had a feeling we'd end up fighting over the shipping charges in the end.

I ship UPS because there's a UPS store near my house, and that way I can generally ship the day the buyer pays. I also like how with UPS you can actually track the package the whole way. With USPS, even when it's supposed to show tracking, you can't always see it. I'm compulsive about that - maybe if I were selling hundreds of things I wouldn't care, but being new to this, I worry about things getting where they're supposed to go.

For handbags or any expensive item, I ship insured with signature required. It's not an option - that's to protect me as a seller. My feeling is, I am up-front about what the shipping charge is and I say in my listing how it will be shipped. If someone thinks it's too much or doesn't want to have to sign for the package or whatever, then they can look elsewhere, no hard feelings. But I think a lot of buyers these days just use it as another haggling point trying to bring the price down.

With my situation above, I ended up selling the bag to another buyer in a neighboring state. The shipping was $18, not the $20 I had estimated, but it was way more than the $8 the other buyer insisted it should be. It was a smooth transaction and the person who bought it was happy. They got a great deal on the price of the bag, and didn't seem to have any issues about the shipping cost. I think it's better to let some potential buyers go than waste time and energy debating it with them.
Click to expand...
 
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