If You Are To Going To Sell On Ebay !

i WAS selling stamps and covers on ebay since 1998..i was fat,dumb and happy..if someone paid me..i packed the item up and sent it off first class mail...until this year !! in situation #1 Paypal and ebay pulled 18 dollars from my account because a buyer in India said he never received his cover . Yesterday I get another ebayer "not received" email from a fellow in Ohio...claiming his cover which I shipped January 7 was not received...THIS IS THE FIRST TIME SINCE 1998 that I have lost a piece of mail within the United States..it was only a dollar item so I will give him a refund and be done with it..no hassle..so my suggestion is....sell enough items so you can absorb the losses you will have to reimburse..and get tracking information for anything you ship..that MAY help your case !

Philb selling on ebay is no different than any retail business. You have to factor in loss whether it be shoplifting or lost mail. You also have to counter in fraud in most brick and mortar its people trying to pass off goods with out a receipt or a pair of shoes the sole has fallen off ( after 18 months )I trained in retail as a manager back when I first left High School. On ebay the common fraud is to say I did not receive the item and get a refund from ebay.
There is nothing we can do about this except send every thing reg mail in Canada its 15 dollars to reg a letter international who's going to pay that for a $20 item.
The big brick and mortar retails will include a % for loss sometime it can be as high as 10 to 20% on there sale price this way they wont lose profit from thief its like there own little insurance package.
Maybe we all need to add a little bit to the sale price and put it aside in a jar or as one member here calls it his Pickle Jar.
This will help with loss of money but is only a band aid cure as people will always be dishonest and try to rip you off.
May be some thing like this in your add might help ALL ITEMS WILL BE SENT WITH A GPS TRACKING SYSTEM INSIDE TO INSURE SAFE DELIVERY.
I have been lucky so far with sales on ebay, I don't sell stamps for profit just sell what I don't collect to give me money to buy what I want so when some one does try to trick me out of money it will feel like he just open up my album and stole from me.
I feel for ya, We need new technology something like slapper net where you can reach through the monitor and slap the other person

philb
I never sold stamps on ebay and reading your post it's kind of discouraging me to do so. I have no problems with my auctions on SCF except one time the members have moved and I ship to the old address. The letter came back to my address in Montreal and I shipped it again. The member even paid the extra postage.

What happen to you is frustrating because it looks like ebay policy is now to automatically believe and reimburse every buyer who declare that he didn't receive an item. It's not only the money it's the bad feeling not knowing what really happened, the haunting doubt that someone has maybe screw you.

I was so hoping this would come back up. I generally sell fishing tackle on ebay and over the years have not had many problems. Fishermen(women)seem to have a nack for telling exagerated fish stories but are pretty honest bunch.
I won't name names as yet since this seller has not authorized me to do so but I have been purchasing various stamp lots from a UK seller with a staggering feedback of 37000+ . He just informed me he sent 10 small lots to china over the holidays and does indeed have tracking yet because so many non received item cases were open at once ebay US has suspended him for 3 months. Now this guy whom we have never met supports his family through this is and is honest enough as to even give me payment terms. After 10+ years and that type of feedback you would think ebay would have a clue and maybe protect its assets . Meanwhile I have reported several (coincidentally) foreign sellers that were out right ripping people off and maybe 1/50 realized it . Feedbacks are padded by sheer volume of sales 99.2 or 98.9 sounds good enough but then you read the dozens of negatives and neutrals its so obvious what is going on yet due to the high dollar amounts ebay receives from these scammers justifies their existance. How does an honest person win anymore.

It could very well be the foreign postal systems... Here is a classic example.. Three weeks ago, [ to the day ] I sent Rod a small envelope of stamps.. He still has not received it... 3 weeks !

Phil check your email Eh ?

Hi IrishJack, being hardheaded business men does not run in our family..i just used ebay as a form of trade to unload unneeded stamps and covers...if I ran a business on ebay I guess I would have to shrug off the dreaded yellow emails "did my receive my item". but for me it sure takes all the fun out of it. Cheers, phil

It might be worth seeing what other items they have bought and contact the sellers of those items, you might find there are others in the same boat, A bad apple is going to do it more than once might be worth the effort at least if there are a few sellers complaing together there might be a voice that ebay will listen to or at least flag that buyer. Just my 2 canadian cents thats 1 cents in your money

philb: Tell the buyer a description of the package you sent - describe size, markings, labels if any, stamps used if you recall and anything else you can tell the buyer. Also ask the buyer to confirm the shipping address. See if it matches what Ebay/Paypal sent you.

I've had some cases where buyers have emailed me to report a missing shipment, but after describing it they then realize they did indeed got it and put it aside and forgot about it. Or it might by been slipped inside a magazine or newspaper. That's happened before as well. Or it was delivered to a neighbor's house which also has happened.

See if the address the buyer sends you matches that on the Paypal notification. From my last December ebay auction, I had only one buyer report a missing item. The item wasn't lost, it just took a few weeks to get back to me since the buyer's address on Paypal was an old address and he didn't update it yet. Even within the U.S. it takes a while for things to sort themselves out if there is any error in route. If it overseas, it can take MONTHS. As mentioned in a previous thread, buyer gave me an old address to Germany - took over 6 months for it to be returned to me. Always have a clear return address on your shipments.

The missing item reports can sting. ebay is no real help and it makes you feel like the bad guy despite the fact that its at the mercy of the postal system. However, most buyers and sellers are honest and the system does work fine. Once in awhile you'll get a buyer who will jump to the conclusion you're dishonest when you're not, but that's their problem to think of people that way. The only negative feedback I received on ebay in many, many years was one from last year from a buyer in Moscow, Russia. I lost all three shipments to that city (their postal system is absolutely horrible, but rest of Russia is fine). Two buyers worked with me with respectful communications and I gave refunds. The third never contacted me. He blindsided me with a negative feedback in Russian, but couldn't do what's proper and contact me. But you know what, I don't care. One person's assumption will not spoil ebay for me. I can look at the many thousands of positive feedback and emails in which I made people happy and I did good work.

Will

My experience of ebay is that they treat the sellers with total contempt and always always assume the buyer is right.
I had over 400 happy feedbacks and a score of 100% feedback when they told me that I had been complained about and froze my selling account!!
I asked to see the alleged complaints and was told it was not their policy to allow sellers to view buyers complaints, so my score of 100% was unsatisfactory!!
So I switched to bidStart and have had no problems since.
I also like My Little Auctions and ebid.

In the myth...thats interesting...i asked my buyer in India if he could give me until the end of January for the item to arrive..instead they opened the case against me..i received the first e mail from ebay that I would get the results within 72 hours..a few hours later I received the second email...result..they ruled against me and paid the buyer..CASE CLOSED...it has to be a machine...a condemned man gets to say his last words...but not to ebay...i guess they feel they will always have sellers...so who cares if a few drop off ! Its not a warm fuzzy outfit !!

Dear philb,
I think you are spot on correct, yet it is the sellers who pay the commission, without sellers what would buyers do?
I am looking forward to trying selling on here, at least you know your hoped for customer is a genuine stamp lover.

ebay is certainly a mine field but that being said I do understand why they put all of their eggs in the buyers baskets as it is a marketplace and there will never be a shortage of things selling on ebay. But what if no one bought ? I don't agree with their policy, but it is their policy and with that come the risks of selling. I have started to see more sellers switch over to doing only signature required mail but I'm not sure what can be done for international mail.

If you loose stuff in the mail, up your shipping charges to include "signature confirmation" fee. It may cost a little but you have proof it was or was not received.

i use signature confirmation when I send the clubs APS circuit books back...if I can do the same for shipments to foreign locations I will certainly do so...its tough at times to get information from the mail clerks...they will not allow me to insure shipments to foreign locations and registered is hardly worth it on lower cost items !

The only way to get signature confirmation to a foreign countries is via Registered mail ($11.75) plus Return Receipt (another $2.35). The thing about Return Receipts, the other countries postal system may or may not return it. I've used it maybe twice, one returned the other did not. There might be some sort of signature confirmation on international priority and express mail, but don't even both looking at the prices for that - doubt many if any will pay for it.

Now, is there a private philatelic insurance we can purchase to cover the costs of lost items overseas? Would it be compatible with ebay or other web site sales?