GraysonAC wrote:Hope it all survives the trip Grodog!

My 3 cents on the feedback issue (I'm Canadian, damn exchange rate) - I honestly don't even manually leave feedback as a seller anymore. Once a buyer leaves me a positive, he gets one automatically in return, thanks to eBay automation. I sell too much stuff to handle it individually. And follow-up emails? God, I wish I had the time for something like that, heh. Since yesterday morning, I've had 150+ emails. About half of that is automated eBay stuff I can make a note of and ignore, the other half is questions from buyers/sellers, offers, etc. Email already takes up waaay too much of my day. I don't even want to know what the big stores, like Badmike, go through .

The same....although most of the stuff can be quickly answered.  Someone inquiring about a package sent, a confirmation number, a shipping cost, these are typical.  Sometimes a buyer wants to monopolize a lot of your time, and actually most of the time I might give it to them if I think I'm helping a potential customer. For example today a buyer wanted to know which Dungeon magazines had Dark Sun adventures. Typically this would take a lot of time, but I was somewhat caught up this morning, a few minutes of clicking through my listings (which the buyer could have done, I grant) came up with the answer, which I emailed to them.  Now, I've had people ask for stuff like all the Dragon mags with Top Secret articles, or all the Dungeon magazines with 1st level adventures, or the like.  I just can't take the time to research these questions, and of course the way it usually happens is when I do spend the time, they don't buy anything anyway!!!
    Like Grayson, I have just recently went to a system of "Leaving feedback after getting feedback" as a seller.  This is 180 degree turn from where I used to be, but as pointed out pretty much all the power is in the Buyer's hands anyway, and more and more I was being subjected to types of subtle feedback blackmail.  I agree with a the thought that a lot of buyers are newbies and just not knowledgable to the ways of Ebay, but that's no reason why I should have to waste time spending an inordinate amount of support on an order for a $9 D&D module because if the buyer doesn't see the item in the next 48 hours they are going to leave a negative, contact ebay, file with Paypal, etc etc (Yawn).  
   I used to leave feedback first because the buyer had done their part, i.e. pay for the item. However, as has been seen, this is NOT the case with paypal orders made by credit card.  The Buyer hasn't actually paid for anything...it's as if the payment is attached to an invisible rubber band they can yank back out of your wallet at any moment for any reason at all.  Since this has become a problem, I recently went to leaving feedback only when I get it.  Guess what?  Things are better than they have been in a long time...no feedback blackmail threats for one thing, also no "Where is my item it better get here soon or you're going to get a neg" notes I typically get from a newbie about two days after they have paid....  I only leave feedback first when it's the case of an Acaeum member or someone I have dealt with before.  When someone leaves feedback, I know they are happy with the order and respind accordingly (I always leave feedback as soon as I receive an item from a seller, myself).

Mike B.

Badmike wrote:   Like Grayson, I have just recently went to a system of "Leaving feedback after getting feedback" as a seller. (SNIP)
(I always leave feedback as soon as I receive an item from a seller, myself).
Mike B.

Mike, you can set it up so that eBay automatically leaves positive feedback once someone's left you one. You can even add in a bunch of different feedback messages, and it'll randomly pick one, so it's not *quite* so impersonal

And yeah, when leaving feedback for a seller, don't be a moron and do what I did today - leave feedback without flipping through the book you just bought. I know better, but was pressed for time, didn't want to forget to leave FB, and was talking with the guy about international shipping methods and he seems like a good guy.

Then I opened the book to flip through, and it was missing the maps, and had huge coffee stains in a large portion of the book!  :lol:

I'd say that's an excellent job for a first attempt. It makes me ashamed to remember my first few listings: no HTML, no photos, no exciting description ... frankly, other than my innate coolness, I'm not sure why anyone bid on my stuff.

If I were to get nit-picky, I'd say the photo could be better. The lighting is a little bit soft and it appears to be a fraction out of focus.

And, yes, PayPal will link your winning bidder up to your PayPal account (assuming they choose to use PayPal, of course). One advantage of the eBay/PayPal merger is that the links between seller and buyer are more accurate and reliable than they were in the "old days."

guerret wrote:Ah, you are overly sincere about item condition. Not that I don't appreciate honesty, mind me, but that goes a bit to your detriment.

Agreed.  It's good to err on the side of caution regarding condition, but in my opinion, none of those modules rate "Poor" -- which really should be called "ripped apart".  Fair might be more reasonable.

One very minor nitpick:  You're selling a "Tsojcanth".  Definitely not "Tsojconth", which is far less common...

Hey!  Some of us Powerseller guys waste hours of time putting up large scans and always takw pics of box set contents!  (We even right our own html)  :wink:

Lewisexi wrote:I've always felt that additional pictures shows that seller is (in my mind at least!) treating the item as "special".

You're right, but a seller has to gauge the insertion fees to the item(s) being sold.  If you're selling a lot of common items, you don't want to pay extra fees for additional pictures.  If it's something like that Tamoachan up right now, I'd want to see several high-quality scans.

beyondthebreach wrote:

deimos3428 wrote:You're right, but a seller has to gauge the insertion fees to the item(s) being sold. If you're selling a lot of common items, you don't want to pay extra fees for additional pictures. If it's something like that Tamoachan up right now, I'd want to see several high-quality scans.

Just to be clear . . . you all know that if you write your own html and upload your own photos to a hosting site, you could show any number of photos (any size) for free? Just to be clear . . . (it's not like I'm paying ebay anything for all those big pics I put up!)

Hi, just to say thanks for all your help on this one.. I had not realised
how to stick all the pictures in for free - so great tip! Hopefully
have corrected all the errors now too - Thanks Deimos!