I've started listing cards again on Ebay for the first time in a long time. I'm not a huge Ebay fan.
I started selling on Ebay in 2002, but back then I wasn't selling cards. No, I was selling pro wrestling videotapes. This was at the tail end of the VHS era and I was into Japanese wrestling. You could make duplicates of Japanese wrestling tapes and sell them on Ebay without breaking copyright laws. It was a nice little racket for a teenager and I made more money doing that then I did at my part-time supermarket job.
But Ebay has changed a lot since then. The site is far, far more protective of the buyer, to the point where the seller has little protection whatsoever. We all know stories of fraud, and many of us have experienced fraud from selling on Ebay. It's so easy for a buyer to just file an item claim and get his money back, even if he received the item in question in the correct condition.
As a seller, it happened to me enough that I stopped selling on Ebay. The worst case was when I was in college. I had just got back into collecting and I had acquired some extra Wayne Gretzky O-Pee-Chee cards from the early eighties that I decided to flip. After receiving the cards, the buyer claimed they were not in the right condition. He shipped them back to me, filing the tracking number for the return with Paypal.
When I received the cards, I was surprised to see that they were not the Gretzky O-Pee-Chee cards, but a stack of messy Pro Set hockey cards. I contacted the buyer, assuming hopefully he had made an honest mistake. He claimed he set me the right cards. When I showed him photos of the Pro Set cards, he said I was lying.
I contacted Paypal, they said because he provided a tracking number for the return package, there was nothing I could do. When I told the customer service rep that the buyer had returned what was essentially shredded newspaper, they said if it was mail fraud I would have to contact the police. I contacted the buyer with this info, and he threatened to contact the police about me, claiming I was harassing him.
I never ended up going to the police. I figured for the $10 or $15 I was out, it wasn't even worth the effort. It would be easier to just stop selling on Ebay altogether.
And that's what I did. Until a couple of years ago. I returned to Ebay and within a few transactions I had something similar happen. In this case, the guy didn't return the card (a Johnny Bower stick card, which was pretty sweet). He just filed a claim saying it was not received. I was new to modern Ebay selling, and dumb enough that I did not send with a tracking number, figuring the cost of tracking was so prohibitive in Canada that no buyer would be willing to pay extra for it. I got nailed for being naive and it made me hate Ebay more.
So, why come back? It's really the largest marketplace for cards, that's why. I would prefer to sell on COMC, and let them handle the Ebay stuff. The problem is that COMC is way behind in accepting packages right now. Also, COMC doesn't allow just anything to be listed as an Ebay auction, including stuff like small lots, low value cards, and stuff that aren't cards at all.
This week I started listing a few BINs on Ebay from cards I've pulled over the past year. I stuck to cards that are worth $5 or more and listed BINs that are priced competitively. And yes, this time I will ship with tracking. Hopefully that Pro Set guy is out of collecting cards by now.
I'll post my Ebay sales results here as they happen. Do you have any tips for someone returning to Ebay after a long while?
My only tip for selling on eBay is to assume that every card you sell will be bought to get graded (new collectors have been told that grading is the thing to do, and they're doing it), so lots of pictures/scans, and be sure to mention (and show) any possible flaw or condition issue. Oh, and saying a quick prayer before you list each item probably wouldn't hurt either :)
ReplyDeleteThat makes sense. It seems so far my quickest sales have been of popular rookies, so obviously people are looking to grade those and flip them again.
DeleteI quit selling years ago on Ebay because of the lopsided protection. Buyers have it all, sellers have none. I also thought their fees got outrageous between them and Paypal.
ReplyDeleteI just recently quit buying from them as well because I had a technical issue and they did nothing about it. I pretty much stick to Sportlots and Cardbarrel for purchasing. I never did get back into selling anywhere.
Ebay is rough. I don't see how this is a sustainable business model for them in the long-term. It seems like they feel in order to remain competitive in attracting buyers, they need to offer complete protection for them. There is no way of doing that without leaving sellers completely exposed. A lot of sellers can't afford that exposure, so you end up with a smaller amount of big sellers on Ebay and average people have to find another avenue to sell their cards. That reduces the amount of fees Ebay can collect and makes their business less viable.
DeleteKnock on wood but I've had really good luck overall since I started selling somewhat regularly on eBay about a year ago now. Only one person who asked for a refund through many dozens of transactions, and in that case they did send me the correct card back and I did realize through my own scans that it actually did have a corner ding before I sent it that I failed to note.
ReplyDeleteI think the above advice is good, provide detailed scans of the front and back and note any obvious flaws to reduce the likelihood of a return.
I'm really looking forward to seeing some of your sales when you get going if you post them here. What's your eBay handle, I'd gladly peruse what you have up there?
I think I posted it on my social media post, but it is theblindtiger1984. I don't have a lot up right now, as I only post cards that I think are worth $5 or more in order to make it worthwhile selling there.
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