EBAY has at this point all but abandoned “Seller Protection” even with a Perfect title, description, pictures, next day shipping with tracking and signature required. I feel people have figured out EBAY will basically give the money back guarantee to anyone who asks. They can use any excuse they want even if it is completely ridiculous or false, switch the cards, claim everything was not in the package, etc. And then even if you appeal, sign an affidavit, and do actually get your money and a favorable ruling, they will try a PAYPAL claim.
Any ideas or advice on EBAY selling moving forward or things that may be working better?
THANK YOU!
(I am not a huge volume seller maybe selling 15 to 20 items a month between $1000 up to $5000 with only a 253* rating but i am a top rated seller with 100% feedback but that means nothing to EBAY when ruling on these)
I had a perfect seller rating, but then I started selling Pokemon…
My listings are very honest. I even over price things by a little because I do not want to sell and I make sure my buyers are well informed.
Pokemon people are picky and like to scam. With that being said, these people are unavoidable anywhere you go and I will continue to sell on eBay so that I can continue to keep money flowing in and out for my collection.
For what it’s worth I’ve always won all my claims as a seller. But I have over 10 years selling on eBay, so I’ve seen all the scams and know how to quickly disarm most of them. I did have one that I had to appeal through PayPal, which was a shot in the dark, but I did eventually get it. So never lose hope.
You always have to prepare for a loss though, in any business. Not just eBay…
Good advice from @garyis2000, particularly in regards to setting a reasonably high minimum sales price. The lower your prices, the more likely your auctions are to attract eBay’s scammers.
I have been lucky enough not to run into many of these issues, only have one scammer to deal with so far. But I sell more MTG than Pokemon (cuz I just end up wanting to keep it)
I wish you better luck my friend ! (and to all of us >___>)
Factor it into your long-term cost of doing business and proceed according to the calculus. If it’s not worth doing business after the math for you, look into alternatives. If it is, it just has to be dealt with. As we saw with eBay’s ridiculous handling of @thecharizardauthorty’s temp ban, the eBay machine chews and spits without regard for much of anything.
In my day to day business which involves buying and selling there is this saying. “Only put on Ebay what your willing to lose”. Sadly, sellers aren’t protected like they should be and therefore makes Ebay a challenge when confronted with dishonest people or scammers. But of course its not everyone and it is just the cost of doing business at the end of the day if you are a regular seller.
This is why I said to ‘list items near the same amount’. It’s hard to factor in loss as a cost of doing business when you sell 10.00, as well as 5000.00 items and it’s the 5,000.00 item they scam you out of.
As many issues as I have ran into selling a wide variety of cards on ebay - I have had almost all great experiences. A few get under my skin here and there, but for the most part people are still good. Selling a majority of cards valued under $2 can be a headache at times, but using basically otherwise worthless cards to live out a dream job completely outweighs that small cost. I provide tracking on just a small portion of my sales because most people are honest. This does result in me sending a refund sometimes for a $1, 2, or $5+ orders. We all know that the person intentionally trying to cheat out a seller can do so regardless of tracking.
On eBay in regards to PSA Pokemon Cards I’ve actually only had one issue were buyer tried to convince eBay it wasn’t delivered even though tracking clearly shown it had been,
Buyer eventually decided not worth the effort and closed the case,
Genuinely wherever you sell there is going to be risk, eBay is actually probably on the side of lower risk in comparison to IG, FB, Gumtree/ Craigslist, PayPal Direct & other places,
No selling is entirely risk free as then it’s total risk on buyer’s behalf, eBay is the best place to sell PSA Pokemon cards in my opinion and I have my own site, transact on Instagram and directly work with buyers/ sellers all the time!
Methods to minimise risk - Accept 30 day returns, ONLY send tracked & signed packages (international or domestic), if you have a gut reaction of something not being quite right message the buyer, do not direct message buyers about other places to find you just add a business card into their package & finally fight tooth and nail cases with facts and evidence.
I also price at reasonable levels not dirt cheap and not overly expensive to attract the correct sort of buyers,
eBay can definitely be a pain at times but in general selling on eBay against not selling on eBay the rewards outweigh the risk 99.9% of the time!
Sorry if you had a bad experience @ajhenry , but just my two cents!
Scammers are few and far between don’t be a scardy cat, it’s the same with any profession or hobby or even walking outside there will always be a small minority of delinquents. Just take what @thecharizardauthorty said, he gets to live his dream job and he would have found the same assholes if he opened up a cafe or was a pet groomer, sure you might see a couple cool looking poodles every now and then, but will you ever get a chance to open a 1st Ed. Base booster box?
Yeah, I agree with tca and shizzlemetimbers. And most of the above.
I admit it happens, there will be good and bad in every industry you ever work with; any country in the world.
That’s what makes it work.
It sucks sometimes. No matter what.
Unfortunately one of the bad things with tcg is scammers. Also tax /accounting, PayPal fees, customs… customers wasting time, the list goes on lol
But you can’t sit around being paranoid over every comment or thought of danger that presents itself. Or else you won’t progress.
Some small tips;
Just figure out which countries are high risk and make sure to send registered with tracking / signature to them. Try send registered always if you can.
You can block low feedback buyers with -1 or more bad buying feedback or reports.
You can block regions you don’t want to ship to.
You can even set minimum feedback to purchase I believe.
5.dealing loose cards is alot riskier than psa graded. Just have to be honest with your description and photos. It’s good to give a clear range or scale to fall back on. As everyone sees condition differently.
And I would say anything loose, just mark it down one grade. Even when things are gem mint - mint pack fresh for me. I just list it loose as mint - nm to avoid arguments.
And lp as played.
eBay is one of the main reasons this and other hobbies exist the way they do today. Sure there are scammers and assholes everywhere, but that is the exception. No other platform in this hobby comes close to eBay. Scammers are the exception, not the norm.
The larger issue is Pokémon does have more mandchildren than other hobbies. They exist in everything but can be a bit more potent in Pokémon. You will run into unreasonable demands, but that comes with the territory. Just focus on the good and your goals of buying, selling and/or collecting. That is how I continue to enjoy the hobby after encountering every type of person. There is more good than bad.
The biggest thing that eBay did to harm Sellers was when they removed reciprocal and/or buyer feedback. Suddenly buyers had nothing to protect so they got bold. I always thought they should return that power at least to business accounts but preferably to all. Traders would both work harder to handle difficult situations properly.
Brick and Mortar stores have to deal with the same thing. People return items all the time at places like Wal-Mart and Target. One time in the return line, I was behind a woman with a cart full of clothes who talked her way into getting a partial return of $125. When it was my turn, the employee frustratingly told me that she was a shoplifter, who’s scam is going back to different locations and returning merch. He had to make the return anyway. Scammers everywhere.
While I’m fine with returning things like defective items (it was a broken record player), some people are fine with returning"lightly used" items or things like buyer error (wrong size) or buyers remorse. Not fair, but I guess that’s the cost of doing business.
Thanks for easing my mind a little! It looks like it is overwhelmingly stated “stop being a crybaby and get over it” haha. Hopefully the scammers eventually get weeded out more and more so we can all enjoy the collecting and be able to sell and buy as needed without things like this happening to anyone!
Wow that’s incredible!! I switched over to bubble mailer with tracking only and started selling just $10 items and up to cut down on the scamming and (un-recieved) orders. That’s a really good thing to hear though. Shows the vast majority of people in the hobby are honest!
