First Anniversary (nearly).
It's been almost a year since I first registered here and as it's raining, and my work is rained off, I thought I'd give all those who welcomed me back then an up-date on how I've found the site.
First I'd like to thank all those who helped me out when the inevitable problems arose getting used to a new way of doing things here. I am another refugee from TOS and very glad to be here with the all chaos on-going over there. No question, no matter how silly or trivial has gone unanswered politely and helpfully. Even when I suggested a change I wasn't immediately jumped on and ridiculed by more experienced users, something unheard of on TOS.
It has been a slow start, I still haven't listed as many items as I intended to list in the first month. Not because of second thoughts but more to do with family commitments. I have only made one sale, which is disappointing, but I realised that selling would be a lot slower before I started moving over here. Selling in a fairly niche area of collectables doesn't help as the market must be made up to a large extent of sellers buying from each other. Even the seller with the biggest prescence doesn't seem to sell regularly.
Taking advice offered on the boards I looked out for things to buy here to get a few feedback scores and was suprised by the sellers lack of customer care. My first attempt was for a piece of glass. The picture was blurred and the description very basic, little more than a repeat of the listing title. I asked a polite question and after a day or three sent a nudge, ebid then sent four more and I sent another on the day the auction finished. All completely ignored, so that purchase didn't go anwhere. Later I found the same item, same price, same seller on TOS, with much higher fees. I didn't bother obviously.
Second attempt, great. Both seller and myself still learning the ropes and with a few messages back and forth the sale went smoothly and he left me a feedback!.
The third was the worst. My question was answered promptly on the Saturday saying the seller was away for the weekend and he would check on Monday. Reminded him on Tuesday and got an apologetic answer about the items condition but no answer about the postage query. In my experience couriers and glass don't mix so I wanted it sent RM and I wanted to know how much he would charge.
Completed the purchase anyway, reminded him again I wanted it sent RM and paid the £1.50 extra, making £5.90. This was not excessive if the item was very well packed but was not happy when the parcel arrived RM 2nd at a cost of £2.80. IMO the seller wasn't really interested and just guessed that RM would charge £1.50 extra. He also completely ignored the after sale dashboard and my request for feedback. So I won't be buying from him again in a hurry.
So the score for the year is a draw. One sale, one purchase Positive. Two purchases Negative.
I still remain positive about ebid. The variety in my categories of interest is getting better making it more likely that I will find things to buy although the number of listings haven't gone up much.
I will continue to add to my listings as time permits and will start posting internationaly again soon to see if that helps with sales. I have my fingers crossed for a rush of buyers between now and Christmas. Again the chaos on TOS can only help this site if buyers want something delivered before the holiday.
I've read several times that ebid will not advertise the site but if there's any cash in the kitty now would surely be the time to use it.
Login to Your Account
---------- * ---------- * ---------- * ---------- * ---------- 
Reply With Quote
Re: First Anniversary (nearly).
