Ebay Bucks

[rexmerdinus]

Just posted this one as an experiment to see if it flies--offering another coin item with my bullion so a buyer can get Ebay Bucks. Also, apparently money orders are now taboo with Ebay too, as of this year. I had mentioned them in the body of my listing and it wouldn't let me post it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0898186261

[PMLurker]

That is a clever way to pimp your auction.

eBay bucks are category specific. If you list anything in the bullion category, it will not be eligible for eBay bucks, but bullion sold in other categories will not matter.

from http://pages.ebay.com/rewards/faq.html

purchases made in the following categories DO NOT qualify:

All categories in eBay Motors. But note that Parts & Accessories purchases DO qualify
Classifieds
Real Estate
Gift Cards & coupons, but only for eBay Gift Cards within that category
Coins & Paper Money, but only for Bullion within that category
Business & Industrial

[rexmerdinus]

Yeah, as long as I keep it out of the bullion category I think I'm fine I'm not the first to put "Ebay Bux" in the title. I merely stand on the shoulders of other geniuses! I just wonder how long before Ebay exempts all coin categories from Bucks. I think I probably need to adjthe price point and some other stuff, but I'm getting some traffic to it (though I'm sure some comes from RC). Usually bullion auctions don't get any significant views until the final day of the listing, since there are so many of them on there.

[cesariojpn]

Throw the pic of bullion bars as the second pic rather than list it as the first.

[jesse1111]

I don't think they monitor this very closely. One guy had some stagecoach bars listed in coins for close to a month. He stopped selling them when he finally ran out.

On a different not does anyone know how often they offer double on the ebay bucks?

[rexmerdinus]

Throw the pic of bullion bars as the second pic rather than list it as the first.

Thought about that. I don't know...if I'm a buyer and I do a search for silver bars and see a pic of copper in the results, I might not bother opening it. On the other hand, it might pique my curiosity just enough to read the full title and click on it. I shall ruminate on this.

[rexmerdinus]

Also, has anyone ever heard of someone getting Ebay-banned for offering a refund if a buyer doesn't use PayPal? I used the phrase "postal money order" in the original listing and it wouldn't even let me post due to that being a policy violation. Here's the way I figure it--PayPal charges roughly 2% to the recipient, so if I as the seller can save that amount, I'd be willing to split it with the buyer by sending them a M.O. with the item for 1% of the total. So, I haven't looked into it yet, but how much do Money Orders cost to get? No need to answer, just thinking out loud here. Maybe I could just send cash--not like it's a lot.

[barrytrot]

Also, has anyone ever heard of someone getting Ebay-banned for offering a refund if a buyer doesn't use PayPal? I used the phrase "postal money order" in the original listing and it wouldn't even let me post due to that being a policy violation. Here's the way I figure it--PayPal charges roughly 2% to the recipient, so if I as the seller can save that amount, I'd be willing to split it with the buyer by sending them a M.O. with the item for 1% of the total. So, I haven't looked into it yet, but how much do Money Orders cost to get? No need to answer, just thinking out loud here. Maybe I could just send cash--not like it's a lot.

You won't be banned, not at first at least, but you will get HUGE issues by doing this. Issues this can cause:

- Ebay can cancel your auction. Not that bad.
- The buyer can RIGHTLY give you a negative feedback. Bad.
- The buyer can claim they paid and did not and force you to send them a check. Worse
- All 3 can happen simultaneously. Worst.

Don't mess with eBay and Paypal. Not via writing ON EBAY anyway!


Here is how to circumvent eBay fees:

Put contact information in your post. Label it "customer service information" and they will generally allow it.

Put your auctions as buy it nows at a price you are fine with plus a little bit.

You will be shocked how often people will contact you. For totally free and unencumbered by eBay transactions!

[fansubs_ca]

After Ebay stopped letting us use our E-mail addresses as usernames (supposedly to
"protect" us from SPAM) and forced those of us who at that point were still set up that
way to change our usernames (after using the SPAM angle to convince many others
to change before that point) I changed mine to:

glenap_at_moonie_dot_ca

Still have that username years later.

Keeping myself just as reachable as before even though technically passing the filters
they set up.

Ever since Ebay started muscling all it's users to use Paypal on all transactions and the
PAYPAL side of the company tightening the noose on fees I haven't bought or sold
anything on their site anyways. The integration of the 2 services for buy it now
auctions was slightly benificial (to stop people from clicking buy it now, ending the
listing, then sending an E-mail 1 minute later saying they clicked it by accident and
they will not buy it now, though that could be just as easily have been fixed by having
a "cancel buy it now and restore listing" option for the seller) but otherwise the merger
made 2 great services that (can) work well together (under separate ownership) a
bit too monolithic and the power went to their heads.

PAYPAL has really turned into mostly just annother credit card processor which is
unfortunate because they were the only ones with enough critical mass of users to
offer an effective digital checking account. (I'd always treated PAYPAL as an electronic
checking account back when I was actively using it.)