PSA: A small reminder why not to sell on eBay - 7 days of inactivity = full refund

Hi,

Despite eBay's net. fees that end up being 20%+ - I used to still sell the occasional watch related item that would be too impractical to sell elsewhere, however after a recent experience I ended all my listings and I don't intend to go back any time soon

Basically if an item is stuck in customs for 1-2 weeks, a buyer can make a claim and get a 100% refund and also keep whatever you've sent - and this happens a lot in our current climate, recently UK wasn't registering incoming posts and causing delays, lately Canada is like this

I've learned that if no movement is registered in the tracking for 7 days, this makes the transaction eligible for a full refund

What's worse is that, for a $375 sale, I've originally received $300 with eBay's fees (not counting other hidden fees) - but for the return, they charge back $375 instead of the net. $300 they've paid

I'm ok with the occasional lost package or a damaged item that I will cover the costs of, however charging exorbitant fees and in the event of an issue, making an unjust refund yet covering their extreme fees in this manner is just unbelievable

As a buyer I used to get frustrated when sellers didn't ship using regular government post, now I understand why, I suggest not using eBay as a selling platform but if you do, make sure you can use private companies like DHL to ship (impossible for me, as it costs $100 to ship - and if you factor in eBay's fees, I'd need to set shipping to $120~)

Have a good day,
Kaan

I am selling on ebay one year or so now and there are a lot of fees,now more that went from PayPal to Payoneer!
I am still selling not watches only but other items as well.
The good thing with ebay is that you dont have to pay anything until the item sells!
I have had customers that were waiting more than 4 months for an item to go to their address due to customs delays
and with covid the problem was very big in some countrys like Italy for example.
Thankfully the clients were very patient and did not open a case and finally they got what they ordered!
It happened with two clients from Italy!

I wait for 80% off fees offer,never send international .

the default search ( Item Location Default ) with ebay is really annoying, it lists more items outside of my country ( UK ) than in the UK, I have to remember to scroll down the left hand side of the page and select "UK Only" , I have to do this for every search as it does not remember my selection, I am pretty sure ebay does this on purpose, and it is frankly very annoying, this is when I am using the ebay.co.uk site ( not ebay.com) , it is becoming a platform that is neither helpful to buyers or sellers IMHO

I also think ebay has become the worst online platform for watches, you cannot trust many sellers on this platform - as they have no clue, I suspect the really good Omega watches out there are in the hands of professional full time watch sellers who do not use ebay either !

"my biggest gripe currently is all these darn MoonSwatches messing up my Speedmaster searches"

indeed - I have to use -swatch to get rid of those

They change quite a bit internally without any updates or transparency, it could be a new policy, but 100% without any doubt, right now they are making you pay the fees on returns, they might've taken it out of Paypal's playbook, Paypal at one point stopped refunding fees too

An additional hit, also new, I ended all my listings, one of them was an auction at $160, I cancelled all bids and ended it - nothing on the interface, then couple hours later they charged my credit card $35 - turns out they applied a $28.76 "End Auction-style listings early Fee" - this didn't show up on the interface like the usual extra listing fees etc. appear, so I assume it's new and I believe I should've been warned

To be honest I was okay with the occasional lost packages or damages, it's all in the %'s, in my mind it was 5%, so if I charged 5% more I'd assume it'd cover it, but right now, with the 25% effective fees, them making you pay the fee's on refunds, and this aggressive buyer gets a free item refund policy, I think one needs to overcharge at least 40% compared to a direct sale maybe more


As a seller I had some pride and I left eBay as a seller, but as a collector I have no pride and I'll keep on using eBay as well, Indeed as @Walrus pointed out too, there's still such a wide variety of sellers - there's at least one thing I buy every week, crystals, parts, part lots, but lately, I assume because of these issues, very few watch finds for me, I assume each seller sells 1-2 things then moves on, or becomes aggressive to avoid these issues - I didn't become aggressive and couldn't survive

There's a lack of a practical international marketplace and eBay seems to survive because of this

I guess I'll try Catawiki a bit, as a seller they once made a buyer wait when this happened, and as a buyer, I bought a jewellery as a gift that clearly said same day DHL Express in the listing, instead the seller used regular post 3 days late, and even in that situation they sided with the seller indicating a rule they had that sellers can use whatever option they see fit and gave me a 30 euro coupon, I didn't mind too much as I like a platform that protects sellers and give them a bit flexibility to survive

I decided to keep one mid-price diver and buy a new strap for it - rather than deal with eBay for watches ever again. The percentages are high and not worth it in the long run. My anwer is - don't buy any new watches this year and if I get the itch, go switch out a strap or buy a strap.