As I said, I’m only on my 3rd selling transaction, so I’m trying to keep things as simple as possible. With that in mind, I’m starting out by shipping just to North America. At this point, I don’t want to deal with the possible compications of sending stuff overseas.
So, anyway, after my auction closes, I get this rude message from a ebayer from the UK:
WTF??
First off, in my listing, I said “If you have any questions, please email me”. Secondly, as I understand eBay’s policies, I have the ablility to change the shipping info as long as there’s more than 12 hours left, and no active bidders. There wasn’t even a single bid until the last day, so if this guy was interested, he had plenty of time to email me and ask to change my shipping option.
And, finally, there was only ONE bid, at my beginning price, which was $10. Did this guy expect to start some kind of bidding/sniping frenzy and jack the price up to $100? More likely, he would have won with a bid of $11 or something. And what’s the point of ragging on me AFTER THE AUCTION CLOSES?
I’ve gotten a few messages like that, too. I do sell many things internationally, but some items are just too bulky or heavy or odd-shaped to economically ship them outside of the US.
Don’t be discouraged or take it personally. There are just some jerks out there who like to vent. I once got a scathing email from Switzerland lecturing me about American foreign policy because I was unwilling to offer some books internationally (heavy, bulky books are some of the WORST things to try to ship overseas at a reasonable cost - we’re spoiled with our Media Mail rates!)
All you got was a stupid email, and you come here to the PIT? Damn, what will you do when you get an undeserved NEG or a buyer gets his $$ back by disputing your sale with Paypal?
There are scads of nuts on eBay- both buyers and Sellers (read some sellers ToS some day and be prepared to be amazed.) That’s just the way eBay is.
Point taken. But the guy just pissed me off. As rants go, I know it’s tepid. If I’m going to be calling people assholes,though,I figure this the appropriate place to do it.
My hat is off to Bmalion for a quick, witty and perfect answer.
To the OP, your asshole non-buyer may have a point for some items. I have sold a few pieces of guitar gear on Ebay, and got some fairly high prices out of South America. Apparently, some things that are common here are hard to get in SA. I originally felt the same as you and listed my items as North America only, but a guy emailed me and asked me to look into shipping to Brazil. I was able to easily investigate that using Ebay or Paypal’s shipping calculator, and that item went to the guy in Brazil, who was happy to outbid his North American fellow-bidders. I simply took it to my Post Office. The buyer had emailed a customs document, which I printed and completed.
Definitely an asshole, no doubt. You’ll get that on eBay. I’ve sold a fair amount - two NPBs, but no rude assholes so far. I’ll take the rude asshole over the person who doesn’t pay, though.
It’s not that big a deal to ship internationally though; at least not for smaller items and books. You just have to make it clear that bidders contact you well in advance for shipping quotes. Shipping can be figured quite easily via various online calculators. Always get delivery confirmation…!
The eBay community boards are insanely active, and also a good place to rant about assholes.
I had a guy like that last week. I was selling an Iron Maiden shirt, fucker emails me in the middle of the auction and wants me to end it early. Then we wants another one of my shirts at the same time for less then what both would sell for. I told him no I wasn’t going to end it early. When it ended he emails me back again and says “Shit I lost it by $3, sell it to me anyway.” I ignored him after that.
As for selling stuff overseas. I’m been getting rid of a lot of Star Wars and Iron Maiden stuff. I think I sold around 40 things in the last two weeks or so. Almost everything went to Spain, UK, France, Canada or Tasmania, and none complained about the price of shipping. Lots of things they just can’t get and are willing to pay the shipping. It does make me more money that’s for sure. The Maiden shirt sold to Spain for $187.
I love those Assholes. One sent me a series of emails that read like fucking marching orders "you will stop the auction, you will pack the item, I will send you a check for ‘$x’, you wil…’ you get the idea.
My items always ended up selling more than what those mid-auction offers were.
I sold some small items and decided to ship just to N America. On one auction I accidentally listed the Americas so a buyer from S America won. My mistake so I figured out the rates and emailed him the total. Hew wanted to buy some other items and get a break on shipping. Fine. He wanted me to email him a list of items I had for sale with prices. Nope. Buy from what I have listed. I listed a dozen or so items and waited a week. Then I emailed him and asked if he was going to bid on any. He said “No sorry, I can’t pay at this time” I checked and saw he was buying from others and paying. So I told him if he didn’t pay I would have to leave him negative feedback, which I did. Weeks later he leaves me a negative feedback saying *I’m * hard to work with.
I have a friend who has done hundreds of EBay auctions. She’s only had a few real jerks in the lot. You got one out of the way sooner.
I assume the person emailed you through eBay. Any chance of reporting an insulting email to them? It was really useless and uncalled for. If I could report the jerk I would and tell him in a response that had he sent you a civil email during the auction he might have won, but an insult after the fact was just rude and has been reported.
I mostly sell DVDs which are fairly cheap to send overseas. I also only use USPS Airmail Letter Post when doing so - this provides the best cost/shipping time ratio. One suggestion if you do decide to ship overseas is to get some customs forms ahead of time and fill them out before you go to P.O. Saves time and you won’t hold up the line.
But you’ll encounter assholes regardless. I got my first neg that way. Guy said he was gonna pay with a money order but I never received it and never heard from him even after several emails. So I finally leave him a neg and within six hours he’d negged me back. I guess he couldn’t bother to answer my emails about his non-payment but he sure was on the ball with that feedback. What an ass. :mad:
I could say similar about the English and Halo 2 online. Every English player (with a mic) is a prick who keeps blabbering on about how my mates name must be Josh because his logon name is “Rogan” :dubious:
