The headquarters of eBay in San Jose, California. Photographed on August 5, 2006 by user Coolcaesar. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
When eBay announced the newest round of seller changes, I wasn’t worried. I’ve already talked about why I’m not sweating the longer return policy window which was the thing that made people freak out the most. I already have 1 day handling on all my items and I always ship within 24 hours (most times less) so that part didn’t worry me either. I don’t mind redoing my listings either, I’ve been meaning to do that since they added more title characters.
Uploading a tracking number within 24 hours? Well, I use eBay shipping and that just goes part and parcel with that 1 day handling time, doesn’t it? Â As long as I’m shipping 90% of my items within 24 hours, I should be fine, right?
But the bastards have gotten me anyway. There’s a new “preview” feature in My eBay that lets you see if you’ll be compliant with these new policies when they go live. I was floored when I saw that I was more than safe in every category except the “uploading tracking info within 24 hours” bit. How can that be? I’m positively insane about getting stuff out within 24 hours! Most of my stuff ships same day!
Remember when I told you about how I have one item that I sell for very little profit just to keep my feedback stars high? It’s also bait to get buyers into my store for that one deal so they’ll buy something else while they’re there and it works like a charm.
This item sells well. It ships fast. It ships free. How’s this for irony: That item is single handedly going to keep me from reaching TRS under the new system.
See, part of the reason I’m able to offer free shipping on that item is that I ship it First Class letter class. Which, of course, isn’t eligible for delivery confirmation. So, every time I sell this item once these new changes go live, it hurts me because I have no tracking info to upload within 24 hours regardless of when I actually ship it. Whenever this item accounts for 10% or more of my sales for the last three month, I will lose Top Rated Seller status regardless of how satisfied my buyers are.
There are only three items in my entire store that ship without tracking of some kind. It just so happens that one of them is my best selling item.
I always ship this particular item same day so it didn’t occur to me that not having a tracking number to prove that I’m shipping it in 24 hours would be such a problem. You’d think buyers saying, “Wow! It arrived next day!” would account for something but without the proof it seems eBay would rather I didn’t sell it at all.
Here are my options:
- Stop selling the item (the obvious one)
- Keep selling it as is and not care about Top Rated Seller status
- Raise the price of the item three times what it is now to cover the cost of First Class package with delivery confirmation so that I can offer tracking
- Watch sales of the item vigilantly and take the listing down whenever it seems like I’m selling too many and only relist it again when I’m safely out of the 10% zone (hilariously ridiculous)
I’m using my item as an example but, really, any seller shipping something letter class or without tracking is going to run into this same issue. A single item without tracking, if it sells well, can completely mess you up. If your whole business is based around items like this? You’re in trouble.
I am on board with what eBay is trying to do on paper. They want sellers who claim that they are shipping within 24 hours to prove it by uploading tracking within that time frame. As a buyer, I appreciate that they are trying to get sellers to ship faster. But this has the weird side effect of forcing me to pull an item that ships fast (what they want) and that ships free (what they really want) or I’ll lose my TRS designation. You know, the designation that says I ship fast and free. In other words, their policy backfires big time.
Congrats eBay, you… win?
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I am running into this same problem. I sell video games and trading cards. All of the trading cards under $8, I ship stamped first-class letter ($8 is the cut-off I’ve determined from risk/reward analysis). And It seems ridiculous that eBay would keep me from getting top rated seller status because I sell these items. Looking at huge card sellers, I notice that they also do not have TSR ratings. Sellers with HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF POSITIVE FEEDBACK and eBay does not give them the benefits of their scale and success. “trollandtoadstore” has a rating of over 400,000 and “danbock”, over 200,000, and neither of these guys have TSR or Fast n’ Free designations. That’s absolute nonsense, as these sellers are fantastic and insanely fast.
Anyways, I was wondering if you have any suggestions or updates about this topic? I’m not going to stop selling cards. I guess the options are:
–Charge more so I can track (.99 cent items would have to be a minimum of $3, and eBay then gets 3x more money for each item–maybe that’s why they do this…)
–Separate my items into two stores to separate cards from the video games (all of which get tracking, but then i’m missing out the synergy and cross-marketing of a huge store)
–Stop caring about it and just know, no matter how good I am at doing what I do, I’ll never get TSR (probably my best option, realistically)
At least I don’t have to worry about my competitors having TSR, for the cards, at least, because if they do, then I’m probably under-cutting their price tremendously.
I wish eBay would only consider items in which tracking is uploaded or are over $10. And for the listings that do not have tracking uploaded, they should base it off the detailed seller rating for shipping that buyers leave when leaving feedback. And if the buyer doesn’t leave feedback, that item should just be exempt from the calculations. Maybe this is just one more way eBay forces sellers to raise their prices (or pay the passive penalty).
However, I will say that without the opportunity to get TSR or Fast n’ Free, there’s no pressure on my end to push myself to do 1-day handling. I really don’t think it affects your sales that much to do 2-day instead of 1-day, but it sure does affect your feedback when you get an extra day before people (somewhat arbitrarily) start getting angry.
Here’s a link to my store: http://stores.ebay.com/Retro-Gamers-Den
Dan,
I want to get back to you on this but my answer is so long I may as well make it a follow-up blog post. I’ll post the link here when it goes up but suffice it to say that I feel your pain! :-/
I don’t understand the problem because I ship everything I sell (jewelry) on eBay by first class mail using the eBay system and eBay automatically assigns and uploads my tracking number for me. You must be doing something wrong when printing your labels…. Just click first class postage through USPS and the weight and you’re safe.
You’re referring to First Class *Parcel* Post which, yes, you can print from eBay and get tracking info for. The post above refers to First Class *Letter* Post which you still cannot print through eBay or get tracking for. Jewelry can go First Class Parcel because it’s not flat. Our items are flat.
Some sellers will print Parcel Post and put it on a letter to try to get around it but you pay sometimes five times more and up for shipping by using the wrong class so it’s not a great workaround.