Ebay Secrets Blog

Archive for August, 2009

The top-rated seller program doesn’t start until October, but eBay will select a few sellers to display the badge in search results.

eBay announced the Top-Rated Seller program last week.  Unlike the Power Seller program that looks at quantity and high DSR ratings, The Top-Rated Seller program will look at low DSRs (1 and 2 stars). Power Sellers who remain above 0.5% low DSRs and meet other requirements, will earn the Top Seller Badge and a 20% fee discount as well as advantaged placement in search.

eBay will select a handful of sellers to test the badge placement and reaction.

If you want more information about the changes on eBay, please look at our August newsletter that  was posted on the website today at:

http://www.skipmcgrath.com/newsletters/current.shtml

In This Issue:

Musings from eBay and beyond

1. How Will the New eBay Policies Impact Sellers?
2. eBay to Change How Search Results are Presented in Best Match
3. Dropshipping with Amazon Fulfillment Services
4. You Make Money on eBay With Thrift Shop Finds?
5. Breaking the ClickBank Code for Profits
6. Wholesale Sources for Books, Movies & Music

See Also

• How To Start and Run an eBay Consignment Business
  Complete business manual with all instructions including contracts, business forms, pre-written advertising, and sales letters

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Most of the changes will not take place until September 22 with others coming in October

Last year eBay announced that they would give sellers more time to adjust their business to changes on the platform. This is the second planned announcment of 2009.  Normally I list the new changes with my comments, but this one caught me on vacation, so I am just going to list the changes and I will save my analysis for my newsletter that will be out later this week. If you don’t get the newsletter, you can subscribe for free here.

Here is the text of eBay’s announcement:

• Rewards for sellers delivering great buyer experiences
• New way to look at DSRs
  • Avoid getting low DSRs-1s and 2s. Buyers have different ideas about what constitutes a high rating, but most leave a 1 or a 2 only when they experienced a significant issue with their transaction. eBay will be shifting focus from average DSRs to the number of low DSRs as a more accurate measure of customer satisfaction.
  • Only domestic DSRs will count toward requirements for eBay.com. International transactions can be subject to factors outside a seller’s control and we want to make sure sellers can expand globally without undue impact to their standing on eBay.com.
• PowerSeller program update: rewarding quality over quantity
  • Starting in October, a new eBay top-rated seller status will be added to the PowerSeller program to recognize and reward sellers providing great buyer experiences based on the new way to look at DSRs (very few 1s and 2s). eBay Top-rated sellers will receive the highest PowerSeller Final Value Fee discounts (20%), increased visibility in search results for Fixed Price listings, exclusive access to purchase Featured First and a prominent Top-rated seller badge on item pages. The Top-rated seller badge will be tested in search results pages this summer. The current PowerSeller icon will no longer be displayed on buyer-facing pages including item pages.
  • All sellers with 100 or more annual transactions and at least $3,000 annual sales who meet the requirements for Top-rated seller status will be invited into the PowerSeller program and can start receiving Top-rated seller benefits in October.
  • Next April, the PowerSeller program will also include a requirement for sellers based on the new way to look at DSRs (very few 1s and 2s). PowerSellers that don’t have Top-rated seller status will get 5% Final Value Fee discounts.
  • Meanwhile, the current PowerSeller discount structure will continue until April 1, 2010 to give sellers 8 full months to keep their current discounts while they adjust business practices to qualify for the new Top-rated seller status.
• New minimum standards for all sellers:
  • Starting in October, there will be a new minimum standard for all eBay sellers based on the number of low DSRs (1s and 2s) received. The minimum standard will be stricter in April, 2010.
  • A new Selling Practices policy will define guidelines for professionalism and accuracy in all aspects of listings and transactions.
  • Optional buyer charges for shipping insurance will no longer be allowed. Sellers can still buy shipping insurance and add the cost to the item or shipping price.
• Updates to the Seller Dashboard: You can now see a snapshot of your low DSRs (1s and 2s) and standing toward the new Top-rated seller requirements updated monthly through a link at the top of your Seller Dashboard. In September, you will be able to see daily updates.
• Enhanced search presents more relevant listings
• Best Match, eBay’s default sort order, will look at listing’s recent sales in relation to the number of recent impressions it received as a key factor for Fixed Price listings. An “impression” is any time a buyer sees a search results page that includes the listing.
• In addition, single quantity and newly listed Fixed Price items will be given exposure in Best Match even though they have no sales history. These listings will be given initial impressions based on the performance of similar listings. This change will improve the exposure of new Fixed Price listings that are relevant to buyers.
• Auction-style listings will still get a boost in exposure as they are about to end. To keep auctions enticing, Auction with Buy It Now listings will be required to have a BIN price at least 10% higher than the auction start price.
• A new Search Visibility tool will help you evaluate how your Fixed Price and auction-style listings are performing in search results.
• Several features will be discontinued including Featured Plus, Border, and others to save you money and keep the focus on relevance.
• Product pages are rolling out to more buyers, so list with product details to make sure your listings are included. Also, eBay will start selecting sellers’ photos for inclusion in the eBay product catalog on September 1. If your photo is chosen, your user ID and a link to your profile page will appear on the product page. If you’d prefer not to have your pictures selected, opt out no later than August 31.
• Easier, more profitable selling on eBay
• Faster recourse for unpaid items. A streamlined process will cut the resolution time in half. We are also working on a new automated option that will make the process even more efficient, cut the time to resolution to as little as 8 days and block negative feedback when a seller opens a claim and a buyer doesn’t pay. This automated option will be tested in late September and our goal is to gradually make it available to all sellers by the holidays.
• eBay dispute resolution for buyer claims is expanding to more buyers to make the process faster and easier for sellers and buyers.
• Buyer communications will be faster and easier to manage with enhancements to My Messages and streamlined post-transaction emails.
• Get more control over international ship-to locations. You’ll have the same ship-to choices you have now, plus you’ll be able to specify countries you do not want to ship to.
• Upload tracking and delivery confirmation numbers for more shipping carriers.
• Editing listings, even multi-quantity listings with a sale and listing descriptions, will be faster and easier.
• New Selling Manager applications boost efficiency for sellers of all sizes-try them free!
• Category and Item Specifics changes are now consolidated with the rest of updates. Find out if there are changes to your categories.
• Stores subscribers-now you can put all your Fixed Price listings on vacation.

See Also

• Learn How To Make Money with an Online Consignment Business Selling on eBay, Craigslist and Other Online Shopping sites
  Complete business manual with contracts, forms and pre-written advertisements to grow your business

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Don’t want to be a spoil sport but you all know what the big bombshell on this season of The Office will be–Jim and Pam will finally, after many delays, tie the knot. I do not want to ruin the moment for you so I will not post the photos that I found here. However, I will leave you with a typical Office trailer, compete with Michael spreading rumors around the office with no compunction. Can’t wait to get me some sitcom love soon!

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Gang,
It has been a while since I did one of these so I thought it was about time for a new “5 Minutes with…” As I’ve tried to do with previous installments, I’ve tied the interview into some timely news or activity happening here. Kasey Hesse is based back in PayPal’s Omaha, Nebraska offices where she launched a Corporate Community Garden program allowing employees to plant crops on a small plot of land. The program has expanded now to the North Campus here in San Jose, so I thought it would be good to spend “5 Minutes with…” Kasey while she was here. Check out the story from local ABC 7 regarding the project and also be sure to check out her answers to our recurring Q&A feature… my favorite answers to date!
Cheers,
RBH

Full Name: Kasey Hesse
Nickname: n/a
Official Title: User Acceptance Testing (UAT) Engineer
What You Really Do: I try to break PayPal products before they go live to site to ensure our features are user friendly. When in doubt I test a product how I think my mom would use it; an approach that nets most errors. UAT keeps me busy, as a supplement to QA we manually test the end-to-end user experience of 5-7 products per push, 1-2 products per .x release, plus we test internal tools for Global Operations in Omaha.
Your First Day at eBay: Hmm, the first week of September in 2004. I forget the exact date but I am looking forward to my sabbatical!
Education/Schooling: Bachelors degree in International Studies and Portuguese from the University of Nebraska @ Lincoln in 2003. Currently working on a graduate degree from University of Nebraska @ Omaha and hope to graduate in December of 2010.
Interests: Going to school full-time and working full-time take up most of my week. However, I am also the leader of the PayPal Green Team in Omaha. I’m currently training for my third marathon (Philadelphia in November) along with my husband. My goal is to finish in less than twice his time; he’s really fast – he qualified for the Boston Marathon on his first try! I also love to canoe on local lakes and rivers. I was on the crew in college and it is nice to be back on the water.
Favorite Quote: “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
Most memorable eBay experience: I’ve had a lot of great experiences with PayPal – breaking ground on our corporate community garden in Omaha was a big deal for me because it was the materialization of a big idea I’d been working on for months. It’s amazing that you can still daydream and think “how cool would it be if…” and actually have something come of it. We had 97 people request a plot in the first week; so it was reaffirming to know that other people wanted to be a part of something I’d created.
Most recent eBay purchase/sale: I bought all of my textbooks for next semester on half.com using my eBay ID and PayPal checkout – that counts, right?
Favorite Albums: Hmm, while my favorite musician is Ben Folds, I couldn’t live without Journey’s Greatest Hits. What!?! I run 8 hours a week and classic rock keeps me going.
Favorite Movies: The Usual Suspects, Fight Club, Guy Ritchie films always seem to delight me (except that one with Madonna…)
What You Wanted to Be Growing Up: Awesome

Fill in the blanks:
I should have run my 5 miler yesterday.
I wish that I could pack more hours into my day.
The first thing I do when I get to work is clear out my inbox so I can send emails – my Outlook is always full!

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Long time readers of Ink know that I tend to stay away from individual auctions or specific sales in the eBay Marketplace, focusing more on trends in the industry and news coming out of the company as a whole. However yesterday, two auctions that were unusual enough to capture the attention of national and international media came to a close. On the surface, it was just a normal Tuesday in the eBay Marketplace.

What made the day standout was not the similarities between the (pardon the pun) cradle to the grave auctions. Sadly, what stood out was the fact that people bid on items for which they had no intention of buying. Something that undermines the very integrity of the marketplace.

eBay has no tolerance for this sort of behavior (the two high bidders in these auctions have been banned – for life – from eBay) and because placing a bid enters someone into a legal, binding contract, the consequences might not end there.

One of the bidders may have even lost his job over the matter, and both may also face suit from the sellers for breach of contract. If you are a seller and you ever find yourself in a similar situation, please report the bidder here: http://resolutioncenter.ebay.com/ so that eBay can take appropriate action.

eBay prefers to be able to work with sellers in advance of a high profile listing in order to best ensure a successful outcome (FYI… selling a crypt above Marilyn Monroe’s that currently houses your late husband qualifies as high profile). They have done this numerous times in the past, the most obvious example being the annual charity auction for lunch with Warren Buffet. In those auctions, eBay has helped to raise millions of dollars for worthy causes with nary a hiccup, because they have been able to work with the sellers in these auctions to pre-approve all bidders.

What most sellers don’t know is that eBay can offer you the same sort of assistance it offers to Mr. Buffet. In the future, if sellers are interested in listing items considered to be high-profile and/or likely to garner media interest, we suggest the following process:

1) Complete a request at http://news.ebay.com/media-request.cfm. Include specifics about the item, timing, and contact information. Upon reviewing the request, eBay will determine the level of support and contact you within 3 business days.

2) If warranted a high-profile listing, eBay will work with you to create the listing in compliance with policy and implement a pre-approved bidding process to ensure only legitimate bids are placed on your auction.

Cheers,
RBH

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Please Bookmark this new link and add me to your reader

For the past 5 years I have been using a blog service from MySt technology. It has worked well and I have grown my reader base to over 500 readers a day.

During this time I have been aware that WordPress has grown into the largest and most-popular blog service. I recently started another blog on WordPress and was amazed at how simple it was to create the blog and create posts, and how fast the readership grew.

So I am now a WordPress convert.  There is an additional advantage that my blog will now be hosted on my website, instead of another server. This will help increase the traffic and ranking of my website.

So if you wish to get my blog, please visit http://www.skipmcgrath.com/blog

When you get there you will see this same post.

Once you are there you can add that page to your favorites –or even better, click on the little button that says RSS and add my blog feed to your home page. This way you can see the title of my posts right on your homepage within a few minutes of publishing.

See Also

• FREE Newsletter for eBay Sellers. Subscribe to the eBay Sellers News – the oldest and largest newsletter for eBay sellers
  News, ebay tools and tips, and new wholesale sources every month.

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Of course I stayed up late to watch the Rachel Zoe Project premiere yesterday. It was definitely worth ignoring my bedtime. The usual suspects were present: Rachel, Rog, Taylor, Brad, and some newbies to fill out the infamous “Zoe Camp.” The same shenanigans were occurring—Taylor giving major attitude, Rachel acting like she was going to disintegrate if she did not get the Chanel dress for Cameron, Roger rolling his eyes, and Brad spreading his good bow-tied cheer around the studio like a sprite. It looks like this season Brad is totally teacher’s pet and Tay is getting tres irritated. Personally, I adore Brad and think that his enthusiasm is winning, I don’t deal with dour. Truth be told, RZ is good at what she does. CD looked ravishing in the Chanel gown the the stylist slightly tweaked (while tweaking out) and Anne Hathaway was breathtaking. I remember watching the Globes this year and thinking that Cameron was my most favorite red carpet moment. Like Rachel, I died.

*Photo licensed to: Photorazzi.com

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I always love checking out the most popular items sold on eBay and am never too shocked when I see tech plastered all over the place.  In the electronics category, you can find the “Touch Screen Cell Phone”  at the top of the heap. I love my iPhone, and now that it takes video, I’ve pretty much bailed on my other devices for everyday outings. The Palm Pre is my next favorite “touch screen”, but between you and me, I think the iPhone is really what this is all about.

GPS devices are also popular items sold on eBay.  I see these as hot sellers because in these shaky times people are looking for quick fixes and with a GPS device, they instantly can modernize a car without having to buy an entirely new ride.

Other big sellers on eBay are Wii and XBox 360 wireless controllers.  This makes perfect sense because it’s silly that these systems short changed us on the one controller thing, so your clever eBay loving peeps know that it’s the best place to get an item that you should have gotten for free.

I’ll keep checking what’s hot and share the data with y’all again soon.

*Photo credited to: Sprint.com

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The last official Polaroid production  kit is hitting the shelves soon. Fans of the iconic cam are already mourning the death of the device and have been buying up old film stock and camera bodies on eBay. The fleeting inventory will inevitably wind up in the marketplace and will have consumers snapping up the items. Clearly the Polaroid style is in style—the iPhone app, Polarock, turns your mobile photos into Polaroid-like images, complete with a wide, white border. So…you can still get your modern  insta-fix with an old-school style—oh the irony.

Photo credited to: 160over90.com

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As promised, in response to eBay’s announcement of the SM Apps program, here is the second in a series I’m calling “eBay SM App of the day.”

Today we’re looking at the good folks at My.ShipRush, an eBay Certified Provider.

The vitals:
SM App: My.ShipRush Ship Center
Release : 8/19/2009
Subscription: Free
What it solves for: My.Ship Rush centralizes your shipping To Do list in one place.
Why you should care: This free application allows you to monitor and track all ecommerce sales activity across multiple channels (eBay, Amazon, Yahoo! Stores, etc.) in one place.
What you can do: Print shipping labels (with free shipping plugin); manage all shipments; utilize a customer service staff that can look up tracking numbers and shipment status; easily share shipment history with off-site customer service staff.
Supported Browsers: IE 6, IE 7, Firefox 3
Supported languages: English
Supported eBay sites: ebay.com
Required eBay subscriptions: Selling Manager or Selling Manager Pro
Multi-Channel eCommerce:
• eBay sales
• PayPal transactions (for on- and off-eBay sales)
• Google Checkout
• Yahoo! Stores
• Amazon
• More ecommerce systems coming soon.
Shipping:
• Print shipping labels (with free shipping plugin)
• Email notifications
• Electronic scale support
• Use existing shipping accounts (in most cases)
Customer Service:
• See sales from all your ecommerce channels
• Monitor and manage which have shipped and which have not
• Look up sales and shipment information from a single console
• Allow Customer Service to work remote from the shipping department
Productivity
• No more flipping between multiple merchant consoles
• Stay focused by working from a single “to do” list
• Easily share access to shipment history with co-workers or outsourced customer service
• My.ShipRush is free to try and free to use.

Additional Resources:
*** My.ShipRush with eBay
*** See how the ecommerce flow works with My.ShipRush by checking out these nifty diagrams
*** See what questions, answers and feedback is being provided in the My.ShipRush Forums
*** ShipRush “in 2 minutes”

Cheers,
RBH

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