Suggestions for Improvement

[vsridhar1178]

I have recently signed up for ebay. I have listed an indian coin collectible on the site. I have the following suggestions for improvement:
- For collectibles/antiques the duration for auction is maximum 10 days (free). I feel this is impractical because even for a standard product like a pen drive people take atleast week to decide on the best deal. For stamps, notes, coins, other antiques atleast 30 days would be required for a transaction to get completed.
- Apart from online transactions you can consider Ebay Ponts in metro cities where buyers and sellers can meet in Ebay premises and delivery can be made in person. This can reduce shipping costs, serve as easy point of contact for both parties and also be used to promote other products offline.
- For the period of listing period (10 days) you charge rs. 25 (correct me if im wrong). What if product is not sold, is it economical to renew for another 10 days ? Is there any facility where we can list for longer period under Buy It Now (without the auction option) ?
- I have opted for a facility where buyer comes and picks up and pays. I like to accept cash. How does this reflect (get accounted) on the ebay site ?

Kindly assist or clarify the above aspects, which would help me do more deals online.
Thanks,
Sridhar

[productivesellerbuyer]

Dear Sridhar,

I also tried to sell coins; My experience is that unless the coin is extremely unique, buyers are are not too keen. Pricing is also critical. Buyers seem to be well informed of the coin-vs-price details. I don't know whether 7 day vs 10 day will make any significant change!

I suggest you wait and relist after giving considerable time gap - hopefully new buyers will join to look at your items!!

Regarding "buyer collecting and paying in cash", there is no problem. Once you do the transaction, ebay will send you bill for their 5% commission on the sold price and you have to pay it to ebay.

[123venkatraman]

Dear Ebay,
It came to my notice that you have temporarily suspended registration of seller asia.mall without assigning any reason. Since asia.mall is a reputed seller It surprised me. My account's password was also stopped some time ago and I could use ebay only the next day after the password was reset. May I know what is ebay's policy in this regard . I request reinstatement of seller asia.mall 's registration at the earliest.
123venkatraman

[sapana@ebay.com]

Hi sridhar (vsridhar1178),

Thanks for your suggestions. At eBay you have the option of listing a product for 3 - 30 days. Normally, sellers prefer to close aucitons within 7 days (since both buyers are sellers are eager to complete their purchase).

For Buy it Now items, sellers who wish to list for longer duration can take up a shop on eBay and list the products under shop format. Shops not only allow you to list for longer duration, it also works out cheaper. For Shop listings, you pay Rs 1 (for goods with starting price of <2000); for 30 days. However, the trade off is that your items are featured at bottom of the search results page. nonetheless, the option is available for interested sellers.

You can choose any mode of payment you wish. Once a buyer buys from you, eBay accounts it as sold. In case the buyer later does not pay for the item, you can inform eBay by opening an unpaid item dispute so that eBay does not charge you for that transaction. You can know more about the process of filing unpaid item, please click here - http://pages.ebay.in/help/policies/unpaid-item.html

The idea of eBay Points is interesting. I am aware that eBay in germany has something similar, where they have eBay points on all railway stations. I am not sure, how it will work for us, however, it is an interesting idea to keep in back of the mind to evaluate further.

I hope I did clarify some of your quesitons. Please feel free to write back for more.

Regards,
Sapana

[sapana@ebay.com]

Hi productivesellerbuyer,

I think it is indeed challenging to sell your items in Coins & stamps category. However, at the same time, it is also a great means to discover the right price for your product. It is said that if you do not know the price of your product, list them for auction and let the market decide the price that is appropriate.

Regards,
Sapana