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Topic: Potentially interesting ebay news ...
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Dan Lail
Film God
Posts: 2110
From: Loganville, Georgia, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted October 13, 2008 02:02 AM
John W. Black wrote.........
"Sooner or later a new online auction will turn up."
I too am concerned about the future of film selling on Ebay. For this reason I have convinced Onlineauction.com to add film categories, but am afraid at this point Onlineauction is not a viable venue to sell film. First off, they do not charge a final value fee, therfore there is no profit motive for them to advertise their site or appear in a google searh or any other search. Recently I have contacted eBid and asked that they provide film categories: 16mm, 8mm, 35mm. I should get an answer next week. I will post here when I receive an answer.
I convinced several film sellers to try onlineauction earlier this year, but none of us sold many films. Maybe eBid will work out.
Another intersting note, eBay's stock stock has been around the $16 and $17 dollar range for the last few days. I don't think it is attributed to the big crash. If you look at a three year chart you can see it has been steadily downhill and more so since CEO Donahoe took the reignes last February.
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted October 16, 2008 09:37 AM
I wonder if this ebay UK move (which will probably be implemented on our ebay, sooner or later), is because of, sadly, some sellers highly inflate thier shipping to inflate thier profits; I know that I have ran into that as well.
I wonder if that is what I ran into when I re-listed "StarChaser" (which happily, sold!) when i first listed it, it showed the proper 45.00 dollar charge (the shipping came to 39.98, slightly off, but not bad, considered I only weighed it), but when I re-listed it, the shipping only showed 15.00 dollars and something cents, even though I hadn't touched the shipping at all, just simply re-listed the auction. I was mystified by that.
Has anyone received any e-mails about "capping" shipping prices!
-------------------- "All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted October 16, 2008 10:26 AM
Boy! That chesses me off! That means it makes it even more difficult for the indivisual seller to sell things or even start them, at a lower price.
I'm going to keep this in mind in my future auctions, now that I know that.
This seems to feed into the beginning of this series of posts, because a large company that moves a lot of stuff has the clout to get a set lower price for shipping thier merchandise, which the singular seller, cannot.
Sigh, it appears that "days of wine and roses" on ebay is quickly passing.
Still, if not for ebay, I would not have been able build the collection that I currently have.
-------------------- "All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Stewart McSporran
Master Film Handler
Posts: 272
From: Glasgow, Scotland
Registered: Nov 2003
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posted October 19, 2008 06:46 AM
I've just examined the conditions and it's not as bad as it first looks. In fact, in the cold light of day, it's quite sensible.
quote: In all categories, items which are extremely heavy or bulky and require a specific courier for delivery can be exempted. Sellers should select the option “Courier : Heavy and bulky items” instead of “Flat: same cost to all buyers” in the drop-down menu below the Domestic postage label. We’ll be monitoring this to ensure proper usage of the option.
There's nothing to say you HAVE to use a courier, they just tell you to state the courier options in your description. So you can simply state in the description something like 'Film weighs 5Kg, postal options are: Royal Mail £16.00, DHL £12.34 or Parcelforce £75.38' and you should be within the letter and spirit of their requirement.
I understand the argument that they don't make money off the postal charges, and some people have been exploiting this, but remember that if you have a dispute only the sale price is covered - not the P&P.
My only fear is that the £4 limit becomes the norm, with everyone specifying this.
Stewart
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