eBay and Craiglist, the reality of doing business.
**The Realities of Running a Business on eBay and Craigslist: A Seller’s Perspective**
In this video, the seller shares their experiences and insights into running a business on platforms like eBay and Craigslist. They discuss the most common questions they receive from potential buyers and the challenges they face in managing transactions and customer interactions.
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### Common Questions Asked by Buyers on eBay
The seller has compiled a list of six frequently asked questions that they encounter from buyers on eBay:
1. **What condition is it in?**
The seller explains that they provide a minimum of six detailed photos of the item, as well as a textual description. Despite this, buyers often ask about the condition of the product. The seller’s response is to refer buyers to the photos and the listing description, as they feel these details are already provided in full.
2. **Does it work?**
Buyers frequently ask if the item functions properly, even though the seller clearly states that it works and includes a money-back guarantee in their listings. The seller advises buyers to review the warranty information provided in the listing.
3. **Will you take XML or make an offer?**
On eBay, buyers are not allowed to make offers on items listed with a “Buy It Now” price. However, the seller still receives offers every day, often for significantly lower amounts than the listed price. The seller either ignores these offers or tells buyers that the price is fixed—take it or leave it.
4. **Will you send me a laptop for free?**
This question has surprised the seller. Buyers sometimes request free items, accompanied by stories about financial hardship. The seller responds sarcastically but finds that some buyers take this seriously and expect a free product. The seller emphasizes that they cannot afford to give away items for free due to their thin profit margins.
5. **Will it run [specific program]?**
Buyers often ask if the item can run specific programs, which may be obscure or niche. The seller explains that unless the program is well-known (e.g., Skype), they cannot guarantee compatibility without researching system requirements. They suggest that buyers should do this research themselves before purchasing.
6. **What are the specifications?**
Buyers frequently ask for detailed technical specifications of the item, such as whether it has an optical drive or how much memory it has. The seller notes that this information is already listed in the product description and photos. They mention that including a photo of the item with a DVD inserted has largely eliminated questions about optical drives.
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### Challenges After the Sale: Non-Payment and Returns
The seller highlights two major issues they face after transactions:
1. **Non-payment by buyers**
Approximately 10% of eBay sales result in non-payment, even for items where buyers have clicked “Buy It Now” or won an auction. Common excuses include car accidents, children buying the item without permission, or buyers simply changing their minds. The seller finds these excuses implausible and notes that PayPal often sides with the buyer in disputes.
2. **Overpayments and Returns**
The seller used to offer auctions with significantly higher prices around holidays, which led to overpayments and returns. They switched to fixed “Buy It Now” prices to reduce this issue. Despite offering a 30-day money-back guarantee, returns are still a hassle due to the time and effort required to process refunds and recondition items.
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### Doing Business on Craigslist
The seller also shares their experiences with Craigslist:
1. **Questions about price**
Even though they clearly list prices in their ads, buyers often call to ask for the price of the item. The seller attributes this to a lack of reading on the buyer’s part and finds it frustrating.
2. **In-person visits and negotiations**
Some buyers visit the seller’s location after discussing the sale over the phone, only to attempt to negotiate the price further. The seller emphasizes that their profit margins are too thin to allow for price reductions.
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### Conclusion
Running a business on platforms like eBay and Craigslist comes with its own set of challenges. From dealing with repetitive questions about product condition and functionality to managing non-payment issues and returns, sellers must be prepared for a variety of situations. Clear communication, patience, and adherence to platform policies are essential to navigating these challenges successfully.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enA lot of people want to ask me questions about how I operate myBusiness, and so I thought I would go and put together a little video hereTalking about some of the realities of doing business particularly on ebay and CraigslistSo the first thing I want to go over is I've compiled a list of the six most common questions that I get askedfrom Potential Buyers on eBayThe very first question on the list the most commonly asked question is what condition is it in?Now in order for you to understand. Why this is ludicrous?I want to show you a sample screenshot of one of my ebay auctions now. You can see thatI provide a minimum of six picturesAnd I'm very specific that these are actual pictures of the computer that is for saleAnd not just some random stock photo and yet, they want to ask me what condition. It's inI really don't understand that I also list atextual descriptionThat they can read about if there's even if there's even so much as a scratch on the computerI'll make a note it and they want to always ask me the condition, and I don't know what to tell themSo my response is always please refer to the photos and the description of the listing it may sound rudeBut I don't know what else to people besides what I've already providedAll right, the number two most common question that I get asked on ebay is does it work?Yeah, then what even though I say that it works in the listing I even say it's backed by aMoney-Back GuaranteeThey still want to ask me does it workAnd again, I'm kind of left cluelessI get this question every day, and I just tell them please refer to the warranty information, and we're listingI don't really know what else to tell them I mean I guess people just don't read. I don't knowso the third most common question that I could ask Donna qa isWill you take xmL or they'll say I'll offer xmL for this laptop now if you go outWe're dealing on ebay you either bid on the computer or you click buy it nowAre you don't that's the way ebay works, but at least once or twice a day?I receive an email with somebody making some kind of offerAnd it's usually very low - like if the product is being advertised by it now 400 they'll offer200 or something like that, and I usually just ignore those or sometimes. I'll just tell themThe price is whatever take it or leave it, you know I be rudebut chances are that person is not going to buy anything from me anyway, soWhy do I want to waste my time on them?so the fourth most commonQuestion that I could ask and this one will probably take you by surprise because it certainly did me when I startedMy business the fourth most common question I get asked is will you send me a laptop for free?Yeah, yeah, and they always accompany. This was some kind of sob story about oh, my mother's in theOr I'm a poor college student or whatever and I'm going to tell you a funny story about that one timeI think it was a young young boy orAdolescent he had asked me if I would give him a computer free and I wrote it back very sarcastically and said wellYes, of course. I will just give me your address because that's how I stay business is by giving laptops away for freeAnd I thought that he would understand the sarcasm there, but to my surprise ten minutes laterI an email response from him with his address saying. Oh, thank you very much. Here's myI'll go tell all friends and then not more than two or three minutes laterI got a flood of email from probably 10 other people saying oh, I heard you're giving away free laptops. Here's my addressAnd I had to write the boy back and tell him I was being sarcasticI can't give away laptops, or I would be out of business in a weekMy profit Margin is already very thin on these. I just do not him just need to give them awayso the fifth most common question I get asked is people want to know will it one program xProgram x could be anything. It's always something . usually some programI've never heard of before and so basically what they want you to do is they want me to google that program?Find out what system requirements are how much ram. It needs how much hard driveIt needs what kind of processor needs what kind of operating systems need and then find out if it matches up with the computer thatI'm selling them and make them some kind of guarantee that it's going to workAnd I just do it. It's too much trouble if they're not capable of doing that themselvesThey're probably not a customer. I want anyway, so unless it's a program. I'm intimately familiar withLike if they call them and say well will it run skype or something like that then I can I'll tell them but nine timesout of ten I have no idea, and I don't know why they would even think I would know butandthe sixth most common question that I get asked on ebay is not a one specific questionit's it's a bunch of question going to lump into one category and they want to know aSpecification of the computer they want to know does it come with an optical drive will it play DVDS does it?how much memory does it have how big is the hard drive all of these things of course are listed in thead in factThey're usually listed in more than one place fact in most cases like stuff like the cPU and memory are vested in threedifferent places and they just don't want to read so they'll just send me an email and ask me that question andYou know sometimes they I'm rude, but I just I'll go ahead and respondI'll answer the question, but I also mentioned in parentheses this information was provided listingDid also manage to at least alleviate one of the problems I used to get asked a whole lot if it would play DVDSNow even though this was listed in the textI would hand has made it a point to start taking photos of the computer with a DVD sticking out of the side andbelieve it or not that almost entirely eliminated the question ofIf it has a DVd or not apparently a picture really is worth a thousand wordsOkay, so I wanted to talk to you about the four most common problems. I have on ebay after a transactionbiggest problem by far is simplyNon-PaymentPeople they they click buy it now or they bid on something and win it and then they don't pay for it and and thatsuch a common thing in fact I would venture to sayProbably about 10% sell 10 laptops and guaranteed at least one of them will not pay for itAnd I've also composed a list of the most common excusesFor not paying for itBelieve it or not the number one most common excuse used inNon-Payment of a laptop is they been in a car wreckmean there must be a lot of car wrecks because I have probably heard this excuse at least a hundred times of the lastfive yearsChris, I I suspect it's fakeIt's just made up, but it sounds goodAnd that is definitely the most common one and so when I hear that somebody's been in a car wreckpretty much dismisses immediately I know they're faking it because just too many of themthe number two excuse for not paying for an ebay item is thatmy son or daughter bought this computer without my permission, and I'm not paying for it andI probably heard that excuse at least 50 times over the last Fewcould honestly see that being true on rare occasionBut I just don't think it could happen nearly as often as what I seeAnd the number three simply that they've changed their mind and sometimesThey're quite honest about oh, I found a better deal or I decided I don't want mack on you to PCOr whatever and they make no bones about itThey don't want it which that's a complete and total violation of ebay policy, but they don't careAnd of course the fourth most common thing again is nothing at all. They don't answerI'll send them repeated emails asking if they're going to pay for the item and just never hear from themSo that's I you could say the number fourth response is no responseNow back to my list of actual ebay problems that I encounter one of the problemsI have is people who change their mind about a computer after they bought itI mean, it's one thing to change your mind before you pay for it and just not pay it, but it's badIt's worse when you pay for it you've had it delivered, and then you change your mind, and I've had people do that beforeBecause they found out it won't run some program. They want it to runBut believe it or not the most common reason in my opinion wanting to return a laptop has been overpayment inThe past I used to do actionsWhere people could bid on the laptop and particularly around?Christmas time as the bidding would get out of and I would have a laptop that normally for$400 in many cases sell for six or $700 andso I had to put a stop to that andSwitch to buy it now now. You might be asking why would that be bad for me?Why I should like having over payment for laptops on the sellerreally I don't and the main reason for is because people want to return them I do offer a 30-day Money-back guaranteeYou know that's that's part of the way. I do business on ebay so somebody over pays for laptopwellThey usually realize it a few weeks later after they finallyGet their head together and realize what they've paid for and what it's really worthand so then they'll come up with any kind excuse to return it andtheir money back, and of course returns aren't huge pain in the rear for me bothJust the amount of paperwork, and I don't mean real paperwork you know the procedures and stuffI have to do on and moving the money around and getting stuff shit back after when I get it back afterunpackage sometimes it's damaged andYou know I have to wipe the hard drives and reload them because I feel a full junk and whatnot so it's a huge painavoid return it at any cost so if I thinkOverpayments going to result in return overpayment, so I switched all my auctions to buy it now about two years agoAnd I just put a reasonable price on the buy it now and if it doesn't sell then I lower the price by 10 bucksThe next time around and it usually will sellAnd that's that's how I've solved that problemAnd as far as people who've changed their minds goThere's the nice ones who just make up an excuse to the laptop like ohIt won't run what I need or something like that, but then there's the ones that can be absolute jerks about it. I've had peopleliterallyfile complaintsto with ebay or PayPal to return something without even contacting me firstI'll give you a good example of what happened. Just a guy in my local city bought a laptopHe paid for it, and then he said well, I don't want you to ship itI want to do a local pickup cuz I live here in , and that's fine with me. I do that all the timeWell, I sent him an email with the address before you can come pick upand I told him is here waiting for him andI never heard from him the next dayI said same copy of the email out againAnd it did that again and again again for six days and on the seventh dayI got an email from Paypal saying that a dispute had been followed over not deliverySo I called Paypal and I said well yeah the buyer says you haven't delivered the productSo I copied them on the emails and explained to them. What was happeningSo they contacted the customerAnd then they called me back and said oh well the customer just said he change his mind he just disappointedNow the funny thing is here paypal knows this they know that I'm in the right and the buyers and the wrongBut they still told me I might as well. Go ahead and give him money backbecause he's going to get his money back one way or the other andOne of the realities of doing business on ebay and Paypal is that you bank PayPalInvariably takes the side of the Buyer doesn't matter what what's happened?the BuyerAlways wins the only exception to that that I can think of is when the buyer doesn't pay if they haven't paidEBay will take the side of the sellerBut if they pay and matter what happens you may always take the side of the buyerAnd that's some reality of doing business on ebay, and it's unfortunateOkay, so I've also done a lot of business on Craigslist and so I thought would tell you about some of the issuesI've encountereddealing with people locallyWhen I post up a computer on Craigslist believe it or notmost common question I get asked is people will call me andThey will want to know what's the price how much do you want for this laptop?Now one of the problems with answering that question is I usually have more than one listedI'll either have several different ads or I'll have one ad that has maybe five or six different laptops with their photos theirSpecifications and the price for it right next to itNow the price is listed all over the ad and in factIt's even listen in the header of the ad when you're scrolling down Craigslist looking at the individual linesso you can't miss the price, but people always call and ask me thatSince I don't know exactly which computer. They're talking about I have to ask them and say well look sir or ma'amhave several different ones up on Craigslist right nowI don't know which one you're talking aboutI'll be happy to give you the pricebut you'll have to tell me which laptop it is now the funny thing about that is theVery first answer I usually get it which I think is hilarious it usually be response like ohWhat's the one you have listed for?$350 something that effect andSo I'll pause there for a second I go ohWell, I guess the price is $350And then they always seem like dumbfounded like ohSo that's your price, huh?I'm like wellYeahSo IHad that conversation so many times with so many different people it's hilarious. I I don't know why they do thatI mean, maybe they're thinking I'm going to give them a different price when I answer the phoneI'm not sure, but I'm usually very specific in the ad about what the price is and that I'm not negotiable on itI have very thin profit margins on these computers sometimes as little as twenty dollars so I just don't have any room tonegotiate like that, and I make that plain in the ad soIt's kind of a take-it-or-leave-it type thing on that same regard. I've had people come to my place businessfrom across town about 50 milesShow up after we've already discussed the laptop and we've already discussed the price and this show upThey look at it, and they want to offer me less moneySometimes it's only or dollars, but againI told you you know my profit Margin ten or twenty dollars sometimes so I don't have a lot to move thereAnd I'll tell them no, and they will get furious at meThey'll say \"So I drove 50 miles across town to come over here to buy this,\" and I'll be like wellYou knew what the price was on the phone. We agreed to it before you came all this wayand I've had them storm out and not buy it. It's like what do they think they think?They think - I know I wouldn't drive 50 miles across town to buy a productThat I'd already discussed the price on under the assumption that the seller is going to reduce that price when I get there. That's crazyBut I've had them do itSo the number two question I get asked on CraigslistActually very similar to a question I get asked on ebay a lot they want to know the condition of it nowI have the same photos on my craigslist ads that I do on ebay. They're very clear very sharp photosFrom multiple Angles in Focus Brightly lit they can see the conditionBut they always want to ask me it nowI could understand if they thought it was a stock photo or somethingBut I'm also very specific these are real pictures of the computer that you'll be gettingNevertheless, it's very common for them to ask me to text them photos, yeah, will you take some more photos of and text it to me?Of course my answer is no, that's just too tight too darn much trouble. I'm just not gonna do itI've already provided 6 - or from 6 to 10 photos of the unitI'm just not going to go out my way to take any more. That's just the wayI you know, how I deal with it. Sometimes that makes people mad. Maybe I'll lose salesI don't knowBut I just think it's ridiculous to ask for more photos when I've already providedto 10 clear photos so am I crazy or are they crazy you tell me?And my final gripe about Craigslist which is somethingAnybody ought to be aware if you're ever thinking about selling anything on Craigslist isThat when somebody says that they are coming to pick something up that you've agreed uponAnd you give them the address and they say they're going to be there in ten minutes thirty minutes an hour or whateverThere is a 50%They will never show , and they will not call you back and tell you that they changed their mindOr they've made other planswill just let you sit there and wait for them and wait for them until you finally give up and assume that they're notcomingAnd I'm not exaggerating when I say50% chance and I've had them do it to me not just on laptopsBut on even personal items that I've selling they're not necessarily part of my business. I mean I've soldiphones and iPods andbicycles and even carsI've sold on Craigslist and it's the same thing. It doesn't seem to matter what it isYou're selling fifty percent of people will say they're coming and not show up. So you just better be prepared for that, soirony about the no-shows though is it's not terribly uncommon for me to haveA craigslist buyer not show up, and then call me up two or three days laterAnd ask me if I can do Macbook repairsand I'll say sure you know bring it on over andThen I'll ask them like didn't didn't you call me a few days ago saying you wanted to buy aThey'll be like oh yeah. Yeah, I think yeah I was going to buy one, but I found one you know cheaper somewhere elseOf course you know the one bought didn't have a 30 dayYou know Money-back guarantee like mine does so they might want to do some work?And then now they want to spend anywhere from fifty hundred dollars to me repair itand they've better if they just bought mine to begin withI've been trying to save a few bucks going to some shady person somewhere or buying oneSo I guess karma kind of gets them a little bit on thatandLast thing that I'm going to touch on on this video is I get a lot of personal emailsFrom people on the internet who've seen my videos and they've got a computer, and they're having a problem with itAnd they want my help it or not. I'm fairly charitable with my time and I will actuallyAnswer a lot of those emails, but it's not uncommon for me to get anywhere from ten to a emails in a dayAsking such questions now. I don't answer them all and I'll tell you which ones I answerI'll answer the ones I can read in less than 30 seconds now. I'm seriousI mean if I look and I've got a bunch of emails and I have a whole bunch of them that are likeOne paragraph or two three sentences asking me a about somethingI will typically answer thoseif I get one that is three pages longAnd they want to tell me their whole history of how they got this at a garage sale or their grandmother gave it to themand and they used to play this game on and they loved it so and they let their kids do this and and andYou know and they take it with them on vacation, and you know and they just want to go into all this erroneousdetail that is not really relevant to their question andSo I just don't in time for thatI don't want to be rude about it, but I just really don't have the time read all that informationso I usually just hit delete andyou know anybody who'scelebrity I'm sure I'm not really a celebrity but I'm just giving sample of anybody who is a celebrity I'm sure gets asame problem only you know hundred times worse than what I have andSo I would just say when sending anybody an email that you don't know you need to keep it short and sweet if you developA conversation going over something and you add more detail as it goes you know that's okayBut I think when you're sending somebody you've never met before an emailYou need to keep it short and because I just don't have the time to read life histories inOrder to answer a simple question about you know how much memory a computer will take or somethingSo yeah, the ones I usually answer our stuff like oh, I have an iBook G4Sorry about that. It's like oh, I have an iBook G4 for you know a 1.5, gigahertz or something like thatHow much memory you want to take well? I'd usually know stuff like that off the top of my headI'll just shoot them a quick answer or if they say hey, I've this problem with my you knowiBook or my and you know nine times out of ten I've experienced it before and I'llShoot them one or two sentence for plot telling them. You know send them all in the direction of how to fix thatsoJust an FyI if you ever send me an email, please keep it short and sweet. Thanks\n"