Very good article about Ebay’s shipping rules and the new free shipping.

Check out the entire article here.

Personally, I find all that stuff too complicated. I like to handle shipping discounts on a case-by-case basis, but this really requires communication with the buyer – usually I do this by regular email, if I can, but it is sometimes done by the eBay messaging system. As the latter is now being discouraged to maintain a Top-Rated Seller (TRS) status (with “no communication between buyers and sellers” a criteria for an automatic 5-star DSR for communication), this kind of on-the-fly flexible shipping discount will be less attractive to me. On the other hand, people are starting to debate the value of that TRS badge, given all its myriad requirements.

Check out the entire article here.

TRAFFIC REPORTS TURNED OFF because you didn’t access them. Really? I’m sure I don’t use every feature available to ebay sellers, but I pay for them in my store charges and fees every month like clockwork. So why are they turned off if I don’t log in within xx days to view them?

I’ve been really busy lately playing catch-up. My brother died in a horrible accident during the summer (2011) and my mind just hasn’t been functioning at its highest level. When I did decide to go in and check my ebay traffic reports, this is what I was greeted with:

          Reactivate Traffic Reports Help

Traffic reports provide detailed information about your Store’s traffic and are free while you maintain your Store subscription.You must view your traffic reports online at least once every 90 days, or we will assume that you are not interested in this feature and reporting activity will stop.

We stopped reporting traffic activity for you on July 06, 2011, because you did not access your traffic reports for 90 days. Activity reported prior to this date is still available; however, information for activity that occured between July 06, 2011 and the date that you reactivate reporting will be unavailable.

To reactivate your traffic reports, click Reactivate and Continue.

My burning question is this:

Whether I accessed my traffic reports or not, I continued to sell (ie, pay fees) and kept my store (ie, pay fees), so why can’t ebay allow an AUTOMATED program continue to run whether I check it or not? They continue to allow the AUTOMATED billing program to run (ie, pay fees and store charges) 365/24/7.

It just seems very selfish of ebay to ‘turn off’ specifics that you receive as a benefit when paying your store charges and fees. It’s automation, not that complicated.

What do you think?

Why eBay Opposes and Amazon Favors Sales Tax Collection Bill

By: Ina Steiner

Thu Nov 10 2011 14:54:03

Three U.S. senators introduced the Marketplace Fairness Act on Wednesday, a bill that would allow states to require out-of-state sellers to collect sales tax for purchases made by in-state residents. eBay continues to oppose such legislation and came out sharply against it. But Amazon, who had been a vocal opponent of state efforts to impose collection requirements, is now backing the new bill.What is it that makes eBay vehemently oppose the new bill and Amazon support it?

READ THE REMAINDER OF THE ARTICLE HERE

How eBay are hiding fixed price items in search

by Chris Dawson

I’ve been trying to figure out why my sales have dropped since eBay introduced catalogued listings to the tech categories and it’s all about visibility. I had thought one of the major problems might be how highly catalogue product cards were ranked in search results. I was concerned that my listings were being demoted in search results. I might have been wrong on both these counts as it appears that buyers simply might not be able to find my listings no matter how hard they try…

…The problem is that on the initial search eBay say that there are 16 matching items in search results but only choose to show me one. Buyers aren’t as persistent as me, they’ll get fed up and go away to buy somewhere else.

IS eBay search broken? Read the rest of Chris’s article here.