NEW eBay Changes coming again!!

[Schatzy]

Be a Top-rated seller

Do you qualify as an eBay Top-rated seller? This new status is coming at the beginning of October 2009, and will focus squarely on quality, rewarding those PowerSellers creating the best buyer experiences. Also, there will be new PowerSeller requirements and benefits in April 2010--PowerSellers of all sizes who consistently provide great service to their customers will receive the highest rewards as a Top-rated seller. Until April, the current requirements will continue. That gives you seven months to adjust your business practices to meet the new requirements. As an eBay Top-rated seller, you'll earn top rewards--20% Final Value Fee discounts, increased visibility in search results for Fixed Price listings, a prominent Top-rated seller badge on your item pages and more.

 

Add photos for only 25¢

Get Picture Pack and add up to 12 pictures for only 25¢--August 18-September 18. You'll attract more buyers because pictures help sell, and you'll save in the process. This offer's good for Auction-style, Fixed Price and Store Inventory Format listings. Also, check out the new photo-zoom feature available through Picture Pack that lets buyers roll over and magnify areas of your picture to get a closer look. Remember, the recommended picture size for uploaded pictures is at least 1000 pixels on the longest side. This allows for maximum zoom and enlarged views of your pictures.

 

Seller reminder

Make sure you add your return policy and handling time to Good 'Til Cancelled listings by September 22. After that date, listings without a return policy and handling time will not automatically renew and are subject to removal. Don't leave it until the last minute--start updating your listings now!

 

DSR update--focus on quality too

Deliver great buyer experiences consistently, and you will be rewarded. Soon, how many low DSRs-- 1s and 2s--a seller receives will be even more important than a seller's DSR average. Low instances of 1s and 2s will be the main quality requirement for the new Top-rated seller status, the PowerSeller program, and to even continue selling on eBay for all sellers. The focus of this change is to recognize and reward great service from sellers of all sizes, bring you more sales, increase your profitability and help you succeed. Check your Seller Dashboard to see where you stand.

 

DSR help is on the way

You've made your case for what it takes to help you get good DSRs, and eBay's listening. That's why you'll see some major adjustments to the DSR system very soon--only domestic transactions count, transactions from repeat buyers will matter, stricter guidelines to prevent buyer abuse and more. Find out what eBay's doing to help you get good DSRs.

 

New Selling Practices

eBay's new Selling Practices policy defines standards for accuracy and professionalism in listings and provides guidance for all the stages of a transaction. It also brings a lot of business common-sense.

 

Optional buyer charges for shipping insurance removed

Starting in September, shipping insurance will no longer be included in the purchase flow as either an option or requirement for buyers. Of course, as a seller, you can choose to purchase insurance on your shipments, but you can't ask buyers to purchase insurance separately.

 

Impressions now count in Best Match

To help increase your chances of making a sale, you want your listings to surface to the right buyers in search results. That's why eBay is making upgrades to search--putting more emphasis on relevance. Impressions (any time a buyer sees a search results page that includes the listing) will count towards placement in Best Match--eBay's default sort order. Fixed Price listings will have a listing performance score based on the listing's recent sales in relation to the number of recent impressions it received. For example, a listing seen by 100 people that results in 10 purchases will be considered more relevant--and will have a higher performance score--than a listing seen by 1,000 people that results in 10 purchases. Also, new Fixed Price listings will get impressions upfront. Get a complete download on all the upgrades.

 

Listing features retired

Featured Plus, Border, Highlight, Gift services, ProPack and Homepage Featured will no longer be available after October 1. Find out more about which features will be changed or discontinued.

 

New tool evaluates your listing performance in real time

eBay will launch a new Search Visibility tool to help you evaluate your listings' performance in Best Match search results. Using realt-ime statistics, you'll learn where you stand and what you need to do to improve your position.

 

Automated UPI process

Have a buyer that did not pay? Soon you'll have the option to use the new Unpaid Item Assistant to automatically open a dispute, close the dispute if it ends in your favor, refund your Final Value Fee, and block the customer from leaving feedback for the item. Testing for Unpaid Item Assistant starts in October. In the meantime, you may want to consider using Immediate Payment to avoid unpaid items altogether.

 

Update your listings in a snap

In late September, you'll be able to edit most fields and the descriptions of up to 200 Fixed Price and Store Inventory Format listings simultaneously. Records of all sales before your edits will still be available to you for future viewing.

 

Add more images, get more exposure

You could gain traffic from your images if your product photos are selected for inclusion in the eBay product catalog. Your advantage? Your user ID could be included on the product details page, which will link to your profile page. That could mean exposure for you. If you'd prefer not to have your images considered for inclusion in the catalog going forward, you can

opt out* in your My eBay Site Preferences.

 

* If you opt out of the program after August 31, 2009, 11:59:59 PM Pacific Time, any photos we selected for inclusion in the catalog prior to your opt-out may continue to be used in the catalog.

 

Get it resolved quicker

eBay is improving the resolution process for both item not received and item not as described disputes and moving it to eBay from PayPal. The new process will cover disputes for transactions paid through any payment method--not just PayPal. The resolution process has also been streamlined to resolve disputes faster. In addition, eBay's and PayPal's user agreements were updated recently for the new process.

 

Manage buyer emails easier

Spend less time answering emails and more time focusing on delivering great service. eBay is making it faster and easier for you to respond to buyer questions and manage your emails with buyers. You'll be able to reply to buyer emails in your email or in My Messages, see the entire thread from the first communication, customize post-transaction emails, ensure emails you send aren't duplicating emails sent by eBay and more. Stay tuned.

 

Go global--reach more buyers

Selling to other English language countries is a great way to test the waters. In fact, the largest export markets for U.S. eBay sellers are, in order, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany and France. Plus, only transactions with U.S. buyers will count toward meeting DSR standards for selling on eBay.com, including qualifying as a PowerSeller or Top-rated seller. You will also have the flexibility to specify which countries you do not want to ship to.

 

Try NEW Selling Manager applications for FREE

Sell more easily and efficiently using new applications through Selling Manager and Selling Manager Pro--get a text message whenever a buyer takes action, reward repeat customers, add video to your listings and more! Plus, you can try many of the applications for free.

 

Streamline your customer service

eBay Certified Providers can help you achieve and keep your eBay Top-rated status as your business grows. They offer a wide range of tools and expertise to help your business run more efficiently and deliver exceptional customer service:

 

Tools to make giving great service quick and easy

Simple bulk shipping management for multiple carriers

Post shipping tracking numbers automatically in My eBay

 

 

Well I was just reading my mail and eBay is planning some changes!!

 

The whole removing of the insurance is just plain stupid

I buy coins on eBay and some times I would like to have insurance added.

 

What do you think?

[James_OldeTowne]

I think I am incredibly happy to have left eBay as a seller more than one year ago. When it takes this much ridiculous legalese-style garbage text and nonsense to spell out seller requirements, you know your business model has gone to you-know-where in a handbasket.

 

Truly, eBay has become such a non-entity in my world that I've practically forgotten it exists, except when someone brings the topic up. I buy enough stuff on Amazon and other websites that eBay is not even second-tier anymore. I simply never think of them as an online "destination".

[TomB]

Insurance charges will simply be built into the shipping charges as a requirement by most sellers of auction style listings and will be built into the BIN price for other sellers.

[World Colonial]

Insurance charges will simply be built into the shipping charges as a requirement by most sellers of auction style listings and will be built into the BIN price for other sellers.

 

Correct. Its another ridiculous idea like trying to force everyone to use Paypal. I still use eBay to sell because its the only real option for me and I still buy there though I am buying less of everything.

 

But if eBay thinks that this change in insurance requirement is actually going to have the effect they apparently want given the Papal chargeback rules, they are insane.

 

I got that email but did not bother to read it. But the first thing that comes to mind when I see "change" or "better" is price increase. For some mysterious reason, every "improvement" ends up costing their customers more.

[Jim Beam]

I rarely sell on ebay but I do purchase a fair amount. Who is left holding the bag on this insurance issue? If the buyer does not have the option to purchase insurance and the seller builds it into the price, does the seller cover any insurance claims? In reading this, I did get a sense that PayPal might be the one to cover the claim if they want to handle all the payment processing. I too want to be sure I have a solid insurance backer if I purchase a certain dollar amount of coins or whatever. Personally, I had no problems with paying for insurance when I felt I needed it.

[Mark T]

As most of you already know many of the Coin Powersellers are among the worst when it comes to over graded coins and self slabbed garbage. These sellers get listing preference over the rest of us for all the Bidiots. As for insurance, tracking, and signature confirmation, I just included it in my shipping costs. The free shipping option is basically BS , as buyers and sellers will factor that cost into the final sales price .

[WinstonWare]

Bizarre

[coinman1794]

Insurance charges will simply be built into the shipping charges as a requirement by most sellers of auction style listings and will be built into the BIN price for other sellers.

 

Removing the option to buy insurance seperately from shipping charges is a definite plus to those who dont realize the insurance wasn't included and have their package mailed to them un-protected. Granted you have to have a 60 IQ to do that, but I guarrantee it happens all the time

[gmarguli]

It's their way of stopping people from getting around the "Free Shipping" model. I'll give you free shipping, but force you to buy insurance at the cost of $5.

 

As eBay moves completely away from the mom and pop sellers to the legitimate business sellers, the legal requirements of shipping change to make the shipper completely liable. Therefore, there is no need for buyers to purchase insurance.

 

Ultimately, nothing will really change as all eBay shipments have insurance on them as far as the buyer is concerned. If I don't get the item or don't like it, I complain to PayPal and I get my money back. As a seller, I have built in the cost of insurance into my S&H rate.

 

[$ilverHawk]

Just another step down the road for eBay to become Amazon II. No true auctions just line after line of fixed price listings.

 

You can read it in their literature, eBay wants to be a real ecommerce site. eBay's explanation for the insurance change is that buyers expect their purchases are insured. It's the industry norm.

 

Teletrade here I come.

[jtryka]

It's funny, even for purchases, I've been doing probably 90% in person or off boards like this and 10% on eBay, 2 years ago it would have been the exact opposite.

 

Oh, and for small sellers like me, I encourage you to utilize your local coin club auction, in my club, you can set a minimum price, pay no fees and if your coin sells you are paid in cash by the end of the evening. It's only once a month, but for a small seller just moving duplicates or small value coins, it's been a heck of an improvement over the high-tech options!

[ant]

everytime i see a post like this i am glad i chose to build a site. now if people would just tell me what to add and such it would be top dog.

 

it doesnt look like they want to be the auction venue for the people anymore. it looks like they are sticking it to lil guys and keeping the big sellers.

 

and is there anything on the buyers side?

[Schatzy]

 

Oh, and for small sellers like me, I encourage you to utilize your local coin club auction, in my club, you can set a minimum price, pay no fees and if your coin sells you are paid in cash by the end of the evening. It's only once a month, but for a small seller just moving duplicates or small value coins, it's been a heck of an improvement over the high-tech options!

 

Maybe I should send you some coins!! Don't have any coin clubs near by!!

[Bruceswar]

For me as a seller nothing changes. All packages I ship have insurance included. 95% of my buyers use paypal now. We ship international so it works out great for us. People in Germany or in Australia can buy an Item. E-Bay has been great for our small business at times. Learn to cut with it and not let it cut you.