Getting your head around the new eBay UK store fees

Hello again everyone and welcome to my latest newsletter.

I`ve had a very busy week trying to get everything ready for the Auction
SOS! launch this coming Tuesday – August 1st 2006, I even managed to add
a neat little countdown timer to the page which I think looks very good!

Whilst I was beavering away with my Auction SOS! tasks I also received an email
that I`m sure a lot of you also received, it was about the new eBay store fee`s.
As some of you may already know, number crunching is a weak point of mine, so
these new fee structures may have well been written in Chinese for me! So I
have decided to work out – in simple terms this will do to our eBay fee`s. Here
we go –

The dreaded new eBay store fees 🙁

Last week I (like many of you) received a nice email from my good friends over
at the bay! This week my good friends informed me of some impending fee “restructuring”
that will effect eBay store/shop listings. If you didn`t get the email you can
read it here:

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/sell/importantinfo/

Looking through the new fee`s that will be implemented on August 21st you may
not think it looks all that bad, lets face it, 7p a month for a GTC (good til
cancelled) listing isn`t going to bankrupt any of us. HOWEVER what I feel is
most worrying is this section:

– – – – / / / – – – –
Auction SOS! is set to launch this Tuesday, I have opened up the free affiliate
program with a VERY special offer for my affiliates. Access the secret page
by clicking here,
but dont tell anyone!
You can also view a spy video by scrolling down the page, make sure you finish
reading the article first though 😉
– – – – / / / – – – –

As you may know I sell a couple of fairly high priced items from my eBay store
– these items sell for £44.99 and £39.99 respectivly. lets compare
the fee`s I will be paying before and after the changes: (Thanks to Paula Breet
for doing the maths!)

Old prices
@ £39.99

Insertion fee GTC – £0.03
total £0.03
FVF – 6.75% of first 29.99 = £2.02 plus 3.75%
of remaining (£10) = £0.37
total £2.39

New Prices from 21st Aug
@ £39.99
Insertion fee GTC – £0.07
FVF – 10% of first £4.99 = £0.49 plus
8% of initial £5.00 – £9.99 (£4.99) = £0.39
plus 6% of remaining (£30.00) = £1.80
total £2.75

Old prices
@ £49.99

Insertion fee GTC – £0.03
total £0.03
FVF – £2.02 plus £0.75
total £2.77

New Prices from 1st Aug
@ £49.99
Insertion fee GTC – £0.07
FVF – £0.49 plus £0.39
plus £2.40
total £3.28

Confused? I know I am! But hopefully those numbers will help you figure out
how these changes will effect your monthly eBay bill.

Why have eBay decided upon these changes??

For the reason eBay do most things, I decided to make an illustration to get
my point across 😉

Is there anything we can do about this? Probably not, there is a planned eBay
boycott on the official eBay discussion forums but I can`t see the big E changing
their minds, money talks!

http://forums.ebay.co.uk/thread.jspa?threadID=1200020686&tstart=0&mod=1153412518097

http://forums.ebay.co.uk/thread.jspa?threadID=1100015296&tstart=0&mod=1153412454231

Another alternative is to list on the american eBay.com, at the time of writing
the fee`s are not as high so you could list on ebay.com instead of ebay.co.uk,
no doubt the fee changes will be implemented there soon but for the time being
it may be worth trying that method.

Thanks for reading, I hope that I simplified the fee`s for you somewhat. If
you have any questions or comments then as always leave me a comment!

Keep an eye out for my email on Tuesday as Auction SOS! will finally be available
for you to purchase, and I have a few surprises in store for you early adopters
😉

Auction SOS! Preview Video

OK, I don`t want to do a big intro because I know you all want to see the video!

Click the link below to view the video:

http://elpassoblog.com/video/

Remember, this video is only showing off ONE of Auction SOS`s many features! More will be revealed in the coming days 🙂

Dealing with snotty eBay members

How to deal with snotty eBay customers

Greetings everyone, I hope you all survived the mini-UK heatwave. It looks like we are back to normal today so at least it gives me a chance to write this weeks newsletter for you! This weeks newsletter may turn into a “mini-rant” so please accept my apologies if it does!

This week I will be looking at how to deal with snotty eBay members. This all stems from an email I received earlier this week, I have dealt with snotty customers before but this one really got on my wick!

I`m sure you have all come across the problem with ebay/paypal and making payments to international sellers. When you try to pay using eBay`s checkout you will get a message saying:

“This transaction has been cancelled”

Usually eBay members are good enough to contact me about the problem, I then reply telling them the problem is with eBay and that you need to send payment manually to my paypal email address. This works fine for 99% of all cases but earlier this week I received this:

“Hi
You have a problem with your paypal account. I find this totally unsatisfactory and you should cancel the transaction immediately or I will report you too eBay and paypal.”

/ / / – – / / /
I have just released the first ever screenshot of Auction SOS. You can view it here:
https://elpassoblog.com/auction-sos-spy-screenshot-1
Remember if you aren`t on the Auction SOS launch list yet you will need to get your skates on! – www.auctionsos.com
/ / / – – / / /

I managed to bite my tongue with this eBay buyer and just sent the usual reply explaining what the problem was. They didn`t reply to the email and haven`t paid for the item, but that got me thinking why are people so snotty?

I don`t just sell on eBay, I am also a regular buyer. I often have problems with transactions so I email the buyer. NOT ONCE in my 5 years of trading on eBay have I ever sent a snotty email and I never will. Can somebody tell me what sending a snotty email achieves other than getting yourself added to my blocked buyers list?

I will be interested to hear how the rest of you handle snotty emails from eBay customers, do you find that a nice polite reply is the best way to go or do you let rip! I always use the polite reply technique but sometimes it`s very tempting to tell them exactly what you really think.

Likewise if you are one of those people that sends snotty emails please leave a comment and let us know what sort of results you get?

Personally I am much more likely to help a person if they send a nice polite email, if I receive a snotty email I will answer the question but I wouldn`t go out of my way to help the person, what do you think, should we make a stand against the snotty email senders? – feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading, sorry it wasn`t as long as usual but I have just been recorded for Bold Business Talk radio so I haven`t had much free time on my hands!

Auction SOS Spy Screenshot 1

Greetings everyone, I have just managed to get you a brand new Auction SOS! screenshot, this is most probably the first time you have ever seen Auction SOS “in the flesh” so I would love to hear your comments:

Keep an eye out for the next SOS! update. I will be revealing the release date and time, I will also have some huge news for those of you that have asked about the affiliate program!

I am now going to answer a few more of your Auction SOS! questions:

1. Will it be able to search all worldwide sites at once for a specific item?

Auction SOS! can search ANY of the worldwide eBay sites. Within seconds you can find out the most popular items from every eBay site in the world, from Italy to India – the choice is yours!

2. Is it easy for a beginner to use?

When we designed Auction SOS! we tried to keep the interface as simple as possible (as you can see from the above screenshot). We didn`t want Auction SOS! to be one of those software titles that you install, run it and then find you need to spend the next 2 months learning how to use it!

Auction SOS! is “Pick up and play” software, that means as soon as you install the software even a novice PC user can begin benefiting from all of the features straight away, there is virtually no learning curve. We have tried our best to keep everything as straight forward as possible, we haven`t filled Auction SOS! with complicated features that you will never use – we know that isn`t what you want!

3. Is this just another one of those low budget softwares?

Auction SOS! is anything but “Low Budget” software. Anyone that has been following the SOS! updates from the begining knows how long SOS! has been in development for – almost 6 months!
Hundreds of hours have gone into the software, including research time, development and testing. We also have some great features planned for the future so watch this space!

4. When I buy it, do I have to pay for future updates?
NO! Is the simple answer 😉
When you purchase Auction SOS! all updates (no matter how big or small!) are available free for 2 years after your purchase. Although we have some great updates in mind we are always open to your suggestions, Auction SOS! is your software, if you want a feature added then you can let us know!

I hope that has answered a few more of your questions, sorry if there are a few typo`s thrown in there but I`m roasting in here and I need to get outside!!!

If you want to comment on the screenshot or would like me to answer some more questions, as always please leave a comment and I will do my best to respond.

Dan

P.S. I have been pestering one of my SOS! testers to make you a quick video showing Auction SOS! in action, so hopefully I will have that available for download soon 😉

How can I generate more sales from my eBay store?

How can I generate more sales from my eBay store?

Hello and welcome to the latest newsletter, I`ve managed to struggle through
a computer virus and the warm weather to write what I think will be a very usefull
newsletter for you.

The subject for this newsletter was chosen by a reader, unfortunately I have
lost the email you sent so I don`t have your name to hand, if you are reading
this feel free to leave a comment with your name and I will give you full credit
🙂

Without any further ramblings from my goodself, lets begin with this weeks
topic – “How can I generate more sales from my eBay store?”

That`s a question that I know a lot of us would like to know the answer too,
I could spend the next few hours writing about the usual things you have probably
heard repeated over and over – include a link in your email signiture, post
on forums, submit a press release etc…. BUT that would be boring and wouldn`t
really be teaching you anything different would it?

I am now going to steal a quote from a BT advert here in the UK (the one with
Jeremy Clarkson!):

“Do you find that companies spend more time trying to get new customers,
rather than looking after the one`s they have already got?”

OK, so maybe I haven`t repeated it word for word, my memory isn`t that good
but you get the idea!

This is the same for your eBay store, it really hit home with me a couple of
weeks ago when I bought a product off the internet and 5 days later I received
this through my letterbox:

It was a simple little postcard with “Thankyou” on the front (as
you can see in the Pic), and then on the back of the postcard there was a simple
little messgae thanking me for my custom. It may not sound like much but receiving
this postcard really did make me feel like they cared about my purchase and
I will definately be buying from them again. I even added their eBay store to
my favourites!

This got me thinking, why don`t more eBay sellers do this?

It cant be the cost, I did a quick look around and found that Vistaprint
will print you out 100 postcards for £15 – thats roughly $28 for my american
readers. A 2nd class stamp costs under 25p so sending out a thankyou postcard
isn`t going to cost you any more than 50p, is that a price worth paying to make
sure that you make that customer a customer for life? I think it is.

– – / / – –
Last week I answered some of your questions about Auction
SOS, if you havent already seen my answers you can view them by clicking
here.
– – / / – –

Anyone can make at least 1 sale on eBay, no matter what you are selling. You
could then just let that customer walk off into the sunset and never hear from
them again, or you could make the effort to go that extra yard for the customer,
make sure that you turn that customer into one of your customers for life!

I like the postcard idea but i`m sure you will be able to think of other ways
to improve your aftersales service to your customers. Another idea is to set
up a simple autoresponder
email message that sends an email to your customer a few days after the purchase,
ask them for feedback, make sure they are happy with the product that you sold
them.

What I am trying to get at here is that your aftersales service is just as
important, if not more so than the original sale. Take this question as an example:

“Would you rather sell one product for £20 and never see the customer
again, or sell a product for £1 and turn that customer into a customer
for life?”

I know that for me I would take the £1 sale, in the short term my bank
balance wouldn`t look as pretty but in the future that customer will come back
to me to buy a product rather than buying from my competitors! Gaining 1 sale
is easy, turning that sale into a relationship between you and the buyer is
the hard part 🙂

Thanks for reading, as always if you have any comments or suggestions for future
newsletters feel free to leave them. I read them all and enjoy your feedback.

Speaking of feedback a MASSIVE thankyou to all of you that filled out my survey
last week, if you click on the “Newsletter” link to your right I have
published some of your testamonials.

Until next week!
Dan

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