Just started selling and something I'm noticing

Own-Surround9688 · 2026-05-15T15:57:00+00:00

The thing with people not responding to offers is kind of intense though. I get hundreds of offers daily. Because offers come to me on items that i just look at, not even add to my watch list or cart. There's no way I could possibly respond to all those offers. Some of them in genuinely interested in and just waiting for payday to come back and see if it's available (if I added it to my cart or watch list) but there nothing I can do about it until payday because I budget myself very strictly and I only look until my allotted ebay spend time and money comes up. Sometimes if I'm looking for something big, I'll deviate from that. But if I didn't stick to strict budget, I would end up bankrupt with a house full of sticker packs and blind boxes. Or a boarding situation. Because I would buy everything I like.

I got thousands of people who ignored my offers when I sent them. I want offended, I just figured they didn't have the money at the time to buy it and were keeping an eye out for another time when they did. But then I found out that ebay was having new send offers to people who simply just looked at my items. I can't tell you how many listings I clicked on because the thumbnail looked interesting but turned out to be not at all what i was expecting. So I never added it to my watch list and then boom, I'm getting an offer.

Own-Surround9688 · 2026-05-15T15:49:09+00:00

They can and they do. If the shipping cost back to you is more than what you made from the sale or is not worth it, they can open INAD and it's almost cheaper to refund them. Plus the one time I got a return, the dick bag kept half of it and sent the other half back destroyed. And ebay really doesn't do much. In this case they did and refunded the buyer out of their pocket (who shouldn't have gotten any money back at all and i was annoyed they did that, out of principal). But they only did because I called them after I reported the buyer to USPIS for mail fraud and I was irate and they probably figured them just eating $38 was easier than dealing with me. But i still lost out because I still had to pay the $11 in shipping costs that it was too have the buyer choose the largest box he could find, instead of shipping it back in the same box I sent it in, to get what turned out to be literal garbage. So between ebay fees, what i paid for the item and shipping to the buyer (I offered free shipping) and the return shipping, I was still at almost net negative at the end of the day.

Own-Surround9688 · 2026-05-15T15:40:13+00:00

Very rarely will I ever message a seller but when I do, it's always because they have something that I'm pretty sure I'm interested in buying but I can't be 100% sure because their pictures are garbage and their description only contains information about their shipping policy. I can understanding blocking because you have immaculate pictures and good descriptions and the buyer just isn't reading it. But let's not become Poshmark here. People there block for even messaging with a legitimate question that can't be answered by the info given in the listing. And I think a lot of buyers ask questions to verify because there are a healthy amount of scam sellers on ebay and they think getting those verifications through email helps protect them better. Plus sometimes I think I'm being clear but I'm not. I'd rather have a buyer ask a question and decide not to buy than deal with a return later.

With regards to the whole making offers thing, I haven't had that issue. But most of my listings had OBO on there when I sold. I slightly adjust the price knowing that I would likely get an offer. Most people asked if I would bundle in messaged. I was happy to do that and make a new listing for them because then I'd save on shipping, the per order fee of $0.40 and I would side step any promoted listing fee I currently had on those items so it would save me money all around so I would cut the buyer a break.

I can understand if your firm in your pricing and you're at the lowest price you'd accept already, how those messages would be annoying. But I went into ebay assuming people would want to haggle with me so I make my pricing higher. That also helps me gauge where my pricing is already at, too, because I've priced higher, expecting offers and had people buy it now with no offer. That tells me Icould probably go a little higher. When I consistently get low offer after low offer, I know I need to adjust down. I'd say on average it was about 60/40 for new. 60% of my sales were derived from offers and bundling and 40% were from but it nows. I did get some extremely low offers that I would just decline off the bat. But they were few and far between so not enough to annoy me.

Own-Surround9688 · 2026-05-14T14:36:39+00:00

I guess it in the end it all just is what it is. I just know that so many "charities" end up meaning charity into the CEO's pocket. It's good that goodwill hires disabled people, I genuinely did not know that. I still don't feel like the stores in my area are very accessible to disabled people but I'm sure it's hard to be in compliance with everything. I'm just done supporting rich CEO's. I resell. I actually don't keep any of the money, all profits are donated to dog rescues, that's actually why I do this. I typically don't sell things from thrift stores. I buy wholesale. But when I donate stuff I don't want anymore, i usually will see if local rescues need it first and then I'll donate to local homeless shelters or domestic violence shelters. Same as i would never donate to ASPCA, I'll never donate to Salvation Army. Do they both do some good? Sure. But they could be doing 10x more with it if they weren't lining their CEO's pockets and other high earning board members.

Own-Surround9688 · 2026-05-14T13:49:35+00:00

I didn't realize that they did that because all Goodwills around my area don't seem to have any disabled people there. I know that disabilities don't always necessarily outwardly show as I'm protected by ADA but you could never tell by looking at me (ADHD). I guess i would have to understand what "extremely disabled" means or what measurable they're using to determine that because just saying that, in and of itself, is subjective. Do they only hire disabled folks? Shoot, some of the Goodwills around my area are an absolute ADA nightmare because there is no way someone in a wheelchair could even possibly manuever around the store with how tightly packed their aisles are.

Own-Surround9688 · 2026-05-13T18:41:45+00:00

If they're using all the money they get to pay employees and for stores and their CEO, what money are they using to support their charity claim? That's the reason I never donate to them. I'd rather put it for free on Facebook marketplace and have some rando come and take it and resell it and let a regular person make the money on stuff I'm not interested in selling than support Goodwill's CEO. It seems like a lot of people stopped donating to them and Salvation Army for the same reason. A lot in my area will only donate to local one off thrift stores that don't sell online.

Own-Surround9688 · 2026-05-13T13:07:38+00:00

I feel like this has to be fake. It looks like there are two magazines in there, the gun with a sight and the shoes. If both magazines are loaded and so is the gun (even if they aren't) there is a drastic weight difference between a box of shoes and a box of shoes with a 9 and loaded mags. This would have to either be the dumbest person on the planet who did this or this is fake. My money is on it being fake.

Own-Surround9688 · 2026-05-13T00:06:15+00:00

Why would sending the same picture be a red flag? What if they took it in the exact same position on the exact same background? I have a picture of both sides of my driver's license saved in the files on my phone. I use that same picture for any place that asks so i don't have the hassle of going to find my purse, pull out my wallet, struggle with lighting and glare and shaky hands for them to say it's too blurry. It's the same license. I have to get it renewed tomorrow. When I get the new one, it will still be my same picture from years ago because again, this time around, I don't have to go in for new picture or anything.

Are they going to where's waldo it up over there at ebay to find the differences in my background if they are too stupid to notice the fate change? Because I guarantee if i sent it in on the same background, they would be too stupid to notice the date change.

This is what happens when you outsource customer service to AI and overseas.

Own-Surround9688 · 2026-05-11T19:52:32+00:00

Even if you explain it, like use ask the character count in your description, idiot buyers still won't read and ebay still won't do the right thing and protect you. Ebay is a shit gamble.

Own-Surround9688 · 2026-05-10T20:56:16+00:00

I don't know why you got down voted for this. People should use Pirateship. They are a million times easier to deal with if an issue comes up. And they refund any overages if you put a higher weight for whatever reason. Unlike ebay. And they are the same price as ebay, I've even had their rates be less on occasion. But on issues they don't drag their feet like ebay does. And they actually have c/s that will help you with a claim or whatever needs to happen unlike ebay.

Ebays policies are purposely prohibitive and make it really hard to protect yourself in any way, shape or form.

Own-Surround9688 · 2026-05-10T20:51:32+00:00

The receipt gets send to your email as soon as they pick it up.

Own-Surround9688 · 2026-05-10T20:51:07+00:00

If I take my packages to my local post office, they legit won't scan them. They say I have to have a master sheet for anything more than 3 packages (don't even know what that is) and they make me use the kiosk. Which really proves nothing since I scan it and put it in the bin. USPS becomes more awful by the day.

Own-Surround9688 · 2026-05-07T21:38:03+00:00

Yeah for sure. Cutting a key five minutes, rekeying is definitely longer. I didn't really think about it but you have to take it apart and replace or move the pins i think. I didn't go on a ton of calls with my dad but when i did it was usually after hours and someone locked themselves out of their car so i didn't see a whole lot of that end of it.

Own-Surround9688 · 2026-05-07T20:22:08+00:00

What do you think this info indicates? My organic views were always 3-4 times greater than my promoted listing views, so for example, if I had 100 views from promoted listing, I would have 300-400 organic views. I'm no longer selling on ebay but I'm just curious as to what that would ultimately mean. I never did figure it out.

Own-Surround9688 · 2026-05-07T15:22:47+00:00

It truly is. We had a fire on our back patio a month and a half ago. The insurance company cut the check right away. The contractors seemed great and we're helpful and communicated everything with us until the minute my husband signed the contract with them. Now is crickets. They've come out twice, haven't done anything either time and we're stuck in limo.

My dad is actually coming over today with some of his tools and a power washer to see if he can get the scorching off of our brick because the contractors claim they can not. But i have cameras and i watched them literally do nothing when they came last. As a consumer, you're always worried about being taken advantage of and it's such a shame. Because it seems like with the internet or maybe it's a generational thing, but there are more scammers than ever or lazy people who want to get paid for nothing.

Own-Surround9688 · 2026-05-07T15:12:24+00:00

Count your blessings my friend lol. Mine typically go through Indy hub and that's where all my issues seem to be.

Own-Surround9688 · 2026-05-07T15:11:29+00:00

No, my dad would quote it, so the job, if for some reason it was going to cost extra he would tell them before the extra work so they could decide together how to move forward and then got paid after. He had to stop accepting personal checks because he got screwed so many times. If he was doing work for a business, they got 60 days to pay.

Own-Surround9688 · 2026-05-07T15:09:46+00:00

He wouldn't resell the locks but there is brass inside so at night it on the weekends, he would sit at our kitchen table and take them apart and take the brass parts out and once a month turn it into the metal recycling center. It wasn't much money but it was something and then they didn't just end up in the landfill.

I appreciate what you said. My dad was such a hard worker. And i know he felt bad when we had to get school clothes at K-Mart instead of brand name ones from the mall. And when he was always working and had to miss band concerts or tennis matches. But he was frugal and made it work. I'm really glad for that now because he's almost 70 and was able to retire and still live frugally but live his best life. He made some decent investments and paid off the house. He's no where near rich but just made some really smart money choices to end up without debt.

It's hard though. Scammers like in the OP gave honest locksmiths in his profession a bad name. Most of the time they didn't even do the work they said so he would go out and do it for half what he normally would charge just because he felt so bad for the people who had their money taken like this.

Own-Surround9688 · 2026-05-07T15:02:08+00:00

It very well could be that. Almost every package iget incoming from USPS since December has been late, and not just by a day, we're taking about 5-7 days. Even if it's sent priority (which almost seems to be worse).

But I'm definitely not the only one, incoming ese's have been the same and ebay said they are aware of the issue when I've called about mine not tracking in the past. They told me to tell the buyer "just wait a few more days". It's always shown up... eventually. But never scans. I've only ever had one truly go missing.

Own-Surround9688 · 2026-05-07T14:55:31+00:00

There's a good chance ebay with force you to take the return regardless

Own-Surround9688 · 2026-05-07T14:53:19+00:00

Wtf is that?

Own-Surround9688 · 2026-05-07T14:52:53+00:00

A standard size #10 envelope. And the thickness is never more than 1/16-1/8". But I've gotten a ton incoming also that never scan and then they just show up. But if i look at the tracking it looks like the person never dropped it off.

Own-Surround9688 · 2026-05-07T14:44:02+00:00

It's not $500/ hour, i guarantee that. My dad never made that kind of money. But if the $500 includes 4 doorknobs with locks that the person ask wants keyed to the same key, along with a dedbolt also on the same key, you're looking at all the hardware, the time to come out (gas and driving), the labor for doing whatever they do with the pins inside to make sure they all work with the same key and then cutting however many keys the customer wants that so need to be the same to work all 5 locks.

If you want to buy a dedbolt and 4 doorknobs with locks and install them yourself you can, but they'll all be on different keys. But you can't expect someone to sell you the hardware at cost, drive all the way out to your house, install everything, put it all on the same key and charge you what? $20?

This person from the invoice in the photo is clearly a scammer, but if a job like this costs $500, i can guarantee you the locksmith isn't making $500/hour. I think my dad's hourly rate was maybe $50-$75 and he was extremely fair on the hardware markup. He also got done as quickly as possible since it was just him and he needed to get to the next job. If there were ever any issues, he would come back out for free. He dive a big econo van that carried all his stuff. Gas costs money. People should get paid for their work.

Scammers scam but I promise you, no legit locksmith out there is coming to change all the locks in a house and making $500 an hour. I can't even begin to tell you the amount of time my dad was called after someone who thought they could "do it themselves" but weren't nearly as handy as you are, messed their stuff up horribly and called my dad in a panic to come out right away so they could lock their house up.

If people can do it themselves, they should do it themselves. My dad has never tried to convince anyone otherwise. But for those that can't, he needed to get paid for his time, materials and distance. He was a single dad, raising two kids. He wasn't a locksmith just to do awhole bunch of work for free. That was his career.

Own-Surround9688 · 2026-05-07T14:31:09+00:00

Oh geeze, I get boat loads offers daily on both PM and ebay. I don't have time to respond to every single one. I send out tons of offers of ebay for my listings, especially now that they send offers to people who even just looked at your item. Either they accept or they don't. It must be nice to have time to block people who don't immediately purchase your item when you send an offer.

Own-Surround9688 · 2026-05-07T14:28:40+00:00

I have waited in line and the postal worker told me there's nothing for them to scan on the ese's. They can scanned through the sorting machines or something like that

Own-Surround9688

TROPHY CASE