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THE EFFICIENCY OF ONLINE AUCTION SELLING IS ATTRACTIVE INITIALLY - UNTIL THE BUMPS IN THE ROAD UPSET THE APPLE-CART
YOU HAVE TO RUN IT AS A BUSINESS WITH STRICT PROTOCOLS FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE - OR YOU WILL FAIL EVENTUALLY
WHEN WE BEGAN SELLING VIA EBAY AUCTIONS, WE MADE HUNDREDS UPON HUNDREDS OF MISTAKES. EVEN THOUGH WE HAD READ THE "HOW-TO" BOOK OF EBAY SELLING AND BUYING, WE WERE OVERWHELMED BY OUR INTIAL SUCCESS. IT WAS WONDERFUL AND HORRIBLE AT THE SAME TIME. WE WERE SELLING RARE AND OUT-OF-PRINT BOOKS BY THE DOZENS, AND BUNDLES OF EPHEMERA ALL OVER THE WORLD. THE MONEY WAS GREAT, AND THE AUCTIONS WERE EXCITING. IN RETROSPECT, I THINK WE HAD WAY TO MUCH SUCCESS EARLY-ON FOR OUR OWN GOOD. SO WE JUST KEPT GOING TO THE TROUGH, AND MAKING MORE MISTAKES.
THE MOST COSTLY MISTAKES, CAME WITH ARTICLE DESCRIPTIONS AND MAILING ERRORS. FIRST OF ALL, MY DESCRIPTIONS OF ARTICLES UP FOR AUCTION, WERE NOT AS CLEAR AND HONEST AS THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN. THE RULE IS, IF YOU WANT TO KEEP YOUR POSITIVE FEEDBACK, TO BE UP FRONT WITH ALL DETAILS THE SELLER IS REQUIRED TO FULFILL. IF A BOOK HAS A MUSTY SMELL, THIS HAS TO BE IDENTIFIED. A LOT OF BUYERS OF BOOKS, CRINGE AT THE THOUGHT OF BUYING A SMELLY BOOK, THAT HAS BEEN TOUCHED BY MOISTURE. IF THERE IS A PROBLEM IDENTIFYING THE BOOK'S CONDITION, DROP ONE CATEGORY FROM YOUR FIRST INSTINCT, JUST TO COVER THE POSSIBILITY, THE BUYER IS A KEENER FOR ACCURATE CONDITION RATINGS. THIS CAN GET YOU IN A LOT OF TROUBLE, AND IT'S A GREAT WAY TO LOSE POINTS FROM THE FEEDBACK PERCENTAGE……WHICH IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ASSETS AS A SELLER AND BUYER. EVEN DROPPING A COUPLE OF PERCENTAGE POINTS, WILL CAUSE MANY SELLERS AND BUYERS TO HOLD-OFF BIDDING, EVEN IF THEY PERCEIVE AN ACTUAL OFFENSE OF INFORMATION OMISSION, WAS MINOR IN NATURE. YOU CAN CHECK OUT THE FEEDBACK, TO READ THE NEGATIVE REVIEWS PUBLISHED ON THE TRANSACTION RECORD. SO SELLING A BOOK THAT HAS MILDEW, A BAD SMELL, OR WATER DAMAGED PAGES, IS RISKY BUSINESS, UNLESS IT IS FULLY ACKNOWLEDGED IN THE AUCTION DESCRIPTION. I HAVE SOLD DAMAGED BOOKS ONLINE BEFORE, BUT AT A GREATLY REDUCED PRICE, AS COMPARED TO THEIR MARKET VALUE IN GOOD CONDITION.
WE HAD A LOT OF EARLY PROBLEMS WITH ADDRESS INTERPRETATIONS, ESPECIALLY WHEN THERE ARE TWO ADDRESSES GIVEN BY THE BUYER. THIS HAPPENS A LOT, AND FOR MANY DIFFERENT REASONS. YOU HAVE TO SPEND A GREAT DEAL OF QUALITY TIME, COAXING EMAIL RESPONSE FROM UNRESPONSIVE BUYERS AND SELLERS. THERE WAS NOTHING MORE AGGRAVATING THAN GETTING BACK A PARCEL BECAUSE IT HAD AN INCORRECT MAILING ADDRESS. AND SOMETIMES, IT WAS AT THE DISCRETION OF A POST OFFICE OFFICIAL, IN THE UNITED STATES, WHO ON ONE OCCASION, SENT A PAINTING BACK TO US, BECAUSE THE APARTMENT ADDRESS WAS TWO DOORS OFF. HE WAS ACTUALLY WITHIN TWO APARTMENTS, ON THE SAME FLOOR AS HE WAS STANDING, BUT BECAUSE THE NUMBER WAS WRONG, IT WAS SENT BACK WITH POSTAGE OWING. THIS WAS A POSTAL CARRIER WHO FREQUENTED THAT APARTMENT EVERY BUSINESS DAY AND KNEW ALL THE TENANTS, BUT JUST GOT THIS ATTITUDE THING, TO TEACH US CANUCKS A LESSON. NOW THE ONLY GOOD TO COME FROM THIS, WAS THAT THE BUYER HAD MISTAKENLY GIVEN THE WRONG NUMBER, AND WE WERE REIMBURSED FOR THE EXTRA COST.
We had the same thing happen, when we shipped a very valuable 1930's print to France, and had it sent back by the postal authority of that country. We were billed about forty dollars, but no mistake had been made with the address. We had to make numerous phone calls, at our expense, to find out why the item had been turned back to Canada. We didn't want to lose the sale, which is exactly what happens when you fail to deliver successfully. Basically, the postal clerk was having a bad day, and misinterpreted Suzanne's handwriting, (which is impossible for anyone to do, even with poor vision), deciding that we should have used a computer print-out instead of long-hand. So we tried it again. It was again returned. This time it was deemed improperly identified with customs forms, and the declaration of value. Finally, we decided the buck had to stop with our postal service, as they were the ones who had shipped it with the proper forms, according to their rules and regulations. The buyers were wonderfully kind about this, and offered many apologies for their postal system screw-ups, that had sent the art piece across the ocean on five separate occasions. They made some calls, adjusted the paperwork, and we let it out of our hands one more time, and hoped for the best. Yup, finally, after about five weeks of frustration, it finally found its way into the hands of the EBAY buyer it was intended for……so many weeks earlier. The credit for us, was when this buyer gave us positive feedback, and commented about our patience completing the auction deal.
We got an angry email from a lady in the United States, who had received her package in the mail, earlier that day, who, when opening Suzanne's poorly wrapped parcel, found her 1930's metal lamp in small pieces at the bottom of the box. Of course, she assumed we had sent her a broken lamp in the first place. Secondly, she assumed by the appearance of the damaged wrapping, and askew cardboard box, that this is how it left Gravenhurst several days earlier. When we asked to see digital photographs of the damage, and the box, we knew immediately that it was the work of American customs……and we can only presume, they thought it was either a bomb or a lamp made out of drugs, painted silver to look vintage. So they smashed it to pieces, after rough handling the box. They then shoved the pieces back in the package, and haphazardly re-papered it, just to qualify it as mail once again. And off it went. We had a Dickens of a time trying to explain why the box had been tampered with, and the lamp destroyed. We offered her many photographs of the piece before it was wrapped. Suzanne is persnickety to a fault, about wrapping everything from Christmas presents to the weekly garbage. When our packages left the post office in Gravenhurst, they were secure, bound like Harry Houdini before a death defying feat, and addressed clearly. Our quality control, seeing as I was in charge of the post office runs, involved me complaining loudly to my business partner, if anything in that address was smudged or unclear in any way. The clerks would then give me a hard time, and I hated that….especially when there was a line-up building behind me. By the decade point, of our relationship as EBAY sellers, we were a finely tuned machine, when it came to virtually all areas of the auction process, including successful delivery to buyers. We got it down to several complaints for every hundred parcels sent, and in those cases, we always sided with our customers, and gave either a refund or a reduction in the selling price……if we felt a mistake in description had been made. It saved us from getting a negative feedback.
I did have an explosive situation, when a customer, who had purchased quite a few pieces from us, (that we were selling from a local estate), emailed us with a brutal editorial, about how we had ripped him off, by selling a damaged Chinese ring, featuring a three dimensional silver dragon. We immediately responded, asking for photographs of the damaged ring, and the box it came in. Outside of the box missing its paper, it was just as we had sent it to the United States. The ring was indeed badly damaged. The buyer told us that he had purchased it for his adopted Chinese daughter, so that she could learn about her culture…..through jewelry I suppose. I asked how old his daughter was, and he informed me that she was three years of age. I was in one of those moods, you see, that demanded I pursue the matter with this chap as far as I could; to ascertain how the ring could have been so badly damaged, when we had photographs of it before wrapping, that showed nothing out of the ordinary. He would respond angrily that he was going to give us a negative feedback, which is of course a big "no-no" according to EBAY rules. So this required a little push back, and as it turned out, I was able to make him confess, that the reason it was damaged, was not because of my wife's packaging short-fall, but the fact his daughter had been playing with it…….dropped it on the carpet, his wife crunching it with her very next step. It was his problem not ours. But you know what? I liked that ring. It didn't deserve to be treated in this fashion. So we offered to refund the purchase price, if he would agree to ship it back to Canada at his expense. He got the better of the deal, but we were able to have the ring repaired. Suzanne feels it's a lucky ring; a sort of charm, from a business period that was highly successful for us, despite some pretty wild odds. No matter what the self-help books and online information provide, auction selling has a plethora of obstacles to clear, in order to get it right, as a credible seller and desirable buyer. So I'm telling you, it can be a money pit, if you make mistakes, and even if you don't. You have to protect the feedback percentage. And of course, buyers and sellers will use this to their advantage. They will often threaten someone who has long and perfect record, with a negative, just to wangle a discount or concession on a stressed transaction. We stood our ground against many of these folks, and survived to this day with a perfect record. But we also know, the very next transaction could be our undoing, if we don't conduct ourselves perfectly in every level of the business arrangement.
The most impressive feat of selling and shipping antiques, fulfilling an EBAY auction, came when Suzanne found out that I had listed a huge majolica bowl with handles, with a Romanesque design. When she finished yapping at me, about my inconsideration, she immediately started looking for a suitable box for shipping. The antique bowl was acquired from a cottage estate, in the Village Rosseau, on Lake Rosseau, near the site of the former cottage of Canadian department store legend, Timothy Eaton. This was a magnificent piece but it was extremely fragile. In these cases, we always hope for a pick-up from Gravenhurst. Most of our customers were within commuting distance, and they would do anything to save on shipping costs. Only about thirty percent of our buyers were from United States, Europe and the rest of Canada. We shipped occasionally to China, Russia, France, England and Russia. I once sent snowshoes to France. Back to the majolica piece……that we did sell for a nice profit, but the request was that it be shipped to Norway. That's right. All the way to Norway in a box. Well sir, that packing job was like a Glen Gould concert, it was so precise and painstaking, such that there wasn't a loose corner of even one small piece of tissue or bubble wrap. We lost our profit in the supplies we had to provide to make sure it would arrive safely. It cost eighty dollars to ship, and honestly, there was no guarantee it was going to arrive safely. Add to this the fact Suzanne didn't want to sell it in the first place…..and secondly, she wasn't at all pleased to be the (as analogy), the place kicker on this Super Bowl winning field goal attempt. I can't tell you how loud her cheer was, when we got email confirmation the package had arrived, with the antique bowl in one perfect piece. This gave us a lot of faith in our capabilities as industrial strength shippers and handlers, and it also gave us back a little more confidence in the postal employees, delivering our EBAY sale items. It also gave Suzanne ample reason to investigate what I was planning to list next. I was quite a rogue when it came to surprising my dear wife with odd sized antiquities.
In the coming days, I'll have a few more timely tips for the small business, entering the online auction zone. Make sure, by the way, you have computer back-up or don't do it as a seller. This was another of our follies, early-on, as our computer would fail, with no back-up available. This was a hardship, especially at times when we would have a hundred items listed for sale. So we learned to have at least one, even two lap tops to fire-up in the event of a failure with the main computer.
Please take a few minutes to visit again. It's great to have you drop by for a little antique and collectable chat.
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