eBay Selling

If you sell fairly inexpensive items, it’s usually not necessary to insure the items or to get delivery confirmation for them. I’ve seen sellers who spend $3 to insure and confirm a $2 item. This drives up the shipping costs and turns off buyers. If the item is very inexpensive, it would actually be cheaper to replace or refund the amount if the package goes astray than it would be to do all of that.

For expensive and/or very heavy items, though, delivery confirmation is a must. Without it, the buyer can say that the item never arrived and you have very little recourse. The new PayPal seller protection has not yet gone into effect and even then there may be ways for the buyers to make trouble.

If you send a heavy item, you’re investing a lot into the postage costs. If you have to refund, you will have to refund the shipping price too. You then lose the item, the time the listing, packing and shipping took and the price of the postage you bought. With delivery confirmation, a buyer doesn’t have any leverage to try to scam you. If the buyer leaves a negative, you may be able to get it taken off with proof that the item arrived. They can’t win an eBay or a PayPal complaint and your investment of time and money is safe.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS