Thursday, February 6, 2014

Slow shipper

On Saturday, I won an Ebay auction for an action figure for my brother-in-law, who collects such toys.   I paid on Sunday, including Priority Shipping, and promptly forgot about it, sure that the seller would fulfill his end of the deal, and get it to me by today latest per Ebay’s estimated delivery schedule.

Yesterday, my brother-in-law stopped by, asking about his purchase.  Obviously, this jogged my memory, and I checked Ebay.  The shipper had not marked it as shipped, nor provided a tracking number, which automatically set off alarm bells in my head.  So, I promptly emailed the seller, and within an hour, I had a tracking number.  Cool, I thought, and checked the number on the USPS site, which yielded the infamous “Electronic Shipping Info Received” message.  Obviously, the seller had just prepped it for shipment, and created his shipping label after reading my message.

Had the seller forgotten about my item, or was he just lazy?  I checked his feedback (6759), and he was at 99 percent, but did have several negative comments about not answering emails or actually sending items.   I emailed him again, asking about when my purchase was shipped, but he never replied.

Assuming that I actually get the action figure next week, does this seller deserve negative feedback, or at least a ding on his DSRs?  I’m thinking so, but I always hate to malign other sellers. 

Jumping from purchases to sales, I decided to put several items up for auction, including eight boxes of Magic The Gathering cards that I had picked up from Goodwill for $12.00 per box.  I knew that I needed $96 to break even on the deal, so I put a $100 reserve on the auction, and watched nervously as the bids hovered around the $40 mark for much of the seven-day period.  Thankfully, a buying frenzy ensued on the last day, which pushed the winning bid to $122.50.  I guess a small profit is better than no profit.
The other auctions were for two sets of vintage Dungeon and Dragon magazines.  One set, Dungeon Magazine, sold, but for some reason the other set, Dragon Magazine, garnered nary a bid.  I relisted the unsold set with a Buy It Now price, but may send it to auction again just to get rid of it.

I also sold a pair of cargo shorts, and two pairs of thermal underwear on the same day.  I guess that shows the weather extremes across the country.  In addition, on the same day that I sold a mini-Cabbage Patch Kid, I got one returned in the mail for being too small.

The weekend is finally shaping up, with a both a church sale and an estate sale in my sights.  It’s supposed to be raining, again, but to paraphrase the post office, neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these thrifters from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

2 comments:

  1. I recently posted about a bad seller as well. They're the reason why ebay has so many policies that hurt good sellers. On the flip side, they make us look good to our buyers because we ship fast, pack well, etc. I usually buy on a separate id so I can leave bad feedback without worrying about retaliation. Too bad the Magic cards didn't do better. I thought you'd get at least $200. I can't wait to hear what you scored at the church sale.

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  2. I would probably ding the shipping time since it's obvious that the seller waited quite a while to ship. It's one thing if it gets overlooked and the seller communicates and apologizes, but this seller could definitely use some lessons in good customer service.

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