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 Replies: 40 / Views: 6,311 |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2984 Posts |
@Gilles Pavot-Drapeau, Excellent points. The chance of letters getting lost in the mail or stolen by postal officials is very slim. The problem lies at the other end, the recipient. You may get an dishonest buyer who lie when they say they did not get their item. Like you, most of my packages, tracked or not, go through. I just write off the small % that go awry. Of course, expensive items need to be tracked but not things that are worth $20.
And yes, there is no registered mail to the US. If you want tracking for a letter you have to send it by Xpresspost USA and it costs $25. I recently sold some stamps worth $100 to a USA customer and I wanted to get tracking for it but the P.O. said I had to use Xpresspost for $25 since they had no registered mail to the USA. I asked my buyer if they want to pay $25 for shipping and they said no and told me to send it by regular post. Which I did and the stamps arrived safely.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1984 Posts |
You can get cheaper US tracking with a "tracked packet". This is good for larger packages also. This starts at around $17 I think.
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
7096 Posts |
The only times I have had a package go "missing" is when I have sent it untracked. I have NEVER had a package go missing when I have sent it with tracking.  |
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Pillar of the Community
 Canada
5402 Posts |
Most buyers who say I didn't get it are lying through their teeth and taking full advantage of Ebays backing the buyer 100 per cent policy. As Gilles stated above if it is addressed properly and has a correct return address , nothing goes missing. No more untracked ebay packages from us on either ebay account again EVER. Just way too many dishonest buyers these days. And as a Canadian, I am sad to say (in our experience) sadly most of our I did not get its are Canadian. We now ship all of our U.S.A and world packages from the U.S. And all are tracked at a very economical rate,to the point where we are shipping to all of our U.S. Customers free with tracking. Quite frankly unless Canadian customers want to pay the full rate for tracking forget it. Sooner sell our stuff export with tracking and less agro. Many of you fellow Ebayers may not realize that you can ship a tracked foreign package from USPS for less than 7 bucks. I realize that a lot of Canadian Ebayers are at a huge disadvantage unless you are near a border town with a USPS office. I do not think that Canadapost is offering inexpensive tracking anytime soon. |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2845 Posts |
Speaking of Canada Post and tracked delivery......it used to be they'd leave a notice in my box that happens to be in a grouped community mailbox down the street, similar to registered mail, with instructions to go to the postal outlet to pick up whatever. Lately I've been somewhat surprised that the postal carrier has been ringing my doorbell and it's been home delivered, if I happen to be home. If not, then the notice for pickup goes into my mailbox.
Given the high cost of postal service in Canada, I don't understand why there couldn't be a lower cost option for tracked deliveries that are only picked up and signed for at local postal outlets, not home delivered. (overlooking job retention and union intervention and all that, for sake of discussion)
I'm just curious....in the U.S., how and where are tracked deliveries received by the addressee?
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1461 Posts |
Shipping product using tracking is fine if you're only dealing at a certain price point. Charging $11 shipping from ON to BC for a Canadian dollar that sells for $12 just doesn't work. Out of 1000 coins I shipped last year (combined tracked and not) I lost only 4 and only 1 so far this year. Choosing to not sell product in the cheaper shipping category all-together would significantly decrease my profit margin. Certainly far more than the loss incurred on the 4 lost items. I do report those accounts to ebay and the offending postal code to Canada Post. What I would really like to see is the responsibility of choosing the shipping method moved to the buyer therefor assuming the risk. As a seller, I would give the buyer two shipping options (tracked, not tracked) at checkout. By choosing the non-tracked option, you would also assume the responsibility for the loss. |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
3049 Posts |
I am a buyer.. but even I agree that is how it should be... you get what you pay for in this world
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
5402 Posts |
It would be a really easy fix for ebay and PayPal. You don't. Buy tracking as a buyer then you are not covered period! What a great idea ...............but wait it is ebay we are talking about. |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
818 Posts |
I've never sold a coin on ebay but I like your idea TheCoinHunter. Of course this would require some sort of confirmation that the seller actually shipped the item. |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
5402 Posts |
Common law states that once an item is in the post it is deemed delivered. ebay and PayPal have been violating this principle forever and it is only a matter of time before they get hammered big time. there are lots of methods to prove a seller shipped the item other than expensive tracking. Coin hunter is really on to something. Another option would be to offer seller insurance on an annual basis to ebay store holders or large volume sellers. For an annual fee the seller would be protected from dubious fraudulent buyers.At the ANA earlier this year , I had a great chat with the HUGH WOODS coin insurance rep and he assured me that there are way more fraudster buyers on ebay than anyone would even remotely be comfortable with. They have a pool of money to investigate this stuff and do so for their clients who are continually ripped by mail fraud. The results are shocking according to the HW rep. The excuses they get when the door is knocked on range from dead gramma hid it in the garage , to the dog ate it. seriously ebay PayPal needs a huge wake up call. Edited by Pacificoin
06/24/2015 4:10 pm
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1330 Posts |
ebay hahahaha....i just use it to show my coins if they sell great if they don't its ok too,,,i sold a coin for 2.99+1.99 shipping and also send the person a free coin,he in returned put a claim for receiving wrong item description even after I told him that sent him a freebie.a scammer is always a scammer.100% money back is the problem..........
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2845 Posts |
Over the past year I've purchased a lot of coins on ebay, yoy more than I'd want to admit! I began by upgrading and filling in some gaps in a silver collection and adding varieties, then extending it to the present. None of my shipments went missing although some did take an extraordinarily long time to finally arrive. As a buyer I was somewhat selective of who I bought from......based on description and other coins for sale, if I thought a seller looked a little shady I didn't mind paying a few dollars more from what appeared to be a reputable seller. I also found many sellers were quite negotiable on price if I committed to buy more than one coin. Any orders over $100 or so I expected to pay for tracked shipping -- as much as a seller doesn't want lost orders, as a buyer I don't want to have to buy twice either. ebay worked for me, in fact I'd say my buying spree was very enjoyable. It's too bad when scam artist sellers and buyers spoil it for the larger majority. Sadly that's becoming common, similar to why most of us don't answer our home phones any more unless we think we know who's calling. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1158 Posts |
I just weigh the cost of insurance and tracking against the cost of the item and my own personal risk tolerance. Expensive items you definitely want to insure and track. Cheap items, well if you lose a $10 coin, nobody is going hungry.
I would also say think of how all those fees add up vs the cost of a product. If you sell 500 items a year and you paid an extra $3 per shipment, that's some serious profit margin you are destroying. If you are selling cheaper product, you would have to lose dozens of packages before it started to make sense.
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Pillar of the Community
 Canada
1980 Posts |
Quote:
If you sell 500 items a year and you paid an extra $3 per shipment, that's some serious profit margin you are destroying if you are in canada it would be about $6 extra per shipment |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2845 Posts |
Aside from dealers with an established clientele, I think it's unreasonable to expect to profit enough to make a living from selling coins on ebay. But for those wanting to sell off an average collection or duplicates or to dibble dabble in breaking up rolls or lots bought from estates or auctions, ebay is an option to some people that obviously becomes a secondary hobby in itself. Many people prefer that rather than face to face selling. For those, reaching the broader market is an attractive (or only) alternative. I don't think the scammers are in the majority, as others have mentioned it's a matter of pricing to absorb the cost of potential losses. Store fronts also do so, in the event of thefts. Isn't that considered a standard cost of doing business? ebay needs sellers but they also need buyers. As a buyer, their guarantee gave me peace of mind because everyone has heard of horror stories of people getting totally ripped off when buying things on ebay -- In general, I'm not referring to coins which is only a small portion of what gets sold on ebay. So I think what appears to be a weighted favouritism towards buyers is more about ebay trying to improve their reputation and building trust. Because if you asked 10 strangers on the street even today it wouldn't surprise me if 9 of them would say they'd not even consider buying on ebay. |
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Posted 06/23/2015 5:37 pm
