I made under $20k with PayPal, combo of retail product sales and eBay sales. Upon request, PayPal emailed me a zip file of a complete spreadsheet for tax purposes. Worked well. I did have to call them when I couldn’t print out the entire year from their summary.
In over 20 years of eBay, I have experienced one very late seller (who was truculent,but not abusive; 0 scams and ONE *buyer* who ignored my “no overseas sales” and bid high on a low value item then refused all communication after buying. He was based in the Netherlands. He was mocking, but not abusive. I did not ship to him. Instead, I generated an invoice with the accurate shipping and VAT fees. eBay allowed the *successful bid* to sit on my account for 90 days (IIRC), then cancelled it, per a dispute I filed. I received 1 abusive/threatening email due to my use of wool in my product. I ignored it.
eBay sales are most successful using Buy It Now or Best Offer and free shipping. You can ignore stupid Best Offers and you can counter offer. Bidders can submit up to 4 (again, IIRC) offers. 1# from the center of the US to either coast, using furthest, most Northern points is about $7-$8 using USPS. Price it in. I will sometimes do a combo of adding 1/2 the estimated shipping to the price and listing a shipping cost = to 1/2 the actual cost. Other times, I calculate the cost, add it to the price and offer free shipping.
Look at the sold listings in your niche to see if items will sell with a fair shipping price or not. Examples I found recently indicate heavy items will sell w/a $1/lb cost, which is consistent w/UPS Store shipping. eBay will give a slight shipping discount when you ship USPS. Using the PayPal or eBay site to generate a pre-paid shipping label allows you to ship USPS from door-to-door w/o visiting the PO. The shipping can be paid out of your PayPal account, so you have a record. If your charged fee is higher than the actual cost because you want to recoup handling costs,just do not check the box that asks if you want actual postage to appear on the shipping label. You can specify the date to be shipped within 3 days.
I have never had any package/contents damaged in shipment via USPS, UPS or FedX. I have had one customer who maintained her package was not delivered. It was marked delivered. She stated this was common in her neighborhood. I replaced her item, but requested a personal check beforehand for the postage and requested she have it delivered to the PO where she could pick it up. That worked.
USPS,UPS and FedX ALL have tracking sites. UPS/FedX will note the signature on anything delivered to a loading dock. USPS will always list the scan when they deliver to a residential address. UPS and FedX will email you when a package is delivered if they have your email address.
I had one wholesale shipment that ended up at an out-of-date address the buyer had closed years prior. It was my error. I neglected to fill out the address on the shipping form from the UPS Store, the employee was young and new and they just used the first address in the UPS database. UPS & FedX never clear their databases. I had to deal with several UPS *customer service* employees, file an address change and then request the shipping department of my account purge their address listings. Shipment was delayed a week and I paid for the extra mileage, but it was my error. Most commercial accounts will not pay for extra insurance. I received detailed tracking info as the package was rerouted.
You can refuse International Sales. I do. I have an upcharge on my business site of $12-$20 for overseas shipping. Just request buyer use a US domestic address. I have had Japanese and Chinese buyers who do that as a matter of course. I had one *customer* who sent me emails and called complaining of my standard flat fee shipping charge. She wanted 1 very small/cheap item. I had 1 eBay *customer* who did the same via email only. I explained my costs to them and let it drop. They didn’t purchase and I didn’t miss them. I had one *customer* demanding to visit my workshop to choose her item. My policy is no public allowed and I will honor color requests. She emailed and called repeatedly, all for a $12 item because she was special and needed to see everything. I refused. She didn’t buy and eventually stopped hassling me.
You WILL pay 15% to sell using eBay & PayPal. You will pay a fee, use gas, pack/unpack a van, drive both ways and sit all day at a flea market with no guarantee of sales. It’s a business decision.
The worst experience for me on eBay was a buy-it-now sale that involved a lot of 4 identical items. The package was delivered, and the buyer claimed that there were only 2 items in the package. What I was able to determine was that the buyer was in Vietnam, a country that I refuse to ship to. He got around that block by using a reshipper in the US. When I observed that he was Vietnamese (obvious from his name) he called me a racist. I don’t know if he was lying (most likely), or the reshipper stole part of the shipment (also possible).
Anyway, with any problem buyer, you are able to block him from making any purchase. If you are curious, there is a little known page on the eBay site called the “Buyer Requirements Activity Log”. Any buyer who is rejected because of your buyer requirements settings will appear in this list. You can find it by going to the site preferences section of your account, and then the buyer requirements section. It’s interesting to see what’s actually going on.
Another option is a website such as this:
Another bad sale which turned out OK was a USPS Express shipment to China, which stalled in their customs office. I presume the buyer balked at the customs charges and never paid. Miraculously, the package was returned to me after about 6 weeks, undamaged, and at no extra charge. I lost money on the original shipping charge, but it could have been much worse.
Things didn’t work out so well for someone I know. He sold an expensive antique Chinese porcelain to someone in China, and it was apparently confiscated by the government. That was a total loss for him.
As for buyers in the far east, I have had virtually no trouble with buyers from Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, or Hong Kong. I no longer sell to China.
Yes, you can refuse international shipment, but if a buyer uses a reshipper with a US address, you can’t block that.
The eBay store is a good option even for moderate volume sellers.
When you open a basic eBay store (very simple to do), the maximum possible final value fee drops from $750 to $250. That makes a huge difference if you have something expensive to sell. It costs about $28 per month (cheaper if you sign up for a year). You can open the store, sell your high ticket item, and close it immediately.
Also, with a store, the 10% fee drops to anywhere from 3.5% to 9.15%, depending on category.
http://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/service-and-payments/fees-and-features.html
Also, with a basic store, you get a $25 coupon once per quarter to use on eBay branded shipping supplies. I don’t know how long you have to have the store before the coupons start, however.
Finally, by meeting certain requirements to become a “top rated plus seller”, you can get a 10% discount on final value fees, but not the fees on shipping cost.
As for insurance, I have never had to file a claim. I have been told by people who have, that the insurance offered through eBay “Ship Cover”, is superior to USPS insurance. They pay off quickly, and put the money directly into your PayPal account. But they don’t cover the cost of shipping, it doesn’t apply to international shipping, and it is limited to $1,000.
The last two points are good reasons to offer free shipping. If you include the shipping with the item cost, the Ship Cover insurance will then cover the shipping, and the fee on shipping cost will then also be subject to the 10% top rated plus discount.