I sell on eBay, mostly in three categories, one of which is used hand tools, many are vintage, some contemporary. It's been my experience that the best buyer group are the tool buyers. They seem to be the least fickle and the most reasonable:
--They actually have a good idea what they're buying.
--They actually read the descriptions and study the photos. I think this is from their experience of making sure they're buying the exact part they need with the exact specs, confirming it is the exact size and brand. Vintage buyers want to confirm it has the correct markings and style. They actually KNOW what they're looking for! They also want to know precisely what flaws the item might have. So when you give a detailed description and present good photos, tool buyers are the best. They don't mind studying the description details and the photos. Many other categories don't enjoy this benefit as much, with buyers making emotional impulsive decisions and not wanting to read a detailed description.
--Tool buyers, whether collectors or mechanics, have all worked with tools fixing things. They KNOW that sh*t happens. So they are more understanding, tolerant and willing to work with you when the occasional sh*t happens. As a seller, I only ever had one 'sh*t' happen about the item itself, a Craftsman ratchet that when he took it apart he didn't like what the tips of the teeth looked like even though it worked perfectly. I told him he might take it to Sears for warranty, but they wouldn't replace it either because it worked perfectly. Once the buyer thought about it that way, there were no further complaints.
Of course, as a seller, you have to do everything properly and with integrity. My point is that, when you do so, the tool community appreciates it. There's plenty of other item categories where buyers will make trouble even after you did everything right.
Bad sellers: It's easy to overlook that the large majority of eBay sellers are not seasoned professionals either in sales or business practices. It's unusual to find an individual who is highly skilled at all the duties: sourcing, understanding practical item condition issues, photography, literary composition (needed for accurate and detailed descriptions + spelling and grammar), selling features and benefits, integrity (honest, full disclosures and not fudging anything throughout the process + thinking like "what's the right thing to do" instead of "what can I get away with"), patience (an increasingly scarce commodity in our modern instant-gratification society), basic math, basic geometry and weight, packing/shipping/handling logic and skills, product research, inventory management, web and software skills, people skills, and more. How many folks do you think are skilled in all these qualifications? But that's what is necessary to be a really good eBay seller. The majority are just amateurs. This is on top of the continual policy and procedure changes on eBay making the selling process increasingly complex.
The degrading of eBay sellers is due to a number of reasons. One is the proliferation of buyers using smart phones. They often don't read descriptions fully, it breeds 'abbreviated' thinking, and makes it easy to impulse-buy with later remorse. So some sellers have reduced their processes and expectations accordingly. After all, why spend so much time making sure everything is right when it doesn't really matter that much anymore? Then you have the proliferation of other selling venues that are real 'amateur hour' platforms, which further erodes the online selling mentality. If eBay might be a sit-down restaurant, the others are like a drive-thru burger joint, proliferating the 'fast-food' mentality with bother buyers and sellers alike.
eBay used to be a platform for the 'causal' seller. But you increasingly have sellers who are actually trying to make a living off it, This is a very high bar indeed and relatively few can meet it. So some small sellers have resorted to taking shortcuts, drop-shipping and even cheating to try reaching those numbers.
Anyway, these are some of my thoughts on the subject, for what they're worth.
--They actually have a good idea what they're buying.
--They actually read the descriptions and study the photos. I think this is from their experience of making sure they're buying the exact part they need with the exact specs, confirming it is the exact size and brand. Vintage buyers want to confirm it has the correct markings and style. They actually KNOW what they're looking for! They also want to know precisely what flaws the item might have. So when you give a detailed description and present good photos, tool buyers are the best. They don't mind studying the description details and the photos. Many other categories don't enjoy this benefit as much, with buyers making emotional impulsive decisions and not wanting to read a detailed description.
--Tool buyers, whether collectors or mechanics, have all worked with tools fixing things. They KNOW that sh*t happens. So they are more understanding, tolerant and willing to work with you when the occasional sh*t happens. As a seller, I only ever had one 'sh*t' happen about the item itself, a Craftsman ratchet that when he took it apart he didn't like what the tips of the teeth looked like even though it worked perfectly. I told him he might take it to Sears for warranty, but they wouldn't replace it either because it worked perfectly. Once the buyer thought about it that way, there were no further complaints.
Of course, as a seller, you have to do everything properly and with integrity. My point is that, when you do so, the tool community appreciates it. There's plenty of other item categories where buyers will make trouble even after you did everything right.
Bad sellers: It's easy to overlook that the large majority of eBay sellers are not seasoned professionals either in sales or business practices. It's unusual to find an individual who is highly skilled at all the duties: sourcing, understanding practical item condition issues, photography, literary composition (needed for accurate and detailed descriptions + spelling and grammar), selling features and benefits, integrity (honest, full disclosures and not fudging anything throughout the process + thinking like "what's the right thing to do" instead of "what can I get away with"), patience (an increasingly scarce commodity in our modern instant-gratification society), basic math, basic geometry and weight, packing/shipping/handling logic and skills, product research, inventory management, web and software skills, people skills, and more. How many folks do you think are skilled in all these qualifications? But that's what is necessary to be a really good eBay seller. The majority are just amateurs. This is on top of the continual policy and procedure changes on eBay making the selling process increasingly complex.
The degrading of eBay sellers is due to a number of reasons. One is the proliferation of buyers using smart phones. They often don't read descriptions fully, it breeds 'abbreviated' thinking, and makes it easy to impulse-buy with later remorse. So some sellers have reduced their processes and expectations accordingly. After all, why spend so much time making sure everything is right when it doesn't really matter that much anymore? Then you have the proliferation of other selling venues that are real 'amateur hour' platforms, which further erodes the online selling mentality. If eBay might be a sit-down restaurant, the others are like a drive-thru burger joint, proliferating the 'fast-food' mentality with bother buyers and sellers alike.
eBay used to be a platform for the 'causal' seller. But you increasingly have sellers who are actually trying to make a living off it, This is a very high bar indeed and relatively few can meet it. So some small sellers have resorted to taking shortcuts, drop-shipping and even cheating to try reaching those numbers.
Anyway, these are some of my thoughts on the subject, for what they're worth.
