My virtual visit to the Phalanx wargame show

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

And failure !

[Techno]

Nope.....They haven't fallen apart again yet !

(That won't last long, though.)

Specsavers better be open tomorrow....Otherwise I'll be even stroppier than usual.

Cheers - Phil

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Otherwise I'll be even stroppier than usual.

Quite IMPOSSIBLE !

[Leon]

This was a nice read Norm, it sounds like you had a good day at the show!  I hope you took a few lightbulbs out in your house to accurately reflect the Phalanx lighting...!

The eBay fees are a real nuisance and I've been surprised that they've not had to reduce them to compete better.  We pay an average 15% fees on the sales through our eBay Store per month, plus another 3% to PayPal as well, which is a ridiculous amount to lose.  It's one of the reasons we only sell selected items on there, as we don't have the margin on most of the ranges to make it work.

[Norm]

Thanks Leon, I should have just painted my camera lens an orange / yellow colour :-). I remember buying a specific blue paint I needed from your Vallejo stand and when I got outside into the real daylight, it was clearly the wrong blue, of course you kindly exchanged it for me.

I am quite shocked by those fees for a shop, I would have thought they would have given a shop a bit of preference to help with and encourage volume (which helps them) - as it stands, those fees must destroy margins.

The thing I really dislike is the soulless nature of the thing. I typically contact the buyer within minutes of the sale and state that on payment I will post at the next post office opening opportunity and I confirm the address I will send to. I then get payment and again e-mail to confirm I will send the following morning. I always do their feedback at the same time. Next morning I post the parcel and again contact the buyer to say it is mailed and to give them the postal number (I always use second class signed for service).  Invariably I usually stick a small extra in there as a small gift, a sort of wargamer to wargamer thing ....... and that is the last I hear, I only seem to get feed back off sellers, not buyers and if it was not for the fact that after several weeks I have not had a complaint that the parcel has not turned up, I would never know that it had arrived. It just seems very one way, thankless traffic, there is no joy to it, in the way that there is when dealing with 'real' people.

In truth  my e-bay sale on this occasion was simply to support and honest story line behind the blog post - I am becoming increasingly dissuaded from using it. 

[Steve J]

That's the reason I don't sell on E-bay, rather I try and sell at my local show twice a year, or private sales with friends etc.

[DaveH]

Nice report Norm.

Personally I do use ebay as I don't often get the chance to go to shows, but usually wait till I get a chance to use the maximum seller fees offers.

I try to usually buy direct from companies rather than use ebay as I know the fees are high so I'd rather use Pendraken's site directly.

[Raider4]

I've bought over 40 things off of eBay in almost 20 twenty years.

I have never, ever had a seller leave feedback for me until after I have left feedback for them. And I always leave feedback. And sometimes they don't, which is why I only have 39 feedbacks.

Never had a problem either with any transaction. Maybe I've been lucky.

[Ithoriel]

Bought lots of stuff on EBay and had a few problems, all swiftly and satisfactorily resolved, occasionally leaving me with more than I paid for.

[Leon]

Thanks Leon, I should have just painted my camera lens an orange / yellow colour :-). I remember buying a specific blue paint I needed from your Vallejo stand and when I got outside into the real daylight, it was clearly the wrong blue, of course you kindly exchanged it for me.

Yeah we get that a lot at Phalanx!

I have never, ever had a seller leave feedback for me until after I have left feedback for them. And I always leave feedback. And sometimes they don't, which is why I only have 39 feedbacks.

That's odd, I always leave feedback at the same time as confirming that we've posted their items.  To me they've upheld their side of it by that point, they've made the purchase, completed the payment, etc. so there's no reason for me to wait before leaving feedback.  If they choose to leave it for me in return then that's a bonus.

[fred.]

The last load of stuff I sold was probably a year ago, when I cleared out a load of vintage action man stuff. I got feedback on about half the items - which leaves you waiting to know if they have received the items.

I think ebay has changed from lots of individuals selling bits and pieces to a mix of commercially and a lot of collectors buying and selling semi-commercially. My teenage daughter's view of ebay is 'no-one uses that anymore'

I think sellers not leaving feedback until the buyer has left feedback is part of the lottery of the system, where buyers can claim almost anything now, to get a paypal refund. I've had few problems with ebay mainly buying and selling hobby stuff - but talking to friends who have sold electronic stuff that seems a whole other thing!