Question
I resumed my "paypal only" auctions after a couple months lapse and inadvertantly discovered I can block bidders who don't have paypal. I've been running "paypal only" auctions for a couple years, and never noticed this block option before. I have no idea if it's been there all along, or is a recent developement.
It just drove home the point though, that ebay has a huge learning curve now a days compared to 6 years ago when I first started. Man, I don't if I were starting out today if I could navigate through the maze of menus without giving up.
Answer
Devon,
When I first started with eBay not only was it easier it was a lot more fun to be a seller. Almost everyone paid and the sell through rate was huge. Now I have to list three times as many items to have anywhere near decent sales results...
Answer
They had revised the options for buyer requirements in Nov.
Not sure if that is when the nonpaypal block was institued.
11/23/04 05:48 AM
***Coming Soon: Enhancements to Buyer Requirements for Sellers***
Date: 11/22/04 Time: 04:39:32 PM PST
In the next few days, we will introduce enhancements to Buyer Requirements (previously referred to as "Buyer Management – Buyer Block Preferences" . The Buyer Requirements feature will allow sellers to have more control over who can bid on their listings, helping to reduce post-transaction problems and potential Unpaid Items.
Buyer Requirements will provide sellers with the option to restrict their items only to bidders and buyers who have a PayPal account. Our internal research has found that buyers with a PayPal account have an 80% lower Unpaid Item rate.
In addition, the Buyer Requirements feature will also enable sellers to block buyers:
who are bidding from a country to which the seller has designated (through the SYI form or other listing tools) they won’t ship items;
with a net negative feedback score;
with two Unpaid Item strikes in the previous 30 days.
Sellers will be able to set their Buyer Requirements by clicking on Preferences in My eBay and scrolling to the bottom.
Please note: While Buyer Requirements may be helpful in reducing the likelihood of Unpaid Items, it may also limit the number of bidders on your listing. Please visit the Buyer Requirements help page for more information about this feature.
We will host an online Community workshop on Tuesday, November 23rd at 14:00 PT to answer your questions about Buyer Requirements. We’ll also discuss other eBay initiatives around Unpaid Items and offer tips for sellers that will help them minimize Unpaid Items in their businesses. We look forward to seeing you there.
Regards,
eBay
chloe
Answer
Not only was it easier in "the good old days", but percentage of sales was much higher, and number of bids on a particular item / final sale prices were generally much higher too
As someone else said, you have to work a lot harder at it nowadays - and also work a lot harder at finding stuff to sell, since everyone at flea markets seems to think their items (even pure junk) are going to make a killing on eBay, so they price them out of reasonable range!
Answer
It takes WAY longer to list these days, and even using Turbo Lister, there are just too many options for each auction, too many things that need to be done to launch an auction.
Our only hope is that it's too daunting for new people, so they'll remain buyers instead of becoming sellers.