New eBay Policies - Good News for Sellers!

[babystarz]

Hey all,
I just received my Fall 2012 update newsletter from eBay and wanted to share it with anyone who does not have access. It looks like eBay has realized that many policies unfairly favor buyers and potentially scammers, so they are trying to even the playing field a bit.

New protections and rewards

New safeguards to keep a fair marketplace for sellers. Updates coming to eBay protection programs will benefit and protect you.

- Buyers must contact you first through My Messages in My eBay before opening a Buyer Protection case starting in February to make sure you have the opportunity to resolve issues before eBay gets involved. Buyers will be required to wait three business days for you to respond and resolve the issue before they have the option of opening a case.

- Open cases will no longer count. Also starting in February, having a case opened by a buyer will not be counted toward your performance rating—only those cases that are not found in your favor will be counted.

- Reporting buyers who misuse the system is now faster and easier. Starting in October, a more accessible and enhanced reporting hub will make it easy for you to contact eBay directly to report buyers who violate eBay policies.

- New Top Rated Plus seal highlights top services. The percentage of all eBay purchases that are from Top Rated sellers with tracking uploaded on at least 90% of their US transactions—and include 1-day handling and a 14-day or longer money-back return policy—is growing rapidly.

- To help these listings stand out even more, starting in September, they will be highlighted with a new Top Rated Plus seal. The current Top Rated seller badge will be retired.

New ways to showcase your items, boost sales

- Maximize the power of eBay Fast 'N Free. When the eBay Fast 'N Free logo shows up for a buyer on listings, it delivers a solid boost in sales. For the logo to appear, you have to offer free shipping and the item must be estimated to arrive within 4 business days based on your item location, your buyer's location, your track record, and your carrier's track record for those locations. Starting the week of September 24, you'll be able to check your seller dashboard to see how many of your listings are qualifying for the eBay Fast 'N Free logo and how it's helping your sales.
More selling power for your listings

- Sell more with more pictures! As of October 31, all listings will be required to include a picture. Other picture quality requirements originally announced in February will take effect in 2013 to give you more time to adopt: minimum 500 pixels on the longest side, no added text or borders, and no stock photos as the main image for used items.

- Item condition notes set the right expectations. Starting the week of October 22, you'll have an optional new field to put details about the condition of your used items and have them displayed near the top of the item page where buyers are more likely to read them. This will help reduce both buyer questions and issues with buyer claims that an item is not as described.

- Show your item location. Seeing a valid location in a listing inspires buyer confidence. Also starting the week of October 22, when you enter your valid zip code, your city and state will be automatically added to your listing.

- Ending Auction-style listings early. Ending an Auction-style listing once it has a bid leads to disappointed shoppers who may be less inclined to bid on auctions the next time around. Starting October 1, a fee will be charged for ending an Auction-style listing early.

- Boost sales with multi-variation listings. Selling different variations of an item in one multi-variation Fixed Price listing saves you money on fees, makes listing faster and easier, and encourages buyers to buy more.

- Starting in October, you'll have more listing options—for example, easily add pictures for different variations and add a new variation to active listings, even those with sales. Later this year, you'll have a new feature to identify your existing single variation listings and convert them to one multi-variation listing.

- More communication power in My eBay Messages. Now you can attach up to five pictures through My Messages to help close the sale.

- Category, item specifics, and catalog updates are now consolidated with other updates that may affect your selling. For many sellers these changes will mean reduced fees. Some categories are also being eliminated.

[teresat]

This is very good news for sellers and hopefully will have scammers thinking twice about opening false cases. Thanks for sharing!

[mercynova]

Hope the fee for ending auctions early will help sellers think twice when there's a possibility of them getting scammed. I doubt it though...

[Icicle]

Hm, good to know if I decide to give eBay the time of day with selling (not exactly happy with them right now...)

[ponylady]

Yep, got it today 

[RockinPrettyBeats]

This is all good news. I'm confused by the ending auctions with a bid on it though and the punishment.

Why would anyone end an auction early when it has a bid on it?

[babystarz]

This is all good news. I'm confused by the ending auctions with a bid on it though and the punishment.

Why would anyone end an auction early when it has a bid on it?

Certain unethical people send private offers to the seller :/

[Yurusumaji]

Yep, folks who see an auction has a bid on it will make a high offer if they don't want to wait for the auction to end and risk losing it. So some naughty sellers will pull the auction and sell it to someone for a BIN price.

A lot of these are really great changes. Took them long enough! Maybe I'll actually start using eBay more ...

Still wish they'd bring back feedback for buyers. 

[Ringlets]

   
....
*tries to recover* wow ebay is finally trying to even things out and help the seller ?!    *faints again*   
thats good news!   I also wish they would bring back options for neg/neutral feedback for buyers, but at least this is a step in the righ direction

[RockinPrettyBeats]

Yep, folks who see an auction has a bid on it will make a high offer if they don't want to wait for the auction to end and risk losing it. So some naughty sellers will pull the auction and sell it to someone for a BIN price.

Sorry, I still don't understand. If you end an auction that has a bid on it, aren't you just selling it to the person that bid on it?

I understand if someone ends an auction without a bid, there is no winner. But if you have a bid on it, then that person wins I thought. Which is weird to me cause why would anyone do that since leaving it up will get more bids.

[Ringlets]

Lemme give you an example to help   . Not too long ago there was a spanish piggy Blossom for sale on ebay UK. she was in a job lot of about 5 or 6 common MLP and there were no details in the title or in the description . It said something like "old MLP, selling for my sister who is away in south africa and doesnt need them anymore.." words to that effect.   The starting price was like 0.99  .  The auction ran for a while with bids on it, but not too high bids since everyone was waiting until a bit nearer the end time.... everyone likes a bargain right? but then it got cancelled/ended. None of those bidders won. What had  happened (and there was a thread about it here cos there were quite a few annoyed people who had been bidding) was that another pony collector had spotted it, and  messaged the seller offering £20.  The seller who thought they were getting a good deal, accepted the offer and ended the auction, to sell to this other person.  Both the seller and the collector were wrong to do that, but it happens quite often on ebay   
 (In the end the other person's ID got found out  very quickly during the thread, the seller was contacted by other collectors and let know the true value of the pony etc and that what had happened was wrong.  The seller then pullled out of the deal and relisted the piggy as an auction with the proper title/description.)
Hope that helps a bit RPB 

[RockinPrettyBeats]

I gotcha, it's possible to end an auction early but with no winner even though there is a bid. That's odd. But yeah I've read stories like that before on this forum and always thought it was auctions that had no bids.

Yay, new rules!

[babystarz]

I agree that neg/neutral feedback options for buyers need to be brought back - it's really the only way to hold people publicly accountable to the community.

[crimsondeity]

I don't sell on Ebay (yet), but this makes me happy. Ebay is a site for both buyers and sellers; when the favor is strongly skewed in favor of one over the other, it hurts everyone.

I also agree that they need to bring back the capability for sellers to give neg/neutral feedback. I want my buying feedback to mean something!

[babylofty]

Are they referring to February 2012 or 2013? Because if most of these (besides the October dates) don't go into effect until 2013, I won't be selling there until then!