E-BAY - MY WAY!

 RECOMMENDED READING FOR ANYBODY WHO BUYS FROM ME OR SELLS TO ME

I take E-Bay buying and selling seriously. When I sell I take the utmost care to see that my descriptions are clear and accurate and I provide large clear photos. Questions are answered promptly and items are packed with the greatest care, using the best materials, and shipped quickly. When I buy I play by the rules and both my PayPal account and my shipping address are PayPal VERIFIED. Let's face it, when you buy on E-Bay you are putting your faith in somebody who's maybe thousands of miles away and all you have to go on is their feedback. When I see a feedback rating that is less than 100% I go backwards through sometimes many pages of feedback and find each negative feedback. This is especially important with Power-Sellers who move tons of merchandise, since a 99% rating which doesn't look too bad may in fact be a dozen negative feedbacks that have been diluted by their high sales numbers. Read them all, see if there's a common issue. E-Bay is an amazing phenomenon and they are working hard to make it safer buy and sell, but, real safety begins with us, the sellers and buyers.

Feedback, both my own and the feedback I leave for others I consider to be VERY IMPORTANT. If you check a seller's feedback and see one left by me, you can take that to the bank. On 3 different occasions I have left feedback for sellers BEFORE I received the goods simply because they were so helpful and went out of their way to make things easier for me due to my disability. My own feedback record speaks for itself and I do everything I can to keep my high score.

A WORD ABOUT PAYPAL

E-Bay's recent change that requires sellers to provide at least one "Paperless" payment method has made PayPal acceptance by sellers universal and I am well aware of the fact that this change was not popular with some sellers. I have read all the anti-PayPal postings around the web and even ones contained in a seller's write ups. The cost of accepting PayPal , barely visible to somebody like myself who only lists a couple of items at a time when I sell which is not often. However what I see as "spare change" can become a substantial amount of money to professional sellers moving large amounts of merchandise or big ticket items. Economics 101 calls it "Overhead" and every business has to consider the cost of doing business when assessing their bottom line. The cost of doing business on e-Bay is peanuts when you consider how much it would cost a "Brick & Morter" store in advertising alone to equal the exposure you get when you sell on e-Bay. Consider the huge cost that "Mail Order" businesses must pay for the mountain of catalogs they send out and maintaining a large staff of sales people to answer the phones and take your order. That is all just a part of the cost of their doing business. A cost that is calculated and a small portion ADDED TO THE PRICE OF EVERY ITEM. If a seller is getting stung by PayPal's fees it's because they pay them "out of pocket". Take a quick business class and learn how to price an item properly and on which line you record the different costs associated with selling that item so you clearly see how much you are making. There is a word for businesses who pay expenses out of pocket and that word is CLOSED.

Here's a another factor about accepting PayPal that most do not consider. For handicapped folks like myself to have to arrange transport just to "run" to the bank or Post Office to obtain a money order, that alone becomes a barrier that says, "Sorry, This seller does not sell to the handicapped". Especially in the winter when the danger is greatly amplified, NO PayPal items are the same as if you walked up to a store and found a sign on the door saying, "Stop! We do not sell to people like you!"

PayPal MAKES YOUR ITEMS FOR SALE ON E-BAY HANDICAPPED ACCESSIBLE.   That's a nice thing to do and in return, myself and others like me will be happy to reward you with our patronage.

A VERY SPECIAL WARNING... I do not take matters of dishonesty lightly.

The first time somebody tried to rip me off I had their local police knocking on their door within 3 days. I had little to go on and they were 1500 miles away but, I tracked them down and my money was returned. And don't think for a second that I can be "Waited Out", one seller, not even in the U.S., seemed to think that if they delayed long enough I would go away. It took over four months but, I got them. Another seller was peddling a proprietary copyright protected item that had been illegally duplicated. The second after I had confirmed the item as counterfeit I was on the phone to the manufacturer who was very happy I had called. If you are dishonest I WILL FIND YOU AND YOU WILL BE PROSECUTED !

 Today's retail prices are not at all friendly to anyone and especially so to someone living on a fixed income. E-Bay bargains let me enjoy my hobby or buy other items that I could have otherwise never been able to purchase or sell things to provide a little extra cash.

I was not born handicapped. I started to have problems at about 48, which increased to the point that I could no longer work or even drive a car. I have Narcolepsy, a incurable condition where one simply falls asleep without warning. It's not bad as far as being handicapped goes but, rather awkward in a store or restaurant. When your hear, "Clean up in Isle 6 over a store's P.A., guess who was in Isle 6? And nothing ruins the ambiance your favorite restaurant faster than a guy at the next table diving face first into a bowl of soup. Worse yet it will probably be fatal for myself and the 20 or 30 people who were in the way when a SUV with a sleeping driver at the wheel crashed through the storefront's window and became a huge food Vegimatic as it passed through the Produce Section at 80 miles an hour.

I have a lovely wife, my Annie, who has stuck with me through it all. She is a saint and it's tough to surprise her with a holiday or anniversary gift when she is the one who takes me shopping and handles the money.

E-Bay lets me "shop" and my PayPal account lets me have "secret cash" so I can take back a part of the world I had lost. It's great to be able buy my wife that special gift. Trust me, regaining even a little independence is huge to a handicapped person.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope E-Bay sellers who read this page will know how much their acceptance of PayPal means to the handicapped. If you are E-Bay buyer & sometimes seller like myself, I hope you found this page worth the time spent reading it.

Best regards and may God bless and keep you.

Jim Favre aka "konkapot"