Step 1 - Secure Job
Step 2 - Buy games, Care less about selling them
Step 3 - (and the often most overlooked step) Play games

You can have them pick up packages from anywhere, and as linktothepastgaming mentioned, only ONE thing needs to be Priority, per pick-up.

Personally, I have them pick up stuff from my office.  I pack it at home, bring it in, and leave it at the front door on the way in.


It sounds like you're doing enough business that you must be taking business deductions for some of this.  It would probably be worth your while to get a PO Box (as your legal business address) and then you simply make your run by the post office as one leg of your commute each day and it makes your commute a legal tax deduction.  That could easily be worth more than the $200-$300/mo you're complaining about.

My work wouldnt allow me to bring 3-4 crates of packages up there everyday plus dont want them to worry about it getting cut into my work which my boss has mentioned before when I talked about the ebay store before.

Im not bitching to bitch about it. It affects me and this is the ebay rant thread apparently, and there new seller update has people up in arms on the site. This isnt going to stop me just changes how I already do things making it more stressful. This is just more growing pains. Just getting out my frustrations.

Step 4. Have aspirations of a game store and pursue them 

Man, I need a Sky Kid CIB.

I've never had any problems with eBay. Then again, I've only made a transaction (either buying or selling) 58 times. So I guess it's just not my time yet...

But I do have plenty of gripes with GameStop, but I've said 'em before. This should be a fun thread.

Yeah so I sold something under this promotion last night and it's not quite the 25% they advertise.  This is how they did it for me:

I sold something at $199.99 w/ $14.99 Shipping.  I'll obviously get a 20% discount on Final Value Fees at the end of the billing period.  However, that extra 5% was only applied to the item's value, not shipping.

So $199.99 * 9% (Final Value Fee for auction) = $17.99.  On my bill, it shows as $17.10 with a subnote of "Promotional Rate".  So I saved the 5% there.  However, on shipping, I get no final value fee break.  It shows as $14.99 * 9% = $1.35 Final Value Fee, no "Promotional" subnote.

So the moral of this story would be to list everything with Free shipping if you want to maximize your final value fee discounts.

I'd like to know how any of you plan to secure that TRS 20% discount after June 1st. With a 14-day money back return as just ONE of the prerequisites for their revamped Top-Rated Seller program, you're selling used games to people who could essentially rent them for two weeks and just return them. And how do you reconcile this with an inventory where PCBs can be easily swapped out? Sure, the tracking numbers requirement and the 1-day handling time requirement can be achieved without much of a hassle if you have the time each day to get inventory out the door, but the 14-day money back guarantee with no questions asked is a killer for the small business video game seller.

It's really not that big of a deal. I've sold at least 2,000 items through eBay and not once has someone tried to pull the bait and switch return scam. It's more paranoia of "what ifs" rather than valid complaints about a seller's scam stories.

I have been Top-Seller since it started and plan to continue as long as I collect.

If there's somebody using you as a rental service, not much you can do about that.

If it's a high-end game and you're worried about somebody pulling a bait-and-switch, you can put an ink stamp or something on the back of the board to prove it wasn't what you sent them, and you should win a Paypal dispute.

I will admit that those are a couple reasons that I don't advertise a return policy, but if somebody does have a genuine issue I'd be more than happy to offer a refund.  The only two issues I've had involved an overheating N64 (didn't test it long enough, shipped a bare replacement console and he was happy), and something disappearing from the face of the earth on its way to Canada.

Not an eBay deal, but I did have a First Class International Package almost get lost on it's way to Canada.  I'm glad it made it because it would have been an expensive refund for me to issue.  Missent to Barbados!

Swapping boards might not happen as often as we worry it could.  But as captmorgandrinker said, if someone wants to use you as a game rental depot, there's not much you can do about it.  Catch onto their spiel after 2 or 3 returns and block 'em?  Good for you, they've probably got a few people within spitting distance who can pick up where they left off.

I doubt that would be too huge of an issue, especially if you set your refund policy to where they don't get their original shipping refunded and the return shipping is on their dime.

And Jone, that makes me think that somewhere my Lost Vikings are lost on a beach in Barbados!

Quick vent; I can't stand buyers who win and don't communicate nor pay.

Messaged a seller on eBay seeing if he would come down on his price (to what the cart actually costs). He said he couldn't do it due to having "many watchers" on his BIN...If they wanted to buy it, they'd hit the BIN. They're just waiting for you to lower the price. Oh well, no big loss to me.

Usually when someone asks me to lower a price, and I decline someone buys it for full price in the next 24 hours. Usually I get asked that question within a week of listing it too. Last week I had a defective psp I had just listed. Someone asked if I would cut 25 percent off the price. I declined. 30 minutes later another person asked me the same thing. I declined. Two days later, sells for full price.  When they say many watchers, that means its a high traffic'd item that will probably get bought since so many people are looking at it. From experience I decline 90 percent of cheaper offers unless the item has sat for awhile or I got it for dirt cheap, they usually will sell if the BIN is reasonable with other BINs

Well, I only asked for a slight reduction (I only asked because it's all the money I have in my PayPal right now), and I have been keeping tabs on it for the past week or so. I only asked when there was 5 hours left, since it had run its course and looked like no one was biting.

Dear Craigslist seller:

THANK YOU FOR SCREAMING AT ME. IT MAKES IT A LOT EASIER TO HEAR YOUR POST.

hey guys is there a way to get an email address from a ebay user id?
Having an issue with a guy for a non payment.... >.>

If he was the winning bidder, his email should be on the email you get from Ebay. The one telling you that your item sold.

I really hate people who include those Nintendo "Wow" inserts, SNES console instructions, and Super Scope 6 manuals in order to fill out a manual lot.

Also every time I bid on a lot that has maybe two games I want and the rest being games like Zoop, Madden etc. and a reseller outbids me for $10 more. I swear, if I ever won the lottery or something; I'd devote millions to buying up Zoop carts and incinerating them just so they wouldn't appear in searches anymore.

eBay charges too much, Amazon has no standards in place for grading (one guys very good is anothers poor), Craigslist is sketchy, and GameStop.... Well, they just suck.... They all have their disadvantages, and with the exception of GameStop, I've used them all quite a bit with only some small bumps in the road.

Ebay fees are bad but Amazon are worse.

I went to the swapmeet yesterday and picked up this cool vintage 1989 bar top machine with 7 "casino" games and proceeded to list it on craigslist after I test it out and take pictures. Anyways, I got a lot of interest this morning and I took the first persons email and gave them a call. We talked for a bit and then he said he would be able to meet me in an hour. A hour passes by and the buy texted me that he will need a couple of more hours and I said fine I will hold it until the afternoon. I text him a couple of hours after that and no reply. This was a good three hours wasted (10am - 1pm).

I go on to the next guy and the guy really seems interested and said he is stopping by my town because hes taking the bus inbetween cities later that day. He tells me that we can meet up at the bus station at 6:30 and he was excited to take it home. Well that was at 3pm and its now 6:13 and he doesn't reply to my messages.

My whole day, I want it back please.

Just quit buying to make a quick profit and you'll be fine. Just start doing it for yourself! Wasting time and effort is the only way to make a small amount of profit and unless you do it in bulk it won't net you enough to make a difference.

On ebay second time this week , Seller sends games to another buyer. These sellers aren't new either.