Ebay Neverending Issues

It's almost funny now.  So my eBay account appears to be completely jacked.  I placed a bid on a an item, and I receive the confirmation email.  I check yesterday to see if I won.

Nope didn't win.  Winning bid was $13... my max bid... $17.  Huh?  So I login and check my "bids and offers" page.  Empty, zero bids shown.  I check the items "won/lost" page... Blank... zero.. nada.

So I'm thinking, ok something happened, didn't register whatever. 

So come into work this morning, and get an eBay email "You need to pay for your item".. oh boy... Winning bid... $14????

I click thru the process of payment, and it prompts me "Do you want to link your Paypal Account to eBay?"  .. Hmmm.. let me think.  Sure, that'd be great since they've been linked for 10 or so years, and I just linked my Seller account.  That'd be great eBay, please do this.

So I pay for the item, get the confirmation email that I paid... check my status page.  Blank, nothing, nada, ziltch... no bids, no winning items.. nothing.

This is just getting ridiculous now >.<

I have three more auctions hanging out, so I'm curious to see how these go.  If these give me problems with "bogus+email@gmail.com", or "You've bid.." no you didn't "Yes You did", no you didn't "You, won pay up", nope no items here move along... then I'll just have to create a new account, and new paypal.

Unfortunate, as I'm hitting my eBay 14th Anniversary membership.

Ebay Fail... Again ..

UPDATE!  Just realized this is still going to the wrong email address!  My email address in eBay is "doomicon.painting@gmail.com", and the payment is being sent to "doomicon@gmail.com", with the incorrect "bogus+ebay@gmail.com" as the payee..

I'm about ready to offer free database support and/or framework development to eBay.. sheesh!

So sold my second painted army, yay!  Got everything going, was hoping for smooth sailing...

nope.

Ebay did it again.  After the first issue I created an email address that was according to eBay standards.  Changed my email in eBay, and also added that email to my wife and I's paypal account.

So now I sell my Black Templar Army, I follow all the steps, send an invoice.. Great buyer, pays quickly.

I get a copy of the invoice this morning to the correct address.. AND  yup, you guessed it.. First line...

"Hello bogus+ebay@gmail.com"

ARGH!  I checked account settings in Ebay and the address doesn't exist!  I did take the step of ensuring my paypal account was linked.  It appears it was linked for buying, but not for selling.. Ok, that's fine.  I forgot to link my paypal account, but c'mon.  Still sending payments from an email address that is no longer registered.

So offering free shipping again, customer comes first :-)

Just a lil rant.  Hopefully this will go better with my Orks. 

Ebay: Orks For Sale

Broke these up into smaller auctions.  Paintjobs are TT quality only.  If you followed 1G, these guys were my bane!

Warbikes

Nob, Boyz, Trukk

Stormboyz, Kan, and Buggies

Ork Boyz, Nob, and Old Trukk 2

Cool People

Just had to drop a note that my buyer has been really cool about the situation!  They're down under, and will get an awesome Wolfie Army :-)

Hopefully, they'll send me some Game Photo's to post here!

Ebay + Paypal = Expensive!

So things worked out, customer didn't seem to read the email to clearly, just canceled and paid the invoice I sent.  He was confused about the lack of shipping costs, had to explain again that I would pay shipping.

Everything worked out, taking the package to work with me so I can ship it out at lunch time and update customer with a tracking number.

How much did I make?  What does Ebay and Paypal charge?

Let's see.

+$535   Sold
-$21.17  (Paypal charge for the $535 transaction)
-$49.54 (Ebay Charge)


Left over... $464.29.  Now minus the shipping I had to pay due to my eBay account error.

Grand Total $403.34.

Yikes.  Last time I sold something on eBay (it's been yeeeeears), no matter how much you sold it for, you were charged things like 18 cents a picture, a buck for the listing... so you had more control over the cost, and it would come out to be $12 max daddy with pics.

In the future I won't be selling painted armies, only individual units or battleforce sized.  Starting bids will be alot higher.  Would've been better to learn this monetary lesson with my Orks, however no worries I'll keep trucking forward.

Footnote, I now understand why sellers cannot possibly give the discounts on 40k that I think they should give.  If ebay is charging 10% (9+listing fee) of the sell price, that's a 10% discount that you can't get.

Ebay Fail!

So I was really thinking about doing painting part time to make some cash.  I enjoy painting more than playing, and I like playing.

Instead of selling for ridiculous prices, I want to fill a middle ground.  Offer well painted units, for reasonable prices.. No Golden Daemon $500 figs, but squads painted really well, for a good price.

I wanted to start off on the right foot... and I've already stumbled.

See back in 2007 ebay changed policy stating that your login and email can't be the same, because of scammers.  So sometime around 2009 I logged in to "impulse" buy an item, and it prompted me for a new email.  I put in my doomicon gmail address, and it was denied.  So I just threw in a temp address "bogus+something@gmail.com"  (note, bogus+something isn't the real address, using as an example as if someone were to magically access the address, they'd get the money) and used that and purchased the item.  Heck, my paypal email address is the first one, no issues...

Fast forward to 2012 and SELLING (not buying).  So I sell my first item on eBay.  It moves to "pending payment" status... only I don't get an email?  I login to Paypal.. nothing .. nada.

I started searching and found this:

http://reviews.ebay.com/Changing-your-email-address-to-receive-payments?ugid=10000000004224189

I checked my email, and lo it was the broken one.  I changed it, and as SOON as I changed it, I received an email that payment was sent to...

"Hello bogus+something@gmail.com,

You've received new funds!

Simply click the link below and complete PayPal's one-page registration form to claim your money:

https://www.paypal.com/au/links/uni/email=bogus+something@gmail.com

So yup.. the funds are waiting for "bogus+something@gmail.com" .. an email that is bogus (yes it has a "+" sign).

So I had to send a 'I completely fail' email to my first customer, and explained the situation.

Technically the customer can just give me a negative ding.  Hopefully they won't.  I offered to send a bunch of SW sprues on my dime.  Since the box is packed so tight I couldn't fit a Bolt Pistol if I wanted to.

So sold for $535, cost me a little over $50 to sell on eBay, and I'll have to foot another $60 to send sprues.  But .. if it keeps my first customer happy, I'll fly to Australia with the package, and tell my wife I always wanted to take her to Austrilia :-) 

Ebay Space Wolves Army

For those bidders that follow the blog link (I honestly didn't think anyone would, but hey cool!).

Models I painted in two months for 1G.. I think the was the Month 2 shot?

DO NOT BUY THE SPACE WOLVES CODEX!  It's included in the auction, I just forgot to list it!

Good Luck!  Stay in touch!  Send me pics of the Army in Action, and I'll post em' here :-)



To answer the Question, Matt Galvin isn't me.  Good friend of mine who's an amateur photographer, he took the really good pics :-)  If the pic doesn't have a watermark, then I took them.  I do take decent pics (if I may say so), and will do a post on how to setup lighting, camera settings, macro shots, etc.

Thx
Rob

Ebay it's a Conspiracy!

So I've always been one of those guys that always has that ebay conspiracy thing going... You know, when you're bidding on an item, and then someone with 0 feedback starts driving up the price.

My first thought is always, "The seller is using a separate account to drive up the price!"... guess what.  It's happening on MY AUCTION!  I have a bidder from "down under" that's winning my auction and has ZERO feedback :-(

I don't want to deny the guy an opportunity, but I do have two concerns.  I've only sold a few items on ebay in my near 14 years as a member.  I've only had one "bad" experience, and it was with a member who had ZERO feedback.

Secondly, honestly if I were bidding on this auction a week ago, I would think it was suspect.  Now having seen it first hand from the seller perspective, I feel better about purchasing on eBay... but still doesn't help my auction.

I'm debating updating the description in my second auction, and asking people with ZERO feedback to refrain from bidding.  I was going to update my current auction, but unfortunately can't as it has less than 12 hours to completion.

I think I'll keep trucking along.  People have to start somewhere, and with the prices of GW products in Australia, I don't want to prevent someone from possibly getting a cool army for the cost of a couple of Land Raiders :-)

Footnote, I didn't realize as the seller you get to see the full member name of the person bidding, and where they are located.  Pretty Cool... and yes it's been that long since I sold something on eBay :-)

UPDATE!  After discussing with my friends here at work, they're no help, they've just added to the conspiracy...  "What if someone creates a new account on purpose to use his new ZERO feedback to stall an auction to get a better price!"... UGH!  This is an endless circle. 

Black Templar's For Sale

Next up is my Black Templar Army.  Ironically I think I fielded this army once.  Never the whole thing.
It was also the first "real" paint job I did.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=261095596963#ht_562wt_1397
Black Templars

Good Pain TT++

Marshal/Castellan (PS/MCBolter Banner)
Chaplain Term Armor (Croz/SB)
2xSword Brethren Term (PFxSB)
Champion (Custom)

6x Sword Brethren (mix of bp, cc, claws, pw)

Squad A:  (1xBP/CS, 1xFlamer, 7xBolter)
Squad B: (1xBP/CS, 9xBP/CS)
Squad C: (9xBP/CS, 1xPG)

5xNeos (BP/CC)

Misc Troops Hvy (1xLC, 1xMM, 1xML)

1xRazor (TLLC)
2xLand Speeder Typhoon, Missles removable w/ MM or HF options)

1x LRC (or) LRR magnatized

Project Ebay

I purchase all my 40k stuff used on eBay.  It's not much, but you can really add some pieces here and there to your army.

I only buy used, so it does take a bit of work to get them ready, and you have to be careful with your purchases.

Thought I would show an example of a purchase, and show how I get them ready for my SW Army.

Today, I had a shipment come in.  I picked up "Space Wolf Terminators x 4" for $28.50 including shipping (if I remember correctly).  

Actually, I noticed in the photo included, it was actually 4 x Terminators and 1 x Njal :-)  Yup, some termies, and a $22.50 Model, for $28.50.

So here is a pic of what I have to work with.  The base coat existing didn't appear to be too think based on the pic, and it was the right base color, so I won't strip these.  I track the progress :-)

BEFORE PICS...

Note, took with phone.. no need for detail :-)

Njal (Finecast)