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Lakeland TeddiesIf you're like me and love the thrill of an auction, you can list on www.theteddypatch.com for free.
The Teddy Patch/Bear NecessitiesWhy not try The Teddy Patch and get away from the hassel and the high fees?
White Forest BearsHi,
Could you please provide some stats on The Teddy Patch? It sounds interesting, but I'm wondering what is your sell through rate, etc.
BrisbaneI am an ebay buyer and I always give 5 for everything - I am always happy to receive my item. If it arrives safe and sound why not give all 5's? If I have a problem I contact the seller first. I can't blame sellers if the post is slow or things get lost in the mail - that's why you insure your items. And one cannot expect sellers to answer emails immediately they do have lives to lead. I suppose a lot of people are just too lazy to try to resolve issues and simply leave negative feedback. I love ebay but sadly I have seen many of the sellers being driven away by these STUPID policy changes.
Bears by EdieGood for you Teeeej! I wish all ebay buyers thought like you - although really we are only asking for FAIR and HONEST feedback. I totally agree with you - if you are in ANY way unhappy with a purchase contact the seller FIRST! I have found most sellers on ebay to be very reasonable if you take the time to explain to them what you are unhappy about. In the very rare situation where a seller really is trying to rip you off then they DO deserve a bad feedback rating - those are the people ebay should be targeting not the people who have 100% in feedback comments but are now getting low DSRs just because some buyers do not understand this new rating system.
Bears by EdieCould you please provide some stats on The Teddy Patch? It sounds interesting, but I'm wondering what is your sell through rate, etc.
I too would be interested in some stats. With both The Teddy Patch and Bid4bears I don't see any way to see completed auctions to see whether things are selling. It is certainly not very encouraging when I go to the sites and see that there are about 123 items (7 pages) on The Teddy Patch and NOT ONE SINGLE ONE has a bid and on bid4bears there are about 50 items (3 pages) and ONLY ONE item has a bid. Are these items selling in the last minutes and therefore I am missing them or are most of them not selling at all?????
White Forest BearsCould you please provide some stats on The Teddy Patch? It sounds interesting, but I'm wondering what is your sell through rate, etc.
I too would be interested in some stats. With both The Teddy Patch and Bid4bears I don't see any way to see completed auctions to see whether things are selling. It is certainly not very encouraging when I go to the sites and see that there are about 123 items (7 pages) on The Teddy Patch and NOT ONE SINGLE ONE has a bid and on bid4bears there are about 50 items (3 pages) and ONLY ONE item has a bid. Are these items selling in the last minutes and therefore I am missing them or are most of them not selling at all?????
Exactly. I would just like some stats in order to see if it's a viable option for us.
tEDDIE bearsBearpile is AWESOME!! I've gotten so many new collectors from that site, and Dave Stack is fantastic. He also has a new site Dollpile.com for dolls.
I totally agree Erin - I rarely have a bear last more than a day on Bear Pile and the neatest part is - - - - when I get paid, I get to keep it.
I am an ebay buyer and I always give 5 for everything - I am always happy to receive my item. If it arrives safe and sound why not give all 5's? If I have a problem I contact the seller first. I can't blame sellers if the post is slow or things get lost in the mail - that's why you insure your items. And one cannot expect sellers to answer emails immediately they do have lives to lead. I suppose a lot of people are just too lazy to try to resolve issues and simply leave negative feedback. I love ebay but sadly I have seen many of the sellers being driven away by these STUPID policy changes.
I just got a parcel from Ebay that the seller charged me $18 to post, I paid it thinking it was coming Global Priority which is $11.50 for a flat rate envelope, so I figured, fair enough.
Well when it arrived yesterday, the postmark said $3.80 or something... it was in a bubble envelope, no tissue or any packing (not that it needed it, just that the packing materials weren't expensive) The seller was very pleasant and a pleasure to buy from- but I am annoyed she charged that much for postage... so what do you do?
The whole thing with the restriction is just ridiculous though, specially when it describes 4 stars as being "accurate" description, "satisfied" with communication, shipped "quickly" and "reasonable" shipping and handling charges- to me that still sounds pretty good and anyone who only buys and not sells would have no clue that that is in effect a negative star rating. Ebay really didn't think this out very well!
If they want to get rid of small sellers I would think there is better ways to do it, but surely they can't be so stupid to not see what they are doing to good sellers. It's a mystery, but I guess it's their business and they are free to run it as they see fit 
I am so sorry that you are in this position Karen, I hope you can figure a way around it soon. Since Ebay wont let you list, maybe you have a good friend or relative who would open an account and technically have them list for you?
Little Bear GuyI agree with you Karen, I hate getting ripped off with shipping charges. Honestly when they say shipping and handling and in your case almost 15.00 for handling Pulllleasssss that is a blatant ripe off and really how much does an envelope cost. I always charge the exact shipping rate or close to to it, I don't charge for boxes and we buy brand new ones for every bear that we ship.
I would leave a neutral post and I'd give a very low rating for the shipping cost, once the big sellers start getting hit with the low ratings and it starts to affect their scores, then see how long it takes ebay to try and fix it.
big hugs
Shane
The Teddy Patch/Bear NecessitiesWhy not give The Teddy Patch a try? No listing fees and no hassel.
White Forest BearsWhy not give The Teddy Patch a try? No listing fees and no hassel.
Could you please provide us some stats on your site as requested in a previous post? (See just a few posts above this). Thanks!!
LuxembourgI'm so surprised with this new rule at ebay!! Up to now I've always been satisfied with the bears I bought on ebay and for sure with the artists. So always left a 5 star hopefully! As a collector, I can't remember having received any information from ebay on that topic... That's incredible!! For sure, if you decide to go out of ebay, I will follow you whereever you go (Etsy, Bearpile, Bid4bears ...) I really think you must warn collectors about this new ebay rule.
Custom TeddysHi all!
I was very interested to read through this post. I listed on eBay (I had a storefront) for about 9 months and did really well; until they started making all the fee changes, etc. I then went over to Etsy. Not many sales, but I think that is because I need to "advertise"; so I'm working on that. I checked out bid4bears; I'll go over to the teddypatch also. It's great to be part of a teddy bear community! 
Custom TeddysOh, one more thing..... that was my FIRST post; although I've been lurking in the background for a few months. Glad to meet all of you 
Jellybelly BearsKaren, Shane....I always ask for a refund for excessive postage...usually get it too Especially with our dollar rate, if an american is overcharging by $10, its a lot of money to us so I don't let it go...its easy for them to refund on pay pal
The only auctions that are different are the ones that list items for .99c, so their items are listed first in cheapest items search....they make up the rest of the money in the postage instead, and usually don't combine shipping....each item is charged seperate shipping...they are a little sneaky so watch out for those.
Sarah,
I don't know if you are responding to my ebay DSR message? But not only do I ship within two days of a sale, even before I receive payment; but I also charge less than my cost for mailing. THe reason I am having trouble with my DSR rating for mailing is because my collector thought that the 4 rating meant "Very Good". Ebay considers 4 as a failing grade.
Karen
KJ Lyons Design
Bears by EdieKaren (Lyons) - I think Sarah was referring to a couple of posts by Shane and Karen Alderson regarding high shipping costs by some sellers - not to you.
I've been checking a few other artist bears sellers on ebay to see what their star rating is and am quite surprised at how many of them do have the full 5 stars in every category - and I am talking artists who sell quite a lot of bears. I am like you Karen - charging what it costs for shipping, mailing out at as soon as I can, trying my best to communicate even if they are a different language and giving a complete description with lots of pictures from different angles and I haven't gotten a full score - what more can one do???? I can't figure out if these other people are doing something different????, have just been lucky?????, or if they had enough foresight to send info on the new rating system to their customer list???? Which I think I will do before I list on ebay again! I am also going to give Teddy Patch a try and put some more up on Bid4bears and see how it goes - my resolution for 2009!
Jellybelly BearsSarah,
I don't know if you are responding to my ebay DSR message? But not only do I ship within two days of a sale, even before I receive payment; but I also charge less than my cost for mailing. THe reason I am having trouble with my DSR rating for mailing is because my collector thought that the 4 rating meant "Very Good". Ebay considers 4 as a failing grade.
Karen
KJ Lyons Design
Yes, sorry, the Karen just above Shanes comment, sorry :hug:
Edie,
Thanks for the support. 
I have to let this ebay thing go. I was just caught in this rating thing. Many serious collectors are from the teddy bear "judging" world. You never give a perfect score; your design would have to change the orbit of the earth for a perfect score and I think this is how some collectors rate ebay sales. ANd these are my collectors. The collector who caused the problem was responsible for 6-8 of my 11 ratings. Again, she thought a 4 meant very good. ANd I love her! SHE is a wonderful collector! It only takes one collector who doesn't understand the system 
This is how ebay works, now.
Karen
KJ Lyons Design
Jellybelly BearsKJ Lyons wrote:Sarah,
I don't know if you are responding to my ebay DSR message? But not only do I ship within two days of a sale, even before I receive payment; but I also charge less than my cost for mailing. THe reason I am having trouble with my DSR rating for mailing is because my collector thought that the 4 rating meant "Very Good". Ebay considers 4 as a failing grade.
Karen
KJ Lyons DesignYes, sorry, the Karen just above Shanes comment, sorry :hug:
duh...I just realised I said "yes" when I meant "no" lol. Not you Karen Lyons, I was answering to Karen Alderson.... yup, I'm not too bright 
FenBeary FolkKaren
I think Ebay not you, your cats or your buyers are at fault, ebay have sneakerly raised the bar that is impossible for low listers to achieve. If ebay had set the standard at say 3 and then issued a warning when you got to 3.5 then that would have been playing fair. I am sure no-one here thought for one minute you were complaining about the scores you recieved or your collector, like you say to get a 4 is very good.
The problem is volume to sell 100 items a month, you can get a lot of 4's in that to lower your average to 4.1 and even get alot of 2's and 3's in that which is bad (the people who ebay are trying to weed out) but you only need a few 4's when you are selling 12-24 a year to get a low enough.
The thing that gets to me is that ebay are making my choices, as a buyer, for me. I want to make my own decisions as a buyer, not have them made for me 
Laurie Lou BearsI haven't bought that much on e bay recently but I have often put a 4 as I would consider a 5 as perfect and 4 seemed a good a score to leave if you are pretty satisfied.The biggest problem is that people just don't realise the importance of having to leave a high score especially for smaller sellers-I didn't!
Laurie :hug:
KiddoBears
Sorry K-Paws you are going through this 
I don't sell in E-Bay,But I was considering using it to help my friend that is in need toward her severly down sydrome child.
She is a single mother lives in Mexico and she sent me jewerly with a friend whom came to visit us, that she is making to help herself out.
They don't have the services they offer here toward childern like her baby in Mexico,and she is desperately in need of help.
But with this now I am not sure. Any suggestions from anyone as to where I can help her sell these.
These are the bear jewerly she sent me. Please let me know what you think any suggestions will help. :hug: Hugs Mary
Emo BearsHonestly, That's insane.
I'm quite a heavy eBay buyer and i have my own ideas of what constitutes a 4 or a 5. For example, I often give 5 on descriptions because i haven't been misled; again most postage prices seem fair and if I didn't mind paying it when i bought it, unless i've been totally ripped off, again, people tend to get 5s.
The only thing I do give 4s for is communication. if i haven't recieved a message saying when it is sent - they get a 4. recently someone promised me a message when a return arrived (which was their mistake and i paid for the return to get the correct item!) and never did, they got a 3.
Knowing what you have said though, i will rate people higher unless i have a real problem (which, tbh is rare)
